Tibetan Nun Asylum Injustice
Created | Updated Aug 5, 2004
The Curious Case of Sonam, imprisoned in the USA
For Tibetan refugees, just attempting to leave Tibet is deemed a criminal offence by the Chinese authorities. Since May 2003, large numbers have been arrested while trying to cross the border into Nepal. More worryingly, the Nepalese authorities, under huge pressure from the Chinese, have been rounding up and forcibly repatriating Tibetan refugees even if they have been in Nepal for some time.
Ani Sonam, a Tibetan nun who grew up in a village near the foot of Mount Everest fled to Nepal, after family members had already been arrested and tortured "for the practice of their faith." After an arduous journey over the high passes and snow-bound Himalayan glaciers, hiding from police patrols, she reached Nepal, where she lived in a monastery for three years. In May 2003, when the Nepalese police began rounding up Tibetans and returning them to the Chinese authorities, she used money she had saved working as a seamstress to buy a plane ticket to the USA, where she was arrested on arrival.
Since 9/11, the USA immigration authorities have been particularly cautious about refugees and asylum seekers, fearing terrorist infiltration. Like most Tibetan refugees, Ani Sonam had no proper travel documents. Furthermore, she speaks no English, and cannot read Tibetan. Somehow she has to prove to the USA officials that she poses no threat to American national security, and that her life is in danger if she is repatriated.
Meanwhile, Ani Sonam was locked up in Hopewell Prison, Virginia, USA, despite the fact that she was granted asylum by a judge in Arlington in November 2003. The Arlington court appearance, where she was brought in shackles, was her only time outside prison. However, the US Department of Homeland Security appealed the asylum decision, so Sonam was put back in prison, unable to communicate with either her jailers or fellow inmates.
Recent reports from Tibet indicate that Shigatse prison, over the border from Nepal, contains about 500 hundred recaptured refugees. Severe beatings and torture with electric batons is the norm for such prisoners. In a case where 18 refugees were repatriated by the Nepali authorities in May 2003, all were severely tortured, (except for four suspected of infection with the SARS virus, whom the prison guards did not want to touch.) They were beaten, kicked repeatedly in the genitals, shocked with electric batons in the mouth, and made to stand naked in freezing conditions out-of-doors for hours on end, several times a week. There is no doubt that Ani Sonam faces similar treatment if repatriated.
Her case is the tragedy of someone caught in the wheels of American bureaucracy and paranoia. The irony of her situation, a Buddhist nun imprisoned as a terrorist threat because she is not free to practice her non-violent religion in her own country, is acute.
However, the story, which is still running, seems to be having a happy ending after all. Ani Sonam was released from prison on January 30th, mainly as the result of constant lobbying and protests.
Approximately 2,500 Tibetan refugees attempt to escape over the Himalayas through Nepal every year. Many of them are children seeking education at Tibetan schools in India, and many are monks and nuns seeking freedom to practice their Buddhist faith.
For Tibetan refugees, just attempting to leave Tibet is deemed a criminal offence by the Chinese authorities. Since May 2003, large numbers have been arrested while trying to cross the border into Nepal. More worryingly, the Nepalese authorities, under huge pressure from the Chinese, have been rounding up and forcibly repatriating Tibetan refugees even if they have been in Nepal for some time.
Ani Sonam, a Tibetan nun who grew up in a village near the foot of Mount Everest fled to Nepal, after family members had already been arrested and tortured "for the practice of their faith." After an arduous journey over the high passes and snow-bound Himalayan glaciers, hiding from police patrols, she reached Nepal, where she lived in a monastery for three years. In May 2003, when the Nepalese police began rounding up Tibetans and returning them to the Chinese authorities, she used money she had saved working as a seamstress to buy a plane ticket to the USA, where she was arrested on arrival.
Since 9/11, the USA immigration authorities have been particularly cautious about refugees and asylum seekers, fearing terrorist infiltration. Like most Tibetan refugees, Ani Sonam had no proper travel documents. Furthermore, she speaks no English, and cannot read Tibetan. Somehow she has to prove to the USA officials that she poses no threat to American national security, and that her life is in danger if she is repatriated.
Meanwhile, Ani Sonam was locked up in Hopewell Prison, Virginia, USA, despite the fact that she was granted asylum by a judge in Arlington in November 2003. The Arlington court appearance, where she was brought in shackles, was her only time outside prison. However, the US Department of Homeland Security appealed the asylum decision, so Sonam was put back in prison, unable to communicate with either her jailers or fellow inmates.
Recent reports from Tibet indicate that Shigatse prison, over the border from Nepal, contains about 500 hundred recaptured refugees. Severe beatings and torture with electric batons is the norm for such prisoners. In a case where 18 refugees were repatriated by the Nepali authorities in May 2003, all were severely tortured, (except for four suspected of infection with the SARS virus, whom the prison guards did not want to touch.) They were beaten, kicked repeatedly in the genitals, shocked with electric batons in the mouth, and made to stand naked in freezing conditions out-of-doors for hours on end, several times a week. There is no doubt that Ani Sonam faces similar treatment if repatriated.
Her case is the tragedy of someone caught in the wheels of American bureaucracy and paranoia. The irony of her situation, a Buddhist nun imprisoned as a terrorist threat because she is not free to practice her non-violent religion in her own country, is acute.
However, the story, which is still running, seems to be having a happy ending after all. Ani Sonam was released from prison on January 30th, mainly as the result of constant lobbying and protests.
Approximately 2,500 Tibetan refugees attempt to escape over the Himalayas through Nepal every year. Many of them are children seeking education at Tibetan schools in India, and many are monks and nuns seeking freedom to practice their Buddhist faith.
