DHARAMSHALA, MAY 24: The Reporters Without Borders said it was relieved to learn that Golok Jigme has arrived safe in India. The Paris based organization earlier honored Golok Jigme by including him among “100 Information Heroes” on World Press Freedom Day for assisting in making of a documentary film criticizing Chinese rule in Tibet.
“It is wonderful to learn that an information hero who had been missing for nearly two years has resurfaced safely and in relatively good health,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk. “But our delight can only be partial because we are still very concerned about Dhondup Wangchen, who remains in prison. We urge the Chinese authorities to free him and all others whose only crime has been to enable a discriminated people to use its voice.”
Jigme had assisted Dhondup Wangchen, currently serving the last days of his six years’ imprisonment sentence, in secretly shooting his documentary film “Leaving Fear Behind” that shed light on the lives of Tibetans in China in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The film featured a series of interviews with Tibetans talking about how China had destroyed the Tibetan culture, violated religious freedom and their undying reverence for the exiled leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Wangchen and Jigme traveled to remote corners in the eastern region of Amdo and across the Tibetan plateau from October 2007 to March 2008 filming over thirty five hours of interviews. The tapes were smuggled out in March 2008 to Switzerland, where Wangchen’s cousin Gyaljong Tsetrin edited them into a 25 minute film.
Golok Jigme was first arrested in March 2008 from Labrang Tashi Khyil and was detained for seven months during which he was “brutally tortured and beaten.” He was rearrested in March 2009, during which he was kept in custody for about 40 days. Since then, he was rearrested many times.
Jigme Gyatso was born in 1969 in Golog Serta, in the Kardze region of Kham (in Chinese: Ganzi, Sichuan province).
He arrived here last week, and will speak to the media on May 28.
Dhondup Wangchen is expected to be released next month.
