Ngawang Oeser

Sydney PEN Honorary Member Ngawang Oeser was released in Tibet after completing his 15 year sentence. Oeser, who was released from Drapchi prison on 18 April 2008 is reported to have suffered various forms of torture and ill treatment while in prison. His physical condition upon release was reported to have been extremely frail and he apparently suffered severe weight loss.

Oeser was first arrested for his role as one of the architects of the peaceful pro-independence demonstration of 27 September 1987 in Lhasa along with 20 Drepung monks. The demonstration lasted only a few minutes before the Public Security Bureau (PSB) arrested the monks. He was held for four months at Gutsa Detention Centre. After his release, he and some of his close friends formed a secret organization in Drepung Monastery. The 'Organization of Ten' was to distribute pro-independence leaflets and a Tibetan version of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

On 19 April 1989, Ngawang Oeser and nine others were arrested by the Tibetan Autonomous Region's (TAR) Intelligence Bureau and held at TAR Public Security Bureau Detention Centre on charges of distributing documents. After a group trial, he was sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment (later reduced by two years) for forming a secret Tibet Independence group, indulging in 'counter revolutionary' activities and 'incitement of pro-independence activities and leaking state secrets', among other charges.

These arrests and trials occurred against the backdrop of a major crackdown on Tibetan demonstrations, including the killing of scores of Tibetans by the police and the imposition of martial law by Hu Jintao, then Party Secretary of the TAR (and now President of China and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party).