Retired Accountant and National Model Worker Killed Within Weeks of Abduction for Practicing Falun Gong
Two middle-aged women, from Hunan and Henan provinces, died in late November, within weeks of being abducted by the authorities for practicing Falun Gong, the Falun Dafa Information Center has recently learned.
China urged to release Uighur activist allegedly tortured in prison
Amnesty International renews its call on the Chinese authorities to release an ethnic Uighur prisoner of conscience jailed on separatism charges after his family reported that he is being tortured in a Xinjiang prison.
Amnesty International renews its call on the Chinese authorities to release an ethnic Uighur prisoner of conscience jailed on separatism charges after his family reported that he is being tortured in a Xinjiang prison.
Ablikim Abdiriyim, the son of prominent Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, told relatives visiting him last week that he has been held in solitary confinement since 3 November after witnessing an incident that prison authorities wanted to keep quiet. His health has since deteriorated sharply.
The news comes exactly a year after 20 Uighur asylum-seekers were forcibly deported to China from Cambodia. China has not made public the whereabouts of the group, which included two children, since they were seized on 19 December 2009.
“The alleged torture of Ablikim Abdiriyim is the latest example of systematic human rights abuses suffered by China’s Uighur population at the hands of the Chinese authorities,” said Catherine Baber, Asia-Pacific deputy director at Amnesty International.
The Chinese authorities must investigate allegations that Ablikim Abdiriyim has been tortured and make sure he has access to medical help for any injuries he may have suffered.”
Ablikim Abdiriyim was sentenced to nine years in prison for “instigating and engaging in secessionist activities” in April 2007.
Despite Chinese state media claiming his trial was fair, Abdiriyim’s family says he was not given the right to legal representation of his choice and his “confession” was likely to have been made under torture.
Ablikim Abduriyim’s relatives visited him in prison on 13 December and he told them he had been tortured. He said he was also transferred to solitary confinement after refusing to sign a document denying that he had witnessed a controversial incident in the prison.
Ablikim Abdiriyim was detained in June 2006. His mother is Rebiya Kadeer, a prominent Uighur businesswoman and activist whose family has been targeted by the authorities since she was detained as a prisoner of conscience in 1999.
This intensified after she was released on medical parole on 17 March 2005 and left China for the USA.
On 27 November 2006, the day after Rebiya Kadeer was elected president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), a court sentenced two of her sons, Alim Abdiriyim and Kahar Abdiriyim, to fines amounting to millions of US dollars, and Alim to seven years’ imprisonment on charges of tax evasion.
The torture of Ablikim Abdiriyim appears to be the latest example of the unacceptable persecution against Rebiya Kadeer’s family,” said Catherine Baber.
Amnesty International has also called on China to account for the whereabouts of 20 Uighur asylum-seekers deported to China from Cambodia a year ago.
Nineteen of the individuals fled to Cambodia from China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in the wake of riots in the city of Urumqi of July 2009, fearing persecution by the Chinese authorities.
The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, was in the process of reviewing their applications for refugee status when Cambodia succumbed to pressure from the Chinese government to deport the individuals.
The deportations attracted international condemnation as there were fears the group would suffer serious human rights violations on their return.
“We condemn the lack of transparency surrounding the cases of these individuals and urge the Chinese government to tell the world what happened to them,” said Catherine Baber.
Human rights activists face persecution in China
Following Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize win, Amnesty International profiles five other prominent Chinese activists who have been locked up for daring to criticise the government.
Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize award has put the international spotlight on his persecution by the Chinese authorities, who sentenced him to 11 years in jail for “inciting subversion of state power” after an unfair trial.
But Liu is just one of many Chinese human rights activists who currently languish in detention in the country. They are prisoners of conscience, jailed solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
The human rights defence movement in China is growing, but those who attempt to report on human rights violations or challenge politically sensitive government policies face serious risk of abuse. The authorities make frequent use of vaguely-worded charges to silence and imprison peaceful activists, such as “endangering state security”, “subversion of state power” and “separatism”.
Liu Xiaobo’s wife, Liu Xia, became another victim of this crackdown when she was placed under house arrest after she returned home from visiting Liu in prison after he had won the Nobel prize.. Amnesty International profiles five other prominent Chinese activists who have been locked up for daring to criticise the government.
