AUSTRALIA TIBET COUNCIL

A Melbourne woman has asked the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, to intervene with the Chinese Government on behalf of her former Tibetan fiancee, who has been jailed by Chinese authorities in occupied-Tibet on spying charges.

Ngawang Choephel, 30, has been sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for spying for "the Dalai Clique" with the assistance of "a certain foreign country", believed to be the United States. This is the third largest political sentence given to a Tibetan by Chinese authorities since the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Choephel, an ethnomusicologist, was travelling through Tibet recording traditional folk music and dance when he was arrested in August 1995. Brought up in exile in India, he had been studying in the United States on a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship.

Wendy Cook, 32, who now lives in the U.S., is currently visiting family and friends in Melbourne. She said she was "devastated" by news of the sentence, which was reported on Tibetan local radio on December 26 and monitored by the BBC.

Ms Cook said she had given up her public relations job last July to campaign full-time for Ngawang Choephel's release because she believed so strongly in his innocence.

"Ngawang was no spy. His great passion has always been Tibetan music and dance - not politics. The only reason for his visit to Tibet was to help preserve the traditional culture of his people. I still can't believe this has happened".

Ms Cook dismissed Chinese claims that Ngawang Choephel had "confessed" to spying. "Either the confession is a complete fabrication or he's been tortured to force him to sign it". Torture of political prisoners during interrogation is a common practice in Tibet.

Ms Cook said she had written an urgent letter to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer asking him to take up Ngawang Choephel's case with the Chinese Government.

Australia Tibet Council President Stewart Johnson supported Ms Cook's plea to the Foreign Minister. "This case is an outrageous travesty of justice, even by Chinese standards. Ngawang Choephel has had no chance at all to defend himself. If the Australian and other Western Governments don't intervene on his behalf, then the Chinese Government will conclude that the international community no longer cares what human rights abuses it commits in Tibet".

SBS Television will screen "Missing in Tibet", a documentary about Ngawang Choephel, on January 30 at 9.00pm. The documentary includes original video footage he sent out of Tibet before his arrest.

For further information, access to video footage and photographs of Ngawang Choephel, contact Stewart Johnson (002) 29 3302 or Jon Breukel (03) 9386 9762.

THE OFFICE OF TIBET, TIBET HOUSE, 1 CULWORTH STREET

LONDON NW8 7AF, UNITED KINGDOM

The Office of Tibet is the official agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Tel: 0044-171-722 5378 Fax: 0044-171-722 0362

E-mail: tibetlondon@gn.apc.org

Internet: http://www.gn.apc.org/tibetlondon/