Spain Seeks to Curb Law Allowing Judges to Pursue Cases Globally
By JIM YARDLEYFEB. 10, 2014
MADRID — For nearly two decades, Spanish judges have been the provocateurs of international criminal law, pursuing human rights cases against Argentine military officers, Israeli defense officials or American soldiers in Iraq. Most famously, a Spanish judge opened the case that led to the arrest of the former dictator of Chile, Augusto Pinochet.
The product of crusading judges who sought to apply international human rights standards to many of the world’s most powerful figures, these cases have only rarely, if ever, resulted in prosecutions in Spain. But they have influenced cases in other countries, notably Argentina, and are an undeniable nuisance for anyone named in an international warrant. They have also complicated diplomacy in unpredictable ways.
Which brings up China. On Monday afternoon, Spain’s National Court ordered international warrants for China’s former President Jiang Zemin and former Prime Minister Li Peng as part of a case about alleged human rights abuses in Tibet. Infuriated, Chinese diplomats are pressuring the Spanish government to stop the prosecution.
On Tuesday, Spain’s Parliament is expected to debate and eventually approve a bill that would do exactly that. Legal experts say the legislation put forward by the governing Popular Party in January would force the dismissal of the China case and would sharply reduce the scope of the national law that has allowed Spanish judges to pursue human rights cases around the world.
“It could set a precedent where the whole system of international law could be affected,” said Alan Cantos, whose Spain-based Tibet Support Committee is a plaintiff in the China case. “Suddenly, China is deciding how international law should be applied.”
China is hardly the only global power that has bristled over accusations from Spanish judges. In recent years, the United States and Israel have applied diplomatic pressure to attempt to circumvent judicial investigations. But the government’s current effort to curb judges is being criticized as kowtowing to an important trade partner, as Spain is struggling to recover from a devastating economic crisis.
“I fear that is correct,” said Ramón Jáuregui, a member of Parliament with the opposition Socialist Party, who opposes changing the law.
Like the United States, Europe has long balanced accommodation and confrontation in its relationship with China, which is one of the European Union’s largest trading partners. Spain, though, has rarely opted for confrontation with China, which holds a healthy share of Spanish debt and has become a lucrative market for Spain’s food and wine industries.
“How important is China for Spain?” asked Miguel Otero, a senior analyst with Elcano Royal Institute, a research center in Madrid. “It is important, and it has the potential to be even more important. They are quite keen to enter the Chinese market.”
Under scrutiny is a doctrine of international law known as universal jurisdiction, which allows courts in any country to prosecute individuals outside their territory for crimes of “international character,” such as genocide, torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International consider universal jurisdiction an “essential tool” and issued a joint statement on Monday strongly condemning the proposed changes to Spanish law. Critics of the law argue that the doctrine infringes on national sovereignty and is susceptible to abuse by overzealous judges.
Peter J. Spiro, a professor of international law at Temple University, said universal jurisdiction is an important doctrine, but one that has had a limited application because efforts to broaden its scope have evolved faster than any political consensus around it.
He said that the doctrine had “huge potential” because of the growing influence of the global human rights movement on international law, but that many political leaders remained wary. Belgium, for example, repealed its original law after cases were filed against former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel as well as against former President George W. Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
“It’s not just that China is against this,” Professor Spiro said. “It is still a little out of step with prevailing international norms on issues of jurisdiction.”
No country has been more assertive in using the doctrine than Spain, where universal jurisdiction was adopted into national law in 1985. The most famous case came in 1998, when Judge Baltasar Garzón issued a warrant for General Pinochet while the Chilean strongman was visiting London. British authorities arrested General Pinochet but later refused to extradite him to Spain, eventually allowing him to return to Chile, where he ultimately faced criminal charges before his death.
The Pinochet case, if failing to result in a trial in Spain, emboldened legal and human rights activists and brought attention to universal jurisdiction’s potential, analysts say. Other countries adopted their own legal provisions, while Spanish judges took on cases from Argentina to Guatemala to El Salvador to Rwanda.
