Jailed Tibetan receives visit from mother

The mother of a 32-year-old Tibetan musicologist jailed in China for spying was allowed to see her son for the first time in five years, Tibetan rights groups have said.

They were told that they had to stop crying otherwise the meeting would be terminated

Kate Saunders

Under pressure from the United States and Britain, China allowed Sonam Dekyi and her brother to make two one-hour visits to the Chengdu prison holding her son Ngawang Choephel.

They were the first visitors Mr Choephel, a former Fulbright scholar, has had.

Mr Choephel was arrested during a visit to Tibet in 1995

One of the most high-profile Tibetans in jail, he was detained in Tibet in 1995 when making a film on traditional music and dance.

His case has received widespread international attention and drawn the interest of musicians such as Paul McCartney and Annie Lennox.

Emotional visit

"The visit was very emotional and under difficult conditions," Kate Saunders of the London-based Tibet Information Network told BBC News Online.

"When they first met, they immediately started crying. They were told that they had to stop crying otherwise the meeting would be terminated."

Tibet was invaded by China in 1950

No physical contact was allowed.

Ms Dekyi said her son was very frail, just "skin and bones", with pale, almost yellow skin.

He said that he had liver, lung and stomach ailments, and possibly had a urinary tract infection and tuberculosis.

Crackdown

The visit marks a softening in China's stance on the issue - for years, China had refused to give Ms Dekyi a visa.

However China recently launched a fresh crackdown in Tibet.

The authorities have seized pictures of the Dalai Lama from Tibetan homes

"The situation has deteriorated recently," Alison Reynolds, director of the Free Tibet Campaign, told BBC News Online.

She said the authorities had been going into people's homes late at night and seizing religious shrines.

Mr Choephel - who studied music in Vermont, US - lived in a Tibetan settlement in South India.

The US and human rights groups have called for his release.

Dissident released

In a separate development, China released a democracy activist held for 18 months for "re-education" in a labour camp.

Peng Ming, 42, was arrested in an aggressive crackdown on dissidents and charged with hiring prostitutes.

Four other dissidents were also charged with the safe offence.

Human rights groups say the authorities did not want to admit the arrests were politically motivated.

Mr Peng was said to be suffering from kidney stones.