Early Wednesday, Beijing time, a spokesman for China’s Olympic Committee issued an ominous threat: “The command centre has given its order for the final assault tomorrow.” He was referring to China’s climbing team that took the Olympic torch to the summit of Mt. Everest early Thursday. But never before has the mountaineering term ‘assault’ been used more appropriately. China’s assault on Mount Everest – sacred Mount Chomolungma to Tibetans – is in fact an assault on Tibet and the Tibetan people, not to mention the Olympic ideals.
As the torch passed through the Korean capitol Seoul, Chinese nationalists lined the streets to welcome it, outnumbering those who were there to protest against China's brutal occupation and repression on Tibet. Despite the Tibet supporters being there as part of officially organised and permitted demonstrations - not something the Chinese supporters can claim - they were treated increasingly aggressively by the Chinese. Flags were ripped away from them, they were chased, punched, kicked and had rocks and bottles thrown at them. There was even a case of a group of Tibet supporters chased into a hotel by Chinese and beaten on the floor of the lobby.
It seems the Chinese government's policy of violent repression towards any alternative ideas has become part of many Chinese people's collective consciousness. These extreme nationalistic tendancies are getting increasingly worse as the Olympics draw nearer and more extreme cases of the people echoing the government are coming to light.
For Immediate Release
May 9, 2008
More Tibetans join the March to Tibet as the March gets closer to Tibet:
48 new Tibetan marchers joined the March at Nainital
Nainital - 313 Marchers left today on the March to Tibet at 7 am from Nainital in Uttarkhand State after receiving more orientation on Non-Violent action for two days. The March will make its first day halt at Kainchi and will head towards Almora.
“As we get closer to the Tibet border, the Marchers are reinvigorated and more determined than ever to cross into Tibet and join our brothers and sisters to unitedly protest China’s brutal Occupation of Tibet” said Tsewang Rigzin, President of Tibetan Youth Congress. (more…)
Over the last couple weeks, two very significant stories were reported by Radio Free Asia that somehow fell through the cracks – at least as far as being reported here on the SFT blog. On April 23rd, it was reported that Chinese authorities in Tibet are planning a massive Chinese-only “patriotic rally” in the courtyard in front of Lhasa’s Potala Palace – historic home of the Dalai Lamas – to welcome the Olympic torch to the Tibetan capital. A few days later on April 27th, RFA reported on a stunningly courageous protest by two young Tibetan nuns in Kardze, Kham region of Eastern Tibet (China’s Sichuan province). RFA’s report on the protest includes news about the “oppressive police presence” in Tibet. First, the protest:
Tibetan Nuns’ Courageous Protest
The nuns, identified as Bumo Lhaga, 32, and Sonam Dekyi, 30, (pictured, above) belong to the Drakar nunnery in Kardze [in Chinese, Ganzi]. On April 23, around 1 p.m., they handed out leaflets in Kardze town center calling for the return of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, the sources told RFA’s Tibetan service.
A source told RFA:
“They began by distributing handwritten flyers calling for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet and saying that Tibet is independent. Chinese security officers saw the flyers and began to collect them, demanding to know who had distributed them.”
“The nuns were observed on a street-corner shouting slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama and for freedom for Tibetans. They were quickly detained and taken away in a police vehicle. Even while being taken away, they continued to shout.”
Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, will
be on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos on Thursday, May 8 at 11
p.m. on CBC.
The interview also can be viewed online after it airs at
http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/video.php?id=2112
More about The Hour from the show’s website:
What is The Hour?
The Hour is a national current affairs show on CBC television hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. It’s not a newscast. It’s not a magazine show. The Hour a different take on the news through the lens of George and company. While news shows cover the issues of the day, The Hour dissects the issues within the issues. Always unconventional. Often controversial. Never predictable.
The Hour has interviewed some of the most interesting and influential figures on the planet: from big thinkers like Al Gore, Noam Chomsky, Jesse Jackson, Lewis Lapham, David Suzuki and Deepak Chopra, to establishment shakers like Bob Geldof, Henry Rollins and Bono, to world-renowned musicians like Coldplay, the Foo Fighters, Ludacris, and The Killers.
Throw in a bunch of A-list actors like Ed Norton, Rachel Weisz, Matt Damon, Viggo Mortensen, Catherine O`Hara, Alan Rickman; add a Prime Minister - Stephen Harper, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, and you start to get a sense of the program. A different take on the news? You decide.
The Washington Post has a feature article on Woeser, famed Tibetan writer and blogger. Go give it a read…
Read the blog of Lhadon Tethong
SFT's Executive Director
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