Google News Front Page of Everest Action
Pretty cool — the Mount Everest banner action continues to get major media coverage.
Wall Street Journal “Activists Turn Up Heat on Beijing Olympics”
Now that’s what I call an effective banner!
The Olympic torch is increasingly lighting up political controversy for China.
Today, the host of the 2008 Summer Games plans to reveal the route of the torch relay that will carry the Olympic flame into Beijing. But in what may be a prelude of things to come, four people were detained on Mount Everest yesterday for protesting a proposal to carry the flame up the world’s tallest mountain, on the border with politically sensitive Tibet.
[snip]
Meanwhile, the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet began their Olympic effort a week ago with a campaign sending thousands of emails to the IOC. The group says that yesterday, it erected a banner at an Everest base camp that read “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008,� echoing the official Beijing Olympic slogan.
Read the full article at Wall Street Journal Online
Tenzin Wangyal’s “Tribute to the 5 SFTers”
SFT Board Member Tenzin Wangyal has written an excellent tribute to our favorite five people, with some wonderful insight into his good friend Tendor:
“Many of you who know Tendor from his days at TCV might have been somewhat surprised to learn about Tendor’s prominent role in this recent action, since most of us remember him to be the jovial and carefree kind, seemingly never able to take anything seriously and always entertaining us with his jokes and witty remarks, on and off the stage. As a close friend, I have seen the other side of Tendor and know him to be an exceptionally thoughtful, intelligent and introspective person. Hence, when young well-tempered and tolerant people like Tendor take such actions against the Chinese government, it says more about the outrageous nature of the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the policies of repression put in place by the Chinese in Tibet.”
Photos from Kathmandu of the Everest Crew
Set 1: Press Conference and full and individual group shots
Set 2: Reception with Northern Tingri Community Association, Western Tibetan Community Group, 4 rivers 6 Ranges Guerrilla Resistance Force (fought in 50′s – 70′s)
Activists Detailing Harsh Treatment During Detention
Now that the five American activists who staged a protest on Mount Everest calling for Tibetan independence are safely in Nepal, they are telling the story of their detention to the press. SFT’s deputy director Tenzin Dorjee told Radio Free Asia about their repeated questioning and Chinese interrogators threatening violence against them.
They didn’t ask us questions in a group but took each individual to a separate room and conducted their interrogation there. One police officer asks questions, another takes notes, and two or three stand by with rifles ready. We were detained in the same office from 9.30 a.m. to about 10 p.m.�
“Then a group of Public Security officials arrived from Shigatse [in Chinese, Xigaze] and they searched all our belongings—and started another session of interrogation. Later in the night, we were taken to the Shekar [in Chinese, Xiegar] police station. There again they started another session of interrogation. At that time one of our Western friends was threatened with a dark cold cell if he did not give the correct answers. He was threatened with assault if he did not cooperate. But he refused and demanded to talk to U.S. Embassy officials.�
“For the whole night, we were taken from one police station to another, and then the next morning we were at a police station in Shigatse. So yesterday, the whole day, we were detained in Shigatse and again they carried out interrogations. Then later we were placed in a guest house in Shigatse. When we were about to sleep, again we were woken up in the middle of night and interrogated again.�
…
“Starting from our initial detention, they told us the same thing. They said we violated Chinese laws and would be punished for this violation. The main violation, according to them, was writing about independence for Tibet on our banner. They said this had grossly damaged the security of China.�
Shannon Service told the Associated Press about her experience after being detained on Mount Everest.
“The entire thing was fairly traumatic … not sleeping for over 30 hours, being denied food and water for over 14, basically being psychologically terrorized,” Service said Saturday in Katmandu.
…
It was during this time they faced the trauma, questioning and uncertainty, Service said.During the interrogation, Service said a Chinese guard threatened her, saying: “If you don’t tell the truth, you will sleep in this room and harm will come to you.”
“I asked her if she threatened me; she nodded yes,” Service said. “I became very afraid for my own safety and the safety of my friends.”
During the trip to Shigatse, Service said they were put in four different vehicles and stopped along the way at different buildings, where they were repeatedly questioned.
While all five of activists knew the risk they were taking by staging this protest inside Tibet and were willing to undergo whatever hardship came their way in order to further the pursuit of Tibetan freedom, that in no way excuses China for treating them harshly. In addition to not allowing them to sleep by making them change positions or move rooms whenever they looked like they were falling asleep, keeping them in freezing cold rooms, shining blinding lights at them, the Chinese police also blasted them with loud music. They were also forced to eat in front of Chinese press and TV cameras, apparently to create the false image that they were being treated well.
China’s cruel treatment of the activists could easily be described as torture. What’s even more worrying is that China’s harsh treatment of the activists was done to try to extract information about any and all Tibetans who came in contact with the Americans before and after the protest.
“There were about five questions,� Tibetan-American Tenzin Dorje told RFA’s Tibetan service. “Their main question was whether anyone helped from inside Tibet—who helped us to write in Tibetan and Chinese, and so on. Where did we eat? Where did we go by vehicle?�
The activists neither involved any Tibetans in their action nor told Tibetans they met or employed as drivers what they were doing nor told the Chinese who the Tibetans they came into contact with were.
Technorati Tags: Beijing Olympics, Mount Everest, Tenzin Dorjee, Tibet
- Freddie Matthews
on Heavenly Tibet? or Hell on Earth? - Peter S.Mulshine
on Heavenly Tibet? or Hell on Earth? - Lora McCoy
on SFT Canada’s Tsering Confronts HDI/Continental Minerals’ Executives
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  | ||||||||
