Melody in Prison: Ngawang Choephel
	UPDATE 11 November 1998

Hansa Natola has been kind enough to transcribe for us a British Broadcasting Corporation World Service Interview conducted for the program Everywoman. The program was broadcast at 8:50 GMT on 11 November 1998. Producer Sylvia Horn introduced Tsering Norzom reading a translation of excerpts from Sonam Dekyi's diary recounting her long campaign and her hopes for the future of Tibet.

A Mother's Love and Pain

Our diary this week comes from a Tibetan mother in exile campaigning to free her son from jail.

Sonam Dekyi is a Tibetan refugee living in exile in India. For most of the last 50 years, the east Asian country of Tibet has been ruled by China. During that period there have been many protests, sometimes with violence and death from Tibetans fighting to win back their independence from Beijing. The situation forces many like Sonam to live outside their country, including the Tibetan government and Tibet's leader, the Dalai Lama. In this week's diary, Sonam talks about her life in exile and her campaign to have her son released from an 18-year jail sentence on allegation of spying.

I lived as a refugee in India for the past many years and life living as a refugee is quite hard. In spite of having different social and financial problems, I had lived a content life because I was with my son, and we shared a very good relationship living together. I sent my son Ngawang Choephel to the Tibetan central school which is in my community and he learned music. After graduating from this school, he went to learn music in the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. He also went to the United States in order to learn ethnomusicology and, after completing his course there, he went to Tibet in order to document Tibetan music and dance. However, the Chinese government says that he has confessed being involved in espionage and collecting information which is sensitive. I feel my son would have undergone torture inflicted by the Chinese government and, as a result, he must have been forced to confess being involved in collecting sensitive information. After I learned that he was arrested by the Chinese government and given a sentence of 18 years, I was completely taken aback, I was shocked and depressed. As a result I felt sick and I was admitted in a hospital for five months. After my discharge from the hospital, I became a little more conscious, I was little okay and then I sat in the streets of the Indian city in New Delhi trying to draw attention of the international community, the Chinese government and the Indian government and the people in order to support my son's release and accordingly put pressure on the Chinese government so that my son who is innocent can be released at once and that I can be united with my son again. I was there for one year and three months on the streets trying to draw the attention of the International community, trying to distribute different pamphlets, collecting petition signatures and accordingly, I was able to commit myself both physically and mentally for the sake of my only child Ngawang Choephel so that I could see some result and I could see that my son is released and can be with him once again.

While sitting there on the Indian streets in New Delhi for one year and three months, I tried to draw the attention of the international community on two issues. The first issue was that the Chinese government release my son immediately because he is innocent. The second issue is that according to the Chinese rule of law and standee minimum rule of prisoners, prisoners can have regular family visits and, based on this law, I have been approaching different people from the international community that I get the access to visit my son in prison until he is released. I have also approached the Chinese embassy in New Delhi three times, asking them to issue me a visa so that I can visit my son in prison. However, so far all the three times I have been rejected by the Chinese embassy in New Delhi saying that they will not be able to give me a visa to visit my son, so the response has been very negative and it is in the contest of this response I have been continuously asking the support of the international community so that they can put pressure on the Chinese government.

My son Ngawang Choephel and I have been living as refugee in India for the past 30 years and during our life time I am very optimistic that we can return to a Free Tibet if the international community speaks out and raises its voice at the United Nations and at appropriate international forums and accordingly puts pressure on the Chinese government to solve the Tibetan problem. Then definitely Tibet could be freed and we could return to our country in our lifetimes if not in the future.