The New York chapter of Students for a Free Tibet [7] held a rally outside the Chinese consulate in Manhattan Sept. 4 to demand freedom for A-Nya Sengdra, an imprisoned Tibetan nomad leader and ecologist. Sengdra, who had long campaigned against corruption, illegal mining and wildlife poaching, was arrested in September 2018 by the Gade County Public Security Bureau in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province (part of the Tibetan region of Amdo [9]), and charged with the usual offenses of "gathering people to disturb public order" and "picking quarrels and provoking trouble." Convictions follow as a matter of course in such cases, and Sengdra spent the next seven years in near-total isolation, suffering severe deterioration of his health. He had initially been scheduled for release the day before the rally, but weeks earlier authorities brought new charges against him while he was still imprisoned, extending his sentence through February 2026.
Sengdra has appealed three times for a retrial without success to the Supreme People's Court in Xi'an, and after the last such filing his lawyer was warned not to return under threat of being disbarred. (SFT [10], Phayul [11], Tibet Watch [12], CounterVortex on the scene in Manhattan)
Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is named for the Golok [13] nomadic people of Amdo region, who have faced forced labor [14] and resettlement [15], which their leaders charge [16] is aimed at cultural extermination [17].
