By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Feb. 10: International watch dog Human Rights Watch on Wednesday raised concern over the deteriorating health of prominent Tibetan writer Go Sherab Gyatso who was recently sentenced by a Chinese court to ten years in prison for “inciting secession”.
The foremost rights group demanded immediate release of the writer as sources outside Tibet revealed that the prisoner’s health has recently worsened, given his chronic lung condition. “Once again the Chinese government’s wrongful imprisonment of a Tibetan risks becoming a death sentence. Go Sherab Gyatso should be immediately released and given comprehensive medical care,” urged HRW China Director Sophie Richardson.
The 45-year-old prolific writer and essayist was detained on October 26, 2020 in Chengdu, according to Chinese authorities who responded to an inquiry from the UN human rights experts. “The Chinese State security organs handled the case in strict accordance with the law, following standard and lawful procedures and fully safeguarding the lawful rights of the person concerned, including by promptly notifying Go Sherab Gyatso’s family of the relevant information, and no such things as ‘secret detention’, ‘arbitrary detention’ or ‘enforced disappearance’ ever took place,” the clarification by Chinese authorities dated 27 August last year stated.
The authorities have detained him earlier on three different occasions. He contracted a chronic lung condition while serving a three-year sentence for undisclosed reasons from November 1998 to November 2001. Although the HRW report said that they couldn’t independently verify the details of his health, it remarked that their concern arises given the number of cases related to arbitrary detention of people with politically sensitive charges who often “die in custody for lack of appropriate medical care”.
The report highlighted deaths in custody over the past years; philanthropist Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, herder Lhamo, 19-year-old monk Tenzin Nyima and tour guide Kunchok Jinpa are only some of the names of individuals who have died in Chinese prisons.
The highly respected Buddhist intellectual Go Sherab Gyatso has authored eight books since 1998 until his detention in 2008. His books include, “We Need to Wake Up” published in 2007 by Gansu Nationalities Press, which was popular both inside Tibet and in the exile community. According to TCHRD, his father Khashul Go Nyun Tsondue was a minister at the court of Pelgon Thinley Rabten, the last king of the Meu kingdom in Ngaba. His maternal grandfather Thutop Wangchuk was one of the king’s most senior ministers during the mid 20th century.