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But these cases also created political frictions in Spain, especially when Spanish courts began pursuing cases against Israel, the United States and China.
American pressure became evident in the diplomatic cables released in 2010 by WikiLeaks. Citing the cables, El País, a leading Spanish newspaper, reported that American diplomats pressured the Spanish government to derail judicial investigations linked to the Iraq war, the military prison at Guantánamo Bay and secret C.I.A. flights transporting terrorism suspects.
Under that pressure, Spain’s government, then controlled by the Socialist Party, weakened the law in 2009, leading to the dismissal of several cases. Human rights advocates argue that a double standard has emerged — where it is acceptable to prosecute abuses in weak countries but not in global powers.
And they argue that the changes now proposed by the Popular Party would effectively end the use of universal jurisdiction: In cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Spanish judges could investigate only if the suspect is a Spanish national, a foreigner living in Spain or a foreigner in Spain whose extradition has been denied by Spanish authorities. Similar restrictions would also be applied to torture cases.
“They are trying to eliminate universal jurisdiction,” said Judge Garzón, whose aggressive use of the doctrine later led to his suspension from the Spanish bench in 2010. “That is their goal. They have never believed in it.”
Indeed, Spain is now on the receiving end of such international litigation, as a judge in Argentina is investigating war crimes committed during the era of the Spanish dictator Franco. Popular Party leaders are chafing at that case, and some analysts say that the pressure from China has provided an excuse for the government to dilute a legal doctrine that has brought diplomatic headaches.
The Popular Party has a comfortable majority in Parliament and can pass the changes fairly easily, analysts say. José Miguel Castillo Calvín, a member of the Popular Party in Parliament, argued that Spanish law is out of step with other countries and called the proposed changes “a necessary and appropriate reform.” He also denied that the government was trying to appease China or any other country.
“This reform has not been created with any concrete case in mind,” Mr. Castillo said in a response to written questions. “Secondly, it would be advisable to remember that international jurisdiction is not unlimited.”
Patricia Rafael contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on February 11, 2014, on page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: Spain Seeks to Place Curbs on Law Allowing Judges to Pursue Cases Globally. Order Reprints|Today’s Paper|Subscribe

Tibet not seeking Independence from China- Dalai Lama
TIMES OF INDIA  – 3rd February 2014
GUWAHATI: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Sunday said that Tibet is not seeking independence from China.
While calling for peace, he blamed communist hardliners at the helm in China for attempting to obliterate Tibet’s cultural and historical legacy.
“A non-violence method cannot have one-side victory and one-side defeat. Then confrontation will come leading to violence. With this belief we (Tibet) are not seeking independence from the Peoples Republic of China,” he said delivering the First Lawyers’ Book Stall Founders’ Commemorative Lecture here.
While inaugurating the first edition of the Festival of Tibet later Dalai Lama said that the hardliners were leaving no stone unturned to restrict people from learning about Tibet’s rich cultural history and heritage. Also present at the inauguration of the event was Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi who said that he was a firm believer of Buddha.
“Tibet is one ancient nation that is dying and its people are in danger. Chinese hardliners are putting restrictions on people who would like to learn about Tibetan Buddhism. These very hardliners are omitting Buddhist signs and concepts from books and putting restrictions on Tibetan language as well,” the Dalai Lama said.
“But despite strict restrictions more and more Chinese people are taking interest in Tibet and its legacy. Their number can be put at around 400 million and it is fast increasing. Tibetan culture is about compassion and it is important we create awareness about the place through such festivals,” he added.
Citing the example of one of his mentors who spent 18 years in a Chinese gulag to highlight the spirit of human endurance and compassion, the 78-year-old Nobel laureate also stressed on the importance of holding on to humanitarian value in the present times.
Hordes of devotees from neighbouring Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and other places came to meet the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso at the fest.
“I have never come across a leader who is so humble. Of late we have been witnessing a lot of violence. It is time that we put aside hatred and usher in peace. We need to spread his message of peace and harmony in Assam and the world,” Gogoi said.
