Tibetan political prisoners’ goal “to start living again”

Dharamsala (AsiaNews) - Despite the fact that fourteen years have passed since he was released, Lukar Jam still knows off by heart the rules imposed on Tibetan prisoners held by China in Pinang prison: "We were beaten every day during the recitation of these rules, which obviously were obviously said in Chinese. " From his years in prison he bears a large scar on his side but also the desire to help those who, like him, managed to escape to India after his imprisonment. Today he is the head of an NGO based in Dharamsala helping Tibetan exiles in the Diaspora.

Chinese police stopped him one morning in February 1992, on his way to Thengri from Lhasa: "They said nothing. Only they knew who I was and what I was doing. They were referring to Dokham shunu Shithup, a group formed by me and five other friends who were protesting against the atrocities committed by China in Tibet. At the time I was very young, but I knew what I wanted: more freedom for my people. "

More educated than the average of the Tibetans living in the region - where China imposes its language and does not permit the transmission of the local language and culture – he was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison. Released from jail, however, he managed to escape and reached Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile and residence of the Dalai Lama, who Beijing forced into exile after the invasion of 1949.

Today, his childhood experience led him to found along with the other exiles Go Chu Sum, a non-political organization which supports the former political prisoners who are able to reach India. The aim is to provide basic education for those who have been locked up in jail: English and computer classes and professional training valid and useful for themselves and the community.

However, the scars of the prison still haunt him: "electric batons for interrogation or to punish small imperfections, isolation cells like narrow coffins, gratuitous and brutal violence: China uses systems of medieval torture to subdue Tibet and those still fighting for its freedom. But we have started to live again here, despite their efforts. "