CHINA (TIBET): Arbitrary detention and the denial of the right to access medical treatment

Dear Friends,

The following is an appeal for the release of a 35-year-old Tibetan ethno-musicologist, Mr. Ngawang Choephel, who is in prison on charges of espionage by the Chinese government.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges you to join the campaign for Ngawang Choephel by taking the following suggested action.

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission

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Urgent action campaign for Ngawang Choephel

In August 2000, Ms. Sonam Dekyi and her brother, who live in India, were finally allowed to visit Ngawang Choephel. About one month before their visit, Ngawang Choephel was transferred from the Tibet Autonomous Regional No. 2 Labour Reform Detachment (known as Powo Tramo) to a prison in the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province of the People’s Republic of China.

Ngawang Choephel’s family was permitted to visit him after several years of campaigns by various international organisations. Sonam Dekyi and her brother were allowed to visit him for only two times though during their six-day stay in Tibet. They were accompanied by two Chinese government officials, and they were not allowed any physical contact during their visit. Furthermore, the officials told the family to control their emotions; otherwise, the visit would be terminated.

The prison visits are reported to have taken place strictly in accordance with regulations. The Chinese officials laid down preconditions prior to the meeting and said that they would get two meetings, both of which should not exceed one hour each. Therefore, Sonam Dekyi and her son were separated by two counters and two layers of wire netting. There were three prison guards with him, one at the back and two beside him.

Sonam Dickey said that she did not recognise Ngawang and knew him only by his voice. Sonam Dekyi also said that her son looked “weak and did not seem strong mentally” and that “he was just skin and bones and his face was yellow.”

In the Chengdu General Hospital where Ngawang was supposed to have received medical treatment, the doctor described Ngawang as suffering from four different ailments. The doctor added that he had already treated his urinary tract infection and was continuing to attend to Ngawang’s liver, lung and stomach ailments.

Ngawang told his mother that he had written numerous appeals about both his initial sentencing and his lack of medical treatment but was unable to submit them. He was told that he has no illness and that he was just pretending. Frustrated with this indifference, he went on a hunger strike.

Since Sonam Dekyi’s visit to Chengdu, no further information regarding Ngawang Choephel’s health or location has been received. Consequently, it is not known whether he is still receiving any medical treatment for his ailments or has just been taken back to Powo Tramo to be further subjected to the punishing physical conditions there.

After returning to India, Sonam Dekyi has requested the Chinese government through its embassy in Delhi to either release her son on medical parole or allow her to visit her son. Officials though have denied both requests.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Ngawang Choephel was born in Tibet in 1966 and was carried on his mother’s back to India when he was just 2 years old. Ngawang Choephel was brought up and educated in India. In 1993, he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and studied musicology at Middlebury College in the state of Vermont in the United States. After returning from the United States, he went to Tibet to do research on folk songs and dances. While doing research, Ngawang Choephel was arrested in Shigatse market in July 1995.

On Oct. 15, 1996, more than one year after Ngawang Choephel’s disappearance, the Chinese authorities finally admitted that he had been detained. Ngawang was subsequently sentenced to 18 years in prison on charges of spying for the Tibetan government-in-exile.

He was initially detained in the Shigatse Nyari Detention Centre. He was transferred to Drapchi Prison on June 27, 1998, and then to the high security Powo Tramo Prison in Tramo County in July 1998.

Ngawang Choephel went to Tibet to film traditional Tibetan folk songs and dances. Ngawang managed to give his videotapes to a Western traveller before he was arrested. The 16 hours of video footage brought out of Tibet contain not one single scene of political activity.

On May 19, 1999, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights declared that Ngawang Choephel’s detention by the Chinese authorities was arbitrary and in contravention of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The U.N. working group has asked the Chinese government to remedy the situation.

ACTION REQUESTED

– Urge the immediate and unconditional release of Ngawang Choephel

– Express concern at recent reports that Ngawang Choephel is suffering from liver, lung and stomach ailments and possibly a urinary tract infection, which confirm previous official reports that he had bronchitis, hepatitis and respiratory infections while in prison

– Urge the Chinese authorities to consider releasing Ngawang Choephel on medical parole in order for him to receive all necessary medical care

– Request that his mother be given permission to visit him again

 

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