Daja Meston '96 West Meets East Meets West

BRANDEIS REVIEW ALUMNI MAGAZINE

Daja Meston '96 West Meets East Meets West

Imagine experiencing everything as new, with a child's perspective of continual discovery, but you are an adult. Instead of a dull sense of repetition solidified into habit during the day , you are delighted by-and struggle with-constant surprises. To Daja Meston '96 that is the way life seems. "Nothing ha prepared me for this, really. Every single class I take, everything I read, I study, I hear, is all new. I,m like a sponge. It's fascinating, the things so many people take for granted," he says.

He is intrigued because the most familiar and psychically comfortable surrounding that framed his childhood and teenage years in a Buddhist Monastery nestled in the breathtaking landscape of Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nothing could be further from the experience of a typical American child. Picture a 6-year-old in the United states-he faces the huge demands of first grade, learning ti read, to write, to understand number relationships, his thought process itself molded to solve problems.

Not so for Meston. Born in Genevaa as his American parents meandered through Europe and Asia on their vintage sixties quest for meaning, he accumulated non of the underpinnings that most college students take for granted. As a toddler and a preschooler, he was able to participatein his parents journey to see the world. But at the age of 4, radical changes were in store for him. And by 6-when most Americans begin first grade- he was preparing to enter a Tibetan Buddhist monastery.

His parents wended their way through life subject to whim and advice from unconventional sources. Consider his mother's approach when their van broke down in Afghanistan. As chance would have it, Americans passing through offered to take them to a city in India. Would they go? His mother consulted the I Ching, the Chinese oracle. The affirmative response sent them on their way.

Travelling south from the mountains of Afghnaistan, a slow trek on rock strewn roads past villages of mud and strae huts, they came to the northern India town of Dharmasala. The home of the Dalai Lama and a center of Tibetan Buddhism, this exotic and spiritual place captivated Meston's parents. Embracing Buddhism, they studied there for more than a year, moving to Kathmandu, Nepal to continue their search for enlightenment.

Blessed with astounding vistas ans rich with a sense of spiritual, Kathmnadu marked a turning point. The family would never be together again. Meston's father became ill and returned to the United States. His mother decided to become a Buddhist nun, living in retreats of Indian and Nepal. And Meston? A long term boarding arrangement made by his mother for her 4-year old placed him with a family of Tibetan nobles exiled by the Chinese occupation of their country.

The large pink concrete house that became his home was bustling: the father, his two wives, who were sisters, and 12 children swallowed up the little boy. "The most difficult part of this adopted family was that I looked different, and I didn't know why," Meston remembers. The man of the hose wore western-style clothes, while the wives wore the traditional silver jewelry and Tibetan dress, skirts with bright, embroidered aprons. Like the other children, Meston was required to memorize lengthy Buddhist prayers by the strict strap-wielding father. " I was terrified of him,"Meston says. "But inspite of him I started seeing these people as my family. I didn't comprehend the arrangements that they had made with my mother." By the time Meston's mother came to visit, to talk and bring him candy, he spoke Tibetan, not English, and she could not communicate with him.

She was also part of an American culture of which he knew practically nothing. What did seem natural to him was her decision that he would become a Buddhist monk. Having his head shaved and being fitted for red monk's robes, Meston describes himself as excited and happy. "Its not uncommon in Tibet for a small boy to go to a monastery," he explains.

A typical day in his young life began at 5:30 am with a splash of cold water on his face to wash. "There was no hot water at the monastery and the monks (the oldest were in their mid-30s) didn't shower We didn't bathe very often," Meston explains. "And I never wore shoes. I was black with dirt, but I wasn't aware that I was dirty," he remembers.

Isolated, with no access to television or magazines, the 80 monks' world centered on memorizing prayers, reciting what was learned, debating philosophical questions, and cleaning assigned areas. Sparse meals were served with numbing repitition. "The worst thing about the monastery was the food. It was always very bad and always the same-but I never had enough. I was constantly hungry," Meston remembers.

Breakfast? Tea and a kind of pit bread, eated between morning prayers and late morning memorizing and oral exams. Lunch? Rice and Dahl, an Indian lentil dish, before afternoon lessons in philosophy. Dinner? Not until 7:00 pm, when noodle soup was served. The evening hours were spent discussing philosophy, and reciting the material learned that day. A strict regiment but- nothing like education as taken for granted in the west. " I was taught to read Tibetan, but not to write,"explains Meston. "I had no math or history. The teachers emphasized Tibetan Buddhist philosophy." What he has retained is not the ritual, for which he says he has little use, but a core mandate to treat others with kindness and compassion.

That was not how he was treated. Taller than most of his Asian peers and looking different, he was teased. I knew I was different because everybody noticed. They called me names,"he says.During the time he stayed at the monastery-from 1976 until 1985 when he was 15-he had no close friends.

Ther was one hiatus in 1980-a brief trip,four months visiting his mother in London and about 10 days in Los angeles to see his great grand-mother. He packed in a cornucopia of experiences in stunning contrast to the preceeding four-year litany of repetition. Suddenly lots of people looked the same as he did. "I felt liberated, to be one of the crowd instead of always standing out," he says.

And of America? "I loved every bit of it." It was California's sleek endless freeways that dazzled him, in contrast to Nepal's primitive roads. And the swimming pools, he recalls with delight:"I'd wake up at six or seven O'clock just to get into the pool. In the whole of Kathmandu, there was only one public swimming pool, where we went once a year on a special occasion."

The compelling taste of western culture lingered when Meston returned to Nepal, its intrigue amplified when he was sent, in 1985, to a massive monastery with over 3,000 students in southern India, near Mysore. There he describes hitting bottom. "It was unbelievably difficult for me. Sick and miserable, I finally decided I didn't want to be a monk anymore."

So he left. Frightened and alone at 16, he was willing to venture into completely unknown and forbidden territory, sustained by the knowledge, he says, that his natural curiosity and enjoyment of learning new things would always be with him. Selling his monks robes and sleeping bag for fare to travel, Speaking Tibetan, Hindi, Nepalese, and very little English, what he got was a crash course in survival skills. But also, says Meston, it was time that he felt"free". Touring London for a month, he pedaled a bicycle around the magnificent city wearing a walkman and listening to Madonna, relishing spontaneity. Then it was a year in Italy-Venice, Florence, Rome-and a Buddhist center near Pisa, staying not as a monk but as a handyman and cook.

But this lifestyle did not satisfy when Meston describes as {a driving force in me-to get an education." With that in mind, he came to America in 1987. Meston had a lot of catching up to do. "I remember not being able write, not being able to subtract," he says. Staying with family friends in southern California, attending high school in Orange County, he was such an oddity that he was the subject of a profile in The Los Angeles Times. Indeed, almost everything was new for him. Accepting the owner's suggestion to work in a factory on weekends, meston was astonished when he was offered money. He was doing it, he thought, as a favor. And paid by the hour? To him that seemed impossibly extravagant; in Nepal, workers are paid by the month.

Attracted by the large choice of colleges in Massachusettes, he enrolled in a junior college in Worcester. But the course there did not satisfy his vision. Transferring to Brandeis brought him to the place of discovery.

Now he is exploring his heritage. In 1989 he learned that both his parents were Jewish. In fact he is related to famed Zionist leader and Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold. "Before I came to America, I really didn't know what a Jew was," says Meston. Eager to take Judaic studies courses at Brandeis, and to someday visit Israel, Meston, a sociology major, is focused first on getting a good education.

And of his unusual life journey, he says, "for me, I am happy I went through all those experiences because it gave me a unique background. And everything here is remarkable to me." Savoring the novelty, he is bringing a far-flung past into perspective with American culture. The juxtapositions are extraordianry. In the same breath that he mentions his Tibetan name, Thubten Wangchuk, he can also tell you that his grand mother wrote and produced the old western TV series "Gunsmoke."