Liu Xianbin, 43
Detained since 28 June in Suining Province, Sichuan
The prominent Sichuan democracy activist has been held on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power” since being seized by security officers at his home four months ago. Local human rights activists believe he is being punished for his activism and defence of human rights. Liu was first imprisoned in 1992 for his participation in the 1989 pro-democracy movement. In 1998, he co-founded the Sichuan branch of the China Democracy Party. The following year, he was sentenced to 13 years in jail for “subversion of state power”. After his release in November 2008 he continued to speak out against the Chinese government. He was a prominent supporter, together with Liu Xiaobo, of Charter 08, a proposal for fundamental legal and political reform in China that aims to achieve a democratic system that respects human rights. He has also published articles on human rights and democracy and worked to increase public awareness of other persecuted activists. Liu is currently awaiting trial.
Gao Zhisheng, 46
Currently “missing”
In 2001, Gao Zhisheng was named one of China’s “top 10 lawyers” by the Ministry of Justice. But since his human rights advocacy angered the authorities, he and his family have seen their lives torn apart. After Gao Zhisheng wrote a series of “Open letters for Justice” in late 2005 calling on China’s leaders to stop the persecution of the spiritual group Falun Gong, he lost his lawyer’s licence and he and his family faced constant harrassment by security forces.In early 2006, he organized a hunger strike to draw attention to human rights abuses and later that year received a suspended three-year prison sentence for “inciting subversion”, with one year deprivation of political rights. The authorities have kept Gao Zhisheng and his family under constant surveillance ever since.
On 13 September 2007, Gao Zhisheng wrote an open letter to the US Congress saying he did not support the country’s staging of the 2008 Olympics. Nine days later, plainclothes police officers came to his home, stripped him naked and beat him unconscious. He was held incommunicado for nearly six weeks and subjected to beatings and repeated electric shocks to his genitals. After he was released his acquaintances described him as “a broken man”.
Gao’s children have been prevented from attending school and his family’s bank accounts have been frozen. His daughter attempted suicide as a result of the pressure and his family were forced to flee China in March. Gao was taken from his home in Shaanxi Province by police on 4 February 2009 and his current whereabouts are unknown.
Tan Zuoren, 56
Serving a five-year prison sentence
An environmental activist who was arrested after he tried to publicize the number of children that died during the Sichuan earthquake and the corruption behind substandard construction that contributed to their deaths. Tan has been repeatedly questioned by the police about his human rights work. He was also harassed by unidentified men who twice stole his computer and also stabbed and injured his dog.He was arrested in March 2009 after he declared his intention to release an independent report on the collapse of school buildings during the quake. Although the initial indictment focused on his work on the earthquake, Tan was ultimately convicted for his commemoration of the crackdown on 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protesters in Beijing, on charges of “inciting subversion of state power”.
Acclaimed artist Ai Weiwei was prevented from giving evidence at Tan’s trial when he was detained and severely beaten by security officials just before he was due to testify. Amnesty International described the trial as “grossly unfair” and “politically motivated”. In June, Tan’s appeal against his five-year sentence was rejected after a court session lasting just 10 minutes.
Hairat Niyaz
Serving a 15-year prison sentence in an unknown location, held incommunicado
The Uighur journalist and website editor was convicted on charges of “endandering state security” in the wake of riots in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province, in July 2009, for essays he had written prior to the protests and for interviews he gave to Hong Kong journalists. His warning to the Chinese authorities of the threat of ethnic violence in the region the day prior to the protests in Urumqi, which claimed the lives of at least 197 people, went unheeded.Prior to his imprisonment Hairat Niyaz was an administrator of Uighurbiz, one of the websites accused of promoting the Urumqi unrest. He had also worked as a senior journalist with several leading newspapers in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in north-west China (where the Uighur ethnic group largely reside). He deliberately uses the Chinese language to report on Uighur issues to better reach Chinese-speaking domestic and overseas audiences.