“However, despite strict restrictions, more and more Chinese people are taking interest in Tibet and its legacy. Their number can be put at around 400 million and it is fast increasing. Tibetan culture is about compassion and it is important we create awareness about the place through such festivals,” he added.
Citing the example of one of his mentors, who spent 18 years in a Chinese gulag to highlight the spirit of human endurance and compassion, the 78-year-old nobel laureate also stressed on the importance of holding on to humanitarian value in the present times.
Considered a living incarnation of the previous 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, hordes of devotees from neighbouring Bhutan, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and other places came to meet the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso at the fest.
“I have never come across a leader who is so humble. Of late, we have been witnessing a lot of violence. It is time that we put aside hatred and usher in peace. We need to spread his message of peace and harmony in Assam and the world,” said Tarun Gogoi.

Detained Tibetan Monk in ‘Critical’ Condition
2014-01-23
A popular Tibetan religious leader held in jail for more than a month in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region is in critical condition despite a letter purportedly sent by him to his followers last month that he is in good health and being well treated, sources say.
Khenpo Kartse—the title “Khenpo” denotes a senior religious teacher or abbot—is seriously ill with an inflamed liver following his detention on Dec. 6 in Chengdu, the capital of nearby Sichuan province, on suspicion of involvement in “anti-state” activities in Tibet’s Chamdo (in Chinese, Changdu) prefecture.
His lawyers and relatives have been unable to see him since he was taken into custody by Chamdo security officials who traveled all the way to Sichuan to detain him.
“[Now], the health condition of Khenpo, who is under detention in Chamdo, is reported to be critical,” a source with contacts in the area reported to RFA’s Tibetan Service on Thursday.
“He is suffering from an inflamed liver, and more than 40 days have now passed since he was first detained,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“His lawyer and relatives have not been allowed to see him,” the source added.
Khenpo Kartse had earlier sent a letter dated Dec. 26 to his monastery in Nangchen (Nangqian) county in Qinghai province’s Yulshul (Yushu) prefecture, saying that his health was good and asking followers to avoid clashes with the police.
‘Worried and concerned’
Though relatives were later told they could bring medicine to the Khenpo, “when they went to Chamdo to deliver the medicine, they were told to hand it over to officials responsible for its distribution,” RFA’s source said.
“The monks of [Khenpo Kartse’s] Japa monastery and the local Tibetan community in Nangchen are reported to be extremely worried and concerned about him.”
Sixteen Japa monastery monks who had been held since the end of December after protesting in Nangchen against Khenpo Kartse’s detention have meanwhile been released, with the last group freed on Jan. 21, the source said.
One group of nine freed in early January “told others that during their detention, they were asked about Khenpo Kartse’s means of contacting outsiders” regarding area protests and conditions under Chinese rule, one source said.
“They had the impression that [the Chinese] are seeking excuses to impose harsh punishment on the Khenpo.”
Khenpo Kartse, who is also known as Karma Tsewang, was active in social work in the Yulshul area, including in relief efforts following a devastating April 2010 earthquake, and was well-respected among Tibetans for his work to protect and promote the Tibetan language, culture, and religion.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the area in 2008.
A total of 125 Tibetans have also set themselves ablaze in self-immolation protests calling for Tibetan freedom since February 2009, with another six setting fire to themselves in India and Nepal.
Reported by Dolkar for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

For Immediate Release
China: New Leaders Fail to Embrace Genuine Reforms
2013 Sees Some Movement on Abusive Policies but Ongoing Harsh Repression of Critics
(New York, January 21, 2014) – The Chinese Communist Party reinforced its monopoly on power in 2013 through tough new measures and hardline rhetoric, dashing hopes that the country’s new leadership would engage in deep systemic reforms to improve human rights and strengthen the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2014.
Although it announced the abolition of the abusive administrative detention system Re-education Through Labor, relaxation of the one-child policy, and plans to improve the delivery of justice, the new leadership of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang has yet to embark on fundamental reforms that adequately respond to the public’s increased demands for justice and accountability.
“The Chinese government has responded to domestic and international pressure by announcing partial reforms on issues such as Re-education Through Labor and the one-child policy,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, “But the leadership has also embarked on a harsh crackdown on critics, while using hardline rhetoric to make clear they have no intention of liberalizing the political system.”
