Half a life: Story of a political prisoner

TAKNA Jigme Sangpo, an ex-political prisoner in Tibet, made an oral statement at the 59th Session under Item 9 on behalf of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. Since 1965 he has been imprisoned by the Chinese authorities on three occasions, serving a total of 37 years in prison. While in prison, he says: "I was tortured both physically and mentally, beyond human imagination. My dignity as a human being was humiliated and crushed." This treatment included, among many other things, his neck and arms being manacled in an iron brace for six months. He was released on 31 March 2002 on medical grounds, with 9 years of his sentence remaining. He now lives in Switzerland where he is receiving medical care.

So what crimes merited this inhumane treatment? In 1965 he was 37 years old and teaching Tibetan language and mathematics at a primary school in Lhasa. At that time there was a 'defamation drive' by the Chinese authorities against a petition in support of the 10th Panchen Lama of Tibet. When the authorities visited his school Mr Takna expressed his support for the petition and was subsequently sentenced, without trial, to three years' imprisonment.

In 1970 he was arrested again and sentenced to 10 years on charges of "inciting counter-revolutionary propaganda" when two Tibetan youths were found trying to leave Tibet and carrying a photo of Mr Takna amongst their possessions.

Then in 1983 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "spreading and inciting counter-revolutionary propaganda", after he pasted wall-posters and distributed leaflets in Parkhor, Lhasa's central market. The words contained in this material that offended the Chinese authorities were "Chinese fool the Tibetan", "Chinese quit Tibet" and "Tibet belongs to Tibet". His prison sentence was increased by five years when in 1988 he protested from his cell in support of Tibetan street demonstrations, and by a further eight years in 1991 when he raised slogans during a visit to Drapchi Prison by a Swiss Human Rights Delegation.

In Mr Takna's view the suppression of freedom of expression and freedom of religion in Tibet is getting "worse and worse". He says a sense of suppression permeates Tibetan society. Tibetans cannot speak their own words freely, even with their own family and friends, for fear of the repercussions of being labelled a 'nationalist'. He gives the example of the arrest of five people from Karze region in 2002 for religious practices associated with the Dalai Lama.

In spite of his life being dominated by 37 years of imprisonment, he is determined to tell what happened to him in prison and "what is still happening", and to continue to support the Tibetan's right to self-determination. His view of the Commission is that it is "a good platform" and a place where "everybody can freely express themselves", whatever the ultimate outcome may be.

In his oral statement he highlighted to the Commission the situation of two prisoners, Sonam Tswang and Tingka, who since 1999 have been held in solitary confinement in "small dark cells" in Drapchi Prison's Block Ten. He urged the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to follow up on these cases as a matter of urgency. In doing so, he said: "I remain grateful to all the special thematic procedures of this Commission who acted on my behalf and other Tibetan prisoners through various interventions to the Chinese authorities." Members of the Commission might wish to reflect on these words given the current assault against Item 9.

"Takna" in Tibetan means "Black Tiger". It is of course only a word, but it happens to be the name that was freely given to Mr Takna. He is now 74 and has spent exactly half his life in prison for exercising his right to freedom of expression. It is a price many others like him have paid and will continue to pay.