NCJ Number
172190
Journal
Polygraph Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Dated: (1997) Pages: 280-286
Date Published
1997
Length
7 pages
Annotation
An experienced polygraph examiner was sent to India for 18 days in November 1996 by the "Philadelphia Inquirer" to determine whether witness/victim/sources had made true statements about severe torture and death inflicted on Tibetan independence activists by Chinese officials.
Abstract
All witnesses were refugees from Tibet and spoke only Tibetan. The polygraph tests in Dharmasala included 24 persons. Most were refugee nuns and monks from Buddhist monasteries in Tibet. A few were civilians, also refugees from Tibet. The one element common to all was their personal history of arrest, confinement, and torture in Tibet, usually by the Chinese Army and police. Their arrests and subsequent treatment were related to their advocacy of Tibet's independence from China. This paper discusses some of the problems associated with the cultural and language differences between the polygraph examiner and the subjects, all of which were resolved satisfactorily. Despite the many unusual handicaps, the charted artifacts were similar to 1,000 polygraph charts produced in the United States from the same examiner. Twenty-three of the 24 examinees were clearly not deceptive. The exception was a former member of the Chinese Communist Party who had been a supervisor for the Chinese propaganda office in Lhoka, Tibet. Based on the polygraph results and other evidence, including physical examinations of alleged victims, the "Philadelphia Inquirer" ran a series of articles on what was happening in Tibet in early December 1996.