Help
Free Fulbright Scholar,
Ngawang Choephel
Below is a
letter from the director of the International Campaign for Tibet:
Ngawang Choephel has been sentenced to 18 years in prison! He
does not deserve to be there. Your help is urgently needed to
mobilize public pressure to secure his release.
Ngawang's case is unique: never before has a Tibetan returned to
Tibet from the U.S. and been imprisoned for such a long period of
time. And never before has a Tibetan prisoner of conscience left
behind a photographic record of the weeks leading up to his
arrest.
Ngawang's case is unique: never before has a Tibetan returned to
Tibet from the U.S. and been imprisoned for such a long period of
time. And never before has a Tibetan prisoner of conscience left
behind a photographic record of the weeks leading up to his
arrest. Ngawang was a Fulbright scholar who studied at Middlebury
College and returned to Tibet to make an amateur video tape about
traditional Tibetan song and dance. As a precaution, he
periodically sent completed footage to Kathmandu. The
International Campaign for Tibet obtained the footage, which
amounted to 16 hours of spectacular scenes of traditional song
and dance. Of those 16 hours, there was not a single scene
indicating that Ngawang was involved in any political activity
whatsoever - his extensive photographic record shows he was
solely engaged in cultural documentation.
Ngawang's friends, acquaintances and professional colleagues in
the United States, many of whom were helping him to complete this
project, all are convinced that he would not have veered from his
ethnomusicology project.
Some of his footage has been incorporated into a moving shot
video about Ngawang's trip to Tibet, his arrest and the impact of
his disappearance on friends and family. Two talented filmmakers
- Robin Garthwait and Dan Griffin - volunteered their time and
resources to direct and produce the video, which is now being
widely distributed as part of an international campaign to
highlight Ngwang's case.
In December of 1997, Ngawang was charged with espionage,
sentencable by death!
Letters, appeals and publicity work. By raising our voices for
Ngawang, we are also sending a strong message in support of all
prisoners of conscience in Tibet.
Thank you for whatever you can do, and please contact us if you
have any questions, ideas or leads.
Sincerely,
John Ackerly,
Director of ICT Gendun Rinchen, Former prisoner of conscience