Melody in Prison: Ngawang Choephel
	UPDATE 2 March 2000

House Committee on International Relations
Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights
Hearing on Human Rights in China and Tibet
Testimony of Bhuchung K. Tsering,
Director, International Campaign for Tibet

Mr. Chairman. Let me begin by thanking you for this opportunity to testify before your committee on an issue with which I am not only professionally involved, but also have a life-long personal commitment, namely the issue of Tibet. I would request that my full statement be placed in the record while I summarize the same before you today.

My name is Bhuchung Tsering and I am the director of the International Campaign for Tibet. The International Campaign for Tibet is a Washington, D.C. based non-profit organizations which monitors human rights and democracy in Tibet. Since its inception in 1988, ICT has undertaken a number of projects aimed at protecting the human rights of the Tibetan people and propagating democratic freedom in Tibet.

The Tibet section of the State Department's Human Rights Report this year depicts a good effort to describe in detail a situation of "tight controls on religion and on other fundamental freedoms." The 13-page report on Tibet is a marked improvement from reports four or five years ago. It is the strongest and detailed report to come out of the State Department.

The report provides significantly more detail about human rights abuses against Tibetans throughout Tibetan areas, not just in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Earlier reports have limited themselves to developments within the Tibetan Autonomous Region only, thus neglecting more than half of the traditional Tibetan areas in which a majority of the Tibetans live.

However, the report, as was the case in the past few years, continues to contain a number of deficiencies and relies heavily on NGO reporting, reflecting somewhat poor first-hand intelligence gathering abilities. I would like to touch on some of them later on and also provide certain recommendations for follow-up actions by the United States.

1999 saw the tightening of state control over every sphere of Tibetan life. Over 100 Tibetans were arrested in 1999, according to one report from Tibet, for peacefully expressing their beliefs. The "Strike Hard" campaign launched in 1996 aimed at eliminating allegiance to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Panchen Lama and Tibetan nationalism. Initially limited to the monastic institutions, the campaign was broadened in 1999 to include all of Tibetan society.

1999 did not see any decrease in the levels of abuse of prisoners in Tibet. A Tibetan surrogate program, Voice of Tibet, broadcast from Norway, reported the expansion of several prisons in Tibet where political prisoners are believed to be detained.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2,474 Tibetans fled Tibet in 1999. Among them were 1,115 Tibetans below the age of 18.

Mr. Chairman, according to one estimate, there are currently over 600 documented political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Tibet. The Chinese authorities monitor information about Tibet very strictly and it is possible that these numbers are higher. Prominent political prisoners include Tanak Jigme Sangpo, Ngawang Choephel, Phuntsok Nyidron, Ngawang Phulchung, Jamphel Jangchub, Lobsang Tenzin, Phuntso Wangdu, Gyaltsen Dolkar and Jigme Gyatso. The India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights & Democracy has done a good job in documenting the case stories of some of these political prisoners.

The prevalence of torture as a means of crushing the resistance of individuals is alarming although China is a Party to the Convention Against Torture. Over 60 Tibetans have died as a direct result of torture since China signed the convention in 1986. In 1999 alone, six Tibetans died due to torture in 1999.

There have been reports of the use of torture in almost every stage of the legal process, starting from incarceration, during initial detention, in transit to detention facilities, during interrogation, and in prisons and detention centers. The various methods of torture include: beatings, electric shocks, attacks by dogs, painful shackling, forced labor and exercise, prolonged periods of solitary confinement, deprivation of food and sleep, and denial of adequate medical care.

In 1999, over 1,000 monks and nuns were expelled from their monasteries and nunneries, including 49 Tibetans arrested for resisting "patriotic re-education." Since the beginning of the "Strike Hard" campaign in April of 1996, over 11,000 monks and nuns have been expelled from their religious institutions.

The above, Mr. Chairman, is a brief summary of the situation of human rights in Tibet today. Some of these do not find a place in the State Department's report. Others are touched tangentially without any analysis. Human rights violations in Tibet have also been projected as just an offshoot of the overall situation in China, which is not the case.

The report, by saying that the authorities suppress only those religious activities viewed as "vehicles for political dissent," seems to be condoning most of the Chinese actions on Tibetans. In Tibet, culture, religion, identity and politics are intertwined and therefore China can use any excuse they want if they wish to suppress the Tibetan people.