Niyaz was arrested in October 2009 after police said he had “given too many interviews”. In these interviews, he criticised the authorities’ “bilingual” education” policy that he claimed had led to many Uighur teachers being laid off. He argued that the disturbances in the region were caused by 20 years of discriminatory ethnic policies. Niyaz was sentenced to 15 years in jail in July. It is not known where he is imprisoned.
Dhondup Wangchen, 36
Serving a six-year sentence in Xining, Qinghai province
The Tibetan filmmaker picked up a video camera for the first time in his life when he began making the documentary Leaving Fear Behind. The film, shot in the wake of the 2008 unrest in Tibet, featured interviews with more than 100 Tibetans about human rights problems in the region. In March 2008, footage from the film was smuggled out of China and soon afterwards, Dhondup Wangchen was detained. He was tortured and held without charge for over a year before being sentenced in a secret trial to six years imprisonment for “inciting separatism”. Dhondup Wangchen suffers from Hepatitis B, for which he is not being treated.
An edited version of Leaving Fear Behind was shown to foreign journalists in Beijing just days before the Olympic Games in August 2008. Chinese security forces interrupted the screening.
Charter 08 (Website)
Leaving Fear Behind (Documentary by Dhondup Wangchen)
China convicts Uighur web managers on state security charges
Amnesty International has condemned the closed trial and conviction of three Uighur website managers on state security charges.
Amnesty International has condemned the closed trial and conviction of three Uighur website managers on state security charges.
Dilshat Perhat, web manager and owner of the Diyarim website was sentenced to five years by an Urumqi court in a closed trial on 21 July; Nureli, web manager of Salkin was sentenced to three years; and Nijat Azat, web manager of Shabnam was sentenced to 10 years, according to Dilmurat Perhat, Dishat’s brother.
The three websites were among the most popular Uighur language news and community forums operating in Xinjiang prior to the 5 July 2009 riots.
”The Chinese governments’ attempts to control all online activity in Xinjiang is not going to silence those with genuine grievances,” said Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific Director for Amnesty International. “These three Uighur web managers must be released.”
Dilmurat was repeatedly warned by Xinjiang authorities against speaking to the media about his brother Dilshat’s case. He had earlier complied with their demands out of fear that his brother could be convicted. “But today, I’m not worried because my brother has been sentenced already,” Dilmurat told Amnesty International from the United Kingdom.
“This government charge against my brother and the other Uighur websites was for endangering state security, but they didn’t do anything” said Dilmurat, who had worked with his brother Dilshat in managing the Diyarim website.
“My brother was supportive of the Chinese government always. We ran the website from 2002 to 2009 – for seven years, we didn’t have any problems with the Chinese government.”
Dilmurat says that the secret nature of the Urumqi trials were a result of government fear of protest, because “the Chinese government has not any evidence to sentence these people.”
He suspects that web managers came under pressure from authorities due to articles that anonymous people posted on their websites prior to the 5 July, 2009 riots in Urumqi. The riots led to 197 deaths according to official figures, and more than 1,400 detentions.
Amnesty International’s investigation of the riots suggests that the Chinese government used excessive force in dealing with the riots and in their aftermath, arbitrarily detained Uighurs, and mistreated detainees. AI’s findings were published in June 2010 as ‘Justice, Justice’ – The July 2009 protests in Xinjiang, China.
From 3 July 2009, Dilmurat’s brother notified Chinese security officials five to six times to notify them that articles calling for a peaceful demonstration had been posted anonymously on the Diyaram website, and that he had deleted them. A demonstration notice was posted again at 3:30 am on Sunday 5 July, on the Diyarim, Salkin and Shabnam websites, and the web managers were not able to remove them until later in the day.
Following the riots, the three websites were all closed down by government censors.
Amnesty International is calling for the release of the Uighur language web managers and for the release of other arbitrarily detained Uighurs.
Prominent Uighur journalist Hairat Niyaz was recently sentenced to 15 years imprisonment through a secret trial in Urumqi, for little more than giving interviews to Hong Kong media.
Uighur writer Gulmira Imin, who had contributed to the Salkin website, was sentenced to life imprisonment in April 2010 for ‘splittism, leaking state secrets and organising an illegal demonstration.’ During her trial she alleged torture and ill-treatment in detention.