In the 667-page world report, its 24th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. Syria’s widespread killings of civilians elicited horror but few steps by world leaders to stop it, Human Rights Watch said. A reinvigorated doctrine of “responsibility to protect” seems to have prevented some mass atrocities in Africa. Majorities in power in Egypt and other countries have suppressed dissent and minority rights. And Edward Snowden’s revelations about US surveillance programs reverberated around the globe.
Before the new leadership formally assumed power in March 2013, many in China had high expectations for reforms to address rising social tensions resulting from land seizures, forced evictions, corruption, pollution, poor treatment of migrant workers, discrimination based on residency status (“hukou”), imprisonment of activists, and other problems.
During the Chinese Communist Party 3rd plenum in November, the Party announced that it had decided to abolish Re-education Through Labor, which has allowed the detention of individuals for years without trial since the 1950s. It also announced relaxation of the birth quotas under the coercive family planning policy, allowing couples to have a second child if one of the parents is an only child. Following the Plenum, the Supreme People’s Court issued guidelines urging courts to strictly adhere to procedural protections in the revised Criminal Procedure Law, including prohibiting using confessions through torture as evidence at trial. The new leadership also announced its commitment to fight endemic corruption by striking at both “tigers and flies,” suggesting position and connections will no longer assure protection.
“It is too soon to know whether recently announced reforms will be matched by action to translate them into reality,” Adams said. “But while Xi Jinping has spoken a lot about tackling corruption and there have been some high profile arrests, the government has harshly retaliated against those who exposed high-level corruption in the government and Party.”
Beginning in March, China detained and arrested more than fifty activists across the country in an attempt to push back and reassert control over the acceptable boundaries for civil society activism. Those detained include activists involved with the New Citizens Movement, a civic platform that organizes street protests to press for the public disclosure of official assets as a mechanism to fight corruption. Many of these activists remain in detention.
In August, the Chinese government waged one of the harshest crackdowns on the Internet in recent years, railing against “online rumors,” detaining “rumor mongers” across the country, punishing outspoken citizens and journalists for blowing the whistle on corruption, and extending existing criminal legal provisions to make it easier to punish online expression.
The government continued to implement repressive policies in the minority areas of Tibet and Xinjiang. In Tibet, it maintained a massive security presence, severely restricted the movement of Tibetans, and stepped up surveillance of the local population by moving party cadres into every village. In Xinjiang, pervasive ethnic discrimination and severe religious repression continued to fuel rising tensions. More than one hundred people, including ethnic Uyghurs, Han, and others were killed in incidents that produced the highest collective toll since the July 2009 Urumqi riots. In both Tibet and Xinjiang, the government used live ammunition against peaceful protestors, injuring and killing some. In both areas the government is also carrying out involuntary population relocation and rehousing on a massive scale.
Among other concerns, this year’s World Report 2014 also highlighted:
●      Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo continued his 11-year jail term in northern Liaoning Province. His wife Liu Xia remained under unlawful house arrest, reportedly suffering from severe depression;
●      China continued to lead the world in executions. The exact number remained a state secret, but experts estimate it decreased progressively from about 10,000 a year a decade ago to less than 4,000 in recent years;
●      After years of denial and inaction, the Ministry of Environmental Protection finally acknowledged the existence of “cancer villages,” with abnormally high cancer rates. Domestic media had written extensively on the issue. Victims have long pressed for justice and compensation with no consequences; and
●      In May, China’s first-ever Mental Health Law came into effect, filling an important legal void but failing to close loopholes that allow government authorities and families to detain people in psychiatric hospitals against their will.
Human Rights Watch said that international pressure on China over rights was inconsistent in 2013, continuing a long-term trend. Many countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, toned down their criticism in summits with the Chinese leadership, instead touting “human rights dialogues” that are proven to achieve few, if any, results.
“China is home to more than a billion people and is a major global power, so how the rest of the world addresses its human rights situation is more vital than ever,” Adams said.