Married to a Tibetan woman from India whom he met in the United States, Meston struggles with a sense of identity and lack of roots. Soft-spoken, with a ready smile, he notes with amusement that his appearance is completely misleading, as if he lives in a white body that houses a Tibetan. He enjoys his ability to straddle two disparate cultures, to be able to choose either to participate in the subtle intricacies of each or to step outside and look in witha foreigner's cool eye. And he has a way of being in the world that stems from Buddhist philosophy-something Westerners often seek to quickly obtain-impossible to put into words, acquired only gradually, over many years. Presently, he greatly appreciates the opportunity to be a Brandeis student. His joyful curiosity sustains him and provides a steady source of strength. "I feel that i am always growing, that i am very curious, and I keep finding out there are a lot of interesting things to be learned and understood. I get a lot out of seeing that process in myself," Meston explains. He is convinced that adventure in always available to him.

Wife of Injured Pro-Tibet Activist Assails Chinese Jailers' Conduct

World Tibet Network News Saturday, September 4, 1999

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2. Wife of Injured Pro-Tibet Activist Assails Chinese Jailers' Conduct (WP)

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By Pamela Ferdinand Special to The Washington Post

September 4, 1999; Page A22

BOSTON, Sept. 3 - The wife of an American scholar and activist who suffered
severe injuries while in the custody of Chinese officials expressed outrage
at their conduct and appealed today for help in obtaining the release of
her husband's translator from detention in China.

Daja Meston, 29, an advocate for Tibet from Newton, Mass., remains in fair
condition at Brigham and Women's Hospital, several weeks after jumping from
a third-floor hotel room in a remote area of China where he was
interrogated for at least three days by state security personnel.

Meston, who received medical treatment in Hong Kong before returning to the
United States this week, suffered a broken back, heel fractures and severe
internal injuries from the fall, which Chinese authorities said was part of
an attempt to escape. He is steadily recovering and eventually will walk
again, doctors said today. A fund has been established to cover his medical
expenses, which so far exceed $100,000.

In the meantime, Meston's wife--who with her husband has been a vocal
opponent of Chinese policies in Tibet--said he remains traumatized by the
ordeal and has shared few details of what transpired.

"What they did to him was inhumane and appalls me," said Phuntsok Meston,
who traveled to China to help arrange her husband's release and spoke
publicly about the incident for the first time during a news conference
outside the hospital here this morning. "My biggest concern right now is
his health. I know he has a lot of nightmares, and he can't sleep very
well."

Timothy McNeill, a childhood friend, said Meston appeared very frail. His
mood, McNeill said, "was a combination of relief and lingering terror. He
told me he didn't feel safe until he saw Phuntsok."

Meston, who grew up in a Tibetan monastery in Nepal and is fluent in
Tibetan, went to China in late July to conduct an independent inspection of
the proposed site of a World Bank resettlement program. Tibetan groups
oppose the project, which would move 58,000 poor farmers into an area
dominated by Tibetan and Mongolian herdsmen, because they say it would
dilute their population and harm the environment. The World Bank has
decided to delay the funding.

The Massachusetts scholar was detained Aug. 15 in the remote region, along
with an Australian colleague and their interpreter, on charges that they

conducted illegal research and took photographs in a restricted zone. The
Australian was freed unharmed, but the whereabouts of the guide, Tsering
Dorjee, 26, a Chinese citizen, are unknown.

Dorjee's condition remains Meston's "greatest worry," his wife told more
than a dozen Tibetan advocates gathered here today with flags and blue
"Free Tsering Dorjee" posters in support of their friend inside the
hospital and their countryman thousands of miles away.

"If it can happen to an American citizen, imagine what is happening to
Tibetans there," said Jampa Palsang, 29, a local restaurant owner.

Addressing the crowd in traditional Tibetan dress tied with a colorful
pangden, a woven apron that denotes marriage, Phuntsok Meston said her
husband's knowledge of Tibetan culture and spirituality might have been
perceived as a threat by Chinese authorities, even though they had opened
access to the proposed resettlement area.

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Articles in this Issue:

1. 
   
Statement of Ms. Phuntsok Meston
2. Wife of Injured Pro-Tibet Activist Assails Chinese Jailers' Conduct (WP)
3. Dates of Future Kalachakra Initiations
4. Lifting the bamboo curtain (SMH)

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Other articles this month - WTN Index - Mail the WTN-Editors

China releases detained Tibet activist BBC

World: Asia-Pacific

China releases detained Tibet activist

Qinghai lies in the foothills of montainous Tibet

An Australian researcher detained in China's western Qinghai province has been released and ordered to leave the country.

The Chinese authorities say the man, Gabriel Lafitte of the Australia Tibet Council, and an American had been investigating a resettlement project in Dulan County near Tibet when they were detained on 13 August.

Chinese officials say the American, Daja Meston, a linguist who grew up in Tibetan monastery in Nepal, was taken to hospital after he fell from a third floor window while trying to escape from police custody.

He is reported to have suffered a broken back and severe internal organ damage from the fall, but is now said to be out of danger following surgery.

A team of US officials have spoken with Mr Meston in hospital in the provincial capital Xining in an effort to uncover whether he was the victim of official abuse.

State of mind

Pressure groups say China is trying to wipe out indigenous cultures

Mr Meston's Tibetan wife has said she could not understand what circumstances would drive her husband to take such action.

"He is normally a very calm and strong person," the London-based Tibet Action Network quoted her as saying. "It is terrible for me to imagine his state of mind if he was driven to do such a thing."

Chinese security officials had accused the two men of engaging in an "illegal investigation", having entered the country on tourist visas, but later said Mr Lafitte had "confessed, apologised and repented" after which he was released from custody.

Controversial project

The region is close to the birthplace of the Dalai Lama

The Dulan County relocation program is linked to a controversial World Bank poverty project, which is opposed by the United States and Tibetan exile groups.

The groups say Beijing is populating pro-independence Tibetan regions with thousands of Chinese settlers in a project that could reignite violent ethnic hostilities, wipe out Tibetan culture and damage the fragile environment.

The area is also near to the birthplace of the Dalai Lama who lives in exile in India.

The World Bank has loaned China $160m for the project, but has imposed a temporary freeze on the resettlement money until a panel reviews whether the decision violates the Bank's own rules.

There are also concerns that the project could damage the region's fragile environment

The US State Department says it believes the two men were conducting interviews in Dulan County as part of an independent study of the project's impact.

World Bank spokesman Peter Stephens said the organisation had been in high level contact with Chinese officials on behalf of the two men following pressure from several US congressmen.

Mr Meston had previously worked as a translator for Congressman Frank R Wolf (R-Viginia) during an unauthorised trip to Tibet in 1997.

Representative Wolf, whose description of his visit as "a nightmare tour" enraged the Chinese authorities, has written to President Clinton urging him to seek Mr Meston's immediate release.

Tibet project researchers detained

China

Tibet project researchers detained
By Abid Aslam

WASHINGTON - Chinese authorities have detained an American and an Australian researcher in northwest China, reportedly for investigating a proposed World Bank project in a Tibetan and Mongolian autonomous area.

Daja Meston, 29, of the United States and Gabriel Lafitte, 50, of Australia were taken into custody August 15 in Dulan County, site of the controversial project, according to Human Rights Watch.

The watchdog group called on the bank Thursday to ''intervene at the highest levels with officials in Beijing to help secure the release'' of the two men. ''While these two men are held incommunicado, they face increasing risk of torture or ill-treatment,'' said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington-based director of the rights watchdog's Asia Division. So far, neither the Australian nor US governments had been able to obtain consular access to the detainees, he noted.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn had been alerted but for the time being the bank was ''still trying to find out the full facts, including why these people were there and what exactly has transpired'', said agency spokesman Peter Stephens.

No official confirmation or explanation of the detentions came from Beijing and US officials were unavailable for comment.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who were in contact with US and Australian consular officials said the pair were being held for asking questions about the proposed bank project - an activity deemed inconsistent with their tourist visas.

Lafitte is a University of Melbourne researcher and Meston, a translator on leave from a private group arranging exchange programs for English teachers. The two met at a Tibetan development conference in the United States earlier this year and made plans to visit Dulan County.