China sentences Uighur journalist to 15-year prison term
Hairat Niyaz was convicted on state security charges, apparently for warning the authorities over potential ethnic violence in Xinjiang province on the eve of the July 2009 riots.
Amnesty International has condemned a 15-year prison sentence reportedly imposed on a Uighur journalist who warned Chinese authorities over potential ethnic violence in Xinjiang province on the eve of the July 2009 riots.
Hairat (also known as Hailaite or Gheyret) Niyaz was reportedly tried and convicted on state security charges by a court in Xinjiang on Friday.
According to reports, prosecutors relied on essays he had written prior to the July 2009 riots in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, and interviews he gave to Hong Kong media after the violence.
“Fifteen years imprisonment is an outrageous punishment for journalism that highlighted the longstanding grievances of the Uighur people,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific Programme.
“Adding to this outrage is the fact that Hairat Niyaz, in his words as an ‘ordinary person of conscience’, had urged the authorities to take emergency measures to prevent ethnic violence.”
Hairat Niyaz was arrested in October 2009, because, according to police, he had now “given too many interviews”.
In these interviews, Hairat Niyaz highlighted mounting grievances against the implementation of the so-called “bilingual” education policy that had led to many Uighur teachers being laid off.
He spoke about mounting local resentment of employment initiatives sending young Uighurs, mainly women, to work in Southern Chinese factories.
“Hairat Niyaz is a prisoner of conscience and should be released immediately,” said Catherine Baber.
At his trial Hairat Niyaz was denied the right to be represented by a lawyer of his own choosing, and only one family member, his wife, was permitted to attend the proceedings.
During the trial he insisted that he had broken no laws and was only carrying out his duty as a citizen and journalist.
Hairat Niyaz is an established journalist and administrator of Uighurbiz, one of the websites accused of promoting the July unrest. He had been a senior journalist with the Xinjiang Economic Daily, Chief Editorial Director of Xinjiang Legal Daily, and Deputy Director of the Legal Magazine Fazhi Zongheng.
“Hairat Niyaz’s testimony and those of other witnesses to the unrest must be openly investigated if we are to get to the truth of what happened in July 2009 in Xinjiang,” said Catherine Baber.
Amnesty International has called for an independent investigation into the violence of July 2009, including into what and who caused the violence, how many people died, and who killed them.
China holds Uighur journalist over Xinjiang unrest remarks (News, 30 October 2009)
China: Witnesses Lift Veil on Abuses by Security Forces in Tibet
(New York) – Eyewitness accounts confirm that Chinese security forces used disproportionate force and acted with deliberate brutality during and after unprecedented Tibetan protests beginning on March 10, 2008, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.
China must halt harassment and censorship of HIV/AIDS activists
Chinese security forces last night cancelled a documentary screening by an HIV/AIDS education group, which Amnesty International is strongly criticising as part of the ongoing harassment of peaceful public health educators.
Chinese security forces last night cancelled a documentary screening by an HIV/AIDS education group, which Amnesty International is strongly criticising as part of the ongoing harassment of peaceful public health educators.
“Harassing and curtailing HIV/AIDS activism in China poses a real threat to effective HIV/AIDS prevention, with dire consequences for the right to health,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Deputy Director.
China’s internal security police questioned staff of the Beijing HIV/AIDS education NGO Aizhixing Institute of Health Education on 7 July and instructed them to cancel the show planned for 8 July. The film screening did not go ahead and the Aizhixing event-organiser has resigned from coordinating the event.
Aizhixing staff have been so frequently subjected to questioning and harassment that the director Wan Yanhai left China in May 2010 to avoid constant police interrogations and detentions. The organization’s offices have been subjected to an endless series of government checks on their bank accounts, licenses, and fire safety, with the aim of disrupting work and intimidating staff.
On 7 July, police also questioned and intimidated the documentary film-maker, and the subject of the documentary, a 23-year-old university graduate called Tian Xi living with HIV/AIDs.
Documentary-maker Laohu Miao was warned by police that the film could threaten social stability by arousing audience emotion. Laohu Miao, a pen-name meaning ‘Tiger Temple’, is a well known blogger and tweeter on human rights issues, with the twitter handle @24hour.
