(Please contact Free Tibet Campaign if acting after 31 March 2004)

Phuntsog Nyidrol, 37, the last of the 'Drapchi 14' group of imprisoned nuns, was released on 26 February 2004 following an international campaign on her behalf by Free Tibet Campaign and other human rights organisations. She was released one year early having served 15 years in Drapchi prison in Tibet for peaceful protest. According to official Chinese statements, she had been due for release on 21 March 2005.

Ngawang Sangdrol described Phuntsog Nyidrol in 2002 as being in"very poor health" and "terribly affected psychologically by prison beatings and torture". Phuntsog may still be in dire need of medical attention.

Phuntsog Nyidrol was arrested in Lhasa in 1989 when she was just 20 years old after taking part in a peaceful protest. She was originally sentenced to eight years. Her sentence was extended by a further eight years after she joined 13 other nuns in secretly recording pro-independence songs that were smuggled out to the outside world in 1993. All received sentence extensions for taking part in the recordings. Phuntsog was given a one year sentence reduction in 2001, for apparently showing repentence. Her release brings the total number of early releases of Tibetan political prisoners to 13 since 2002, five of whom were fellow 'Drapchi 14' nuns.

The timing of Phuntsog's release is significant, as it could be viewed as an attempt by China to take the heat off its human rights record, criticised as "poor" in the US State Department's annual Country Report on Human Rights, published on 25 February. This report is thought to lay the path for the US to table a critical resolution on China at the UN Commission of Human Rights meeting in Geneva (15 March - 23 April). 26 February also marked the start of the bi-annual EU-China human rights dialogue in Ireland. This dialogue has been much criticised by NGOs for failing to produce substantive results. Indeed, the USA has declined to accept China's invitation to resume a bilateral dialogue on human rights because of 'backsliding' on commitments.

Free Tibet Campaign would like to thank all those who wrote on Phuntsog Nyidrol's behalf. We welcome her release, but urge the Chinese authorities to allow her to leave the country if she chooses, whether for medical treatment or to escape the oppression that ex-political prisoners experience. "The lack of freedom in Tibet is especially dire for former political prisoners. I can say from my own experience that this is precisely the situation in which Phuntsog Nyidrol will now find herself," said Ngawang Sangdrol when she heard the news.

Please write to those listed below with the following demands: