On s'en souvient....... Une nuit, plusieurs nuits, elles ont enregistré et
fait sortir clandestinement leurs chants en dehors de la prison de Drapchi.
Elles chantaient leur vie en prison et leurs espoirs pour le Tibet. Elles
étaient 14, et c'était en septembre 1993. On les appellent les "nonnes de
Drapchi".
Toutes en prison depuis 1989, pour avoir manifesté pacifiquement leur
soutien au Dalaï Lama qui venait de recevoir le prix nobel de la paix, pour
réclamer un Tibet Libre, ou pour s'opposer à la loi chinoise, elles avaient
pris quelques années supplémentaires pour avoir enregistré ces chansons.
Phuntsok Nyidrol, qui avait été condamnée à huit années en 1989, est
condamnée à neuf années supplémentaires en septembre 1993 pour ces
chansons. Aprés une réduction de peine en 2001 pour bonne conduite, Phuntsok
Nyidrol fut libérée en 2004. Libération bien amère car en résidence
surveillée, en trés mauvaise santé due aux mauvais traitements, aux tortures
subies en prison, elle ne pouvait se faire soigner !
Plus de deux ans aprés sa "libération", Phuntsok Nyidrol a enfin pu quitter
le Tibet pour partir se faire soigner. Elle est arrivée aux Etats Unis
mercredi 15 mars, accompagnée par un officiel de l'ambassade des USA. Ses
retrouvailles avec Ngawang Sangdrol, sa compagne de lutte et de cellule qui
est venue l'accueillir à l'aéroport furent trés émouvantes.
Nous souhaitons à Phuntsok Nyidrol nos plus vifs voeux de rétablissement.
Bienvenue à toi, Phuntsok, dans ta future vie de femme libre.
Tashi Delek
_____

Phuntsog Nyidrol was greeted by ICT staff and supporters at Dulles airport
following her arrival on March 15, 2006 in Washington DC
Phuntsog Nyidrol, last of the 'Drapchi nuns', arrives in US
March 15th, 2006
http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=925
Phuntsog Nyidrol, a Tibetan nun who was imprisoned for 15 years after
peaceful protests in 1989, arrived in San Francisco this morning more than
two years after her release from Drapchi (Tibet Autonomous Region) prison,
Lhasa. Thirty-four year old Phuntsog Nyidrol, who has suffered from
ill-health following torture while in custody, was accompanied by a US
Embassy official on the flight and released into ICT's care on arrival. She
had an emotional reunion at the airport with her former cell-mate Ngawang
Sangdrol, who now lives in the US, as well as Mary-Beth Markey, Executive
Director of ICT.
Mary Beth Markey said: "Phuntsog Nyidrol and Sangdrol have been hugging,
holding hands and crying, overjoyed to be reunited. This release is
wonderful for Phuntsog and her former prison comrades. However it is
important to note that despite serious engagement between the US and China
over the years, there has been little or no progress on fundamental human
rights issues in Tibet. Tibetans like Phuntsog Nyidrol continue to suffer
torture and imprisonment simply for the peaceful expression of their views."
The release to the US of Phuntsog Nyidrol appears to be a gesture in advance
of Chinese President Hu Jintao's Washington, DC summit with President Bush
on April 19-20. It also follows the fifth round of dialogue between the
Dalai Lama's representatives and Beijing, which concluded last month.
Phuntsog Nyidrol, a former Mechungri nun from Lhasa who won the Reebok Human
Rights Award in 1995, is the last of a high-profile group of nuns detained
for acts of peaceful resistance over the past decade to be released. She was
arrested on October 14, 1989, for taking part in a peaceful protest against
Chinese rule, linked to the Dalai Lama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. She
was subsequently sentenced to eight years' imprisonment by the Lhasa
Intermediate People's Court on November 25, 1989. In September 1993, she
received a nine-year sentence extension after she joined 13 other nuns,
including Ngawang Sangdrol, in secretly recording songs about their prison
experience and hopes for Tibet's future on a tape cassette that was smuggled
out to the outside world. After a one-year sentence reduction for good
behavior in March 2001, the remainder of her sentence was commuted on
February 26, 2004, and she was released from prison.
Since then, Phuntsog Nyidrol has been held at home in Lhasa under close
surveillance and denied a passport because her political rights have been
under restriction. Last August, a delegation from the US Commission for
International Religious Freedom was allowed to have a brief interview with
her in Lhasa, and reported: "[Phuntsog Nyidrol] remains under constant
surveillance, is restricted in her movements and associations, and has
debilitating health problems that cannot be addressed in her locality." The
US Commission said that the Chinese authorities had denied that she was
under surveillance.
Phuntsog Nyidrol's arrival in the US today follows a number of other early
releases of well-known political prisoners from Tibet and one from Xinjiang
(East Turkestan) in recent years, generally timed to coincide with specific
periods of US-China engagement involving criticisms of Beijing's human
rights record. Uyghur prisoner Rebiya Kadeer was released to the US in March
2005 after serving six years of an eight year sentence, soon before US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice traveled to the PRC. Ngawang Sangdrol's
release to the US in March 2003 after serving 11 years of a 21-year sentence
came before a significant visit of the then Chinese President Jiang Zemin to
America.
Phuntsog Nyidrol, who was serving the longest sentence of female political
prisoners after Ngawang Sangdrol's 21 years, was released soon after the US
State Department released its annual human rights report that found China
guilty of 'serious human rights abuses' in Tibet, including "execution
without due process, torture, arbitrary arrest, detention without public
trial, and lengthy detention of Tibetans for peacefully expressing their
political or religious views." The report was thought to lay the path for
the US to table a critical resolution on China at the UN Commission of Human
Rights meeting in Geneva that year.
Ngawang Sangdrol, who shared a cell with Phuntsog Nyidrol for several years,
said today: "It is overwhelming to see Phuntsog Nyidrol again. In prison,
she was always so strong, we thought she could do anything, and she had
great self-confidence and courage. We had no chance to study in prison, but
she was so hard-working in the labor tasks assigned to her, and very devoted
in her Buddhist practice."
International Campaign for Tibet
http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=925
http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=925
_____

