Melody in Prison: Ngawang Choephel
	UPDATE 23 September 1999

The following is translated from the e-letter of France-Tibet. (See the relevant excerpt in the original French here.)

NGAWANG CHOEPHEL, ETHNOMUSICOLOGIST, IMPRISONED FOR 18 YEARS –: Ngawang Choephel was transferred on July 1, 1998, to the maximum-security prison Powo Tramo, an isolated labor camp which is among the most brutal in Tibet. According to information brought out of Tibet, Ngawang Choephel coughed up blood on August 16, 1998. This is a symptom of pulmonary tuberculosis. Ngawang Choephel is also said to have contracted hepatitis. He reportedly received treatment for one month, which is insufficient for treatment of pulmonary tuburculosis. This ailment requires heavy antibiotic treatments lasting 12 to 18 months.

No proof exists to indicate that Ngawang Choephel might be a spy: this has been affirmed by both the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and by American authorities. He has spent virtually all his life in exile, where he studied traditional Tibetan dance and music with TIPA (the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts), and was also the beneficiary of a prestigious Fulbright scholarship which permitted him to complete his ethnomusicological studies in the USA. The Chinese authorities have no proof of their accusations of espionage other than admissions obtained under torture and video images which only prove Ngawang Choephel's interest in Tibetan traditional music and dance. Ngawang Choephel appealed his innocence three times in August and September 1998, when he was ill, to the high court of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. He has received no response.

We hope that he will be able to again see his mother in India very soon. She has been driven to despair by the imprisonment of her only son. Ms. Deckyi's life has become terrible since the disappearance of her son. She lives only to make the world aware of her son's case. On numerous occasions, she has presented her request for a visa to visit him in prison in Tibet. The case has been totally ignored by Chinese authorities. She recently stated, "Twice I've written to the Chinese Embassy in Delhi, requesting a visa to go to Tibet. I went to the Chinese Embassy in Delhi on January 9, 1997, in June 1997 and on July 28th of that same year, when I was able to meet the First Secretary, Mr. Huo Zhongquan. He told me that it would take three to four months to obtain a pass to the "Tibet Autonomous Region," but to this day I have not received any response from the Chinese officials in New Delhi." In failing to authorize Sonam Deckyi to visit her son in prison, the Chinese authorities simultaneously violate international law and their own law, which authorizes visits by close relatives, according to Article 37 of the Minimum Standard Requirements of the United Nations for the treatment of prisoners and Article 48 of Chinese prison law.

We urge you to familiarize your senator or deputy with this case, in order that during Jiang Zemin's visit, he may ask Lionel Jospin and Jacques Chirac to request a significant reduction of Ngawang Choephel's sentence on medical and humanitarian grounds. We believe this is also extremely important for his mother, who risks losing her life in her daily struggle.