[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 19 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
S. RES. 19

 Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding United States opposition 
to the prison sentence of Tibetan ethnomusicologist Ngawang Choephel by 
           the Government of the People's Republic of China.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 21, 1997

  Mr. Moynihan (for himself, Mr. Helms, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. 
    Dodd, Mr. Feingold, and Mr. Wellstone) submitted the following 
  resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the Senate regarding United States opposition 
to the prison sentence of Tibetan ethnomusicologist Ngawang Choephel by 
           the Government of the People's Republic of China.

Whereas the Chinese Government sentenced Ngawang Choephel to an 18 year prison 
        term plus 4 years subsequent deprivation of his political rights on 
        December 26, 1996, following a secret trial;
Whereas Mr. Choephel is a Tibetan national whose family fled Chinese oppression 
        to live in exile in India in 1968;
Whereas Mr. Choephel studied ethnomusicology at Middlebury College in Vermont as 
        a Fulbright Scholar, and at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in 
        Dharamsala, India;
Whereas Mr. Choephel returned to Tibet in July 1995 to prepare a documentary 
        film about traditional Tibetan performing arts;
Whereas Mr. Choephel was detained in August 1995 by the Chinese authorities and 
        held incommunicado for over a year before the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China admitted to holding him, and finally charged him with 
        espionage in October 1996;
Whereas there is no evidence that Mr. Choephel's activities in Tibet involved 
        anything other than purely academic research;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China denies Tibetans their 
        fundamental human rights, as reported in the State Department's Country 
        Reports on Human Rights Practices, and by human rights organizations 
        including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Asia;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China is responsible for the 
        destruction of much of Tibetan civilization since its invasion of Tibet 
        in 1949;
Whereas the arrest of a Tibetan scholar, such as Mr. Choephel who worked to 
        preserve Tibetan culture, reflects the systematic attempt by the 
        Government of the People's Republic of China to repress cultural 
        expression in Tibet;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China, through direct and 
        indirect incentives, has established discriminatory development programs 
        which have resulted in an overwhelming flow of Chinese immigrants into 
        Tibet, including those areas incorporated into the Chinese provinces of 
        Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, and Quinghai, and have excluded Tibetans from 
        participation in important policy decisions, which further threatens 
        traditional Tibetan life;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China withholds meaningful 
        participation in the governance of Tibet from Tibetans and has failed to 
        abide by its own constitutional guarantee of autonomy for Tibetans;
Whereas the Dalai Lama of Tibet has stated his willingness to enter into 
        negotiations with the Chinese and has repeatedly accepted the framework 
        Deng Xiaoping proposed for such negotiations in 1979;
Whereas the United States Government has not developed an effective plan to win 
        support in international fora, such as the United Nations Commission on 
        Human Rights, to bring international pressure to bear on the Government 
        of the People's Republic of China to improve human rights and to 
        negotiate with the Dalai Lama;
Whereas the Chinese have displayed provocative disregard for American concerns 
        by arresting and sentencing prominent dissidents around the time that 
        senior United States Government officials have visited China; and
Whereas United States Government policy seeks to foster negotiations between the 
        Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama, and 
        presses China to respect Tibet's unique religious, linguistic, and 
        cultural traditions: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
            (1) Ngawang Choephel and other prisoners of conscience in 
        Tibet, as well as in China, should be released immediately and 
        unconditionally;
            (2) to underscore the gravity of this matter, in all 
        official meetings with representatives of the Government of the 
        People's Republic of China, United States officials should 
        request Mr. Choephel's immediate and unconditional release;
            (3) the United States Government should take prompt action 
        to sponsor and promote a resolution at the United Nations 
        Commission on Human Rights regarding China and Tibet which 
        specifically addresses political prisoners and negotiations 
        with the Dalai Lama;
            (4) an exchange program should be established in honor of 
        Ngawang Choephel, involving students of the Tibetan Institute 
        of Performing Arts and appropriate educational institutions in 
        the United States; and,
            (5) the United States Government should seek access for 
        internationally recognized human rights groups to monitor human 
        rights in Tibet.
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