The situation of the 10-year-old Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, is of utmost concern to us. The State Department report does not take up the case strongly and clearly. Rather, there is an apparent attempt to equate the status of the Panchen Lama with the boy, Gyaltsen Norbu, that the Chinese Government has appointed. The recognition of the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama is a deeply spiritual process and the United States should be categorical in respecting the position of the Tibetan people. The Chinese Communists authorities have absolutely no legitimacy in the process of identifying Tibetan reincarnated lamas.

The report also merely mentions in two sentences the dramatic escape of the Gyalwa Karmapa, a prominent Tibetan Buddhist leader, from his monastery in Tibet to India late last year. This difficult decision by the 14-year-old Karmapa is significant in that it symbolizes the mental state of the Tibetans in Tibet. The Karmapa was being projected as a symbol of religious freedom in Tibet and was being given preferential treatment by the Chinese authorities while in Tibet. Here is what he had to say about the situation in Tibet during his first-ever public address in Dharamsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, India on February 19, 2000:

"Generally speaking, many parts of the world suffer from strife and deprivation of freedom. In the particular case of our snow land of Tibet, Buddhism and Buddhist system flourished there in the past. However, over the last two or three decades, Tibet has suffered great losses. Tibetan religion and culture have reached the point of complete destruction. I pray that the Tibetan people achieve happiness as a result of the efforts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Bodhisattva motivation of the great spiritual beings of all sects, and the common merit and prayers of the Tibetan people themselves."

Mr. Chairman, the escape of the Karmapa as also that of another senior Tibetan Buddhist leader, Agya Rinpoche, are clear evidence of the fact that even those Tibetan leaders who cooperate with the Chinese authorities know that Chinese attitude towards Tibetan religion and culture is dangerous and antagonistic. Agya Rinpoche, who held prominent political and religious position at the national level in China sought asylum in the United States because he could not support the Chinese religious policy towards Tibet, particularly on the issue of the recognition of the Panchen Lama. Today, Agya Rinpoche has received asylum in the United States and is writing an autobiography, which may contain much information on the true nature of China's religious policy towards Tibet.

It is now the 5th year of incarceration of Tibetan music scholar Ngawang Choephel. China has not even consented to allow his mother her legal right of visitation of her son in prison even though the U.S. has made this request on her behalf.

I also want to draw your attention to PetroChina, China's state-owned oil company, which is going public on the NYSE. We fear that the money raised would be used to build a major pipeline in Tibet, near a controversial proposed World Bank project, about which the report comments in its China section. This project will be extremely damaging for Tibetans, both environmentally and socially.

The report also refers to the opening of Internet service in Tibet but fails to mention that it is censored and people feel extremely reluctant to use it for many purposes. Internet users in Tibet do not have access to independent sites on Tibetan issues. Most sites, including that of the International Campaign for Tibet (www.savetibet.org) and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (www.tibet.com) cannot be logged on by Internet users in Tibet.

Recommendations

1) Keep Normal Trade Relations (NTR) annual instead of permanent: This report also is a strong reminder on why the Administration should abandon its effort to secure permanent normal trade status with China and keep its annual review process. Such a position is not only timely but will also indicate to the international community that the United States is serious.

Abandoning the effort to secure permanent NTR would show to Europe and the rest of the world that the U.S. is consistent in its stated commitment to censure China at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

2) High level follow-up action in Geneva: Last year even though the State Department's report on Tibet was quite damning the United States nevertheless hesitated in announcing its decision to take up China's human rights practices at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. This year, the U.S. has already announced its intention to raise the issue. This report provides ample evidence why such a resolution against China is valid. Therefore, the United States should take follow-up action at the highest level and actively embark on a diplomatic effort to see the passage of its China resolution in Geneva.

Finally, Mr. Chairman, human rights violations in Tibet are merely symptoms of a bigger problem, which is political. Unless political issues are addressed we cannot expect the human rights situation in Tibet to improve. The United States has a policy of encouraging unconditional negotiations between the Tibetan leadership in exile and the Chinese leadership. This policy needs to be more actively implemented.

I thank members of this sub-committee, members of the Congress as well as the government and the people of the United States for your continued support to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people in our endeavor to regain the rights and freedoms of our people.

Mr. Chairman, once again, I thank you for this privilege of testifying today in this august body.