Jampel Changup

The 7 April 2006 release on expiry of his sentence of the Tibetan monk, Jampel Changchup, marked the end of 16 years in prison. Arrested with a number of other monks in September 1989, including Sydney PEN Honorary Members Ngawang Oeser, Ngawang Gyalsten and Ven Gawang Phulchung, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison, reduced by three years, for having translated into Tibetan and distributed the text of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

The official radio service reported that the group "deliberately planned to form counter-revolutionary organizations, put up posters, spread rumors and collect information. They frenziedly conducted criminal activities to split the motherland. Let the sentence on Ngawang Phulchung serve as a stern warning for separatists both at home and abroad that those who split the motherland will come to no good end."

Throughout his long imprisonment, members of PEN Centres in Canada, Sydney (Australia) and PEN USA (Los Angeles) maintained their support and lobbied on his behalf.

Courtesy PEN American Center