To read Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2014 chapter on China, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/china
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on China, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/asia/china
For more information, please contact:
In Hong Kong, Nicholas Bequelin (English, French, Mandarin): +852-8198-1040 (mobile); or bequeln@hrw.org
In Hong Kong, Maya Wang (English, Mandarin): +852-8170-1076 (mobile); or wangm@hrw.org
In London, Brad Adams (English): +44-790-872-8333 (mobile); or adamsb@hrw.org.Follow on Twitter @BradAdamsHRW
In Washington, DC, John Sifton (English): +1-646-479-2499 (mobile); or siftonj@hrw.org. Follow on Twitter @johnsifton

Respected Tibetan Monk Burns Himself to Death in Gansu
2013-12-19
A respected Tibetan monk burned himself to death in Gansu province on Thursday in protest against “suppressive Chinese law,” saying in a suicide note that he wanted to “sacrifice” his life for the interest of the Tibetans, according to sources.
Tsultrim Gyatso, 43, self-immolated at a road junction in Sangchu (in Chinese, Xiahe) county in the Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture after penning his one-page suicide note at his monastery in which he also called for the return of the exiled Tibetan spirtual leader the Dalai Lama, the sources in the area said.
“Before his self-immolation at a cross-section in Sangchu, he went to his room after lunch break, lit a lamp, opened a book on the teachings of Buddha and wrote his one-page suicide note,” a Tibetan lecturer at the Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education (DLIHE) in Bangalore, India, told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“Tibetan treasures of gold and silver have been looted under suppressive Chinese law,” Gyatso said in his note, according to the lecturer, citing contacts in the region. “All citizens are driven to sufferings,” Gyatso said.
“Tears drop from my eyes when I dwell on this state of sufferings [of the Tibetans],” according to Gyatso’s note. “For the return of the Dalai Lama, and the release of the Panchen Lama, and the well being of six million Tibetans, I sacrifice my precious life in self-immolation.”
The Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, was just six years old when he was kidnapped by the Chinese authorities in 1995 after he was identified as the reincarnation of the second-highest monk in Tibetan Buddhism by the Dalai Lama, who is living in exile in India.
A Tibetan source in Sangchu told RFA that Gyatso, known locally for his accomplishments in the study of Buddhism and Tibetan culture, died on the spot and his body was taken to the Achok monastery where more than 400 monks conducted funeral prayers.
Prayers stopped by police
Chinese police ordered the monks to halt the prayers but the monks continued the prayers in a different section of the monastery, the Tibetan lecturer in Banglore said.
“Over 400 monks of Achok monastery were saying prayers for the late Tsultrim Gyatso but a group of 10 Sangchu police arrived at the monastery and interrupted the prayers. The monks [in a different section of the monastery] continued the prayers,” he said.
Gyatso’s burning protest was the 125th Tibetan self-immolation in China since the fiery campaign began in 2009 calling for Tibetan freedom and for the return to Tibet of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 following a failed national uprising against Chinese rule.
Before Gyatso’s burning protest, a Tibetan herdsman had self-immolated on Dec. 4 in protest against Chinese rule at Ngaba county’s Meruma township center in Sichuan province.
He died on the way to the hospital and his remains were secretly cremated by the authorities.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.
Controls tightened
Chinese authorities have tightened controls in a bid to check self-immolation protests, arresting and jailing Tibetans whom they accuse of being linked to the burnings. Some have been jailed for up to 15 years.
The authorities have also attempted to pressure local Tibetans to sign an official order that forbids any kind of activities to support or sympathize with self-immolation protests, residents said.
In the latest crackdown, the authorities detained two monks and a government worker on suspicion they were supportive of 20-year-old Tibetan monk Tsering Gyal, who burned himself to death in Qinghai province last month in protest against Chinese rule, according to sources this week.
The two monks were dragged at night from their quarters, while the government worker was beaten and detained for possession of Gyal’s photo on her mobile phone, the sources said this week.
Reported by Yangdon Demo and Chakmo Tso for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.

