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China executes Tibetan activist
From Lisa Rose Weaver
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Despite protests by human rights groups, Chinese authorities Sunday executed Lobsang Dhondup -- a man who had been convicted on charges of carrying out bombings in support of Tibetan independence -- a local court official said. He and Tibetan monk Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche were convicted in December. "There's a public notice posted outside the courthouse," said the official in Ganzi, who refused to be identified. "The execution was carried out on January 26," she said. Ganzi is located in China's southwestern Sichuan province, an ethnically Tibetan region close to the border with Tibet. Dhondup, 28, was convicted for his role in 3 bombings -- two in 2001 and one in 2002. International human rights activists had condemned the men's trial as unfair. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner expressed "deep concern" about the severity of the sentences and the possibility that the trial was unfair during a human rights dialogue between U.S. and Chinese officials held in Beijing in December. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing had no immediate response to reports of the execution. The fate of the second Tibetan, Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, was not immediately clear. According to China's state-run media Sunday, the Sichuan Provincial High Peoples' Court rejected an appeal by Rinpoche, a 52 year old senior monk, and affirmed a death sentence which had earlier been suspended. CNN was not able to reach authorities about Rinpoche's case. The Tibetan government in exile in Dharmsala, India, said Monday it was deeply disappointed by reports of Lobsang Dhondup's execution. Tsewang Lhadon of the Tibeten Center for Human Fights and Democracy, based in Dharamsala in northern India has heard the same information, but can't confirm, but has no reason to doubt information. "China, in spite of appeals from the international community, and appeals from rights groups has chosen to go ahead with the execution. We in the strongest words condemn the execution. We believe China's human rights record has got a serious setback," Lhadon said.
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