Dharamsala, 22 October 1996 (DIIR) - For the first time, China has officially acknowledged the detention of Ngawang Choephel, the Tibetan Fulbright scholar and musician, who was arrested in Tibet by the authorities last August when he was doing research on Tibetan folk music and dances.

In response to an inquiry by Senator James M Jeffords of Vermont, Mr Shao Wenguang, counselor of the Chinese embassy in Washington DC, said, "We have learnt that funded by some Americans, Ngawang Choephel was sent by the Dalai Lama's "government in exile" to Tibet, used the cover of the so-called collecting Tibetan folk songs to gather sensitive intelligence and engaged in illegal separatist activities. His activities are suspected to have violated Article 4, section 2 (5) of the National Security Law of the People's Republic of China."

"The Chinese accusation that the Tibetan Government in exile has sent Ngawang Choephel is only an excuse for his further detention," said Mr Tempa Tsering, the secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration based in Dharamsala.

"There is nothing new in this allegation. Many Tibetans have been arrested and tortured by the authorities in Tibet on the pretext that they have been sent by Dharamsala," Mr Tempa Tsering said.

"Ngawang Choephel, a talented musician went to Tibet on his own volition, to do research on Tibet's folk and secular songs and dances before they are lost forever," said Mr Tempa Tsering.

"We challenge the authorities in Tibet to produce Ngawang Choephel before an impartial international tribunal so that Ngawang Choephel could defend the charges levelled against him either on his own or assisted by a competent lawyer," Mr Tempa Tsering said.

"Right now, our main concern is the safety and the health of Ngawang Choephel. We appeal to the international community to urge the Chinese leadership to release Ngawang Choephel immediately. We know and the Chinese authorities know that Ngawang Choephel's only crime is the crime of trying to preserve the rich Tibetan musical heritage which the Chinese have sinicized to suit their claim over Tibet," Mr Tempa Tsering said.

Ngawang Choephel was an important member of the Dharamsala based Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. Since his school days he has been a music enthusiast. Between 1993 and 1994, he won a Fulbright scholarship to study and teach ethnomusicology at Middlebury college in Vermont, where he impressed a lot of his American colleagues by his dedication and musical talents.

In 1995 he went to Tibet to produce a documentary film on the state of traditional Tibetan music. He was arrested by authorities in Shigatse, Tibet's second largest town in August 1995.

The fact that he might have been arrested by the authorities in Tibet was first known to Ngawang Choephel's mother who lives in South India. Since then there has been a sustained international campaign to obtain his release.

Department of Information and International Relations

Central Tibetan Administration

Gangchen Kyishong

Dharamsala 176 215

INDIA