[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S3461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S3461]]
                            NGAWANG CHOEPHEL

 Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Secretary Albright is planning to 
travel to China soon to discuss a wide range of important issues with 
Chinese officials. Her trip is in anticipation of a subsequent visit by 
President Clinton. On her agenda will be the issue of human rights, and 
I want to use this opportunity to remind other Senators of the case of 
Ngawang Choephel, a Tibetan ethnomusicologist and former Middlebury 
College student. Mr. Choephel came to this country on a Fulbright 
Scholarship, and in September 1995 he was arrested in Tibet for making 
a film about traditional Tibetan music and dance. On December 26, 1996, 
just one month after I spoke to Chinese President Jiang Zemin 
personally about Mr. Choephel, he was sentenced after a secret trial to 
18 years in prison.
  This case goes to the heart of our ongoing difficulties with the 
Chinese Government on human rights. I have repeatedly asked for, and 
never received, a shred of evidence that Mr. Choephel was engaged in 
any illegal or political activity. His crime, it appears, was that he 
was Tibetan and wanted to preserve Tibetan culture.
  Mr. President, every country has the right to prosecute individuals 
who engage in conduct that threatens the safety of others. But no 
country has the right to violate internationally recognized human 
rights which are the rights of all people regardless of nationality. As 
long as a person can be imprisoned for doing nothing more than making a 
film about Tibetan culture, our relations with China will continue to 
suffer. By releasing Mr. Choephel, the Chinese Government would risk 
nothing, but it would represent an important step to those of us who 
are looking for credible signs that the Chinese Government genuinely 
wants to improve its human rights record.
  An April 21, 1998 editorial in the Rutland Daily Herald notes the 
release of Chinese dissident Wang Dan, and calls for the release of 
Ngawang Choephel. I ask that excerpts of the editorial be printed in 
the Record.

                           Don't Forget Tibet

       The release of a leading dissident by the Chinese 
     government has shown the Chinese leadership to be willing to 
     make the right political gestures in anticipation of a visit 
     later this spring by President Clinton.
       Now is a good time to remind the Chinese that Americans 
     believe Tibet to be an important human rights issue and that 
     future relations with the United States would be improved by 
     better treatment of Tibet. it is a good time, too, to remind 
     the Chinese of a Tibetan with a Vermont connection who has 
     been sentenced to serve 18 years in jail.

                           *   *   *   *   *

       Ngawang Choephel had fled Tibet with his mother when he was 
     2 years old. He eventually found his way to Middlebury 
     College where he was a student of ethnomusiclogy. He returned 
     to Tibet to record the music and dance of his native land, 
     but he was arrested in the summer of 1995 and sentenced to 18 
     years.

                           *   *   *   *   *

       Releasing one or two well-known dissidents is not enough to 
     establish a record of respect for human rights when other 
     thousands remain behind prison walls for crimes no more 
     offensive then the recording of folk songs.

                           *   *   *   *   *

       Ngawang Choephel is just one among thousands who remain 
     behind. As long as he is not forgotten, Clinton and the 
     Chinese may also remember how much more needs to be done 
     before China has established itself as a nation with proper 
     respect for the rights of the individual.

                          ____________________