Tibetans and Supporters Lobby their MPs
10 March, London: On a freezing cold March morning, SFT activists from across the UK set off towards London and the House of Commons. Their aim: to join with other Tibet supporters and take the voice of the Tibetan people to the heart of British politics on the 51st anniversary of the Lhasa uprising.
This was the UK Tibet coalition’s second annual Mass Lobby of parliament and being an election year it was particularly important. Members of SFT, Tibet Society, Free Tibet, Tibetan Community in Britain and Tibetan Youth UK came from as far afield as Hull, Bristol and Wales to meet their MPs and pressure them to take two key actions: call on the British government to establish a consulate in Lhasa and call on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee to hold an enquiry into the government’s engagement with China.
These ‘asks’ are fundamental to improving the UK pressure for human rights and freedom in Tibet, because after 10 years of UK-China Human Rights Dialogue it is clear that our government’s current strategy just isn’t working. China continues to arrest, torture and execute Tibetans whilst ignoring the feeble protests of foreign governments. The only way forward is for countries like the UK to take a tough new stance.
And so it was, with a brief stop and the Chinese embassy to mark the anniversary of March 10th 1950, and at Westminster Abbey to lay a wreath in memory of the innocent victims, our activists arrived at Parliament. Whilst a group of SFT members braved sub-zero temperatures to set up a protest outside, Tibet supporters began to flood in to the Parliament’s famous Central Lobby to meet their MPs. Over the next few hours more than 100 activists lobbied their elected members.
As evening drew in and the lobbying wrapped up, numbers at the protest outside parliament swelled and to the cheers of passers by we higlighted our message- we want the British government to stand up for Tibet!
Tibetans and Supporters deliver letter to the British Prime Minister and the Chinese ambassador
(Photos by Anna Branthwaite, Tibet Society, UK)
6th March, London: Tibetans across the world are preparing to mark the 51st anniversary of the Lhasa Uprising. In Tibet, various non-violent protests have been reported across the Tibetan plateau since Losar and the meeting between President Obama and the Dalai Lama in Washington. The Chinese government clearly fears more vigorous protests in March, and wary of the negative press it received in 2008 has attempted to preempt any such protests by launching a 'Strike Hard' Campaign in Lhasa, rounding up over 500 Tibetans. Protests have occurred in Ngaba, in the Tibetan province of Amdo, as well as Zachuka in Kham. In response, Tibetans and supporters in India held a candle lit vigil strongly condeming the act.
On the 6th March in London, around 500 Tibetans and supporters marched in the streets of London calling for the end of oppression in Tibet and expressed the need for immediate resolution to the Tibetan issue. Letters were delivered to the British Prime Minister and to the Chinese ambassador by the representatives of Tibet support groups in London.
watch the video footage from Reuters here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTM3-E60HHg
(Photos by Anna Branthwaite, Tibet Society, UK)
This March 10th hundreds of Tibet supporters from across the country will be converging on Parliament to lobby their MPs and we want you to be there. Meeting with your MP is one of the most effective ways to support human rights in Tibet and it couldn’t be easier. To take part just follow the steps below:
1. Find your out your MP’s contact details at http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/commons or by calling the House of Commons Information Office on 020 7219 4272.
2. Make an appointment to visit them at Parliament by using email, post or telephone. Explain that you will in Westminster for the Tibet Mass Lobby on March 10th and would like to meet them as close to 2.30pm as possible (we would like everyone to be at Parliament at the same time!)
Please note that your MP or his or her representative will have to come to meet you even without a confirmation of your appointment. So come down to the Mass Lobby on 10 March even if your appointment is not confirmed.
3. Let us know the name of your MP, his or her constituency and the time of your appointment by contacting liam@sftuk.org. It is very important for us to know if you are coming to the mass lobby so that we can coordinate with others from your constituency and you can meet your MP together.