 Tibet talks could take place in Iceland, Iceland MPs suggest China
Tuesday, 03 December 2013
The Cameron Hickert, Tibet Post International
Dharamshala: – Denouncing the atrocities perpetrated against Tibetans in Tibet, a group of MPs from all Icelandic political parties except Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson’s Progressive Party have submitted a parliamentary resolution encouraging the Chinese government to resume peace talks with His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s representatives, ruv.is and Iceland Review Online report.
The resolution urges the Icelandic parliament to highlight concerns over growing violence against and oppression of Tibetans by the Chinese government.
It calls on parliament to condemn the crackdown on peaceful protests in Tibet and insist that the Chinese government not stand in way of the UN sending a delegation to investigate human rights abuses in Tibet.
Encouraging the Chinese government to initiate peace talks with the representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the MPs suggest that talks could take place in Iceland.
A statement accompanying the resolution said that many parliaments around the world have passed resolutions regarding the critical situation in Tibet.
Twelve Nobel Peace winners have sent letters to the Chinese government encouraging peace talks with the Tibetan people.
The MPs believe that the Icelandic parliament should take a stance, particularly given that senior officials of the Chinese government have visited Iceland on a regular basis.
“We Icelanders have a moral obligation under our free trade agreement with China, which takes effect in early 2014, to highlight that we will not accept human rights violations of the kind outlined in the statement.”
Last week Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay, the democratically-elected leader and political successor to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, reiterated commitment to dialogue to find a solution for the issue of Tibet within the framework of the Chinese constitution.
“The situation in Tibet is tragic and unfortunate. Over 122 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest against the Chinese government’s policies of political repression, religious persecution, cultural assimilation, economic discrimination, and environmental destruction in Tibet,” the Tibetan political leader told reporters in Shimla.

Editorial
Desperation in Tibet
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Published: November 29, 2013
On Nov. 11, Tsering Gyal, a 20-year-old Tibetan Buddhist monk, set himself on fire in China’s Qinghai Province. Mr. Gyal’s death brings the number of Tibetans who have self-immolated since 2009 to 123. Letters some have left and eyewitness accounts of dying words leave no doubt about the cause of these horrible deaths: anguish over Chinese repression.
Today’s Editorials
Tibet has suffered spasms of violence at different points in its history since China took over in 1950 and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, fled the region in 1959. But the current wave of self-immolations is a new and tragic trend. Many Tibetans feel forcibly estranged from their language, culture and religion by repressive Chinese policies that have intensified since a wave of protests engulfed the region in 2008.
These policies include replacing the Tibetan language with Chinese as the language of instruction in schools; sending some 21,000 Chinese party officials into Tibetan monasteries to keep an eye on monks; forcing monks to denounce the Dalai Lama; banning the display of the Dalai Lama’s photograph; having a heavy armed police presence in Tibetan towns, villages and around monasteries; closing monasteries; and clamping down on demonstrators with arrests and shootings by police officers.
China blames the Dalai Lama for the self-immolations. But the Dalai Lama has condemned them. In fact, many fear that unless preparations begin to ease Tibetans’ feelings of estrangement while the 78-year-old Dalai Lama is still alive, Tibetans may resort to more violent forms of protest when his tempering presence is gone.
After President Xi Jinping assumed power last year, there was hope that China might retreat from its hardened stance toward Tibet. The sweeping reforms pledged recently during the Communist Party’s plenum meeting show his willingness to tackle domestic challenges. He should move now to ease some of the most damaging policies on Tibet.
China also should resume negotiations with the Dalai Lama, which broke off in 2010. Without these steps, the Tibet Autonomous Region and the neighboring provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu, where many Tibetans live, will remain troubled territory, unable to participate fully in China’s economic development.
New York Times

Spanish criminal court orders arrest warrants against Chinese leaders following Hu Jintao indictment for Tibet policies
International Campaign for Tibet on November 18, 2013
Judges in the Spanish National Court today (November 18) ordered warrants of arrest to be issued against five Chinese leaders, including former President and Party Secretary Jiang Zemin, for their policies in Tibet. This ground-breaking development follows the news on October 9 of Hu Jintao’s indictment for genocide in Tibet. In a separate legal ruling also issued today in Madrid, the Spanish National Court also ordered that former leader Hu Jintao is informed of his indictment and sent questions about his policies in Tibet via the Chinese embassy.