They arrived in the remote region earlier this month and began interviewing officials and local residents about government and World Bank plans to resettle some 60,000 poor peasants from severely eroded hillsides to the arid plains which occupy about one-tenth of the Tibetan plateau.

According to the World Bank, the region is ''adjacent'' to Tibet proper, which China annexed in 1959. Sponsors of the bank project said the transmigration plan will fight poverty, but Tibet support groups saw it as part of an alleged government campaign to undermine Tibetan culture by tipping the demographic scales against the indigenous population.

Environmentalists also have accused the bank of skirting environmental rules and flirting with disaster in an ecologically fragile area. ''They didn't hide their intentions from anyone,'' John Ackerly, president of the US-based International Committee for Tibet, said of the two travelers. Before embarking on the trip, Lafitte met World Bank officials and they encouraged him to visit the area, Ackerly added.

''We were encouraging anybody to apply to the Chinese government for permission to visit the site,'' said Stephens, who confirmed Ackerly's account. ''We do believe that there should be open access to this site and the Chinese have said as much,'' Stephens added. ''It's up to the Chinese government to grant that access. We don't issue visas.''

The World Bank's executive board voted in late June to freeze the Dulan County resettlement plan pending an official investigation of NGO complaints against the scheme, but gave a go-ahead for other components of the $160-million ''China Western Poverty Reduction Project''.

At the June vote, Zhu Xian, Chinese representative on the 24-member board, said the government in Beijing welcomed scrutiny of the project. Authorities have since led journalists and other foreign observers on official tours of the project site and NGOs also would be granted access, officials said, as long as the groups were not deemed pro-Tibetan or anti-Chinese.

Lafitte was affiliated with an Australian Tibet support group and was widely regarded not as an activist but as a scholar, specializing in development issues of grasslands communities. He had previously visited China and Tibet without incident, according to colleagues and acquaintances.

Meston was born in Nepal to parents who were US citizens and he was raised in a Tibetan monastery, according to Ackerly. Although Meston and his wife, a Tibetan exile, were thought to oppose China's annexing of Tibet, he was not believed to have any political affiliations, had worked widely as a translator, and also visited China before.

''They've both spent time there and were very comfortable working within the boundaries [of conduct] laid down by the Chinese,'' Ackerly said of the two. ''They were not there to confront anybody or raise any political or human rights issues. They were just interested in looking at World Bank issues.''

Those issues - whether the bank fudged its environmental assessments, hid their findings from the public, and failed to assemble satisfactory plans to protect communities and ecosystems affected by the project - will be the subject of a probe by the bank's independent Inspection Panel.

Executive directors, at their June meeting on the project, requested the investigation of NGO complaints against the bank. In turn, bank management sought to quash the probe, arguing that complaints had been filed by foreign groups, not those based in the project area itself. Board members countered that if the complaints were deemed not eligible on those grounds, then executive directors themselves would sponsor an investigation.

But as a matter of procedure - characterized by one insider as ''nonsensical'' - the directors will have to decide next month whether the probe can proceed or whether they must, in effect, add their own names to the list of plaintiffs.

(Inter Press Service)

US Congressman Frank Wolf

8 October 1997

Travel Restrictions Target Americans

A hotel in Lhasa has been closed to foreign visitors and travel restrictions imposed on American tourists following a clandestine trip by a US Congressman to Tibet, according to unofficial reports from the region.

Armed troops in riot gear have been patrolling the streets of Lhasa, according to tourists returning from Tibet, where security measures were stepped up to deter unrest during the Party's five-yearly Congress in Beijing. Last week marked the tenth anniversary of major unrest in Lhasa which led to the re-emergence of the pro-independence movement in Tibet.

The Hotel Kyichu in the Barkor area of central Lhasa was ordered to close to foreigners from 22nd September, and Americans already in Lhasa as individual tourists were told to leave Tibet by the end of September, according to travel agents in Nepal. American tourists in the city are no longer entitled to visa extensions beyond this date, say the reports.

The restrictions are thought to be linked to a controversial visit by Frank Wolf, a US Congressman who spent four days in Tibet as a tourist from 9th August, accompanied by an aide and an American fluent in Tibetan. Wolf, who stayed in the Hotel Kyichu during his visit, held a press conference in Washington on 20th August describing his trip and criticising Chinese policies in Tibet.

China's official press agency issued at least eight articles condemning Wolf's trip, calling him a "slanderer" and describing his claims of human rights abuses as a "malicious attack", "sensational lies" and "claptrap".

"Republican representative Frank Wolf, who recently sneaked into Tibet in the disguise of a tourist, sensationally announced that during his four day tour of Tibet he saw that the region was being 'swallowed' by China through mass arrests and brutal repression and Tibetan language and culture were being destroyed," said Xinhua on 23rd August.

Tourists who were made to leave the Hotel Kyichu when the ban was imposed last week confirmed that the order was related to the Congressman, and said the hotel was expected to remain closed to foreigners for up to three months. "We were told that the hotel was closed down because of Congressman Wolf's visit," said one Westerner, who asked not to be named.

The Westerner said that the situation had been aggravated by the presence of two American film-makers who were travelling as tourists and who had moved into the hotel two weeks ago. Police carried out a late night raid on the hotel the night before the closure order, apparently because of suspicions aroused by the undercover film-makers.

At least six groups of westerners are known to have visited Tibet last month to film scenes for proposed documentaries or feature films about the situation there, part of a wave of commercial media interest in the subject expected to follow the release today of a Hollywood film about the Dalai Lama's tutor, Heinrich Harrer.

"There was a strong anti-foreigner, particularly anti-American, feeling in the capital," said the Westerner, who has visited the city several times in the last four years. "We could tell that the authorities were prepared to turn the screw at any time by expelling people from hotels, changing visa regulations, and so on. The streets were full of police officers and armed police," he added.

Another popular tourist hotel, the Snowlands Hotel, was also raided by police last week. "The Public Security Bureau came to the Snowland at 11.30 pm last Friday and went to every room and checked everyone's passport," said one tourist speaking from Kathmandu yesterday after returning from the region.

Two other tourists said that they had seen police in riot gear patrolling the streets of Lhasa at night from around 12th September, when the Party Congress began in Beijing. "They were patrolling in groups of six, wearing hard helmets with visors and carrying automatic weapons," said a European tour guide who led a group to Lhasa three weeks ago.

"They wore red arm bands, which we had not seen before and thought might be something to do with the Congress," she said. Armed patrols are unusual in Lhasa, where the authorities have tried to lower the profile of security operations since the early 1990s.

Another tourist reported that the patrols increased around 27th September, the anniversary of an incident in 1987 when police beat up 21 monks who had staged a small protest in the city centre, triggering off a series of more than 160 pro-independence demonstrations over the next nine years.

From at least 16th September the five star flag of the Chinese republic was hoisted from the top of the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama and the most prominent feature in the city, according to other tourists. "Hanging down the side of the Palace below the flag was a banner proclaiming the opening of the 15th Party Congress," said an English tourist who was in Lhasa on 18th September.

In September 1995 the Chinese authorities cleared a large parade ground in front of the palace and have been flying a state flag from a pole in the square, but this is believed to be the first time the flag has been flown from the Palace itself. In August last year officials who had moved into Drepung Monastery, 6 km west of Lhasa, erected a flag pole and hoisted the Chinese flag above the Ganden Podrang, a building which had housed the Tibetan Government in the 17th century before it moved to the Potala Palace.

Americans Facing Travel "Problems"

American tourists are no longer allowed to travel in Tibet as individuals, according to instructions passed on to travel agencies in Kathmandu by their Tibetan counterparts in Lhasa two weeks ago.

Since June this year, when new measures were introduced to deter unrest during the Hong Kong hand-over, individual tourists have no longer been allowed entry at the land border between Nepal and Tibet. But foreigners can still travel in Tibet as individuals if they pay a travel agency in Kathmandu or Chengdu to obtain a special permit direct from the Tibet Tourism Bureau in Lhasa.

