By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 10: The Dharamshala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) launched a new online database with information on 5,518 Tibetan political prisoners compiled since 1990. The initiative is in collaboration with Geneva-based HURIDOCS’ (Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems) application Uwazi. Researcher Tenzin Dawa, said 3,067 prisoners have been released whereas 1,809 people are still currently detained in Chinese prisons.
The database which is launched on the occasion of Human Rights Day on Friday, will be updated with new information procured from observers, TCHRD said. “The database was compiled after reviewing older documents in TCHRD’s archive and cross-checking with other similar databases. The database includes county-level GPS coordinates of each prisoner’s place of origin,” said the press release.
“5,518 is not a small number. These are verified cases which have been put in the database with sufficient proof. This alone should make China answerable for their atrocities, if only it were a country that accepted the truth,” researcher Nyima Woeser told the press. The group further claimed that the data is only cases procured from open sources, suggesting that many unknown cases are yet to be unearthed. Over 300 cases of detention lie unresolved in TCHRD’s records as no information was received after the prisoners completed their sentences.
The human rights organization urged the global community to condemn ongoing Chinese atrocities on Tibetan soil that largely go unnoticed, “We call on the international community including the United Nations, organizations, and individuals to pressure China to put an immediate halt to its state-sponsored policy of cultural assimilation in Tibet.”
TCHRD maintained that the timing of the launch was set in accordance with the Human Rights Day celebrated on Dec. 10, and reasserted the year’s theme of equality which is enshrined in the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) that states, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