Chers amis,

Phuntsok Nyidron est arrivée aujourd'hui, mercredi 15 mars à San Francisco.

Phuntsok Nyidron, arrêtée le 14 octobre 1989, avait été condamnée à 9 ans de
prison pour avoir protesté pacifiquement contre la loi chinoise puis à 9 ans
supplémentaires en septembre 1993 pour, cette fois, avoir participé avec 13
autres nonnes à l'enregistrement de chants sur leur vie en prison et leurs
espoirs pour le Tibet.
Elle avait été libérée le 26 février 2004 après une réduction de peine.
Depuis, elle devait rester chez elle, à Lhassa, sous haute surveillance. Un
passeport lui avait été refusé.
En août dernier, une délégation de la Commission américaine pour la liberté
religieuse avait été autorisée à la rencontrer et avait donné de ses
nouvelles. Celles-ci étaient inquiétantes, tant sur le plan de la santé que
de la surveillance constante supportée par Phuntsok Nyidron au quotidien.
Plus de deux ans après sa libération de la prison de Drapchi, Phuntsok
Nyidron est arrivée aujourd'hui aux Etats-Unis. Pendant le vol, elle était
accompagnée d'un fonctionnaire de l'ambassade des Etats-Unis.
A son arrivée à l'aéroport, une rencontre pleine d'émotion a eu lieu avec
Ngawang Sangdrol, son ancienne compagne de cellule à Drapchi, qui vit
maintenant aux Etats-Unis.
Ceci semble être un geste de la part des autorités chinoises à quelques
jours de la rencontre entre le Président chinois Hu Jintao et le président
Bush les 19 et 20 avril prochain, mais aussi un mois après la 5e rencontre
entre les représentants du Dalaï lama et les autorités chinoises.

Depuis mars 2003, Phuntsok Nyidron avait fait l'objet d'une intervention et
de plusieurs actions urgentes de Tibet Lib

Merci à vous, qui êtes constamment intervenus en sa faveur.

Sincèrement,
Monique Dorizon