Writer Meycheh arrested

According to information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Choepa Lugyal (penname Meycheh), a young Tibetan writer working at the National Publication in Gansu province was arrested by the Public Security Bureau police in Lando (Chinese: Lanzhu) city, Gansu province on 19 October 2011.

There is no information on why he has been arrested.Meycheh was born in Dopee Township, Yatse County in Qinghai. He graduated from the Southwest University for Nationalities and later joined the Northwest Nationalities University as a research student. He temporarily worked at the Qinghai Tibet news agency after his studies. Meycheh was also a writer of the banned literary magazine ‘Shar Dungri’ (Eastern Snow Mountain). He wrote a few books in Tibetan including ‘Gye-Choe Gyang- Gel’ (rough translation: ‘Seeing Gedun Choepel from Afar’) and ‘Me-sem Nying-top’ (rough translation: Power of Human Heart). He also writes and posts many articles and blogs online.

Over the last several months the Chinese authorities have been implementing its new policies targeting Tibetan intellectuals. Since 2008, over 65 Tibetan intellectuals, comprising of writers, students, artists, and cultural figures have been detained, beaten, harassed, interrogated, as well as sentenced to lengthy prison terms.