The Tibetan government-in-exile and rights groups condemned...

The Tibetan government-in-exile and rights groups condemned China's execution of a Tibetan activist convicted of a series of bomb blasts, saying he was not given a fair trial. Lobsang Dhondup, a 28-year-old farmer, was executed on January 26, a court official at Ganzi, near the Tibetan border, told AFP.
He and a 52-year-old monk, Tensin Deleg Rinpoche, were sentenced to death in December 2002 for an April bomb attack in southwestern Sichuan province's capital Chengdu, which killed one person and injured another, as well as two other explosions. China blamed the blasts on supporters of Tibetan independence.
"We are deeply disappointed by this reported summary execution because we believe the trial was not fair or transparent and the Chinese authorities have not been able to produce compelling evidence," the government-in-exile said in a statement from its base in the Indian hill station of Dharamsala.
It urged the international community to put pressure on China not to also execute Tensin Deleg Rinpoche.
The monk's appeal had been rejected, but he had been given a two- year stay of execution, the statement said.
"The news about the execution of Lobsang Dhondup is unexpected and we hope that Tensin Deleg Rinpoche will not suffer the same fate.
"We appeal to the international community to put pressure on the Chinese government to overturn the death sentence and initiate a fair and transparent re-trial of Tensin Deleg Rinpoche," it said.
More militant Tibetan activists said the execution showed the Chinese government's true colours and criticized the government-in- exile's approach.
"The Tibetan government has been soft and over-hopeful," charged Tenzin Samphel, vice president of the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Youth Congress.
"The Chinese game should be now clear. We cannot be soft and wait," he said.
"We did not have faith in the Chinese authorities since long; we have the proof now," he said.
Amnesty International said it was concerned that the monk's trial was unfair.
"He appears to have been held for several months incommunicado, he was not given full and adequate legal representation and his trial was held in secret," the London-based rights group said in a statement.
"According to official sources, this was because the case involved "state secrets", but the authorities have not explained how this related to charges against the defendants.
"Given these serious breaches of international fair trial standards, it is quite possible that Lobsang Dhondup's case was a miscarriage of justice."
The Free Tibet Campaign which works for the protection of Tibetan rights also condemned the execution.
"This is the first known execution of a Tibetan for offences linked to political activities for as long as a decade," it said in a statement.
The France-Tibet Association said it learned "with much emotion" of the execution which it said had been "based on false accusations."
The Tibetan government-in-exile called on Tibetans to refrain from anti-Chinese protests until June 2003, expressing hope for another breakthrough after a delegation from Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama visited Beijing in September. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against China, which has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since 1951.