Dhondup Wangchen

Dhondup Wangchen
Born (1974-10-17) 17 October 1974
Amdo, Tibet
Nationality Tibetan
Occupation filmmaker
Known for Leaving Fear Behind, 2008 arrest
Spouse(s) Lhamo Tso
Children four
Awards CPJ International Press Freedom Award (2012)

Dhondup Wangchen (born 17 October 1974) is a Tibetan filmmaker imprisoned by the Chinese government in 2008 on charges related to his documentary Leaving Fear Behind. Made with senior Tibetan monk Jigme Gyatso, the documentary consists of interviews with ordinary Tibetan people discussing the 14th Dalai Lama, the Chinese government, the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and Han Chinese migrants to the region. After smuggling the tapes of the interviews out of Tibet, however, Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso were detained during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.

Dhondup Wangchen was sentenced to six years' imprisonment for subversion. Numerous international human rights organizations protested his detention, including Amnesty International, which named him a prisoner of conscience. In 2012, he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

He served his full six-year sentence and was released from prison on 5 June 2014.[1]

Early life

Dhondup Wangchen was born in 1974, in Bayen in the Tsoshar region of Amdo. His family were farmers.[2] He later moved to the capital of Lhasa. There Dhondup Wangchen witnessed a pro-independence demonstration repressed by security authorities, an experience that a relative would later describe as critical to his "political awareness".[3] In 1993, he and a cousin crossed the Himalayas into India to receive the blessing of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Dhondup returned to Tibet shortly after to act as an activist for the Tibetan cause.[2]

Leaving Fear Behind

Main article: Leaving Fear Behind

In 2006, Dhondup Wangchen and friend Jigme Gyatso, a senior Tibetan monk, conceived of a documentary interviewing ordinary Tibetan people on their views of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government in the year leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.[4][lower-alpha 1] The documentary was to be called Leaving Fear Behind. The pair coordinated their efforts with a Dhondup Wangchen's cousin Gyaljong Tsetrin, who remained in Switzerland.[2] In preparation for likely reprisals by the Chinese government, Dhondup Wangchen moved his wife, Llamo Tso, and their four children to Dharamsala, India.[3][5]

Between August 2007 to March 2008, Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso gathered interviews from 108 Tibetan individuals discussing the political situation, all of whom agreed to have their faces shown on camera.[6][7] The pair gathered 40 hours of interview footage shot by a single camera.[3][4] They had completed filming and just smuggled the tapes out of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, when riots erupted and began to spread through Tibetan-majority areas of China.[6] As part of the government response that followed, both Jigme Gyatso and Dhondup Wangchen were detained on 28 March in Tong De, Qinghai Province.[8]

The footage were taken to Switzerland, where colleagues at Dhondup Wangchen's production company, Filming for Tibet, assembled it into Leaving Fear Behind.[9] The 25-minute documentary constructed from Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso's footage showed ethnic Tibetans criticizing the choice of China to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, praising the Dalai Lama, and expressing dislike of ethnic Han migrants.[3] The result was described by The New York Times as "an unadorned indictment of the Chinese government".[3] Dhondup Wangchen states in the documentary that "My aim for this film is not to make a famous or particularly entertaining film. This film is about the plight of the Tibetan people—helpless and frustrated."[10] The film premiered on the opening day of the Olympics and was clandestinely screened for foreign reporters in Beijing.[11]

Trial and imprisonment

Following Dhondup Wangchen's March 2008 arrest, he was held for several days in unofficial detention at Gonshang Hotel.[12] Amnesty International reported that while there, Chinese security forces beat him and deprived him of food, water, and sleep.[12]

He was later moved to Xining City No. 1 Detention Centre, where he was held incommunicado until April 2009, when he was allowed to meet with his lawyer, Li Dunyong.[12] Three months later, however, Li Dunyong dropped his case, reporting that he had been ordered to do so by judicial authorities.[3] Another lawyer was reportedly threatened with the closing of his law firm if he chose to defend Dhondup Wangchen.[13]

On 28 December 2009, Dhondup Wangchen was sentenced to six year's imprisonment for subversion, following a secret trial in Xining.[12] On 7 January 2010, Filming for Tibet reported that he had been unable to appeal his sentence because he had been denied access to his lawyer until his right to appeal expired.[14]

His family stated that he has contracted Hepatitis B while imprisoned, and his health was said to be failing.[13] In April 2010, he was transferred to Xichuan Labour Camp in Qinghai Province, where prisoners' work reportedly includes the manufacture of bricks, concrete, and aluminum-alloy windows.[15] On 6 April 2012, Amnesty International issued another appeal on Wangchen's behalf warning that he was being denied needed medical treatment.[16]

International response

Dhondup Wangchen's wife Lhamo Tso (left) protesting on his behalf
A New York City protest on behalf of Dhondup Wangchen

Jigme Gyatso and Dhondup Wangchen's arrests were condemned by numerous human rights groups. Amnesty International protested the arrests of both men, noting Jigme Gyatso to be at risk of further torture[17] and naming Dhondup Wangchen a prisoner of conscience.[18] Human Rights Watch,[19] Front Line,[17] The Committee to Protect Journalists,[20] Reporters Without Borders,[5] and the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy[18] also advocated on Dhondup Wangchen's behalf.

