China Executes Tibetan Activist for Bombings

China confirmed last night that it had executed a Tibetan activist convicted of carrying out a series of bomb attacks.

Lobsang Dhondup, 28, a prominent supporter of Tibetan independence, was executed on Sunday in the city of Ganzi, near the Tibetan border. It was the first time for 10 years that Beijing had executed a Tibetan political prisoner.

The provincial court that confirmed his sentence also rejected an appeal by Dhondup's Buddhist teacher, Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, who was convicted in the same case. He too has been sentenced to death.

In a tape smuggled out of jail, Dhondup protested his innocence. "I was wrongly accused," he said. "I have always been devoted to the interest and wellbeing of Tibetans. The Chinese did not like what I did and what I said. That is the only reason why I was arrested."

A spokesman for Tibet's government in exile in India said the two men had no access to defence lawyers and were tried in a closed court.

China insists they confessed to involvement in a number of bombings between 1998 and 2002 in Ganzi and Chengdu, the capital of the western province of Sichuan. One person was killed and several others injured.

Chinese police recently arrested 10 more Tibetans who they say also plotted to carry out the explosions.

Sunday's execution went ahead despite a recent thaw in relations between Beijing and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.