You will then receive a lobby pack containing:
* Logistical information – timings, directions, meeting points, etc
* What to expect on the day and from your appointment
* Information for you and for your MP about the primary concerns addressed by the mass lobby
* A lobby postcard with the key demands for you to hand to your MP
* Facts about Tibet including the current situation
If you have any questions or would like any more information please do not hesitate to contact liam@sfutk.org
Other Events on the day
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PROTEST & RALLY at CHINESE EMBASSY
Venue: Chinese Embassy, 49-51 Portland Place, London W1B 1JL Map
Nearest undergrounds: Oxford Circus, Portland Place, Regents Park
Time: 11am - 12pm
WREATH-LAYING at MEMORIAL TO COMMEMORATE THE 51st ANNIVERSARY OF THE TIBETAN NATIONAL UPRISING
Venue: Outside the West door, Westminster Abbey, London SW1. Map
Nearest undergrounds: Westminster
Time: 1.45pm
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The mass lobby is organised by The Coalition of UK Tibet Support Groups, made up of: Tibet Society, Free Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet UK, Tibetan Community in Britain and Tibetan Youth UK.
Losar: Because we are Tibetan
Tibetans will mark Losar - the Tibetan New Year - on February 14th, 2010. In the Tibetan lunar calendar, this day marks the beginning of the Iron Tiger Year 2137, a time for change, hope, and renewal. On this day, we celebrate our history, our culture, our religion, and our future - because our history is great, our culture beautiful, our religion profound, and – in spite of our present suffering – our future is bright.
Since 2008, following the Tibetan uprising in all three historical provinces of Tibet, we witnessed an escalation in the imprisonment, torture and death of our fellow countrymen and women under Chinese rule. Because of this, last year, Tibetans united around the world and did not celebrate Losar.
This year, many Tibetans are planning to observe Losar for one reason only: because we are Tibetan. We will speak Tibetan language, wear Tibetan dress, and observe Tibetan customs, thus strengthening our identity and our spirit. Through this observance we will find new courage and opportunities to advance our struggle. In observing Losar with family and friends, Tibetans will reach for happiness, which, as much as suffering, is an integral part of a freedom movement.
Through all these years of occupation one thing is clear: the oppressor envies the spirit of the Tibetan people, which cannot be crushed by violence. This year Tibetans worldwide will nourish this spirit with the observance of Losar.
While observing this important cultural tradition, we ask Tibetans and supporters to light butter lamps and candles on their altars and in their windows on February 14th to honor the courage of the Tibetan people in Tibet who continue to resist the Chinese government's illegal occupation of their homeland.
Please take a moment to watch this inspiring video from Amdo, Eastern Tibet, where Tibetans, young and old, declare the myriad ways they are Tibetan:
Also you can watch a similar solidarity campaign video from Tibetans in India:
Included in the video are these statements:
I am Tibetan because I love Tibet.
I am Tibetan because I learn Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I love my culture.
I am Tibetan because I wear only Tibetan dress.
I am Tibetan because Tibetan blood flows in me.
I am Tibetan because my mother is Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I sing Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I am a Tibetan nomad.
I am Tibetan because I love my land.
I am Tibetan because I am a herder on the plateau.
I am Tibetan because I never forget Tibet.
I am Tibetan because I love my Tibetan brothers and sisters.
SFT UK launches ‘Students for a Green Tibet
On the December 5th 2009, SFT UK and other organisations participated in the Wave, a series of public actions including the largest climate change march the UK has ever seen. Coming just two days before the beginning of the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, this demonstration was organised to pressure the British government to help secure a binding and effective agreement to cut global emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases. The organisers Stop Climate Chaos Coalition (www.stopclimatechaos.org), of which SFT UK is a member organisation, claim that there were over 40,000 on the streets calling for climate justice.
