Mars 18 March, 2014
Buddhist monk Thubten Wangchen unleashed a storm in Spain for human rights
than Tibet. Credit: Saransh Sehgal/IPS
– Thubten Wangchen, a Tibetan Buddhist monk naturalized Spanish, He became a thorn in the side of the Spanish government when his lawsuit led Judge Ismael Moreno of the National Court to issue international arrest warrants against senior Chinese leaders..
Thubten denounced former presidents Jiang Zemin for alleged genocide committed in Tibet (1993-2003) and Hu Jintao (2003-2013), to former prime minister Li Peng (1987-1998) and other senior officials of the ruling Communist Party of China.
The process sought to judge these former Chinese leaders for their responsibility in torture, executions and “family planning policies that included widespread abortions and forced sterilizations” against the population of Tibet.
The judge ordered Interpol to issue an arrest warrant in February, with capture and imprisonment, against those accused of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity.
China immediately protested Spain's interference in what it called internal affairs. Shortly after, Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs reminded Madrid that in the immediate future it must honor the loans that Beijing provided it.
“We hope that the Spanish government can distinguish the good from the bad”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said, Hua Chunying, after the judge requested the arrests.
China is an important creditor of Spain. Shortly after, Parliament admitted to proceedings 29 February a proposal from the ruling right-wing Popular Party (PP) to limit the powers of national courts to hear cases of genocide and other crimes against humanity committed abroad.
The PP presented a project to reform the Organic Law of the Judiciary with urgent processing, in order to limit universal jurisdiction, which in practice makes it almost impossible to apply it in Spain.
Parliament processed the reform in record time, after his publication in the Official State Gazette, came into effect on Saturday 15.
Now, Opposition parties accuse China of pressuring Spain to ignore its human rights commitments.
For Thubten the reform “is sad news not only for the Tibetan people, but also for Spain. “The PP is giving in to Chinese pressure over the economy and debt.”.
If this continues, said, "from here to 15 “For years, the Spaniards will depend on the Chinese for employment and well-being.”.
Various human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, They denounced the reform in an open letter as “a devastating blow to universal jurisdiction and to Spain's international obligations that guarantee that serious crimes do not go unpunished.”.
Thubten and his friends appealed to the Organic Law of the Judiciary, of 1985, that allows suspects of human rights abuses committed abroad to be tried.
Spanish judges have invoked this doctrine of universal jurisdiction to investigate crimes against humanity, especially several tasks in Latin American countries.
The law was applied to arrest in 1998 to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London, by order of the Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. Spanish courts also tried to prosecute the leader of the extremist network Al Qaeda, Saudi Osama bin Laden, inter alia. But, in practice, very few cases went to trial.
Thubten, who was born in Tibet in 1954, He went into exile with his family in Nepal in 1959, the same year spiritual leader Dalai Lama escaped to India.
in 2006 filed the complaint in the Spanish justice system, together with the non-governmental organizations Tibet Support Committee and Tibet House.
“The motivation for pursuing this case is solely to make the world aware of the reality of Tibetan suffering under the Chinese regime.”, Thubten said..
Cases of immolations in protest of Beijing's repression in Tibet amount to 127, stood out.
“With a huge Chinese military presence controlling the population, Tibetans live under constant repression, “without freedom of religion or movement”, he added.
Thubten calls for a single European policy on human rights in relation to China. “We urge the European Union to play a greater role, appointing a special coordinator for Tibet”, said.
