Tibetan writer Woser detained at Lhasa airport

Phayul[Saturday, August 09, 2014 09:30]

Woser, who has never seen the Dalai Lama in person, pays her respect to the Tibetan leader before an interaction with Chinese human rights lawyers on Skype/highpeakspureearth DHARAMSHALA, August 9: An outspoken Tibetan writer who lives with her Chinese husband in Beijing told the Radio Free Asiathat she was “intimidated” by Chinese authorities during questioning that lasted for three hours on Wednesday. Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser said Chinese authorities detained her on her arrival at the Gonkar airport, around 60 miles from the capital Lhasa. The Beijing based Tibetan writer who supports the exile Tibetan government’s policy of Middle Way Approach said on Twitter that airport security authorities took pictures of her lingerie, medicine, cosmetics, books, DVDs and even copied the contents of her laptop. “They also thoroughly checked my cell phone. “Last year I had the same problem, but this time the one thing I couldn't tolerate was that they even interrogated my 72-year-old mother yesterday,” she said. Her mother lives in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Woser and her husband Wang Lixiong were briefly put under house arrest to prevent the couple from attending a dinner at the US Embassy residence last month as US Secretary of State John Kerry visited China. Tsering Woeser was awarded the 2013 International Women of Courage Award by the U.S. State Department in March 2013, but was banned from traveling to Washington to receive the award. At the award ceremony, Kerry praised Woeser for her courageous writings on Tibetan people and their causes at a time of deteriorating human rights. "Tsering Woeser has emerged as a clarion voice of the people, even as the Chinese government has worked to curtail the flow of information from Tibet," Kerry said at the time.