Police warned Tian Xi, the documentary-subject, against taking part in any public protest on HIV/AIDS issues. Tian Xi was infected at the age of nine through a blood transfusion. The documentary showed him as a positive example of a person living their life with HIV/AIDS. Tian Xi has been active in calls for compensation for HIV/AIDS patients infected when receiving healthcare, and for hospitals to address medical malpractice.
Aizhixing is a pun on the Chinese term for HIV/AIDS ‘Aizibing’, replacing the word ‘illness’ with ‘action’. The organization has lobbied the Chinese government to review HIV/AIDS policies and resource use, for example to provide better care to HIV/AIDS patients, and provide accountability for people infected through medical malpractice and blood transfusions.
China must halt persecution of award-winning Tibetan environmentalist family
Amnesty International is calling for the release of three award-winning Tibetan environmental activist brothers, two of whom were recently given lengthy prison sentences within a week of each other.
Amnesty International is calling for the release of three award-winning Tibetan environmental activist brothers, two of whom were recently given lengthy prison sentences within a week of each other.
Karma Samdrup, named ‘philanthropist of the year’ in 2006 by China’s state broadcaster CCTV for his work on river preservation, was sentenced last week to 15 years for ‘inciting the stealing of cultural relics’ from tombsites, a charge that had been dropped in 1998.
He has made detailed allegations of torture in detention to extract a forced confession. When he appeared in court in June, he had lost so much weight in six months that his wife could barely recognise him.
Karma Samdrup’s arrest took place in January after he lobbied for the release of his two detained brothers Rinchen Samdrup and Chime Namgyal. The pair were arrested in August 2009 after their award-winning anti-poaching and reforestation NGO threatened to uncover corrupt officials illegally hunting endangered wildlife.
Rinchen was sentenced on Saturday to five years after a cursory trial for ‘inciting splittism’, having been in detention without trial for almost a year. The key piece of evidence was an article mentioning the Dalai Lama that he insisted someone else had posted on his website.
The trials of the two brothers have been grossly unfair. Their lawyers have been repeatedly denied access to their clients and to key evidence.
Chime is already serving 21 months of ‘Re-education Through Labour’ imposed without charge or trial, on allegations of ‘harming social stability’ by illegally collecting local information about the environment and religion, and organizing ‘irregular petitioning’ by local residents.
Rinchen and Chime’s NGO had received wide praise in Chinese state media, as well as support from the Ford motor company and from actor Jet Li’s One Foundation.
“Rinchen’s activism has been celebrated by state newspapers, citing local Communist Party officials, while he was actually in detention,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific.
“The targeting of this apolitical family sends worrying signals that the authorities are engaged in an ever-widening crackdown. Such prosecutions could also threaten the growing environmental activism that the country so desperately needs.”
The brothers’ extended family is also being targeted by authorities. A cousin, Sonam Choephel, is serving one and a half years of `Re-education Through Labour` after organizing a group to petition in Beijing for justice for Rinchen Samdrup.
Another cousin, Rinchen Dorje, who had acted as an interpreter for Karma Samdrup, was arrested in March and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
The International Campaign for Tibet has stated that Karma Samdrup’s mother, in her 70s, was beaten unconscious by police under the authority of a Communist Party official, and that 20 villagers from the brothers’ home area were detained, interrogated and tortured after further petitioning in Beijing.
Cultural and intellectual leaders in the Tibetan community have been increasingly targeted by Chinese security forces since the 2008 protests and unrest in the Tibet Autonomous Region, and in other Tibetan areas of China.
Chinese human rights defenders subjected to ‘absurd’ disbarment hearing
Amnesty International has condemned as ‘absurd’ a legal hearing aiming to revoke the legal licences of two Chinese human rights lawyers who had defended Falun Gong practitioners.
Amnesty International has condemned as ‘absurd’ a legal hearing aiming to revoke the legal licences of two Chinese human rights lawyers who had defended Falun Gong practitioners.
Evidence presented at the Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau hearing against lawyers Liu Wei and Tang Jitian included accusations that they had behaved illegally by making arguments and disputing opinions in Luzhou Court in April 2009.