The rulings today have positively surprised Spanish legal experts working on the Tibetan law suits upholding the principle of “universal jurisdiction” a part of international law that allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture, terror and other serious international crimes perpetrated by individuals, governments or military authorities. This new development was described to the International Campaign for Tibet by legal experts in Spain as being potentially as significant as the arrest of Pinochet in London in 1998 after a group of Spanish lawyers put together a lawsuit against the Chilean dictator, who presided over a 17-year reign of terror and ordered foreign assassinations.
The orders for arrest warrants are made against five senior Chinese leaders for their involvement in policies in Tibet as follows: Jiang Zemin, former President and Party Secretary; Li Peng, Prime Minister during the repression in Tibet in the late 1980s and early 1990s (and the crackdown in Tiananmen); Qiao Shi, former head of Chinese security and responsible for the People¹s Armed Police during the martial law period in Tibet in the late 1980s; Chen Kuiyuan, Party secretary in the Tibet Autonomous Region from 1992 to 2001 (who was known for his hardline position against Tibetan religion and culture), and Deng Delyun (also known as Peng Pelyun), minister of family planning in the 1990s.
The rulings, which go further than Spanish experts expected and send a strong signal to the Chinese leadership, mean that none of the leaders named, and others too, are likely to take the risk of travelling outside the PRC as they could be arrested for questioning on the crimes they are accused of. All the leaders face the possibility of bank accounts overseas being preventively frozen. In the earlier writ issued on October 9, the judges recognized that this indictment of Hu Jintao comes at the judicial moment “when his diplomatic immunity expires”. (ICT report, China’s former leader Hu Jintao indicted for policies in Tibet by Spanish court).
Today’s ruling was made by the appeals court (Section 4 of the Criminal Court of Spain¹s National Court, the Audiencia Nacional), which is the investigative national court for major crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking, piracy, or money laundering. It specifically refers to the “political and criminal responsibility” of the named Chinese leaders for their policies on Tibet and addresses the evidence presented to the court over the past eight years. This includes testimony from former political prisoners, international experts, documentation of killings and torture, and reports by ICT and other organisations. A report by the International Campaign for Tibet, ratified to the judge in Madrid in December 2012, outlined details of the chain of command for specific policies in Tibet from the imposition of martial law leading to torture and a climate of terror, to systematic patriotic education, compelling Tibetans to denounce their exiled leader the Dalai Lama. ICT described how the functions of the Communist Party override those of the Chinese state at all levels.
In making the ruling, the judges were acknowledging that there was ample and specific evidence to issue the order for arrest warrants. Orders of international arrest are carried out by police through Interpol or European Arrest Warrants in the EU and not by governments. The Chinese authorities responded to earlier writs with complaints to the Spanish Courts and government; Beijing has sought to quash the cases through direct intervention with the Spanish government and judiciary.
The Spanish lawyers acting for Spanish NGO Comite de Apoyo al Tibet (CAT) were requested by Court Room No 2 where the genocide lawsuit was lodged to provide a set of questions to former Party leader Hu Jintao about his policies in Tibet. The writ issued last month followed an appeal on July 29 following the judge¹s earlier rejection of a request to extend the lawsuit to include former Party Secretary and President Hu Jintao. The appeals court now accepts the argument put forward by the Spanish NGO Comite de Apoyo al Tibet (CAT) for Hu Jintao¹s indictment. This includes the period he was Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region in which he presided over the imposition of martial law in 1989, and also his responsibility for policy on Tibet as President and Party Secretary of China after 2003 “due to being the highest ranking person in both the Party and the Government”.

Tibetan monk sets himself on fire in China
Updated Tue 12 Nov 2013, 7:38pm AEDT
A Tibetan monk has reportedly set himself on fire in an act of protest in China, as top Communist Party leaders hold a key gathering.
