Today, in a historic legal move, the first Tibetan victim and witness gave his testimony in the initial proceedings of the lawsuit for genocide against Chinese authorities submitted by CAT (Spanish Tibet support group 'Comite de Apoyo al Tibet') a year ago and accepted by the court in January 2006.

Thubten Wangchen, Director of the casa del Tibte Foundation in Barcelona, recounted his personal experience of life in occupied Tibet. As a child in Kyirong, his pregnant mother was kidnapped by the Chinese occupying forces and disappeared, together with other women from the village. None of them were ever seen again. As the lives of all his family were in danger, Wangchen was forced to flee into exile, first to Nepal where he survived by begging, and then to India, where he became a Tibetan monk. In the early 1980s he moved to Spain, working as a translator and tourist guide, which led him back to Tibet. On one such visit, he was arrested and threatened with death for having a photograph of the Dalai Lama in his possession, although he managed to escape.

As the CAT press release states, 'this is a historic date for the advance of justice in Tibet, and is the first opportunity for a Tibetan victim to testify on their experiences under the Chinese occupation'.