TESTIMONY
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Ever since The Peoples Republic of China signed the United Nations Convention against Torture in 1986 they have denied all existence of torture in their legal system. But the testimonies of the political refuges from Tibet shows the opposite.
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During the 33 years that the Buddhist monk Palden Gyatso spent in Chinese prison starvation, torture and humiliation was part of his everyday life. When he escaped to India he managed to smuggle with him some of the instrument used for torture. These instrument bear the testimony of what is happening inside Tibet. The portraits are taken of three buddhist monks who in the photos are showing wounds after torture. The last portrait is of a buddhist nun who was raped and sexually abused with an electric baton. They all bring forward and share their testimony of the torture that are bieng used by the by the Chinese government in Tibet.
The book Testimony have been created together with Amnesty International.
When the Buddhist monk Palden Gyatso escaped to India he managed to smuggle with him some of the torture instruments that are used in the Chinese prison in Tibet. One of his friends managed to bribe a prison guard and pay him to get several of the torture intrument and devices that was used in the prison. This is a knife gun that have had poison put on its edge and that are used in crowds and demonstrations to wound or kill people in a quiet and silent way.
The handcuffs differs from ordinary ones in the sense that they have a sharp edge on the inside that pull together the more the person moves. They are used to keep one hand of the prisoner stuck to the sealing in the room so he or she cant defend themself during the torture.The worst pain Palden Gyatso received in that position was when the guards throw boiling water over his body.
The electric batons are often used as a instrument for sexual abuse during interrogation of Buddhist nuns. And the monk Palden Gyatso shows in the portraits below how his mouth was destroyed with an electric shock gun that made all his teeth fall out during a interrogation.
Electric baton 2
The round bomb have had a special poisonous tear gas inside that can make people unconscious,
It is used during demonstrations.
Electric baton 3
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Knifes from the Chinese police and army, smuggled out along with the other Chinese torture instruments.
Palden Gyatso here shows how his mouth was destroyed with an electric shock gun during a interrogation.His tongue is crackled and the inside of his mouth covered with scares. The electric shocks also damaged his memory and made all his teeth fall out.
Ever since The Peoples Republic of China signed the United Nations Convention against torture in 1986 they have denied all existence of torture in there legal system. But the testimonies of the political refuges from Tibet shows the opposite. During the 33 years that the Buddhist monk Palden Gyatso spent in Chinese prison starvation, torture and humiliation was part of his evryday life.
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The Buddhist monk Tenzin Dhondup, 37 years old, shows the scares from the situation when he was badly beaten by the Chinese military. His monastery was forced to take part in a religious ceremony arranged for international media to show that religious freedom exist in the country. When the monks instead started to shout Free Tibet they where surrounded by the military. Tenzin became unconscious from poisonous tear gas that was thrown out and he was then beaten with a stick where a nail had been put in the top. He nearly died from the bleeding wound but succeeded to hide when all people with visible damages where arrested and during the following days he escaped out of Tibet.
Kushow Migmer, 39 years old, lost both his legs and three fingers during his escape from Tibet. He was accused for wrong thinking by the Chinese police and ordered to visit regularly propaganda meetings where he was forced to deny the Dali Lama as the leader of Tibet and acknowledge china as his great liberator. The harassments kept continuing and to escape police force and torture he finally decided to leave for India, but the escape over the Himalayas didn't turn out as he had hoped for. Beside losing his limbs through frostbite two of his three friends was sent back to Tibet by Indian police.
The Buddhist nun Tenzin Choedon, 28 years old, was arrested during a peaceful demonstration in Lhasa. During the interrogation regarding who had initiated the demonstration she was first beaten and bitten by a dog. Then she was undressed and taken in to a room where four persons with covered faces again started to beat her until they finally raped her with an electric baton. After that she couldn't move and was carried to her cell.
After the Buddhist nun Tenzing Choedon, 28 years old, had been raped and sexually abused with a electric baton during the interrogation, she had to spend two month in the prison before she was released. She was released with the threat to be executed if she was caught in a demonstration again.Tenzin Choedon lost a third of her physical ability as a result of the torture.
