(TibetanReview.net, Aug08, 2018) – The whereabouts of a Tibetan businessman active in initiatives to protect Tibet’s environment and culture continues to remain unknown more than four months after he was taken away from Lhasa’s Gongkar Airport at the end of Mar 2018, reported the Tibetan Service of Voice of Tibet, Oslo, Aug 6.
The report said Tenzin Choephel, in his 40’s and who belongs to Nagchu City of Tibet Autonomous Region, was searched as soon as his flight from Chengdu landed, leading to seizure of some politically related literature the Chinese government considered subversive.
Chinese police then followed it up by breaking into his house in Nagchu Chenguan and seized more literature and photos of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
The unmarried businessman originally belongs to Sharong Tachen Village No. 5 in Nagchu County.
His friends and relatives are said to be seriously concerned about his situation, given the fact that the Chinese authorities are known to severely tortures detainees for long periods of time before finally working out a way to get them convicted and jailed. No information is given for the illegal detention and the detainee’s whereabouts all this while.
Choephel is known to use his personal wealth on projects to protect Tibet’s environment and cultureas well as on philanthropy.
“He has also worked hard to promote the unity of the Tibetan people,” the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Aug 6 quoted a local source as saying, adding, “Several years ago, and at his own expense, he successfully lobbied Chinese officials from the county up to the prefectural level to protect sacred mountains in Nagchu from mining projects.”
