Gonpo Kyi Hospitalised After Jumping from Lhasa Hotel in Prolonged Visitation Rights Protest
By Tenzin Chokyi
DHARAMSALA, 20 Aug: A video circulating on social media shows Tibetan activist Gonpo Kyi lying on the ground after reportedly jumping from the second floor of Lhasa’s Yak Hotel in occupied Tibet. According to reports, she had been placed under tight surveillance at the hotel after staging another protest against the ongoing denial of her right to visit her imprisoned brother, prominent Tibetan businessman and philanthropist Dorjee Tashi.
In the footage, Gonpo Kyi is seen lying on the ground and declaring that Chinese authorities have once again refused her request to visit her brother, who has been imprisoned on politically motivated and allegedly false charges since 2008, following the pan-Tibetan uprising during the Beijing Olympics.
According to her statement in the video, the most recent denial occurred on 18 August, despite Chinese law granting her the right to such visits.
“Chinese authorities are trying to frame my brother with false allegations. I am being denied visitation rights enshrined in the Constitution of the country. I am being denied the right to meet my imprisoned brother. I am here today out of desperation,” Gonpo Kyi says in the video, pleading her case with sorrow, urgency and desperation.
It has now been six years since she was last permitted to see her brother in 2019. Authorities have continued to deny her requests, despite the family fulfilling all legal requirements and submitting complete documentation.
Tibet Watch, the research wing of the London-based advocacy group Free Tibet, reported that the repeated visitation denials violate Article 8 of China’s ‘Regulations on Lawyers Meeting with Detained Criminals,’ which mandates that prison authorities must “arrange meetings promptly” for properly submitted requests or provide “clear explanations within 48 hours” for any delays. Neither of these legal obligations has been fulfilled in Gonpo’s case.
For the past 17 years, Gonpo Kyi’s entire family has bravely pursued legal and public avenues to seek justice, but their efforts have been repeatedly thwarted. Gonpo, her husband, and another brother have all been imprisoned, subjected to brutal crackdowns, denied basic medical care, and placed under intense surveillance.
Dorjee Tashi was arrested in July 2008, accused of sheltering Tibetan protesters in his hotel, donating to the Tibetan community in exile, and committing loan fraud of 1.5 million yuan. In 2010, following a secretive trial, he was sentenced to life imprisonment and all his assets were confiscated by court order.
However, an expert legal analysis by a Beijing-based law firm, commissioned by the family, concluded that the evidence could not reasonably support a conviction for fraud, let alone a life sentence.
Despite the trauma, violence, and deteriorating health, Gonpo Kyi has vowed to continue her protest. “I will continue to protest until they kill me.”
Her case is a rare and powerful example of Tibetan resistance from within occupied Tibet that has managed to break through China’s extensive information control in the region.
