The Communist government in China had imposed the Cultural Revolution, commune experiments and violent and repressive campaigns on the Tibetans, and more recently, following the brutal suppression of last year's uprising, had forced them to endure "patriotic re-education." These measures had "thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on earth. The immediate result of these campaigns was the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans," he said.