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Freed Tibetan scholar reaches U.S.

Tanak Jigme Sangpo

BEIJING JULY 14. A Tibetan teacher believed to be China's longest-held political prisoner arrived in the United States on Saturday, freed nine years early from a prison sentence on medical grounds after months of intensive negotiations with a leading U.S. human rights activist.

It was the sixth release of a Tibetan political prisoner since January, a monitoring group said.

Tanak Jigme Sangpo, 74, arrived in Chicago from Beijing on Saturday afternoon — Sunday morning Beijing time — in "pretty good health" despite serious high blood pressure and coronary disease, said John Kamm, president of the San Francisco-based Duihua Foundation. He said Jigme Sangpo was "frail but mentally sharp."

Mr. Kamm attributed the release to China's post-September 11 desire to bolster relations with Washington. "I'm not at all convinced that the policy toward Tibet is changing.

But I think they want to further relations with the United States and see this as a way of doing it," he said on Sunday morning in a telephone interview.

"They look at the options available to them for that purpose, and they land on the release of long-serving Tibetan prisoners," he said.

By all accounts China's longest-serving political prisoner, Mr. Jigme Sangpo, a primary-school teacher, was first sentenced to three years of "re-education through labour" in 1965, according to the London-based Tibet Information Network, a monitoring group. It cited "reliable reports" as indicating that he also served a 10-year sentence from 1970-1980 for political activities.

Mr. Jigme Sangpo was arrested again in September 1983 and sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of "counterrevolutionary incitement and propaganda" for campaigning against Chinese rule in Tibet, according to Mr. Kamm.His sentence was extended twice after that and had been due to expire on September 3, 2011, when he would be in his mid-80s.

Prison authorities exempted him from physical labour several years ago because of his age, Mr. Kamm said.

Mr. Jigme Sangpo was also one of five prisoners cited by the U.S. Ambassador, Clark T. Randt, during a January 21 speech in Hong Kong."Our goal is not that China should be just like Dorothy's Kansas, but we do insist that China abide by certain international norms," Mr. Randt said. — AP

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