PROFILES IN COURAGE: DAY 6 – MARCH 5TH

Norzin Wangmo
Age: 30
Cadre; Political Prisoner

Norzin Wangmo is a cadre from Ngaba Trochu county of Ngaba, a hot bed of political resistance in eastern Tibet. Exact details of the charges against her are not known, but she was convicted and sentenced on November 3rd, 2008 to five years in prison for passing news through the phone and internet about the situation in Tibet to the outside world. According to one report, Norzin Wangmo, who is also described by a Tibetan friend as ‘Walza’, meaning ‘courageous’, underwent torture following her detention in April.

In recent years, the Chinese authorities have handed down extremely harsh sentences to Tibetans who allegedly passed on information about protests in Tibet; sometimes the sentences for communicating about protests have been harsher than for participating in them.

Norzin worked at the Judicial Bureau of Trochu County, Ngaba, and is also a writer. She was detained during the protests in Tibet last spring, as were countless others.  While in detention, an article she had written titled “Games of Politics” was published in the magazine “Popular Arts.”

A friend of Norzin’s wrote a letter to her when she disappeared in spring 2008, and again after learning of her sentence in November. An excerpt of the second letter reads:

“In your thirties, the prime of life, the critical juncture when your child needs educating, you and other heroes and heroines like you parted ways with your parents, split up with your spouses, and made orphans of your children for the sake of truth, and had to take the path alone. Five years is one thousand eight hundred and twenty five days. It is forty three thousand eight hundred hours. To have to spend the best years of your life in a dark prison cell, what misery! That may be your glory, but as you know, an ocean of inexpressible suffering lies behind that accolade of glory. There is no certainty that the experience will not write the final word on your youth and affection, your dreams and ambitions. One thing that makes me happy is that they say you kept your confidence and attitude together while in prison. That is a great reassurance to me, for one. Dear friend!”

This friend also assured Norzin Wangmo that her son would be taken care of and to try not to worry about him, saying:

“Moreover, if you are someone who is prepared to go to prison for the sake of truth, your son can hardly be an ordinary person.”

For a simple telephone conversation to result in 5 years imprisonment is a striking example of China’s extreme control and repression in Tibet. We will continue to do everything we can to make sure more Tibetans do not suffer the same harsh consequences as Norzin Wangmo. We honor her courage and pledge to work for her release.