These permits are now being denied to American tourists, who for the time being can visit Tibet only in scheduled tour groups, which are accompanied by a local guide and follow a strict itinerary.

"American nationals are experiencing a lot of problems in travelling to Tibet at the moment," the director of a Kathmandu travel company told TIN today. Last month one group of 14 Americans in Kathmandu was refused entry to Tibet as a group because one member of the group had written the wrong passport number on their application form, said the tour operator. "A lot of Americans who want to visit Tibet are crying in Nepal these days," he said.

The restriction on the special permits for American visitors does not apply to those on business visas or with official invitations, but businessman and other foreign residents in Lhasa are reported to be facing extra scrutiny in recent weeks, with some required to hand over details of their personal biographies to the police.

Congressman Wolf declined to make any comment on the latest reports, but a spokeswoman for his office in Washington said that they did not have any information about adverse consequences arising from his trip. "Mr Wolf would not have done anything that would have jeopardised anybody else's well-being," she said on Friday.

There were unconfirmed rumours that the travel agency that arranged Wolf's visit had been closed by the authorities for a brief period after his trip, but this could not be confirmed from London and the reports were strongly denied by Wolf's spokeswoman.

Travel agencies in Tibet are routinely closed down if they accept bookings from journalists or diplomats and in May 1994 the Linzhi Travel Agency, a Lhasa-based agency, was suspended after it arranged a tour for a group which turned out to include a US diplomat. All travel agencies were warned in a circular issued the same month that they would also face closure if they were found to have allowed diplomats or journalists to join their groups.

One of the statements issued by Xinhua in response to Wolf's visit revealed new information about political prisoners in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The article, issued on 30th August, admitted for the first time that there are three prisons in the region and said they hold between 1,700 and 1,800 prisoners, of whom 9%, or about 155, have been convicted of state security offences.

Until recently China has said it has only one prison in Tibet. The term "prison" is used by the Chinese only to describe labour-reform institutions for convicted prisoners, and is not used to describe to other kinds of detention centres.

Security was increased across China to mark its National Day on 1st October, and a Hong Kong magazine claimed last Thursday that "comparatively large-scale armed rebellions" took place in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia "just before National Day". The paper, the Oriental Daily News, offered few details of the incidents, but said that nine officials had been killed in the attacks. The report could not be confirmed.

-- end --

also online

a selection of further TIN images and reports on tourism

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© 1998 Tibet Information Network. All rights reserved.

http://www.tibetinfo.net

Human Rights Watch

Detained Tibetan at Risk of Mistreatment

(08/23/99) -- A Tibetan who was detained in China along with two foreigners investigating the impact of a World Bank project is at serious risk of torture or ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said today. The international monitoring group called on the World Bank along with the U.S. and Australian governments to make high level appeals for immediate access to the detained Tibetan translator, Tsering Dorje, and call for his release. Dorje was hired as a Chinese language translator by an American, Daja Meston, and an Australian, Gabriel Lafitte. All three men were picked up by Chinese state security officials in Xiangride, a town on the edge of the Bank project area in Qinghai province, on August 15, 1999. Dorje's current whereabouts are unknown.

We're relieved at China's decision to release Mr. Lafitte this past weekend. But we are deeply concerned about Tsering Dorje and the American still in custody. We've documented many cases of Tibetans being tortured during interrogation. There is real potential for those associated with foreigners considered ‘hostile' to China's official interests to be severely mistreated and given a long prison sentence. Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch

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"We're relieved at China's decision to release Mr. Lafitte this past weekend," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington Director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "But we are deeply concerned about Tsering Dorje and the American still in custody. We've documented many cases of Tibetans being tortured during interrogation. There is real potential for those associated with foreigners considered ‘hostile' to China's official interests to be severely mistreated and given a long prison sentence," he added.

Dorje, a teacher in his mid-twenties from a traditional Tibetan village, is a Chinese citizen. In October 1998, he served as an official translator for a delegation from the European Union visiting Qinghai province and Tibet. He has also provided translation assistance to private, Western-based humanitarian organizations working in China.

Gabriel Lafitte was released on August 21 and returned to Australia following high level appeals from the World Bank and interventions by the Australian government. Jiang Zemin, China's president, is due to arrive in Australia on September 5. Lafitte told Human Rights Watch that he was subject to hours of intense interrogation, though he was not physically mistreated. As a Tibetan and a Chinese citizen, Dorje is clearly at serious risk of the kinds of abuses Human Rights Watch has documented in prisons in Tibet and elsewhere in China including beatings, forced confessions, deprivation of proper medical care, and prolonged periods of isolation.

"The World Bank should make it clear that it will hold Beijing responsible for the mistreatment of either Chinese citizens or foreigners who try to visit the Bank-funded resettlement project," said Jendrzejczyk. "The Bank should warn Chinese officials that these abuses may make it difficult, if not impossible, for donors to fund the project."

On June 24, 1999, the World Bank's board of directors approved a $160 million poverty reduction project that includes plans for the voluntary resettling of 57,750 farmers to a traditionally Tibetan ethnic area of Qinghai province, on the condition that China would open up the project area to access by outside visitors.

Daja Meston, the U.S. citizen detained in Qinghai, remains in a Xining hospital, where he is being treated for a broken back and other serious injuries he received while in official custody. Chinese authorities say he jumped from the third floor while trying to escape. Human Rights Watch urged the U.S. to insist on a thorough investigation of all three men's detention and treatment in custody.

Amnestay International

AI Index: ASA 17/035/1999

23 August 1999

News Service: 160/99
AI INDEX: ASA 17/35/99
23 August 1999

PUBLIC STATEMENT

China

Tibetan translator must be released immediately

Amnesty International is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Tsering Dorjee, a 26 year-old Tibetan who was detained in Haixi prefecture, Qinghai province on 15 August.

Tsering Dorjee was acting as translator for two westerners -- Daja Meston of the USA and Gabriel Lafitte of Australia -- who were attempting to talk to local people about a controversial World Bank project in the region, when all three men were detained.

The human rights organization is urging the Chinese authorities to carry out an immediate investigation into the detentions and the circumstances which lead to Daja Meston sustaining serious spinal injuries. He reportedly jumped from a window to avoid detention by the police, and is said to be in a serious but stable condition.

Daja Meston's return to the USA is currently being negotiated. Gabriel Lafitte has already arrived back in Australia after being deported from China and banned from returning for five years.

According to the official Xinhua news agency Meston and Lafitte were "photographing in closed areas where clearly marked restriction signs were posted".

Background
Tsering Dorjee, a junior middle school teacher from Tsekok county, has also worked as a translator for Medecins Sans Frontieres and the European Union.

State dept. briefing on Daja Meston

World Tibet Network News Friday, August 27, 1999

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4. State dept. briefing on Daja Meston

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AUGUST 26, 1999
Briefer: JAMES B. FOLEY

QUESTION: New subject? Anything to say about the release of the American in
China?

MR. FOLEY: Yes. I won't be in a position to answer all of your questions on
that subject but I can confirm the basic thrust.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

MR. FOLEY: That's kind of what I was hinting at, Jonathan, about what I
can't say, and I'll tell you why. Because Mr. Meston and his wife have
requested that no additional information -- additional to what I am about
to give you -- be provided about their initial destination or other or
onward plans, and we are respecting that request.

In point of fact, we have been told that they are not giving us a Privacy
Act waiver to cover where they are now and where they may be headed and
what their plans are.

QUESTION: Well, the cat is kind of already out of the bag on that, and I
believe it was the embassy in Beijing which released that information.

MR. FOLEY: I have no knowledge that anyone officially has given any such
information, but certainly I am not in any position to.

What I can say is that the US Government is extremely pleased that the
Chinese Government has permitted Mr. Meston to depart Xining and seek
advanced care elsewhere.

QUESTION: Out of country?

MR. FOLEY: Again, I can't talk about where they've gone.

QUESTION: That's it?

MR. FOLEY: That's it.

