Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, honourable members of the committee, for inviting me to testify before this esteemed committee.
I would like to use this opportunity to speak of the arbitrary detention, torture and killings in Tibet. I would like to start by sharing the stories of some Tibetans who were detained, tortured and killed in recent years.
In July 2022, a 56-year-old Tibetan monk, Jigme Gyatso, died after a prolonged illness: multiple organ failure caused by the torture and inhumane treatment he endured in the prison. He was detained several times over a period of 15 years. The first time he was detained was in 2006, when he returned to Tibet after attending the teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India. He was detained for the second time in 2008, around the time when there were protests in Tibet during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. When he was detained for the second time, he was waiting near his monastery to repair his shoes.
Although he had not taken part in the 2008 Beijing Olympics protest, he was still detained based on his past history of being detained. After his release, Jigme created a video testimony providing a first-hand account of the torture he endured. In the video, Jigme reveals what he had told the Chinese police forces before his release. I quote: “If you kill me, then that will be the end of it. But if am able to leave and get the opportunity, I will speak about the torture I endured. I will bear witness as a truthful voice to the sufferings of my friends and report these events to the media.”
Likewise, in February 2021, a Tibetan tour guide named Kunchok Jinpa died in a hospital three months after being transferred from prison without the knowledge of his family. He was serving a 21-year prison sentence for sharing information with the outside world through the foreign media about a local environmental protest. The local sources said that he had a brain hemorrhage and body paralysis.
In the same year, a 19-year-old Tibetan monk, Tenzin Nyima, died after being released from prison in a comatose state. Tenzin was arrested, along with four other monks, for their peaceful demonstration near the local police authorities while demanding Tibetan independence. He was released in 2020, but was rearrested the same year for allegedly sharing the news of his arrest with Tibetans in exile.
In 2020, a 36-year-old mother, Lhamo, died, again shortly after being transferred to hospital from police custody. She was detained on the charge of sending money to her family in exile in India. Her body was immediately cremated, preventing any further investigation of her case.
Mr. Chair, there are many other Tibetan prisoners who died in prison or shortly after being released or transferred from prison. They were not terrorists and they were not separatists, nor were they dangerous to the state's security, as China accused them of being. They were mothers. They were entrepreneurs. They were tour guides. They were monks. They were singers who had dreams about leading a dignified life as Tibetans in their own lands.
Mr. Chair, what binds this story together is how they didn't have access to lawyers, how they didn't have access to their families while being detained, how none of them had an opportunity for a fair trial, how they were tortured and discriminated against just because they were Tibetans, and how none of their cases so far have been investigated and none of the perpetrators held accountable.
As indicated in the video testimony of Jigme Gyatso, the 56-year-old monk, they expect those of us in exile, those of us living in a free and democratic country like Canada, to raise the challenges and to talk about issues they faced.
They risk their lives in passing information to the outside world so that we would know about the reality of the situation in Tibet, so that we would know about the over one million Tibetan nomads being forcefully relocated, so that we would know about the over one million Tibetan children forced into boarding schools for political indoctrination, so that we would know about the destruction of Tibetan monasteries such as Larung Gar and Yarchen Gar, so that we would know about evictions of Tibetan monks and nuns, and so that those of us in exile, those of us in the free world, would know about the cultural genocide that is taking place in Tibet through the destruction of their language, religion and cultural identity.
Mr. Chair, the situation in Tibet under President Xi Jinping is dire and urgent. I request that this committee consider using tools that we have at our disposal, such as the Sergei Magnitsky Law and this Bill C‑281 to challenge and counter such blatant human rights violations. We cannot and must not let the perpetrators continue any more such crimes with impunity.
Thank you.