Tsering Gyal, 20, set himself alight on Monday in Guolou, a Tibetan area of Qinghai province in northwestern China, according to the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), which is funded by the US government.
Police extinguished the flames and took Gyal to hospital, they said, adding that his condition was unknown.
Another rights group, British-based Free Tibet, said he had survived.
An image posted online by ICT showed what appeared to be a man in flames in the middle of a road, with a group of more than a dozen people watching from several metres away.
Leaders of China’s ruling Communist Party are holding a four-day meeting in Beijing known as the Third Plenum, at which they are expected to chart the country’s economic course for the next decade.
The Guolou incident is the latest in a string of similar acts in Tibet and neighbouring provinces by about 120 people since 2009. Most of them have died.
Occasionally, tensions in the region have flared into cases of mass violence.
In early October Chinese police reportedly opened fire on a group of protesters in Tibet who had gathered to demand the release of a fellow Tibetan detained for refusing to fly the Chinese flag, injuring 60. Local police denied any incident to AFP.
Beijing condemns the self-immolations and blames them on the Dalai Lama, saying the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader uses them to further a separatist agenda.
But Tibetans and human rights groups say the protests are a response to Beijing’s tight controls on their exercise of religion.
The Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since 1959 after a failed uprising in Tibet, has described the protests as acts of desperation that he is powerless to stop.
“If I created this, then I have the right to say, ‘No, don’t do,'” the Nobel Peace laureate said when asked about the self-immolations in a recent interview with the Financial Times.
“This is their own creation: Tibetan people – inside Tibet,” he added.
“The causes of these things are created by hard-line officials. They have the responsibility. They have to find ways to stop this.”
AFP

Officials in Tibetan Protest Area Block Investigation by Beijing
2013-11-07
Journalists and researchers sent by China’s central government to investigate conditions in a Tibetan-populated mining area in Qinghai province have been blocked in their work by local officials, who sent them to the wrong sites and stopped them from speaking to local residents, sources say.
The group had been assigned to look into reports of environmental damage in the Yulshul (in Chinese, Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s Dzatoe (Zaduo) county, where local Tibetans clashed with security forces in August over Chinese mining operations, a Tibetan living in India told RFA’s Tibetan Service this week.
“Some groups of reporters tried to visit the mines, but they were not taken to places where Chinese miners are actually extracting minerals,” the source, Konchog Dondrub, said, citing contacts in the Dzatoe area.
“Instead, they were taken to other sites in an attempt to convince them that mining is not harming the local environment,” he said.
County officials also prevented the group from speaking freely to area residents, arranging instead for people of their own choosing to be interviewed, Dondrub said.
“Reporters never met the local Tibetans who had protested Chinese mining in their area,” he said.
Mining protests
On Aug. 15-16, hundreds of Tibetan villagers blocked work at three mining sites—Atoe, Dzachen, and Chidza—in Dzatoe county, sparking a crackdown by at least 500 armed police, according to area sources.
Mining operations in Tibetan regions have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms of polluting the environment and disrupting sites of spiritual significance.
Tibetan residents of Dzatoe have long regarded the mountains in their area targeted for mining as the abodes of protective deities, and documents appearing to give central government approval for the work were later found to be fakes, one source said.
“So this year, the Tibetans were determined to resist the mines,” he said.
Village leaders fired
Now, Tibetans selected by county officials to replace village leaders fired from their jobs last month are refusing to take up their new posts, Dondrub said.
The former village chiefs had “complained against the government” following the Chinese security crackdown in August, which left dozens injured and saw several detained.
“The replacements for the leadership positions of Atoe, Dzachen, and Chidza villages have also refused to work as village leaders,” Dondrub said, adding that one former village chief, Khetsa Soetob, has been ordered to surrender to authorities.
“He was told that if he fails to do so, he could be sentenced to death or to a life term in prison,” Dondrub said.
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.
A total of 122 Tibetans in China have also set themselves ablaze in self-immolation protests calling for Tibetan freedom, with another six setting fire to themselves in India and Nepal.
Reported by Pema Ngodup for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.