QUESTION: I thought -- (inaudible) - but that's it.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Jim, do you know whether they've dismissed the charges?

MR. FOLEY: My understanding is that the investigation was resolved
immediately prior to Mr. Meston's departure from the hospital in Xining.
The Qinghai province's state security bureau required Mr. Meston's
confession of wrongdoing, apology and departure within 24 hours. He was
also advised that he must remain outside of China for five years.

QUESTION: Well, if he remains outside of China for - let's see if I can -
one and a half and one and a half, that sort of suggests that he's left
China.

(Laughter.)

MR. FOLEY: You can add and subtract and multiply all you want, Barry;
legitimately so, but --

QUESTION: (Inaudible) - rocket scientist. I know you're under strictures.

QUESTION: Didn't you say he left China?

MR. FOLEY: I said he left Xining.

QUESTION: Oh, I see.

QUESTION: They required his - can you say that again? They required his
admission?

MR. FOLEY: Confession of wrongdoing, apology and departure.

QUESTION: What did he do wrong?

MR. FOLEY: We understand from the Chinese that Mr. Meston admitted to being
in a restricted area. That's the extent of my knowledge.

QUESTION: The Privacy Act doesn't, I don't think, cover what the US thinks
about how Chinese authorities treat American citizens. Unless you want to
wait a while to say something, which is understandable, what is this? I
mean, your main concern was that he get the treatment he needs and get
where he has to go and get the case resolved. But I mean, does an American
citizen have to pay a price of confessing to things they may not have done?

MR. FOLEY: Well, that's not established, Barry.

QUESTION: It's not established that he did or didn't, but --

MR. FOLEY: I believe in the case of the --

QUESTION: It sounds like the Soviet Union in the old days: you sign a
confession and they throw you out of the country.

MR. FOLEY: Barry, I pointed out a few days ago a number of things, and they
remain true today. Number one, we're not commenting about the specific
circumstances of his detention and the circumstances that led to his being
injured; mostly because we do not have that information because we have not
discussed that in any kind of detail with Mr. Meston, primarily because we
and he and his wife believe that what has to be first addressed is his
medical condition. We will have time for that later.

But I've also said that we understand that China, as any other country
around the world, has a right to decide who enters their country, has a
right to enforce their laws. In the case of the Australian, he has said
publicly that he acknowledged that he had violated certain restrictions.
Whether that is - constitutes a violation of law or not, I can't say - it's
really a Chinese matter. What we were concerned with was his ability to
depart Xining and received specialized spinal treatment, first of all; and
secondly, that his case be resolved and he be allowed to leave the country.
That has happened and we're satisfied with that.

In terms of the circumstances of his detention, we'll be in a position to
address that down the road.

QUESTION: So you're not endorsing the way the Chinese have handled the
detention - the interrogation, of which Mr. Lafitte said was abusive; the
mysterious circumstances of Mr. Meston's fall and his horrible injury; or
the confession they required him to sign, an apology and promise not to
come back for five years? You're not somehow endorsing that whole
procedure, are you?

MR. FOLEY: Well you cover a lot of ground there. In terms of his fall, what
we've stated is that the doctors believe that his injuries occurred in a
manner consistent with the way the Chinese authorities described the
incident to us. On the matter of what preceded his apparent jumping and
injuring himself, we've been silent because we don't have that information
and we will explore that information with Mr. Meston at the appropriate
time. So we're not speaking about something we don't know about.

In terms of the confession of apparent violation of restrictions, I don't
think we take a position on that. We will know more down the road when we
have a chance to speak to Mr. Meston as to the nature of what he did in
China; whether indeed he did violate local laws or not, or whether those
laws were unfair or not. It's impossible to speculate on those matters at
this point.

QUESTION: Have you been led to understand that at some point in the future
there will be a Privacy Act waiver but not right now?

MR. FOLEY: I couldn't speculate on that either.

QUESTION: So you don't have any information?

MR. FOLEY: No, no.

QUESTION: On the dam project itself -- the US is still - what is the US --

MR. FOLEY: D-A-M you mean?

QUESTION: Not that damn project, but the dam project.

(Laughter.)

What is the current - I know you all attempted to oppose it at the World
Bank. How do you feel about it now?

MR. FOLEY: Well, it's true; we did oppose the loan when it was presented to
the World Bank board on June 22. Throughout the process we clearly stated
our concerns regarding the bank's failure to provide adequate documentation
about the consequences of the resettlement plan and the project's
environmental impact. At the time of the vote, we welcomed the assurances
of the Chinese Government that access to the project areas would be
facilitated. We'll continue to press the Chinese and the World Bank
regarding the need for access to the project areas.

My understanding is that also the World Bank created an inspection panel,
which we would expect would recommend the creation of an inspection team to
examine whether the project violates bank rules on resettlement
environmental classification. That is certainly our view and we will press
that within World Bank councils.

I have another point to make that I've forgotten to make in the last few
days which is of some, I think, concern to the Meston family. If you can
bear with me a second, I endeavor to find that. A fund has been established
at an NGO called the Bank Information Center to help cover the medical
expenses of Mr. Meston. He did not have health insurance, apparently. I'm
reading from a press release from the Bank Information Center. It's
expected, of course, that he's going to require extensive and intensive
medical care for his recovery.

I'm going to make this announcement from the Bank Information Center
available in the Press Office. Let me see if there's something I can
indicate here; no. It's the Bank Information Center at - I do this on
behalf of the family - is at 733 15th Street, Northwest, Suite 1126,
Washington, D.C., 20005.

My understanding is the Bank Information Center - I quote - "is an
independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides
information and strategic support to NGOs and social movements throughout
the world on the projects, policies and practices of the World Bank and the
other multilateral development banks."

QUESTION: Let me get this straight. They want us to publicize this NGO,
this fund and they won't release any information about the extent of his
injuries or anything like that?

MR. FOLEY: Well, I believe the request comes from the Bank Information Center.

QUESTION: Well, you said --

MR. FOLEY: I perhaps misspoke in referring to the family itself, which is
concentrating on his immediate status and treatment. But the friends of the
family, at least in the form of this NGO, are aware of the fact that he
does not have health insurance. Given the nature of his spinal injuries,
the cost could be enormous.

QUESTION: Right, but perhaps the State Department might tell them that
people would probably be a little more willing to donate money to such a
fund if they had an idea of exactly how bad and exactly what his injuries
were.

MR. FOLEY: I'm sorry, I don't think that every citizen who might be
interested in contributing to this fund necessarily shares the professional
concerns of the journalists in this room.

QUESTION: No, no, no; that's not what I'm suggesting.

MR. FOLEY: The fact is if they want their privacy respected at the moment
for several days, however long they want, I think in the circumstances we
ought to respect that.

QUESTION: Jim, is that the NGO that sent him over there to do this?

MR. FOLEY: I don't believe so, but I would have to check on that.

QUESTION: It sounds like that's exactly what he was doing.

QUESTION: Jim, Mr. Meston is, as you say, you can not reveal his
whereabouts. But he is in the hospital someplace in the West or someplace
where the - okay -

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Someplace in the world.

QUESTION: He's somewhere in the world in a good hospital; can you say that
much? True or false, is Mr. Meston in a good hospital somewhere outside of
China; is that true?

MR. FOLEY: I can only repeat for you, Bill, the precise words I used, if I
can find those eloquent words. The Chinese Government has permitted Mr.
Meston to depart Xining and seek advanced care elsewhere.

U.S. Pleased With China's Release Of Injured Researcher

WASHINGTON, Aug 27, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The United States said
Thursday that it was "extremely pleased" with the release by China of U.S.
researcher Daja Meston who was seriously injured while apparently trying to
escape Chinese security officials.

"The U.S. government is extremely pleased that the Chinese government has
permitted Mr. Meston to depart Xining and seek advanced care elsewhere,
again, out of country," State Department spokesman James Foley said.

Meston, 29, was one of two Western researchers detained last week for
allegedly conducting illegal investigations into a World Bank project in
Qinghai province to relocate 60,000 people near Tibet.

