[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 120 (Wednesday, September 15, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1881-E1882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




MARKING THE DAY THAT NGAWANG CHOEPHEL WAS DETAINED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF 
                             CHINA IN 1995

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 15, 1999

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, today marks the day the Ngawang Choephel, a 
Tibetan musicology student at Middlebury College in Vermont, was 
detained by the Government of China four years ago. Ngawang Choephel 
studied musicology at Middlebury College on a Fulbright scholarship, 
and he was reported missing in 1995 while researching folk music in 
Tibet as part of his studies. It was more than a year before the 
Government of China acknowledged his arrest and imprisonment.

[[Page E1882]]

He is currently serving an 18-year prison term in a remote area of 
China. His mother has not seen him in more than 3 years, and officials 
of the Government of China refuse to allow her to see him.
  Mr. Speaker, the Government of China has never produced any evidence 
whatsoever that Ngawang Choephel engaged in any political or illegal 
activity. His imprisonment is part of the Government of China's brutal 
campaign of repression in Tibet, Choephel's home.
  We must not let Ngawang Choephel be forgotten. We must continue to 
use all the means at our disposal to secure his release from an unjust 
imprisonment on trumped-up charges, and we must continue our efforts to 
keep human rights high on this country's foreign policy agenda. Until 
we see genuine progress on human rights in China, we should withhold 
the granting of Most Favored Nation trading status, and we should urge 
U.S. corporations to stop investing in China. This kind of effort 
helped topple apartheid in South Africa, and there is no reason to 
believe it would not have an effect on the human rights situation in 
China.
  I urge my colleagues to hold the Government of China accountable for 
its human rights abuses, and hasten the day that Ngawang Choephel is 
free again.

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