BEIJING — China has released one of its longest serving political prisoners, a Tibetan nun who spent nearly 15 years behind bars for campaigning for Tibetan independence and recording songs in prison that were used to inspire sympathizers, a U.S.-based human rights activist said Thursday.
Phuntsog Nyidron, who is believed to be in her mid-30s, was granted a one-year sentence reduction and allowed to leave Drapchi Prison in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, earlier in the day, according to John Kamm, who has served as an intermediary between the United States and China on prisoner issues in the past.
Phuntsog was the last of 14 Tibetan women known as the "singing nuns" to be released from prison. In 1993, the women used a tape recorder smuggled into Drapchi to record songs about their love of their families, their homeland and the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader. Their sentences were extended after the recording was smuggled out and distributed across Tibet.
Kamm said Chinese officials described the decision to free Phuntsog as a "humanitarian gesture" to mark the Tibetan New Year, which began last week. He said they also indicated China "was responding to concerns raised by the United States, and in particular a few members of Congress," including Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va.
Phuntsog’s name was on a list of about 10 prisoners that the U.S. ambassador to China, Clark Randt, and senior Bush administration officials have repeatedly raised in meetings with Chinese leaders and in public statements.
Phuntsog’s release came as the European Union is debating whether to lift the arms embargo it imposed on China after the violent 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. European diplomats have told the Chinese government it can strengthen its case by releasing more political prisoners and taking steps to ratify a U.N. human rights treaty.
France and Germany have already backed an end to the embargo, but the United States has lobbied against it, saying human rights conditions in China have not improved enough and weapons sales to China could threaten U.S. national security.
Kamm said it was unclear whether Phuntsog would be allowed to return to her nunnery or leave China for medical treatment.
She and five other nuns were arrested in Lhasa in October 1989 after chanting slogans and marching in a procession for a few minutes to protest China’s rule of Tibet. The other nuns received three-year sentences, but Phuntsog was identified as the leader of the group and sentenced to nine years in prison for "counterrevolutionary propaganda and incitement."
She received another eight-year sentence after Chinese authorities discovered the recording she and the others made in prison. On the tape, Phuntsog and the other nuns announce their names and dedicated songs and poems to their supporters. "We are beaten and treated brutally," sings one, "but this will never change the Tibetan people’s perseverance."
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