“The notion that lawyers can be punished for presenting evidence and arguing their case in court is absurd,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director. “The Chinese Ministry of Justice must send a signal that it will protect lawyers from political intimidation and uphold their right and duty to defend their clients appropriately, in line with Chinese law and international legal standards.”
The Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau ended the hearing on Thursday without issuing a decision on revoking the lawyers’ licences, or officially testifying that the lawyers had “violated law”, which is seen as small victory for the legal process.
Liu Wei, one of the lawyers being threatened with having her license revoked, told Amnesty International “it may take a month to get a result. But after the legal debate they may realized that they are the ones who have violated the law, not us.”
“If the result is judged by our defence today and according to the law, we will surely win.”
The two lawyers still stand accused of “disrupting courtroom order and interfering with the regular litigation process” while defending members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement.
Some 500 supporters of the lawyers protested outside the hearing venue, and were met by nearly 200 police officers. Around 20 protesters were detained, most of whom were released by the end of the day.
Government authorities used intimidation to prevent two lawyers scheduled to represent Liu Wei and Tang Jitian from attending the hearing, and other prominent lawyers supporting the pair were put under surveillance or “soft detention” to prevent them attending.
“Escalating harassment of Chinese lawyers is seriously undermining the rule of law, and risks further lowering public trust in the Chinese legal system,” said Sam Zarifi.
Government authorities in China continue to harass and disrupt the work of lawyers taking politically sensitive cases, in particular cases involving Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans and Uighurs.
In March 2010, Chang Boyang, a lawyer representing Tibetan Film maker, Dhondup Wangcheng, was threatened with the closing of his law firm if he did not drop the case, mirroring the treatment of Dhondup Wangcheng’s previous lawyer Li Dunyong. Dhondup Wangcheng was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for “inciting separatism” for making a documentary, Leaving Fear Behind, which features a series of interviews with Tibetans questioning the Chinese authorities’ promises of greater freedom in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
China must release Tibetan filmmaker
Dhondup Wangchen’s film Leaving Fear Behind
Amnesty International has urged the Chinese authorities to release a Tibetan documentary filmmaker who has been jailed for six years for “subversion”.
Dhondup Wangchen was detained after making the film Leaving Fear Behind, in which Tibetans speak out about their lives.
He was sentenced on 28 December 2009 following a secret trial in Xining city, western China. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience.
“All Dhondup Wangchen wanted to do was to give a voice to those who ‘are like stars on a sunny day, we can’t be seen’, according to one of the people he interviewed for the film. This is not a crime,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International Asia Pacific deputy director.
Dhondup Wangchen was detained in March 2008. Police held him at Gongshan Hotel, an unofficial place of detention or “black jail”, for part of his detention period. Police tied him to a chair, beat and punched him in the head and frequently deprived him of food and sleep during interrogations. Dhondup Wangchen suffers from Hepatitis B, for which he has not received any medical treatment.
“His treatment and the harsh sentence he was given following an unfair trial shows the Chinese authorities’ complete disregard for international human rights standards,” Roseann Rife said.
He was later moved to Xining City No. 1 Detention Centre. He was held incommunicado until April 2009, when he met his family-appointed, Beijing-based lawyers for the first – and only – time. In July 2009, Beijing judicial authorities forced these lawyers to drop the case.
It is unclear if he subsequently had any legal representation or was allowed to defend himself in the trial.
Dhondup Wangchen’s family has not received information directly from the court about the trial, sentence or verdict. They have visited the detention centre several times but have never been allowed to see him.
Dhondup Wangchen began planning the film in 2006; he explained his motives by saying: “It is very difficult [for Tibetans] to go to Beijing and speak out there. So we decided to show the real feelings of Tibetans inside Tibet through this film.”
In October 2007, he began collecting interviews from over 100 Tibetan people. In the film, they talked about their lives and their views on the Dalai Lama and the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
The footage was smuggled out of the country to Switzerland, where Dhondup Wangchen’s cousin edited it down to a 25-minute documentary. It premiered in a screening to foreign journalists in a Beijing hotel on the eve of the Beijing Olympics. Security forces interrupted the screening.