Melody in Prison: Ngawang Choephel
	UPDATE 5 April 1999

While an estimated 100 Tibetan protesters marched through the streets of New Delhi under the auspices of the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) to demand that the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva adopt a resolution censuring China for human rights abuses in Tibet and in China, TYC members are also organizing a hunger strike outside the United Nations building in Geneva itself. Organizers describe this action as a resumption of a hunger strike that was halted on 15 May 1998. The following statement was issued by the Tibetan Youth Congress in Geneva.

Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the largest Tibetan non-governmental organisation outside Tibet, organised Hunger Strike Unto Death Movement in New Delhi from 10 March to 15 May, 1998. The movement received tremendous backing from all over the world with support messages pouring into the tent of the Hunger strikers. Governments, parliamentarians, NGOs, Tibet Support Groups, intellectuals and individuals from every corner of the world assured their commitment to raise the issue of Tibet in the international forums, including bilateral talks with the Chinese Government.

Under the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan issue has been able to gather support from different countries with the adoption of more than 60 resolutions on Tibet. In 1991, the US Congress declared Tibet an occupied territory. However, many governments are still reluctant to raise the issue of Tibet at appropriate international forums to find an amicable solution to end Tibet’s tragedy. The Chinese authorities, on the other hand, have taken the accommodative initiatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile as weakness rather considering them as genuine measures.

During the last ten months, despite China’s promise of safeguarding human rights and signing of the two major UN Covenants on Human Rights, the human rights situation in Tibet has deteriorated with intensification of China’s repressive policies. Beijing’s latest campaign to transform Tibet into an atheist region; the extra-judicial killings of more than 10 prisoners in May 1998 at Drapchi Prison; the detention of more than 1,000 Tibetan identified political prisoners including children below the age of 18; the continued influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet; and the coerced birth control programmes on Tibetan women are evidence of the grim human rights condition in Tibet. In clear words, ‘Time is running out for Tibet’.

Deeply concerned over the continued human rights violations in Tibet and the fact that the international community and UN human rights mechanisms have failed to end the human rights abuses in Tibet, Tibetan Youth Congress, keeping in mind the demands of the Hunger Strike Movement in New Delhi last year, appear before UN building in Geneva to resume the Hunger Strike Movement. The Movement in Geneva commences on 5 April, 1999 with the participation of two senior leaders of TYC, Mr. Karma Yeshi and Mr. L. Pema Lhundup and a former Tibetan political prisoner who spent 22 years in Chinese prison in Tibet, Mr. Reting Tenpa Tsering with the following demands:

1. Adoption of a resolution by the 55th UNCHR to censure China for the continued human rights violations in Tibet, including the appointment of a Special Rapporteur on Tibet.

2. To urge China to receive a delegation of International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) to visit Tibet to investigate the human rights situation in Tibet.

3. To urge China to allow a delegation of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to visit nine years old world youngest political prisoner, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the Eleventh Panchen Lama of Tibet.

4. To urge China for the unconditional release of Tanak Jigme Sangpo, Ngawang Sangdrol, Ngawang Choephel and Ngawang Phulchung as a gesture to all political prisoners in Tibet.

Tibetan Youth Congress appeals to Governments around the world, the Office of the UN Secretary General, the UN Committee on Rights of the Child, the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to urge all concerned authorities to meet the demands of this Hunger Strike Movement in Geneva. We are confident that our legitimate demands will receive due recognition and support from the international community.

Tibetan Youth Congress, Camp Geneva
Tel: 0041 77 880510 (mobile)
Tseten Norbu, President 0041 22 732 0736
Choekyong Wangchuk (Spokesperson) Fax: 0041 22 740 4544