2013 Kina-Tibet: Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang
Norway, 15. November 2013
His Excellency Xi Jinping
President of the People’s Republic of China
State Council
Beijing 100032
P.R. China
CC. Tibet Autonomous Region Party
Secretary
Chen Quanguo
Tibet Autonomous Regional Office, No.1
Kang’angdonglu,
Lhasa,
Tibet 850000
People’s Republic of China
Chinese Embassy in Oslo, Norway
Tuengen Alle 2B, Vinderen 0244
Oslo, Norway
webmaster@chineseembassy.no
Your Excellencies,
I write to you as the chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of Norwegian PEN, the local section of PEN International, the writer`s and free expression organisation with 140 centres in over 100 countries around the world, including China and many other countries in your region.
Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang is a Tibetan internet writer and cofounder/editor of the Tibetan language website Chomei (The Lamp) www.tibetcm.com, convicted of “disclosing state secrets” on 12 November 2009, currently serving a 15year prison sentence.
PEN is seeking information about the precise reasons for the imprisonment of Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang, and calling for his immediate and unconditional release if he is held – as PEN International believes is very likely to be the case – solely for the peaceful
exercise of his right to freedom of expression.
PEN would like to remind Chinese authorities that Article 35 of the constitution of the People’s Republic of China provides for freedom of speech and that as a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which provides for freedom of legitimate
expression, the right not to be arbitrarily detained and the right to a fair trial, they are obliged to «refrain from acts that would defeat or undermine the treaty’s objective and purpose”.
PEN is also urging the Chinese authorities to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights without delay.
Yours sincerely,
Trine Kleven
Chair, Norwegian PENs Writers in Prison Committee