Foley said that at the request of Meston and his wife, he would not say
anything about the researcher's current whereabouts after he was evacuated
from a hospital in the northern city of Xining.

The spokesman said Chinese authorities "required Mr. Meston's confession of
wrongdoing, apology and departure within 24 hours" and said the American
admitted to being in a restricted area.

Meston was also advised that "he must remain outside of China for five
years," Foley said.

According to Chinese authorities, Meston was seriously injured when he
leapt from a hotel window while trying to escape.

Gabriel Lafitte, an Australian research associate at the University of
Melbourne in his early 50s who was detained with Meston, was released at
the weekend and returned to Australia. He told reporters he had been denied
sleep but had not been physically abused during a week of captivity.

Human rights groups have expressed concern for the translator of the two
researchers, saying Chinese citizen and ethnic Tibetan, Tsering Dorje, is
"at serious risk of torture" by Chinese police and have called for his
release.

Lafitte said he last saw a dejected Dorje being taken away by security
officials on August 21 while they were being taken to Xining from Dulan in
separate vehicles.

China insists the two foreigners "candidly confessed their illegal
activities," which included interviewing residents and photographing in
clearly restricted areas without prior approval after entering China on
tourist visas.

Lafitte was preparing research for a World Bank inspection panel that
proposes to resettle nearly 58,000 people from overpopulated Qinghai to the
resource-rich but sparsely populated Dulan in the province's center.

The $160-million-dollar project's goal is poverty alleviation, of which $40
million would be directly pumped into the Dulan region.

Xinning Express by Carl Williams

On Thursday, August 26, 1999 my phone rang. It was pretty early in the morning, 9 AM or so. I was completely asleep. I had just quit a contract I was working on and almost didn’t answer the phone because I thought it might be an unpleasant situation with my former employer. I did answer (mostly because I was in a sleep daze). It was Phuntsok Dolma Kim Meston. Phuntsok is an active member of the Tibetan community in Boston and nationally. She is also a good friend. She was quite upset. She told me that her husband Daja Wangchuk Mizu Meston was detained in Xining, Qinghi Province, China.

Wangchuk is an American who was a Tibetan Buddhist monk at Kopan Monastery in Katmandu, Nepal. His first language was Tibetan (Nepali, Hindi, English, and Italian were his 2^nd through 5^th languages). He is generally considered to be the most skilled Tibetan linguist of any non-Tibetan in the world. All of this makes Wangchuk uniquely qualified to research the proposed World Bank Project in Dulan County in Qinghi. Wangchuk went to Qinghi this summer with Gabriel Laffitte (a China/Tibet expert) to find out what impact this project would have on the local environment, the people and the culture. Dulan county is located outside the so-called Tibetan Autonomous Region but inside what some refer to as "Greater Tibet." It is an area that was inhabited traditionally by Tibetans before the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Anyway, that is Wangchuk and that is the project. But I should get back to Phuntsok’s phone call. She was very worried about her husband’s safety. I asked her if she was OK and had she eaten or slept since she had found out several days before. She gave me the idea that she hadn’t. I decided to go with mutual friend Carla Bernardes to her home and bring some food. We got there and it was a media circus. At least 10 calls came in from newspapers, TV and radio stations. Carla and I were doing our level best to try to shield Phuntsok from this onslaught. I did two or three interviews. We left later that night and promised to return the next day. Later Phuntsok was horrified to find out that somehow Wangchuk had been injured. He fell 30 feet from a window in the hotel where he was being detained. His spine was broken his heels shattered, his liver lacerated and his spleen was so damaged that it had to be removed.

I came back the next day, Friday, and Phuntsok was working on actually going to China to facilitate Wangchuk’s release and medical care. She thought it best not to go alone, for security reasons and for simple peace of mind. I think the idea of going to China under such circumstances scared the willies out of her. I know for certain that it scared the willies out of me. For some reason I am still unsure of Phuntsok asked me if I would go with her, me who speaks all of 5 words of Chinese and has the diplomatic skills of a battering ram. I think she felt that since I had been to Qinghi before and since I knew something of the political situation I would be of some use.

I remember saying, "Yes" right away. I just don’t remember why I said, "Yes". I think it was because I thought it wouldn’t pan out: somebody more qualified would be found, I wouldn’t be allowed entry, someone would stop this madness. Well, none of those things happened. When it later became more apparent that I was actually going, I remember my first worry:

What if I get arrested!

What would happen? What would people back in the States do? What would I want them to do? I knew what I wanted them to do. Raise a M-----F---ing ruckus! Protest, demonstrate, vigil, write letters, work the phones, and scream! No, actually scratch all that. I would want something before all that:

I would want someone to come and get me!

Then I stopped and realized that is what my friend Wangchuk must be thinking now, and that is want he must have been thinking for the past week. I realized that I really had no choice. How could I possibly say "No?" I felt pleased that I could be one of those able to help in such a way. I was also scared out of my wits!

The next day everything was arranged. Phuntsok and I flew to NYC where we went to the Chinese Consulate a building I have protested at many times. She was granted an emergency visa by the Chinese Government for humanitarian reasons. I was not given a visa. The People’s Republic of China felt that Phuntsok did not need any accompaniment. Phuntsok and I felt differently. We quickly hatched a plan to resolve this problem. Phuntsok would fly to Beijing as planned. I would fly to Hong Kong (for which US Citizens need no visa) and then get a visa there for Mainland China. In Hong Kong this is a few hour process. In the US it is a process of a few days (sometimes few weeks). Then I would fly out on the next available plane to Beijing and meet Phuntsok.

I left Phuntsok in NYC and flew to Hong Kong. When I landed in Hong Kong over 20 hours later, there was a monsoon going on. An Air China plane flipped over on a runway a few hours before I landed. There were a couple of deaths and over a hundred injured. I planned to stay at a friend of a friend’s apartment in Hong Kong. I arrived there at about 6 AM. She welcomed me and made me a great breakfast. She let me know where to get a visa the most quickly and where to get an onward ticket to Beijing. After breakfast and calling around to set all this up it was about 9. By 4 that afternoon I had my passport stamped with a three month visa for China and held a one-way ticket to Beijing in my hand. I was exhausted! I said that I would just like to rest for a bit. At 7PM I was informed that there was going to be a party tonight at the house where I was staying! I was not exactly up to it, but really couldn’t question it. About a dozen or so people showed up. All of them were older (in their 40’s and 50’s). The only person my age was someone’s daughter who was invited. I talked to her most of the night. Before the party I was told that a lot of the attendees were reporters or were otherwise ‘connected’, and that these people would not be the best group to talk to about the exact nature of my trip. So aside from being exhausted, I had to lie all night. I am an awful liar. My story basically came out as this:

I am going to Beijing, Xi’an, and Xining for 4 days. I had been to all of these places before, but I wanted to see them again for some reason.

It was a pretty feeble story. And I felt bad about telling it. Near the end of the night the young woman asked me why I had a "Mickey Mouse" watch on. I replied "It is my special protection ‘Mickey Mouse’ watch." My roommate Pia gave me the watch for protection/good luck. She was worried about me going on the trip. "Protection, protection from what?" my newly made party friend asked. "Umm... everything I have told you about my trip has basically been a lie" I said, and proceeded to tell her the true situation. I told you I was a bad liar.

The next day I woke to another great breakfast - Cranberry pancakes, yum! I set off for the airport by taxi and train. I got to the airport about an hour before the flight, but the place was havoc. There were hundreds and hundreds of people who had been stranded because of the plane accident. They had shut down the airport and canceled a bunch of flights. All of the people seemed to be in front of the China Air desk. I was battling for the attention of the clerk with about 150 other people and I was not on the winning end of the battle. If I speak 5 words of Chinese they are all words in Mandarin and in Hong Kong people usually speak Cantonese. The clerk wanted nothing to do with any of the people there that day much less some American, who was getting progressively later and later for his plane. After about a half hour I finally got her attention and showed her my ticket to attempt to get a boarding pass. She took a one second glance at the ticket and said "China Air. This is Air China, you need to go to China Air ... G5." We, of course were at something like B2. All I knew at that point was that the distance between B2 and G5 was greater than the amount of time between that time and the time when my flight would take off. When I arrived at the China Air desk I was informed, "You missed this flight." Yes, I was aware of that. Was there another flight to Beijing leaving soon? She informed me that there was one leaving in 2 hours.

