Jigme Sangpo’s release is evidence that the Chinese Government will eventually respond to international pressure. Read below for details of Jigme Sangpo’s courageous story.

Tanak Jigme Sangpo Allowed to Leave Tibet

Tanak Jigme Sangpo Released on Medical Parole

History

Tanak Jigme Sangpo represents a pinnacle of individual struggle for human rights in Tibet. First arrested in 1959, due for release in 2011. By the time he is released in year 2011, he will have served a total of 44 years in prison. However, due to his age (estimated 70) and reports of his ailing health, it is doubtful if he will survive his current extended prison term. This long sentence was imposed because of his beliefs and conviction, he has continuously advocated the fundamental rights of the Tibetan people.

First Arrest

Born in Gyantse, Shigatse region, Tanak Jigme Sangpo (also known as Jigsang) was reportedly first arrested in 1959 while teaching at Lhasa Primary School, charged with ‘corrupting the minds of children with reactionary ideas’ and sentenced to three years in prison. In 1964 he was arrested again and sentenced to three years of ‘labour reeducation’ in Sangyip Prison over negative comments he made regarding the ‘political struggle sessions’ of the Panchen Lama, which all teachers of the Lhasa primary school were required to attend.

In 1970 he was again arrested and sentenced to ten years hard labour in Sangyip Prison on charges of inciting his niece to escape to India and report Chinese atrocities to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. His niece was caught with a photograph of him. Tanak was ‘released’ from prison in 1979 and transferred to the Reform-through-Labour Unit One in Nyethang, 60 km west of Lhasa to work as a ‘forcibly retained labourer’.

However, he was re-arrested on September 3, 1983 by the Lhasa City Public Security Bureau for an incident two months earlier of a personally written wall-poster protesting against Chinese oppression. In the official sentence paper, issued on 30 November 1983, the Lhasa City Intermediate People’s Court noted that the defendant had never seriously reconsidered his past “counter-revolutionary propaganda”. He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and five years deprivation of civil and political rights under Chinese criminal law. It stated that his prison sentence will be completed on September 3, 1998 and his political rights deprived until year 2003.

Midway through his prison term, Tanak was once again prosecuted on December 1, 1988 for raising ‘reactionary slogans’ relating to Chinese suppression of Tibet whilst in Drapchi Prison. Found guilty once again of ‘spreading and inciting counter-revolutionary propaganda’, his sentence was increased by a further five years and the period of deprivation of civil and political rights extended an extra year as stated in his court papers issued by the People’s Intermediate Court.

Daring Protest

On December 6, 1991, Tanak shouted slogans during a prison visit by Swiss government officials. The delegates were quickly led away by their Chinese hosts and were told that the prisoners were mad. Minutes later, he and the three other protesters were dragged from their cells. They were harshly beaten and placed in isolation cells. Reports received then indicated that Tanak was beaten so harshly his body turned numb. A new method, ‘cold cell’ torture, was first used on him. He was surrounded by cold metal sheets on either side of the wall to lower the temperature of the cell.

After the delegation visit Tanak, then 64 years-old was sentenced on April 4, 1992, to a further eight years imprisonment and an additional three years deprivation of civil and political rights by the Lhasa People’s Intermediate Court. This brings his current sentence to 28 years and by the time he is released on 3 September 2011, at the age of 85, he shall have spent a total of 44 years in prison. After he is due to be released, his civil and political rights will be deprived for eight years.

Information regarding the May protest in Drapchi Prison indicate of his involvement in the protest. As a result of which he was reportedly detained in solitary confinement. However, due to tight security since the protest, TCHRD has not received any information about a possible sentence increase. According to Agence France Presse (AFP) based in Beijing on October 16, 1998, Tanak Jigme Sangpo is suffering from hypertension said Swiss diplomats. The Swiss Ambassador Uli Siggs said that the Chinese authorities had informed him last month that he was “generally in good health but had hypertension and was now excused work duties at the Drapchi jail in Lhasa”. Earlier reports indicate that he was suffering from poor eyesight and that he was extremely weak.