The Silence of the Climbers
Updated below
As Nathan reported earlier this week, Chinese forces opened fire on a group of over seventy Tibetan refugees fleeing Tibet for freedom into Nepal. Two Tibetans are now confirmed dead, including a young nun in her twenties. The Tibetans were attempting to cross the Nangpa Pass between Tibet and Nepal when Chinese forces were opened fire on them without warning.
Where are the climbers now? What do they have to say?
We need their eyewitness testimony broadcast to the world today. While some have gone on the record anonymously, the group of at least sixty climbers has yet to step forward and tell the world, publicly and without trepidation, what they saw. They are in a rare situation of privilege and knowledge and they have a responsibility to the Tibetan victims to testify to what they saw.
These Chinese forces made a conscious decision to shoot at Tibetans with every intention of killing them – an act they sadly succeeded at in at least two cases. The Chinese forces knew where they were, in the footsteps of Everest and the Cho Oyu advance base camp where dozens of foreign mountaineers would have the vantage to bear witness to their atrocity. The Chinese opened fire on these innocent Tibetans – men, women, and children – likely assuming that any climbers who witnessed their crime would keep their mouths shut and stay in hiding. Though we would not know the details of this attack without some climbers coming forward to report the shooting on MountEverest.net, the silence since then has been sadly deafening.
The climbers have chosen en masse to keep the truth quiet while they remain inside of China. This passage from the International Campaign for Tibet’s report on the shooting is extremely telling.
A second climber, a British mountain guide, told ICT that other climbers had witnessed one of the Tibetans getting up after they had fallen, indicating that one of the two might have survived, although it is not known if the person died later from their injuries. Mountaineers contacted by ICT did not wish to be named until they had left Chinese territory, and the full circumstances of what led up to the incident are not known.
Their fear is palpable, but their story is desperately needed. Chinese forces murdered innocent Tibetans. They have violated international law governing the treatment of refugees by border police, firing without warning and with the intention to kill these Tibetans.
These sixty mountaineers need to do the right thing. Come forward, publicly. Contact the media around the world. Talk to the United Nations. Demand that China be held accountable for their murder of these innocent Tibetans. Go on the record and provide the world with details of what you saw at Nangpa Pass.
Update
A member of the Filipino Cho Oyu mountaineering team had actually already gone on the record with the Philippine Day Inquirer about witnessing the shooting.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that the Filipino Cho Oyu expedition also witnessed the killing: “In a cell phone call to the Inquirer on Saturday, an emotional Dr. Ted Esguerra said he saw at least three people — two women and a man — shot dead on the Nangpa La,” says the news article. “Here I am trying to save lives. Yet I am a witness to the taking of lives,” said Esguerra, who sounded as though he were close to tears according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer .
Dr. Esguerra is acting admirably by publicly telling what he saw at Nangpa Pass. Hopefully other climbers who saw the shooting will follow his leadership and publicly talk .
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[...] Read a first person account from a Romanian climber who witnessed the killing. More information from climbers is available on Mounteverest.net, though some bloggers feel not enough climbers are coming forward to tell their story. [...]