Tibetan ex-political prisoner to visit UK in campaign to Stop the Torture in Tibet |
Media Advisory - 14 June 2005 Tibetan nun, Ngawang Sangdrol, who spent 11 years in prison for chanting Tibetan freedom slogans in Lhasa, will visit the UK from the 17th to 26h June 2005, the week leading up to International Day of Support of Victims of Torture. Ngawang Sangdrol was only 15 years old when she was imprisoned for three years by the Chinese authorities. Her sentence was extended to 21 years, making her the longest serving female political prisoner in Tibet. Following international campaigns on her behalf, she was eventually released in 2002, ten years before her sentence was due to end. Ngawang Sangdrol will be speaking around the UK and will be meeting with Government officials, MPs, journalists and Tibet supporters. She will be talking about her harrowing experience as a political prisoner in Tibet. Her tour takes place as the UK prepares to assume the Presidency of the European Union, during which Chinese leaders will visit Britain for G8 meetings. Ms Sangdrol's tour will highlight the need for the EU to press China for an end to the use of torture in Tibet's prisons, detention centres and labour-through-education camps, as well as to promote dialogue on the future of Tibet. "As the British government takes the Presidency of the EU, it should address the terrible conditions of Tibet's political prisoners and promote human rights issues with China" said Ms Sangdrol. "I am free now, but my fellow people are still suffering under the brutal Chinese occupation. I am appealing to the British government to take a firm stand in their negotiations with the Chinese Government". China consistently undermines efforts by various UN human rights bodies to investigate, monitor and promote reform of its judicial and administrative systems in Tibet, and recently postponed a visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Schedule of free Public Talks
For further information on Ngawang Sangdrol see attached biography or contact Yael Weisz-Rind on tel. 020 7324 4605, or by e-mail yael@freetibet.org
Notes:
1. In September 2004 the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions cut short its visit to Drapchi Prison as a result of various obstacles created by the Chinese authorities. In its report to the 2005 Commission on Human Rights the Working Group says: 'None of the recommendations, which the Working Group formulated in its 1997 Report have been met; no definition to the term in criminal law "endangering national security" was given, no legislative measures have been taken to make a clear-cut exception from criminal responsibility for those who peacefully exercise their rights guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and no real judicial control has been created over the procedure to commit someone to re-education through labour.' (E/CN.4/2005/6/Add.4, para 74).
2. Background information on Ngawang Sangdrol: Ngawang Sangdrol, a nun at the Garu Nunnery north of Lhasa in Tibet, was born in 1977. She was first arrested in 1990 at the age of only 13, for protesting with 12 other nuns at the Norbulingka (or Summer Palace) in Lhasa. She was considered too young to be prosecuted but was nevertheless held for nine months in the Gutsa detention centre. Since coming into exile she has described what happened there: "When we arrived at the prison we were subjected to many hours of violent interrogation. The officials called us 'splittists' and 'counter-revolutionaries.' The interrogators liked to beat us with iron pipes and sometimes with electric cattle prods. They would tie us up and take turns beating us. They also attached live electric wires to our tongues. I was very small compared to those men. They threw me around like a toy, back and forth across the room. They didn't care how young we were or whether we were female. They tortured children the same way they tortured adults. I would try to stand still, hold my ground and be strong. But when they hit me on the head with iron water pipes, I couldn't help falling down."
Following her release from Gutsa, she was arrested again in 1992 after protesting in the Barkhor area of Lhasa, and sentenced in November to three years in prison, for "counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement".
On 22 September 1993, her sentence was extended by six years for singing Tibetan nationalist songs in prison with a group of other nuns. On 21 June 1996, it was extended for a further eight years during a 'Patriotic Re-education' programme in the prison. Ngawang had refused to stand up when an official entered the room and to tidy her bedding, and was made to stand outside as punishment where she shouted "Free Tibet!"
In May 1998 Ngawang Sangdrol's sentence was extended once more, for a further six years, in the aftermath of uprisings in the prison. The protests had been started by criminal prisoners, but the political prisoners and the nuns from their cell window had joined in the chanting of freedom slogans. Ngawang was beaten severely and kept in solitary confinement. Ex-prisoner Norzin Wangmo described what happened: "Ani [Nun] Sangdrol was in the worst condition. It was like she was dead, she had lost consciousness. They didn't have any proof against Ani la, they beat her out of grudge. We thought she was dead... We had to wait a long time for her to stand up. When she did she was bleeding heavily, blood was streaming from her like water. There were three or four wounds on her head. She walked with a limp. They had trampled upon her body. There were so many people beating her that we couldn't see her when she had fallen down. She wasn't even able to lift up her head afterwards."(Source: Tibet Information Network)
At the last extension, the Lhasa Intermediate People's Court set a release date of May 3, 2013 but this was later changed to November 3, 2011 on account of her "showing genuine repentance and willingness to reform." In October 2002 the Lhasa Intermediate People's Court decided, in accordance with the principle of light or reduced sentences for individuals who enter prison as juveniles, to approve Ngawang Sangdrol's immediate release from prison on parole.
She was nominated for the European Parliament's Sakharov Award in 2000 and for the Reebok Human Rights Award in 2001. She was permitted to leave Tibet in March 2003. She now lives in the United States.