Melody in Prison: Ngawang Choephel
	UPDATE 14 January 1999

January 14, 1999

H.E. Ms Mary Robinson
High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office of the High Commissioners for Human Rights
Palais Wilson, CH-1201 Geneva
SWITZERLAND

Your Excellency,

I wish to urgently draw your attention to the plight of my only son Ngawang Choephel who was arbitrarily arrested in August 1995 and was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment by the People's Republic of China.

I have learnt from recently arrived Tibetan refugees that my son is in extremely poor health. He has vomited blood on several occasions since August 16, 1998. He seemed to has written appeal letters to the China's Higher People's Court in August and September 1998 informing them of his deteriorating health and requesting them to allow medical treatment. All his appeals have been ignored by prison officials. I was told that he is presently suffering from tuberculosis and gastric disease. My son is extremely weak and may die in prison.

In the last two years I went to the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi several times requesting for permission to visit my son in prison in Tibet. However, in total contradiction to China's own law, all my appeals were ignored.

My son was reported missing in August 1995, a month after he travelled to Tibet to research ethnic Tibetan folk songs. He was a former fulbright scholar at Middlebury College in Vermont, USA and was working on a documentary about traditional music and culture.

On October 15, 1996 more than a year after Ngawang's disappearance, the Chinese authorities finally admitted to his detention. He was subsequently sentenced on December 26, 1996 on the baseless charges of "spying" for the exiled government of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

He was imprisoned in Nyari Detention Centre in Shigatse in August 1995. Human rights groups say that my son Ngawang was transferred to the remote and high security Powo Tramo Prison in Tramo County on July 1, 1998.

I, therefore, strongly appeal your kindself to urgently call upon the Chinese authorities and prevail upon them to release my son on medical parole. I fear that my son might die in prison if he is not given medical treatment urgently. Since medical facilities in Tibet are severely restricted to political prisoners, I strongly fear that my son will die in the prison like many other Tibetan political prisoners in Tibet. I am 63 years old and suffering from tuberculosis and my only wish before I die is to see my son. Please help me.

With my heighest hopes.


(signed)
Sonam Dekyi
Mother of Ngawang Choephel

CC: His Excellency Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017, U.S.A.