To tie in with the start of the 2009 United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, SFT UK is proud to launch our environmental campaign – ‘Students for a Green Tibet’. As campaigners for Tibet, we feel it is our duty to highlight Tibet’s global importance in environmental terms and why something must be done. This campaign aims to bring attention to how the Tibetan plateau’s fragile ecosystem is under threat from climate change, and how failings in this ecosystem would have disastrous consequences for major rivers that flow from the plateau into China, India, Bangladesh and a number of Southeast Asian countries. This will be a large and ongoing campaign focusing on 7 key issues:
1. Water
2. Mining
3. Energy sources & carbon emissions
4. Nuclear/toxic dumping
5. Continued construction of airports and extension of the railway
6. Deforestation/soil erosion/desertification
7. The human cost of environmental mismanagement
SFT at COP15
From December 7th to December 18th, global leaders and decision makers will be gathering in Copenhagen, Denmark for the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009. Delegates will discuss a framework for climate change mitigation from 2012 onwards, including plans to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. This conference will also mark the 15th annual conference (hence COP15) of the 192 ‘party’ states to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which began with the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Tens of thousands of activists from across the world will be in Copenhagen in the hope of pressurising the leaders of the world to pledge to take drastic, urgent action to limit the future impact of global warming. Four members of SFT UK along with a representative from SFT Germany will be attending the conference, highlighting Tibet’s environmental issues, and reporting on events through twitter- www.twitter.com/sftuk.
Environmental Issues in Tibet and China
Clearly we cannot blame climate change on the Chinese government alone, but it must be pointed out that China’s greenhouse gas emissions have increased at a tremendous rate in the past two decades, and China is now the largest greenhouse gas emitting country in the world, as well as being a major polluter of other dangerous chemicals and toxins. Although the CCP’s has pledg to cut it’s emissions intensity by 40% by 2020 sounds great, this high figure belies the truth. Carbon intensity is the amount of CO2 per unit of GDP. If China continues to undergo the rapid economic growth it has in the past two decades, this means that its emissions will more likely rise, even if carbon intensity falls. As the world’s number one polluter, this is unacceptable, especially when it has the land and capabilities to adopt renewable energy resources. The Chinese government’s refusal to commit to actual emissions cuts instead of reducing its carbon intensity represents a selfish, greedy and irresponsible attitude towards the rest of the world, and particularly those countries downstream of Tibet’s rivers.
Equally important is how China is dealing with the consequences of global warming. The Chinese government is acutely aware that if Tibet’s glaciers melt that river run-off will be massively reduced. This may be one reason behind the rapid and expansive dam building projects it has undertaken on the Tibetan plateau. These will provide China with hydroelectricity as well as water for irrigation etc. But if Tibet’s glaciers do melt, this water will only last so long. And what of the countries downstream of Tibet?
Tibet’s Water: Precious to Billions
Asia depends on glacial melt-water from Tibet, but as global warming accelerates, these glaciers are retreating rapidly, and the permafrost in Tibet is also thawing. The disappearance of Tibet’s glaciers would have huge repercussions for Tibet, China and all those downstream of Tibet, who depend on water from Tibet-sourced rivers.
Densely populated India and Bangladesh look set to be the main losers from China’s damming of Tibet’s rivers. It is feared that the Chinese government is planning to redirect the Yarlung Tsangpo (the main tributary of the Brahmaputra), towards the Yellow River, which due to over-use for irrigation is drying up. Although the Chinese government has denied that this scheme is underway, many ministers and journalists in India, especially the two states which the Yarlung Tsangpo runs through (and is known by Indians as the Dihang) are gravely concerned that the CCP will not be true to its word (anyone remember the CCP’s pledge to improve it’s human rights record before the Olympics?). Regardless of whether this plan goes ahead, the reality is that if Tibet’s glaciers continue to retreat at their current rate, and the CCP continues to dam Tibet’s rivers, then water supply to millions, will be altered. Clearly Asia’s rivers are under threat not only from global warming, but from mismanagement by the Chinese government. Our key message to the world leaders at Copenhagen is that Asia depends on Tibet’s glacial rivers, and these cannot be allowed to disappear either as a result of global warming or CCP-meddling.
The Human Cost
China’s environmental policies are also closely tied to blatant human rights abuses. These include forcing prisoners to work in Chinese coal mines, which have the worst health and safety records of any country in the world. It must be remembered that many of the long term ‘residents’ in China’s prisons are political dissidents and activists, including participants in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs and Tibetans who have demanded an end to religious and cultural persecution of their people.
