Melody in Prison: Ngawang Choephel
	UPDATE 7 March 1999

The following is a translation from the French of an email from Marie-Helene Le Doze regarding current activities in France as well as a letter sent by her daughter Melanie Portet-Le Doze, a student of ethnology at the University of Paris who is currently studying in India and whose photo of Sonam Dekyi appeared in CHMOD last summer.

Melanie, currently in India, sends us news of Sonam Dekyi, the mother of prisoner Ngawang Choephel, whom we met in France last December:

Despite admonitions to take care of her health, Sonam is once again on the streets of downtown Delhi, campaigning for her son's freedom... Even though fortunately she spends her nights sheltered at Majnukatilla, she suffers from pain in her knees and from tuberculosis, and she coughs constantly.

According to news received from Tibetan refugees recently arrived in India, her son Ngawang is in extremely poor health. He has vomited blood on several occasions since his transfer to the isolated labor camp of Powo Tramo, perhaps the worst in Tibet. It appears that he has written letters to the Chinese People's High Court, informing them of the deterioration of his health and asking them to authorize medical treatment. All his appeals have been ignored. He is currently suffering from tuberculosis and from gastic trouble. He is extremely weak. It seems that the Chinese authorities really want to get rid of him! Because medical treatment for political prisoners is extremely limited, Sonam fears that her son will die in prison, like so many other Tibetan political prisoners in Tibet.

Appeal to Parliamentarians

As of this date, 46 associations or movements have joined in supporting "A Mother's Appeal" for Ngawang Choephel, which we will soon remit to all members of the French Parliament before addressing it to the European deputies, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, and the Chinese authorities.

All information and actions undertaken to help free Ngawang, as well as the associations' appeal, continue to be on the website http://perso.wanadoo.fr/france.tibet.