Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union regarding the recent executions of two Tibetans PDF Print E-mail
29 October, 2009 Presidency of the European Union

The European Union condemns the recent executions of two Tibetans, Mr Lobsang Gyaltsen and Mr Loyak.

On the basis of its principled opposition to the death penalty, the EU, on 8 May 2009, called for a commutation of the death sentences handed down by Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court to several Tibetans, among them Mr Lobsang Gyaltsen and Mr Loyak, following the Lhasa riots in March 2008.

 
The EU respects China’s right to bring those responsible for the violence to justice but reaffirms its longstanding opposition to the use of the death penalty under all circumstances. The EU also recalls that in case the death penalty is maintained, internationally recognised minimum standards must be respected. These include all possible safeguards to ensure a fair trial and adequate representation. The EU reiterates its concerns about the conditions under which the trials were conducted, especially with regard to whether due process and other safeguards for a fair trial were respected.

The EU calls on China to commute all sentences of death imposed on persons for their alleged involvement in the Lhasa riots in March 2008.

The EU continues to call on the Chinese authorities to abolish the death penalty completely and, as a first step, to establish a moratorium as urged by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolutions 62/149 and 63/168.

The Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia* and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.

* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.

Brussels, 29 October 2009
15132/09 (Presse 313)
P 120/09

 

Video: Channel 4 Dispatches: Undercover in Tibet

Dispatches_thumbTibetan exile Tash Despa returns to the homeland he risked his life escaping from to carry out secret filming with the award-winning, Bafta-nominated director Jezza Neumann. At the risk to its makers of imprisonment and deportation, this Dispatches film reveals the hidden reality of life under Chinese occupation in Tibet, uncovering evidence of the 'cultural genocide' described by the Dalai Lama.

Play video.

ICT's Latest Report

Great Mountain reportA Great Mountain Burned by Fire: China’s Crackdown in Tibet

March 10, 2009, marked the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising in Lhasa that led to the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet, and the first anniversary of an unprecedented wave of overwhelmingly peaceful protests that swept across the Tibetan plateau, to be met by a violent crackdown.

Since March 10, 2008, the Chinese government has engaged in a comprehensive cover-up of the torture, disappearances and killings that have taken place across Tibet combined with a propaganda offensive against the exiled Tibetan leader, Nobel Peace Laureate the Dalai Lama.

Download the PDF.