Another significant human rights abuse is the restriction of movement and forced relocation of Tibet’s nomads, the traditional stewards of Tibet’s environment. China has sought to blame the nomads for all manner of environmental problems on the Tibetan plateau, despite these problems not existing in the thousands of years in which Tibet’s nomads have roamed the Tibetan plateau. At COP15 we will be supporting Tibet Third Pole (www.tibetthirdpole.org), a coalition of Tibet Support Groups, think-tanks and environmentalists who will be campaigning on the same environmental issues as us and specifically highlighting the human cost on Tibet’s nomads due to Chinese mismanagement of the Tibetan plateau.
If the affects on Chinese, Uighur and Tibetan people was not bad enough already, the CCP’s profit and energy driven haphazard policies could yet reap even worse consequences for far more people the 1.3 billion currently under CCP rule. Should China deny countries such as India and Bangladesh the water which has run through their lands for thousands of years, this would perhaps be the greatest human rights abuse of all. With much talk of ‘water wars’ to come during this century, analysts are keeping a keen eye on what the CCP does next.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Sign an Action Postcard
SFT UK has made some action postcards to be sent to the Indian and Bangladeshi embassies urging them to act and engage the Chinese government in dialogue with regards to Tibet’s waters. You can request them by emailing at info@sftuk.org
Screen Meltdown in Tibet
From January onwards, we will be doing a national tour of the brilliant documentary Meltdown in Tibet (www.meltdownintibet.com). If you would like to do a local screening, please e-mail our grassroots coordinator Alex (alex@sftuk.org), and we’ll send you a copy of the film plus some action postcards.
Support SFT UK
SFT is run entirely by volunteers and on a shoe-string budget, which makes the our actions receiving the news coverage we have in the past all the more impressive. Our specialities lie not only in campaigning itself, but in training and empowering young activists to (non-violently) fight for a Free Tibet. We need your support in terms of starting new university groups and attending our events. As you surely know, campaigning costs money (unfortunately), and preparing effective campaign materials, sending people to Copenhagen etc. all adds up, so if you have cash to spare, send it our way – we promise to spend it wisely!
Help us Research Tibet’s Environment
If you have any useful links/information/pictures/footage relating to Tibet’s environment, please send it to Luke (luke@sftuk.org), our ‘Students for a Green Tibet’ coordinator.
We hope this has been a useful introduction to our environmental campaign, Students for a Green Tibet, and hope to see Tibet supporters across the UK join in. Help us make the difference!!
SFT UK with Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
SFT UK at the WAVE
Students for a Free Tibet UK Conference 2009
24th November, London: The 6th Students for a Free Tibet UK Annual Conference was held in London this year from 21-22 November. More than 30 students, professionals and Tibet supporters, from all over the UK and all walks of life came together to take part in the conference.
A heavily packed schedule full of inspiring workshops and talks were enjoyed by every participant. Non-Violent Direct Actions (NVDA), Media Training, Political Lobbying and Chinese Outreach were just a few of the sessions that kept everyone to their toes over the conference weekend.
The opening speech of the conference was made by the new Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet, Tenzin Dorjee, with his session on "Vision & Strategy" underlining the various strategies employed by SFT in the Tibetan Freedom Movement. Some of the very active and strong leaders in the Tibetan Movement such as Thubten Samdup (Official Representative of H.H. The Dalai Lama in Northern Europe), Katie Mallin from Tibet Relief Fund and also Lucy Pearce from Stop Climate Chaos Coalition amongst many others, facilitated the conference. Long-term Tibet friends such as the former SFT UK board members and and supporters who work in other relevant fields including NGOs Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth Scotland, along with a media professional and fundraising expert, also took part in the conference to share their knowledge and skills with the participants.
- I support
on Statement on the self-immolation of a young Tibetan in Delhi, India
- Jeanett Clemon
on 2011: What we’ve achieved together for Tibet
- Tashi Wangdu
on Tibetan Activist Sets Himself on Fire: Hu Protests Conclude in Mumbai, Dharamsala
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