Melody in Prison: Ngawang Choephel
	UPDATE 1 March 1999

The following article appeared in volume 34, No.3 (March 1999) of Tibetan Review.

A Mother's Dying Wish

After a two and half-month tour of USA and Europe to campaign for her son's release from an 18-year jail in term in Tibet for a trumped up charge of spying, Ama Sonam Dekyi is back on Delhi's pavements, still seeking support from the international community. Tsering Norzom* tells us how the mother sustains her campaign against enormous odds.

The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, Dharamsala, requested me to accompany Mrs. Sonam Dekyi as a translator during her tour of the United States and Europe to campaign for her son's release from prison in Tibet. After two and half months of hectic tour I am not sure whether to consider myself fortunate or unfortunate. I felt fortunate in that I learnt so much from her. The woman had undergone a lot of pain and suffering since her escape from Tibet in 1968 and still remain strong and determined in her fight for her son's freedom.

Though an illiterate woman, she did not sit at home, crying helplessly: rather, traveled all the way from her humble abode in South India to New Delhi where for more than a year she sat on the sidewalks of Jantar Mantar to draw international community's attention to the plight of her son and to seek help for securing his release. I was fortunate to be able to render service to her as her translator and to be able to convey her feelings and desire to sympathetic people in many countries which I hope will eventually lead to her son's release.

At the same time I felt very unfortunate to have accompanied her because I had to listen to her sad story again and again (which to me was very painful) and to live with it until we returned to India. I cannot imagine how she lives with the tragedy day after day. Hats off to her!

We left India on the 5th of October for United States. The tour was co-sponsored by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, the International Campaign for Tibet, Washington, DC. and the Free Tibet Campaign, UK, in order to draw international public support for Ngawang Choephel's release.

Ama Sonam Dekyi and myself belong to the same Tibetan refugee Settlement in Mundgod, South India and I have known her for a long time. Her son also happened to be my younger brother's classmate in school. Still, in order to know her more personally and also about her son's visit to Tibet, I began by making many inquiries and asked her to share with me her feelings and desires. We spoke for nearly two hours before boarding the plane and I commended her for her determination and courage in her battle to get her son released from prison.

Ama Sonam escaped Tibet in 1968 along with her mother, brother and son Choephel who was then barely a year and half. A native of Dawa Dzong (a district in Ngari) in the northwest of Central Tibet, she was pregnant at the time of her escape and gave birth on the way. She would burst into tears whenever she tells the story of that arduous journey. She was suffering from unbearable labour pains and was at the same time under constant fear of being caught by the Chinese. Fear meant she could rest only for a day during the course of her journey.

When she finally reached India, insufficient food, lack of medical facilities and unfamiliar climactic conditions conspired to deprive her of her new-born baby. Her husband had stayed back with one of the village leaders to help more people escape. Her misfortune was compounded by the news brought by fellow-villagers that her husband was caught by the Chinese and tortured to death. Now her only child, Ngawang Choephel, is serving an 18-years sentence in the notorious labour camp called Powo Tramo Prison, located 500 km east of Lhasa in a remote area of Dzona (Nyingtri Prefecture).

Ama Sonam would often tell people that the reason she made her escape was to provide her son with a normal and decent life and a sound education. She joined many Tibetan families to live in a Tibetan Settlement in Mundgod. Like all families, she tilled land and led a contented life with her son and brother's family.

She sent her son to a Central School for Tibetans and provided him with all possible comforts that was within her limited capacity. She would proudly repeat all the time that her son showed great passion for learning Tibetan music and dance from the age of thirteen. He was always selected in all his class musical programs and was often seen playing instruments such as harmonica, flute or a Tibetan lute. She often recalled how her son would empty the contents of a vegetable gourd, dry it in the sun and ties strings to it and play it as a lute.

Because of his passion for learning the traditional Tibetan music he joined the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) in Dharamsala to pursue a career in music. After graduation, he worked as a music teacher for six years in Central School for Tibetan both in Mundgod and Bylakuppe.

In 1993 Choephel was selected to study ethnomusicology in the US under the US Fulbright scholarship scheme for Tibetans. He pursued his musical course at the Middlebury College in Vermont. The college gave him opportunity to study Western musical instruments like the piano and to experiment by playing Tibetan songs on them. After finishing his study Choephel returned to India, full of enthusiasm to undertake a research in his qualified field. He especially wanted to document the rich traditional Tibetan music and oral songs so as to pass them on to the younger generation of Tibetans with whom it would become a vibrant living tradition. He felt that in order to realize his dream he had to visit different parts of Tibet and to put on record this aspect of the Tibetan culture.