On 10 March 2011, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi called for Dhondup Wangchen's release in honor of Tibetan Uprising Day.[21][lower-alpha 2] Also in early 2011, Boston's American Repertory Theater and System of a Down's Serj Tankian dedicated their production of Prometheus Bound to him and seven other activists, stating in program notes that "by singing the story of Prometheus, the God who defied the tyrant Zeus by giving the human race both fire and art, this production hopes to give a voice to those currently being silenced or endangered by modern-day oppressors".[22]

A coalition of human rights and Tibetan activist groups calling for Dhondup Wangchen's release held a rally in New York City's Times Square on 9 March 2012, the day before Tibetan Uprising Day. Speakers included Dhondup Wangchen's wife Lhamo Tso as well as poet-activist Tenzin Tsundue. Excerpts from Leaving Fear Behind were shown on a twelve-foot video screen beneath the Xinhua Jumbotron.[23]

In 2012, Dhondup Wangchen won the International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists. The award recognizes journalists who show courage in defending press freedom despite facing attacks, threats, or imprisonment.[24] He was honored in absentia at the organization's November 2012 banquet due to his ongoing imprisonment.[25]

In 2014, he receives the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Tibet was incorporated into the People's Republic of China in 1950 after occupation by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Currently governed as an autonomous region, Tibet's political status remains controversial.[26]
  2. ↑ Tibetan Uprising Day commemorates the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule which began on 10 March 1959.

References

  1. ↑ http://www.filmingfortibet.org/2014/06/05/tibetan-filmmaker-dhondup-wangchen-released-from-prison/
  2. 1 2 3 "Dhondup Wangchen". freetibetanheroes.org. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Andrew Jacobs (30 October 2009). "China Is Trying a Tibetan Filmmaker for Subversion". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  4. 1 2 Denchen Pemba (10 December 2009). "The story of Dhondup Wangchen, filmmaker jailed in China". Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  5. 1 2 "Free Dhondup Wangchen!". Reporters Without Borders. 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  6. 1 2 Jane Macartney (8 January 2010). "Film-maker Dhondup Wangchen jailed for letting Tibetans tell their tale". The Times.
  7. ↑ "Chinese authorities re-arrest Jigme Gyatso". Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  8. ↑ "China: Arrest of human rights defender Mr Jigme Gyatso, and detention of human rights defender Mr Dhondup Wangchen". Front Line. 8 January 2010. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  9. ↑ "Dhondup Wangchen, China". Committee to Protect Journalists. 2012. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
  10. ↑ "Leaving Fear Behind". Filming for Tibet via Vimeo. Archived from the original on 10 December 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  11. ↑ Michael Bristow (6 August 2008). "Clandestine Olympic protests". BBC News. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "China Must Release Tibetan Filmmaker". Amnesty International. 7 January 2010. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  13. 1 2 Andrew Jacobs (27 May 2010). "Tibetan Gets Suspended Death Sentence in China". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  14. ↑ "Tibetan filmmaker denied appeal to 6-year sentence". Committee to Protect Journalists. 7 January 2010. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  15. ↑ "Free Dhondup Wangchen". freetibet.org. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
  16. ↑ "Free Tibetan Filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen". Amnesty International. 2012. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  17. 1 2 "People's Republic of China -Tibet Autonomous Region: A year of escalating human rights violations" (PDF). Amnesty International. 6 March 2009. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  18. 1 2 "China: Tibetan film-maker may face unfair trial, Dhondup Wangchen". Amnesty International. 17 July 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  19. ↑ "China: Ensure Fair Trial for Tibetan Filmmaker". Human Rights Watch. 3 August 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  20. ↑ "Security officials re-arrest Tibetan filmmaker Jigme Gyatso". Committee to Protect Journalists via International Freedom of Expression Exchange. 18 March 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  21. ↑ "Democratic Leader". US Federal News Service  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . 10 March 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  22. ↑ "About the Prometheus Project". American Repertory Theater. 15 February 2011. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2011.
  23. ↑ Natalie Avital (15 March 2012). "State of Control". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2012.
  24. ↑ "CPJ International Press Freedom Awards 2011". Committee to Protect Journalists. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  25. ↑ "CPJ International Press Freedom Awards 2012". Committee to Protect Journalists. 20 November 2012. Archived from the original on 8 December 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2012.
  26. ↑ "Tibet profile". BBC News. 24 November 2012. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
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