Tibetan group to expand genocide suit against China
MADRID (AFP) — A Tibetan rights organisation said Wednesday it would file an extension to a lawsuit in Spain that accuses top Chinese leaders of genocide.
The extension would be presented Thursday in Spain's top criminal court, which since June, 2006 has been hearing the case against seven Chinese leaders, the non-governmental Tibet Support Committee said.
The original suit accuses the leaders, including former president Jiang Zemin and former prime minister Li Peng, of torture and crimes against humanity as well as genocide allegedly carried out in Tibet during the 1980s.
"This extension to the lawsuit denounces the new wave of oppression that began in Tibet on 10th March 2008, and just goes to prove that acts of genocide continue to be committed against the Tibetan people," the Tibet Support Committee said in a statement.
Unrest in the Tibetan region erupted on March 14 after four days of peaceful protests against Chinese rule.
The Tibetan government-in-exile says 203 Tibetans were killed and about 1,000 hurt in China's crackdown. Beijing insists that only one Tibetan was killed, and has in turn accused the "rioters" of killing 21 people.
"The extension to the lawsuit also denounces China's manipulation of the global war against terrorism in its attempt to justify and cover up crimes against humanity committed against the Tibetan people," the statement said.
The group also denounced "the lukewarm attitude of most of the international community when it comes to demanding effective protection of human rights."
The suit was admitted under the principle of "universal competence" adopted by the Spanish judiciary in 2005 and under which Spanish courts can hear cases of genocide and crimes against humanity wherever they occur and whatever the nationality of the defendant.
China's opponents accuse it of systematic political, cultural and religious oppression in the remote and devoutly Buddhist Himalayan region.
China has condemned the accusations of genocide in Tibet as slander and it has accused Madrid of trying to interfere in its administration of the Himalayan region.
China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending troops in to "liberate" the region.
In a separate development, Spain's top anti-terrorist Judge Baltasar Garzon also hit out China's crackdown in Tibet.
"Crimes against humanity have occurred" against Tibet, for which there had been "no judicial response" on the part of the Chinese authorities, he told a summer school at the Complutense University in the town of San Lorenzo de el Escorial outside Madrid.
He called on the international community to "put a stop to this situation."
