THE STATEMENT OF 
ANI PACHEN
BEFORE
THE CONGRESSIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS CAUCUS
June 24, 1998

I am from Gojo, Kham, in Eastern Tibet and come from the Pomdha Tsang 
family, which was one of the nine traditional chieftains in our region.  I was 
the only child in my family, after the only son died very early.

I had my early education from our family priest.  From a young age I wanted 
to devote my life to religious pursuit, but since I was the only child, my 
family wanted me to marry.  They made a plan to send me to the nearby town 
of Markham as a bride.  So for some years I stayed at home looking after 
household chores.

In 1958, the Chinese forces came.  Using force, the occupied Xining and other 
Amdo areas, advanced forward to Derge in Khan in Eastern Tibet.  People 
were imprisoned.  All those people who tried to protect Tibet's religion and 
polity, the people who mattered, were killed or arrested.  Monasteries were 
destroyed.  Gold and silver statues and artifacts were carted to China.  Utterly 
shocked, people said that it was now time for all the groups in Gojo to unite.

All the chieftains in Gojo decided to fight the Chinese in unison under the 
command of my father, Gonpo Norbu and Ana Pon.  An organization was 
formed and plans made.

At that time, I had no responsibility.  Then my father suffered from 
depression and water disease.  He died eventually.

When my father died, the other chieftains and people of Gojo said that the 
organization, its plans and execution, etc...must be taken over by me.  So I 
took over the command.  Since I was the only child of the family, my father 
had taught me to use guns, etc.

I reorganized the force, consisting of my own people as well as of the other 
chieftains.  I sent half the force to lower Gojo and took the remaining half 
(among my people there were farmers and nomads) to the border point 
between the nomadic and agricultural lands.

The fight in lower Gojo dragged on and on.  I was responsible for providing 
whatever was needed for the Gojo organization: dispatching fighters, making 
sure that we were able to defend our land, so on and so forth.

In lower Gojo the fight had dragged on for some months.  Gradually, the 
Chinese advanced.

Now that Gojo was falling to the advancing Chinese troops, we decided to 
join forces with the forces from the neighboring areas and marched 
upcountry.  Now we could not hold out position, we were losing our lands 
from every direction, we said.  Now we, including the forces of Derge, 
Lingkha Shipa and that of Chief Phurba Pon from Markham, joined together 
and decided to go upcountry, from where we would proceed to India, to a 
foreign country.

The Chinese pursued us.  We had to cross a pass.  The scouts moved a little 
distance ahead, followed by the rear-guards.  We stayed with the rear-guards.  
The hills were littered with troops.  We fired side by side.  My gun had a short 
range.  I did not know whether I managed to hit anyone.  According to my 
estimate, I did not hit anyone.  We fired side by side.

One morning, just as we were crossing a pass, the Chinese captured us.

We were imprisoned in a village between Nyulchu and Rhob. Then there 
were interrogations.  I was beaten with sticks.  My eyeballs felt as if they were 
going to come out.  My eyes were swollen and bruised.

Then, we were all lined up and bound this way with ropes.  We were taken to 
a prison in Chamdo on 250 army vehicles.  We remained there for several 
months.  Then, they said that our crimes would have to be confessed.  We 
were struggled with, beaten, suspended upside-down from the ceiling, some 
were shackled, others were tied back.  I was shackled for over a year.  During 
that time, we were struggled with, I lost my hair, interrogated.  Sometimes, 
the same question was asked during two or three interrogation sessions a day.  
Psychological pressure was exerted.  Even worse than beating is the 
psychological pressure: you did this and you did that, give away the names of 
other people, etc.  It made me so depressed and almost drove me mad.  My 
sentence was increased by three more years.  I suffered enormously for want 
of adequate food, shelter and clothes.  And I was beaten.  As for me, only my 
legs were shackled. Some prisoners has both their hands and legs shackled.  
Some were tied in the air with their legs suspending in the air.

Now, if one was suspended like this for a long time, one would fall 
unconscious.  As I fell unconscious, they would lower me on the ground and 
revive me with a splash of cold water.  Then, I would be interrogated.  Since I 
could not answer their questions, they would accuse me of not telling them 
the truth and pull me up in the air, once again.  They did this to me many 
times, almost once every week or two.

Then, I had to stay in a dark cell.  Now, in that cell there was a tin for 
defecating, which was not cleaned for some twenty days.  Insects buzzed about 
it.  Occasionally, when I was taken out in the light, I felt dizzy and saw red 
everywhere.  I felt a pang of pain in my stomach, because there was no food in 
my stomach.

Now, Tibet, as you know, is a cold region.  So, the iron shackles made us feel 
cold.  Besides, there was no food in my stomach.  I would fall unconscious 
from time to time. Some inmates told me that they even felt tempted to eat 
their own feces.  Such was the hunger in the prison.

Then, finally, the sentence was passed and I was sent to a labor camp.  
Thereafter, they said that I had not reformed my mind thoroughly, that I was 
hoarding empty hopes, that I was hoping for the return of the Dalai Lama and 
the revival of the old Tibet through foreign help, that I had told others that 
they should not lose their determination and the Dalai Lama would come 
back, that I had been praying and reciting mantras, etc.  They said that I had 
exploited and persecuted those people, you those people who say such an 
such is good, such an such is bad, the double-headed sort.  My sentence was 
increased by three more years.  Some years later I was taken to Lhasa and 
jailed in Drapchi for eleven years.  From there, I was moved to Nyintri.

In January 1981, I was released from Nyintri prison.  Then, I came to Lhasa.  
Right from my years in prison, I had always hoped to see His Holiness the 
Dalai Lama.  Now that I was out of prison, I contemplated on how to go about 
it. I immediately, decided to leave for India, in 1981.

Therefore, I escaped only in the end of 1981. I had been intercepted in the 
border town of Dram (Zhangmu) and beaten very badly.  After doing this, we 
were asked to go back where we had come from.  However, we hired a guide 
and crossed the Tibet-Nepal border and eventually reached the Reception 
Center set up by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile- in Kathmandu.

I stayed in Nepal for about two weeks.  Thereafter, the Reception Centre 
guided me to Dharamsala where His Holiness the Dalai Lama resides.  They 
paid for my bus fares. 

Altogether I had been imprisoned for 21 years undergoing unimaginable 
experience. When I got the audience, I felt that now I could die without any 
regrets. This had been my dream since the time of my years in prison.  Now, I 
feel very happy.