Author of 'Hell on Earth' Autobiography, genocide survivor Bagdro speaks for postive change and advocacy
On April 18th 1998 Ven Bagdro, a former monk of Ganden monastery in Tibet was arrested by Chinese police. He was sentenced to a three year sentence in prison for allegedly leading a demonstration on March 5th, where one policeman was killed. Bagdro had encountered the dead soldier lying in the street. Confessions from demonstrators and sentences were obtained after an extensive period of incarceration and torture.
Ven Bagdro's account of his ordeal is held to be the first eye witness report of trial in modern Tibet. A trial Bagdro states, had little recourse for justice as he was prevented, even removed from the court and repeatedly beaten for attempting to publicly testify about the torture sessions in prison. Bagdro further claims the judges knew about the torture, that he and the other defendents were given just three days notice of the court trial and that they were refused access to legal advice and defence. One of the defendents Sonam Wangdu, tried also to withdraw his 'confession' during the trial. He is now paralyzed from the waist down as a result of injuries received during interrogation sessions and beatings.
During his torture ordeal, Bagdro was subject to beatings, starvation, humiliation, weapons such as hook knives, cattle prods, electric stun guns and other instruments, sleep deprivation, psychological trauma and recognized methods of brutal subjugation. In between torture sessions he was forced to stand naked in Himalayan sub zero temperatures for days on end in what was called 'the garden' - an area where he found ditches littered with the skulls and bones of earlier torture and genocide victims.
How did an unarmed peace protest by Tibetan monastic monks, intervened by an army of armed soldiers result in the brutal beating, killing, incarceration and torture of six Tibetans for the death of one soldier among the many civilian protestors slayed by armed combatants? A death that monks report as an accidental fall from a roof while shooting at protestors in the street below.
How did Tibet come to be known as the 'lost' Genocide - evidenced under Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG), swept under the carpet into lesser 'obligatory' international law as 'cultural genocide' and then on to become a matter of criminal law resort under 'universal justice' and finally halted out of a constitutional change in the Spanish trial justice system?
Can China and Tibet put horror history to end and bury the wounds left over from an political Maoist era now ended, as China has indeed assisted with the Mao inspired genocide acts in Cambodia? Can poltical factions find reconciliation and finally move on to peace and survival strategy - if only for the sake of planetary preservation and peace stability? We can only hope that the Cambodian gesture will alike continue towards Tibet's cause in social collaboration and resolution eventually afforded to parties in South Africa and Ireland. Yet every endured conflict has unique political implications from both sides. It is only the blade of grass yielding to the natural breeze that becomes aware it does not stand alone in the field. Flexible willingness to negotiate and compromise for regional stability and sustainable wellbeing is a giving from all parties for greater good of universal human rights.
Since his freedom, under the request of HH Dalai Lama, Bagdro has become an international emissary for social justice and evolutionary change - reconciliation for the people of Tibet. His quest over the past 15 years has brought him to Europe with the invitation of French President Mitterand to Europe in 1993, and to speak with international political and governance leaders. He has fronted a tireless individual campaign, receiving support by concerned justice advocates, including celebrity activists such as Richard Gere and rock group REM. In 2008 Bagdro and Palden Gyatso presented at Spanish Court facilitated by human rights specialist lawyer Dr Jose Esteves.
In September and October 2010 I with thanks received blessings and ceremony with Karmapa and His Holiness White Lotus Dalai Lama and spent time with Bagdro discussing his vision for a sustainable change to the future governance of Tibet. Bagdro and the Tibetans have kindly honoured their knowledge in heritage, culture, alternative medicines, spiritual values and social justice to our international PEACE project. We welcome all partners, stakeholders and knowledge bearers for Gaia preservation and sustainable survival. We'll update you with Bagdro's testimony, witness, our comment on social responsibility and change surivorship - and the implications of our international legal justice on this page soon.
