Geneva - A senior figure in the Tibetan government-in-exile called Thursday for the UN Human Rights Council to set up an independent inquiry into the violence in Lhasa. Karma Chophel said a team of experts should be sent to the Chinese province along with medical doctors.
"A lot of people, around 400, have been injured but are afraid to go to hospital. They could die because of the lack of treatment," he said.
Chinese authorities claim that 22 people were killed in the crackdown, which followed anti-government protests that started on March 10. Tibet's exiled politicians claim 140 people died.
Chophel, speaker of the Tibet parliament-in-exile in India, travelled to Geneva to try to address the Human Rights Council.
He failed to gain access to the chamber but spoke to journalists inside the UN building, saying that China's "strong presence" had thwarted repeated efforts to highlight the plight of Tibet, in the past at the UN Human Rights Commission and now its successor body, the Human Rights Council.
His efforts followed attempts by 65 non-governmental organizations to force the Human Rights Council to hold a special session on Tibet, but the measure failed to secure the necessary support from a third of the 47 member states.
Juliette de Rivero at Human Rights Watch said that the Human Rights Council was obliged to address the Tibet crisis. "It's scandalous that the council ends up silencing those who are trying to make sure it does its job," she said.
On Wednesday, the European Union group, Australia, Switzerland and the United States had brought up the crisis during a discussion on human rights standards, but protests by Beijing's ambassador forced suspension of the session.
