By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, March 22: The prominent Tibetan writer, teacher and environmentalist Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang has reportedly been released on March 18 after serving 13 years in prison. He was sentenced to 15-year in prison in 2009 for “leaking state secrets”. Dharamshala-based group Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has learned that Tsephel’s prison term was reduced by almost two years for saving the life of a “fellow prisoner” and for showing “good behaviour”.
“TCHRD understands that Tsephel and his family members are under close surveillance given the fact that Tsephel still has to serve the four years’ supplementary sentence of ‘deprivation of political rights’, which allows the police discretionary power to impose extreme restrictions on his movement and activities,” the report published on Monday stated.
Tsephel was an environmental officer, and the co-founder of first Tibetan literary website Chomei (‘Butter Lamp’) with noted Tibetan poet Kyabchen Dedrol who spearheaded the literary movement known as the “The Third Generation of Tibetan Poets” that promotes independent and individualistic thinking.
His website founded in 2005 was closed or censored on various occasions by Chinese authorities. He was first detained on February 26 in 2009 after his house was raided and all his devices including computer, camera and cell phone were seized. After months of arbitrary detention, he was finally convicted on November 12 for vague charges in a closed-door trial by the Kanlho Intermediate People’s Court. However, many reports stated that his charges were connected to the content of his website and for sharing information outside Tibet during the 2008 Uprising.
Tsephel, who is in his 50s, is a resident of Ngulra Township in Machu County of Kanlho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. In 1989, he came into exile in India and was enrolled at the TCV Suja School in Bir, Himachal Pradesh where he studied Tibetan and English for three years. Subsequently, he returned to Tibet in 1994 after completing his studies, and then undertook English and Chinese language studies at Beijing Minzu University; from 1997 to 1999, he studied English at North West Nationalities University in Lanzhou. His career as a teacher started at the Tibetan Middle school in Machu County where he also received the ‘Best Teacher Award’ for exemplary service in 2004.
