“The guard removed the electric truncheon from its socket and started poking me with his new toy. My entire body convulsed because of the repeated shocks. Then, screaming lewdly, he thrust the truncheon inside my mouth, retracted it and then forced it inside again. …I remember vividly how the electric shocks made my body vibrate. The current had me in its grip, like a violent fit of ague. I passed out, only to wake up in a pool of urine and vomit. I had no idea as to how long I had been lying there. My mouth was swollen and I could hardly move my jaw. With great effort did I manage to spit something out. It was three of my teeth.”

Palden Gyatso is a Buddhist monk who was arrested – for failing to accuse another of spying – in Tibet in 1959; he was charged as a reactionary element and sentenced to serve seven years in a monastery-turned-prison. The Drepung Monastery where he practiced was among the 2000 destroyed by the Chinese in the attempt to eradicate the Tibetan religion. The following year he escaped as far as the Bhutan border, but was soon recaptured by the Chinese authorities who held him captive in a labour camp where he was to endure three torturous decades.

© Joakim Eneroth

On completion of his term he fled across the border into India, and has since published memoirs, featured in documentaries, and lectured widely to publicise his imprisonment and the continuing human rights abuses in Tibet. The latest instalment in his campaign – Testimony – is a compelling account of his experience, augmented by Joakim Eneroth’s chillingly lucid still lifes of the tools of the trade of torture. The assorted knives, self-tightening handcuffs, electroshock batons, and other unidentified implements were bought on the black market from a former Chinese prison guard; and were passed on to Gyatso by members of a group who assisted him escape the country.

© Joakim Eneroth

Though his incarceration exiled him from Tibetan society, it did not insulate him from history and the attendant changes in the procedures and techniques of torture. During the Cultural Revolution, for example, the beatings and interrogations became more severe and increasingly frequent – inmates were compelled to take part in thamzings, sessions in which cell-mates and prisoners were forced to denounce and assault each other. Guards supervised Gyatso’s repeated beatings by his fellows after he had been spotted shaking drinking water from his fingers (the gesture was interpreted as a Buddhist ritual). And in the 1980’s prison officers introduced the use of long electric cattle prods capable of jolting victims unconscious during interrogations. (Two years after Gyatso’s release Channel 4 screened a documentary revealing the trade in stun technology from British firms to China. Similarly, British closed-circuit TV cameras were used to identify and pursue pro-democracy students after the demonstrations of June 1989.)

© Joakim Eneroth

Gyatso’s project, though, is animated by much more than a desire to redress the past. China’s economic boom may have diverted attention from the plight of Tibet, but little else appears to have changed. In a recent briefing, prepared by Amnesty International’s Committee against Torture, repeated failings were found that highlighted China’s reluctance to address numerous factors that contributed towards a culture in which torture and other abuses flourished. The Communist Party’s supervision of the police and the courts ensures that the justice system has no independence; systems of punitive detention – including “Re-education through Labour” – remain operative; the courts refuse to rule out the use of evidence and confessions obtained through ill-treatment and torture; and unofficial personnel or “local thugs” are used in increasing number by the authorities to harass, detain and assault.

© Joakim Eneroth

Chances are that Testimony will not go on sale in China; or if it were to, the book would probably be classified as fiction. For, as the Chinese ambassador Ma Yuzhens wrote to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, “Palden Gyatso is a criminal who persisted in activities directed at the government. Among the crimes committed are: activities aimed at overthrowing the government, escaping from prison and theft. Palden Gyatso’s story of how he was tortured by the prison guards is untrue. Torture is forbidden in Chinese prisons.”

Testimony – Photographs by Joakim Eneroth. Texts by Debra Long, Malin Rosen

Publ by Culture Art Technology, 2008

With thanks to artandphotographs.com