I FINALLY arrived at the Beijing airport. I quickly changed some dollars for Renimbi and got a cab to the American Embassy where I was to meet Phuntsok. When I got there I called Jim Heller, the Vice Consul General. He brought me inside and told me that Phuntsok had returned to the hotel. He mentioned that he and his boss, the Consul General wanted to speak to me. He proceeded to tell me that it was a bad idea for me to go to Xining with Phuntsok, that Chinese officials would feel uncomfortable/offended by my presence. Although, he added (several dozen times), "You are a free American citizen and you can do anything you want." After the tenth or so time he told me that I suggested he get it printed on a card and just show it to people instead of always saying it. I told him that he would have to talk to Phuntsok because I was leaving the decision up to her whether I was going or not. Then the Consul General gave me the same speech and he actually used the "You are a free American citizen..." comment. I think they teach them that at Foreign Service school. At one point the Vice Consul asked me: "We don’t have a file on you or anything, but ... could you be connected to any anti-China or anti-Tibet groups?" Being confused by his misstatement I paused. "Umm.... noooo."

Strange.

Then he asked if I was sure that I wanted to go to the hotel to see Phuntsok. I had traveled, literally, to the other side of the planet to meet her here and now he is asking me if I am sure I want to go to see her? "Yes", I told him I was sure. He said that there was no turning back, because once I went to the hotel I would be under the same level of surveillance that she was. She had been followed, videotaped, and photographed, since shortly after her arrival in Beijing. I was still sure. We jumped in a cab and went to the hotel. We met later that night with Jim Levy, a consular official who has just returned from seeing Wangchuk in Xining. He told use of all his involvement in the case. He handed all of his documentation to Jim Heller because Vice-Consul Heller was going to deal with the case from this point. Jim Levy told us that Wangchuk was fine and in stable condition and was being treated well. He knew that we were coming and was pleased. Then in an Alice-in-Wonderland-esque scenario Jim Levy popped out with the "You are a free American citizen..." speech. He actually said this. I was dizzy. If their primary purpose was to make me think that every Embassy official in the world was a parrot they succeeded.

Anyway, we made a couple of phone calls to the States and asked advice on whether I should go. Answer: Go. We had concerns about the phones being bugged, because of the number of people following us whenever we left the hotel and the echoes on the phone which I had never heard before on Chinese phones. And about the hotel room itself being bugged.

We left the next morning with Jim Heller to Beijing Airport to catch a flight to Xining. Jim checked his bag. It is a lifetime rule of mine NEVER to check baggage, simply for the time and high rate of loss. Jim said that he was checking his bags and that we should also. Strange we thought, but we checked our bags too. Later, I realized that this was a terrible idea. The guys following us would, of course, go through, and probably videotape, all of our bag’s contents. Well, I hope they liked the "Rage against the Machine" CD that I had in there. I particularly recommend the final cut: "Freedom!" All the time we were in the airport Phuntsok kept whispering things like: "Don’t turn around but they are videotaping you right now!" Phuntsok knew the face and attire of each of the people following us. I would say she was paranoid about it but there were actually people following us, so I suppose she was just being realistic. She even noticed when one of the agents dipped into the bathroom and emerged in a new outfit in an attempt, we supposed, to remain unnoticed.

Weird.

While walking to our gate I was shocked to see a Tibetan Buddhist Lama. The idea that a Lama would be walking around Beijing and that we would happen to bump into one at the airport seems VERY fishy to me. So I was quite shocked to see him board our plane several minutes later. During the flight Phuntsok wanted to make eye contact with him on a trip to the bathroom. I said that this wouldn’t be a great idea. If he really wasn’t a monk it would be a dangerous gesture, and if he was a monk it was probably a more dangerous gesture. Weird, anyway.

Around midday we landed at the tiny Xining airport. We made our way to the baggage claim. Then out of the airport. We were expecting someone from the regional branch of the Chinese Foreign Ministry to meet us there. There were also about 15 others there who didn’t introduce themselves, as they were busy videotaping and photographing us. Phuntsok and Jim Heller were ushered into a waiting Volkswagen sedan. I was directed (by Jim Heller) into a forest green Jeep Cherokee with tinted windows. "Hey this is just like the ones the death squads use in Central America" I thought. Then I stopped thinking along those lines because it was simply too worrisome. Up until this point we had felt reasonably safe well as safe as one can feel with a half dozen people following you. But we knew that nothing could happen to us because we were with the American Vice Consul, who a few steps below the American Ambassador in rank. If anything happened in his presence in would be a MAJOR international incident. Now I was in a truck with a driver and a person who said he was with the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Fear factor was about an 8 at this point.

Scary, very scary.

My Jeep takes off after the VW. I am sitting in back with the Foreign Ministry guy. In front is the driver and the guy who was videotaping us! He even had the audacity to get in the truck WITH the video camera. At least he could have put in the trunk. Maybe there is some cultural thing in China that allows for you to videotape a person for security reasons then sit in the same car with them for a ride, but I never read anything about it!

Bizarre.

The guy from the Foreign Ministry introduces himself in passable English. I reply. We go directly to the hospital because Phuntsok had insisted that we go directly from the airport. When we arrive at the airport I am told by Jim Heller that I must wait in the car. Who does he work for again? And what happened to me being a free American citizen?). Phuntsok comes up to me from her car and looks very worried. She talks a little and she is obviously very scared. I try to console her, which is a tall order because it is quite possible that I am more scared than she is. I tell her to play it cool when she sees Wangchuk. I tell her that he probably looks bad, and that he is probably not in the best of moods. Then Phuntsok, Jim Heller and the ‘minders’ all enter the hospital. I wait for nearly 2 hours in the jeep with ‘my’ driver. I begin to wonder who the driver is and what he thinks of me. All of a sudden he starts asking me questions not in any interrogation type of way, but in a I-am-a-bored-guy-who-drives-a-Jeep-for-the-government kind of way. He asked me (through the use of my trusty Lonely Planet Phrasebook) my name, and what country I was from, how old I was, and what I did for a living (Carl, USA, 30, computer programmer, in case you didn’t already know). I asked him what he did and how old he was. He seemed genuinely unaware of what was going on inside the hospital.

Strange.

Phuntsok and her entourage emerge from the hospital. She hurries over to the Jeep I am in. When I look at her she looks exactly like I think a person would look when they had no more tears left to cry. Her eyes were swollen, puffy and red, but almost totally dry. It seemed that she walked into a mini-self-contained hell, hung out for a half-hour and then left. From her descriptions later and from Wangchuk’s that is not really far from the reality. She and Jim Heller jump back into the VW sedan, and I don’t have to jump in to anything. I was in the same damn Jeep for about 3 hours. We drive to the Xining Hotel. I am just with the driver and the Foreign Ministry official. He seems to like to tag-along, someone who was invited out of formality but has no real say over anything that is going on. It seems clear that Chinese State Security is running the show (are literally running the hospital, and have quite a bit of pull on what the American Embassy does). About half way to the hotel the sedan caring Phuntsok went straight and my jeep abruptly turned left. I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder if they are taking me away to kill me, or if they are taking her away?" I realized she was with our insurance plan (the Vice-Counsel), so I was the one in danger. Fear factor is 10 now. A raw bone chilling 10. For some reason that I don’t really understand now, I figured it was a good play not to LOOK like I was as scared as I was. So I put on my I-have-seen-people-stabbed and I-have-been-very-close-to-people-who-have-been-shot, so this stuff isn’t worrying me. It didn’t work. I still must have looked like Bambi caught in the forest fire because the Foreign Ministry guy looks at me chuckles and says "No, we are just going to my office, then you go to your hotel." Yeah, I knew that. I was just testing my fear reflexes in case I needed them later. They seem to be working quite OK.

