Tibetan writer released after more than a decade in jail/ENG

2015. október 13./phayul.com/TibetPress

eredeti cikk

By Tenzin Dharpo

DHARAMSHALA, Oct. 9: Tibetan writer and poet Dolma Kyab has been released after serving over ten years in Chinese jail. He is currently at his home in Dolha County in Qinghai Province after making a long and straight trip from Lhasa yesterday.

A source in Dharamshala who had contact with people inside Tibet told Phayul, “He was escorted by the police from Chushur prison in Lhasa yesterday morning to Xining. From there he was escorted by Xining police to his home in Dolha County in a day without any rest on the way. After completing necessary paperwork at the police station in Dola County, he was dropped at his home around 8pm local time the same day”.

He was garlanded with the Tibetan traditional scarf by Tibetans while in Xining yesterday, said the source.

Speaking about the condition of Kyab, “My people told me that his health was not good”, he said. Dolma Kyab was earlier known to have contracted tuberculosis while in prison.

Dolma Kyab, now 39, a.k.a Lobsang Kesang Gyatso (pen name) was a history teacher at a middle school in the Tibetan Capital Lhasa at the time of his arrest in March 2005 . He was tried secretly by the Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court and sentenced to ten and a half years in prison.

His unpublished commentary manuscript written in Chinese titled “Himalaya on Stir,” which was a compilation of 57 chapters written on various topics about democracy, sovereignty of Tibet, Tibet under communism, colonialism, religion and belief is believed to be the cause of him being arrested and charged for ‘endangering state security’.

While in prison, he wrote a letter which was smuggled out later, appealing for help from United Nations, saying that he was imprisoned because of the ideas expressed on Tibet in his unpublished manuscript.

Known for his passionate writings on the Tibetan culture, literature, democracy, human rights and his advocacy for Tibet’s environment, Kyab was awarded the ‘Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award 2012’ by the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, an official affiliate of International PEN, the global association of writers dedicated to freedom of expression and the defence of writers suffering governmental repression.

He is also an Honorary Member of the English and German PEN.