USCIRF participates in Tibetan Nun Phuntsog Nyidron event

Mar 30, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 30, 2006


Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON - U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) Chair Michael Cromartie spoke today at an event in Washington sponsored by The International Campaign for Tibet and The Capital Area Tibetan Association welcoming into freedom Tibetan Nun Phuntsog Nyidron. Phuntsog Nyidron was a nun at the Michungri nunnery when she was detained in 1989 for holding a peaceful demonstration celebrating the Dalai Lama's Nobel Peace Prize award and sentenced to eight years in prison. Her sentence was extended by nine years when recorded songs she and 13 other female prisoners recorded about Tibet and the Dalai Lama were smuggled from prison. According to numerous witnesses, Phuntsog Nyidron, and the other nuns imprisoned with her, were routinely beaten during their imprisonment. Phuntsog Nyidron was the last singing nun to be released from prison.

The Commission welcomed Phuntsog Nyidron's arrival in the United States on March 15. After repeated requests to the Chinese government, the Commission was permitted a brief meeting with Phuntsog Nyidron in Lhasa, Tibet, during its official delegation to China in August 2005 and pressed the Chinese government to allow her to travel abroad to seek medical attention. The Commission was the first group to be allowed to see Phuntsog Nyidron in over a year. The Commission worked with Congress, the White House, and the State Department, U.S. Ambassador Randt and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, as well as with the International Campaign for Tibet and other groups, on her behalf."

"During its visit to China the Commission raised a number of individual cases of prisoners detained or sentenced on account of religious belief or practice, including other Tibetan Buddhists, Catholics, Falun Gong, Protestants, and Uighur Muslims," said USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie. "The Commission urges President Bush to press Chinese President Hu Jintao during their April 20 meeting for additional prisoner releases and to vigorously raise the issue of legal reform so that arbitrary detentions, ‘enforced disappearances,' and harassment of China's diverse and vital religious communities will end."


The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

Michael Cromartie,Chair
  • Felice D. Gaer,Vice ChairNina Shea,Vice ChairPreeta D. BansalArchbishop Charles J. ChaputKhaled Abou El FadlRichard D. LandElizabeth H. ProdromouBishop Ricardo RamirezAmbassador John V. Hanford III,Ex-OfficioJoseph R. Crapa,Executive Director