Smooth. Very smooth.

Back at the hotel Phuntsok tells me she is quite worried about Wangchuk. They have him surrounded with a crazy amount of security and he is routinely videotaped, photographed, and tape-recorded. Also, according to Phuntsok, some of the so-called medical staff at the hospital are actually not medical staff. She said that one night longer was too long for him to remain there. We decided to tell Jim Heller that he must negotiate an immediate (like, today) release of Wangchuk. We figured if we demanded a release "today", we could reasonably expect to get him out in the next few of days. Over the next 38 hours the three of us (Jim Heller, Phuntsok, and myself) made the arrangements needed to get Wangchuk medivac-ed out of Mainland China to Hong Kong. A company called AEA (Asian Emergency Agency) was chosen to handle all the scheduling, logistics and permits for the evacuation. Jim Heller stayed up late into the night to help coordinate with Chinese State Security, the Foreign Ministry and AEA. One time he rushed into our hotel room to tell us that everything was "Go, go, go!" at about 3AM. He was wearing gray sweatpants and a Foreign Service T-shirt emblazoned with the seal of the United States on it. He actually sleeps in uniform.

Shaky. Pretty shaky.

Everything was set for the evacuation of Wangchuk. In a chartered Learjet, with a hired doctor and nurse, was to fly from Beijing to Xining at 8AM. We were to get Wangchuk at about 10AM and bring him to the airport around midday. The plane was then to fly from Xining to Xi’an, then to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong an ambulance was to take Wangchuk and Phuntsok to the Hong Kong Baptist Hospital. Wangchuk would stay at the hospital long enough to prepare for the long journey to the U.S. All of that worked quite nicely except for the fact that Learjets are small, really small. So, with Wangchuk on a stretcher and the medical team stuffed in, there would be no room for me. That was OK, because AEA gave me the times of two commercial flights that would get me to Hong Kong at about the same time as Wangchuk and Phuntsok. So, on the day of the evacuation I had to leave the hotel a bit earlier than Phuntsok. I went to the Xining airport to catch the 9AM flight that AEA told me would be going to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The only problem was that there was no flight at 9 or 10 or 11 or even at 12. The flight leaving to Guangzhou was leaving at 12:30pm. I found this out after about a half hour of struggling with my horrible Chinese and a phrasebook, that every one insists on reading from cover to cover even though you are only pointing to the Chinese characters from "What time is the flight?" The awkward thing about waiting in an airport for 4 hours under these circumstances is the guys who are following you look quite apparent. Picture the smallest airport you have ever been in, now imagine being there 2 minutes after it opened, then visualize two guys with no luggage sitting there watching you and trying pretty hard to look like they are not watching you. Also there is NO ONE else in the airport except for ticket agents, people washing the windows and sweeping the floor, and all of them are in the same baby blue and navy blue uniforms. I actually felt bad for the guys following me. So I figured I would take them for a walk. After reading the only English language newspaper I could find (by the way according to the paper it seems that production is up in EVERY part of China in almost every conceivable way). I got up quickly and walked outside to Arrivals (a separate building that is next to Departures. The followers tried not to run after me immediately. They waited until I was out of the building to run after me. I dipped behind an indent between the two buildings and waited for the show. One of the followers came out to scan the parking lot at the same time making quite sure he did not look like he was doing this. He did a pretty good job, except that he was looking at an almost totally empty parking lot, the only car there was his VW Sapporo with tinted windows, for about 5 minutes. I then stepped out casually from the side of the building (well as casually as someone could that is caring a 35 pound bag and is hiding from a State Security agent). I contained my laughter because somehow I felt that there was a fine line between running and hiding from secret agents and actually laughing openly at them. Later I took a few of pictures of the agents by acting like I was taking pictures of a gazebo on a hill.

Anyway.

I finally got on my plane. And left the agents at the airport. I flew to Guongzhou, then to Hong Kong and then took a taxi to the Baptist Hospital. When I walked up the stairs and entered the hospital there was a gurney being wheeled by. It was Wangchuk. This was the first time I had seen him since we shot pool months ago with friends in Boston. Coincidentally, he was arriving at precisely the same moment that I was. For me it was a trip over 8 hours, and I walked in at the exact second he arrives.

Coincidence? Or something more?

I caught up to Phuntsok who was registering at a desk. She had a gaggle of consular officials around her (Jim Heller had flown back to Beijing). The people from the Consulate seemed to want to be helpful, but Phuntsok had had just about enough help from the US government. She was treating them slightly under the level most people would refer to as politely. They were asking the doctor what Wangchuk’s condition was and what test or procedures the hospital would be planning. The doctor was answering. I mentioned to Phuntsok that she might want to tell the doctor that this information was private and the Consulate had no business knowing or even asking about it. She did and then we made our escape to the room that Wangchuk was assigned. This was the first time that Wangchuk could speak with some degree of freedom. You could easily see the delight in his face to be away from Mainland China. He spoke little of the detention or of his medical treatment. He seemed tickled pink with simple pleasures. He kept playing with the remote control that adjusted his bed. I remember him saying "I was in Hell for two weeks ... this is heaven!" Later, he spoke of his one real concern. He was worried about the fate of Tsering Dorje. Tsering is the Tibetan that was detained along with Wangchuk. He was simply translating (Chinese), but, solely because of his ethnicity, would likely be treated much more severely. No person or organization has received any information about Tsering since he was detained. Moreover the Government of the People’s Republic of China has not even publicly acknowledged his detention. He is, for all purposes, "disappeared."

Worrisome. Very worrisome.

The doctors took some x-rays to make sure that Wangchuk would be OK for the trip to the US. He was fitted with a short body cast. I left 2 days before Wangchuk and Phuntsok. They needed to wait to get all the details sorted out for the commercial flight that would take Wangchuk from Hong Kong to California and the private plane the would take him the rest of the way home. So, I made my escape to the Hong Kong airport one day after I had landed in Hong Kong. I jumped on the first plane headed to the US and then caught a connection in L.A. to bring me to Boston.

Home. Finally home.

Wangchuk arrived, with a lot of media attention, several days later. He was OK and pleased to see all of the well-wishers. There were a number of squabbles going on among supporters as to the most effective plan of action. But none of that really matters. Wangchuk was home (almost home, he was admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital). He was safe, in medically stable condition, and on the road to a good recovery.

Great. Everything is great.

Almost.

Tsering Dorje is still in incommunicado detention. The Meston family is looking at a $100,000+ bill for evacuation and medical costs. The World Bank is debating the Dulan resettlement project. Tibet is still the site of numerous gross human rights violations.

Help. You can help.

---

1. Demand Tsering Dorje’s release. (Please do not write, Tsering was released in 1999)

Write to:

His Excellency Jiang Zemin, President of the People’s Republic of China
Guojia Zhuxi
Beijingshi
The People’s Republic of China

Premier Zhu Rongji
c/o The Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20008

The United States of America

2. Donate to the Daja Wangchuk Meston Fund
at the Bank Information Center, a Washington DC based non-profit).
Make checks payable to:

"BIC/Daja Meston Fund"

· Bank Information Center
733 15^th Street N.W., Suite 1126
Washington, DC 20005
202 737 7752

3. Work tirelessly for the defense of basic human rights in Tibet, China and worldwide. Learn and take action at:

· www.savetibet.org

www.tibet.org/sft

www.amnesty.org

I would like to thank Phuntsok Meston for her admirable bravery in the face of such adversity, and Wangchuk Meston for his stunning heroism and courage.

Lastly, all of those who were supportive of us during our stay in China, I wouldn’t have been able to make it without knowing there were people at home ready to raise a little hell if anything went wrong. I think Phuntsok, with the help of many people, may have saved her husband’s life. And that makes her...hopeful... very hopeful.

· Carl Williams
Friend of the Meston Family
Member of Amnesty International Group 133
and Member of Students of a Free Tibet