If they are unable to speak in Chinese, they have to ensure that there is someone who can interpret the conversation so that the prison guards monitoring the visit understand every detail of the conversation. It is true that family and relatives of Tibetan political prisoners have no choice but to speak in Chinese.
The visit is cut short to five minutes if they chose to speak in Tibetan.
LAMA PICTURES FULL
But they have to speak in Chinese to make full use of the visit duration. It is part of the additional sentence of deprivation of political rights that many former political prisoners have to serve after their release from prison.Īt Haomen prison, Tibetan political prisoners can meet with their family and relatives once every month. This restriction is commonly applied to all political prisoners soon after their release. However, he is closely monitored by local police and his movement is restricted as he is not allowed to travel outside his hometown. But the police did not allow them to take any pictures.ĭuring his imprisonment, Gomar Choephel was forced to work daily for long hours making all kinds of articles from military uniforms and clothing made of down feather to barb wires at the Haomen Nongchang prison labour farm.įor now, Gomar Choephel is allowed to participate in prayer ceremonies at his monastery. By criminalising the act of worshipping one’s spiritual leader, the Chinese authorities have further confirmed that religious repression has worsened to an entirely new level in Tibet.įellow monks and relatives of Gomar Choephel had turned out in huge numbers outside the prison to welcome the monk on his release. His imprisonment violates the fundamental right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion as guaranteed in Chinese and International Law.
It appears that Gomar Chophel was primarily targeted for storing pictures of Dalai Lama on his mobile phone and sharing them on social media sites with the caption: ‘There is no stability without equality.’Īlthough TCHRD welcomes Gomar Choephel’s release, he should never been imprisoned. After seven months of secret detention, he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on the trumped up charges of “threatening social stability” and “engaging in separatist activities” without due process of law. During the search, the security personnel came upon pictures of Dalai Lama that gave them the pretext to detain him. Before taking him into custody, Chinese security personnel ransacked his room and searched through his belongings. Gomar Choephel is a monk at Rongwo Monastery in Rebkong (Ch: Tongren) County, Malho (Ch: Huangnan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, in Tibetan province of Amdo.Īs reported earlier by TCHRD, Gomar Choephel was arbitrarily detained from his monastery on 10 July 2015. It is the same prison where the prominent Tibetan blogger Drukar Gyal aka Shokjang is imprisoned. Gomar Choephel, 48, was released in the second week of July from Haomen Prison located in Haomen Township in Semnyi (Ch: Menyuan) Hui Autonomous County, Tsojang (Ch: Haibei) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. A Tibetan monk was released from prison last month after serving two years sentence for storing pictures of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and for sharing the same on social media.
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