He left for Tibet in July 1995, but did not inform his mother, fearing she may not allow it. Instead, he told her that he was going to Ladakh to collect and record music in that region. But when he did not return home on schedule, his mother went all over India and Nepal twice to look for him. She became very worried and ill.

One day she was told by a man named Dorji Rinchen, a former political prisoner who had just escaped to India after release from Prison in Tibet, that her son had been arrested by the Chinese authorities and was being held at the Nyari Detention Center, Shigatse. The news shocked her. She became depressed and soon became a tuberculosis patient, which kept her bedridden in hospital for five months.

Choephel was arrested from a market-place in Shigatse in August 1995 and detained in Nyari Detention Center until 27th June 1998. He was held without charge or trial until 26 December 1996, when suddenly a Lhasa People's Radio broadcast announced that he had been arrested for espionage and for spying for the exile Tibetan government with financial support form "some" foreign country, and that he was therefore sentenced to an 18-year term.

No evidence of spying was produced or made known, and no rights of fair defense given.

Ama Sonam petitioned the Chinese Government through its embassy in New Delhi three times, urging that her innocent son be released or that she be allowed to visit him in prison. But she got no positive responses.

Ama Sonam then decided to seek public support for her campaign. She set up a "lean-to tent" shelter in Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. For a fell year and a quarter she sat there to draw public attention to her cause. She particularly wanted the international community to put pressure on the Chinese government to release her son. She collected many signatures on a petition and distributed appeal letters, saying her son was innocent and not a spy. She was visited by many western tourists who helped to publicize her story through many newspapers.

When Choephel's arrest and sentence became known, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) and the Tibetan Women's Association started a joint campaign for his release and organized many activities to draw support in the international community. I was told by the Executive Director of TCHRD that many press conferences, pamphlets, petitions and letter-writing campaign were initiated to put pressure on China.

As a parliamentarian, I asked the Tibetan Government-in-exile what action was taken in order to help Ama Sonam and her campaign for her son's release. I was told by the Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations that the Department had been issuing statements and letters demanding the release of political prisoners in Tibet, including Ngawang Choephel. The issue of China's baseless charges against Choephel and his arrest and imprisonment were taken up at different international fora, including the United Nations. Tibet support groups all over the world had organized a number of activities including letter writings, demonstrations and vigils to mobilize public support for the campaign. In fact, the Congress of the United States passed a resolution, seeking Ngawagn Choephel's release.

The Tibetan Parliament-in-exile whole responsibility, among many others, is also to look into the grievances of the poor and needy Tibetans in the community, passed a resolution to provide financial support to Ama Sonam since she was ill and financially insecure because of her son's absence. I was also told by the exile government's Department of Health that she was being provided free medical facility whenever she became sick and was also provided some monthly stipend by the Department of Home. However, Ama Sonam irrespective of her health conditions, remains determined to continue her battle until her son's release.

During our campaign tour, she had the opportunity to meet with foreign ministry officials, Parliamentarians, NGO's and student-groups and appealed to them for continued support until her son is released. She had a very emotional visit and reception at the Middlebury College where her son had studied ethnomusicology.

In Europe, we traveled to the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, France and Austria, and in all these countries she was well received by the politicians, NGO's and the media. She left a deep impact at all the places she went and was always appreciated for her effort, courage and determination to see her son released. The tour was very emotional and many men and women were left in tears after listening to her sad story.

When news of the transfer of her son from Drapchi Prison in Lhasa to the isolated, high security Powo Tramo Prison reached her when she was still on tour, Ama Sonam broke down and became sick for a few days. Choephel was said to be very weak at the time of his transfer.

The end of the tour, which was very hectic, therefore brought no satisfaction for Ama Sonam. Being a mother myself, I can feel the depth of her frustration at being separated from her only son in such a tragic circumstance. As Ama Sonam kept telling all the people she met, Wei Jingsheng and Gendhun Rinchen were released because of continuous pressure on China from the international community. She believes that if similar efforts are made, her son Choephel too could be released well before the end of his 18-year sentence.

At 63, Ama Sonam is very weak: she is anxious to see her son once before she dies. If the assurances and promises given by all the politicians and people she met are implemented, she will surely realize her dream. But meanwhile, Ama Sonam is back at Delhi's pavements, still seeking support for her son's release.
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* Tsering Norzom is a member of the exile Tibetan parliament and also a former President of Tibetan Women's Association.