SFT Canada’s Tsering Confronts HDI/Continental Minerals’ Executives

Footage from HDI/Continental Minerals Shareholders’ meeting in Vancouver, Canada on June 24th. Tibetans and their supporters protested at the meeting to intenisfy pressure on the company to Stop Mining Tibet.

South Africa: Let the Dalai Lama In!

Tibetans and their supporters are speaking out against the South African government’s recent decision to bow to Chinese pressure and ban the Dalai Lama from attending a peace conference.

Sign the Avaaz petition to President Motlanthe now.

The move has caused a major outcry in South Africa over China’s encroaching influence in the country and, following the highly publicized withdrawal of Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former South African president F.W. de Klerk, the conference was suspended.

But South Africa’s President Motlanthe continues to defend the decision. South African Tibet supporters are working to pressure the African National Congress (ANC) government to reverse its decision.

Please support their efforts by calling on the ANC - the party that successfully fought against South Africa’s apartheid regime - to stand true to its principles and proud history by supporting the Tibetan people’s struggle for human rights and freedom.

Send a letter to the South African embassy or consulate nearest you and add your voice to the global outcry against this injustice. Download a sample letter and find contact details for South African consulates and embassies. Sout

An Open Letter by Tibetan Students in the UK

Mao Tsetung once said, “Where there is oppression, there is resistance” and in 2008, Tibetans risked everything to speak out. The Uprising in March has been the strongest message to the outside world from Tibetans inside Tibet since 1959.
The special meeting in Dharamsala from November 17th - 22nd that has been called by His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a unique platform to revitalize the movement. Thus, we Tibetan students in the UK would like to voice our suggestions at this crucial time to the international Tibetan community and the public. (more…)

CNN: Buddha’s Warriors

CNN’s Special Investigations Unit has made a news documentary called “Buddha’s Warriors” about the international Tibetan independence movement. SFT’s own Lhadon Tethong is featured, along with our friend Tenzin Tsundue. The documentary is narrated by Christiane Amanpour, who has also posted a blog entry on CNN on the back story of the piece and how she came to tell this story about the Tibetan struggle for freedom. Amanpour has also blogged about the new generation of Tibetan monks and their push for independence for Tibet. The crux of the coverage is the role the return march to Tibet played in driving energy and attention in the Tibetan exile community towards the Olympics and in support of independence.  Both of Amanpour’s blog posts are worth a read, not so much because they present new information that readers of Tibet Will Be Free won’t be familiar with, but because Amanpour’s coverage and commentary represent some of the most mainstream, honest reporting on the contemporary Tibetan independence movement I can recall seeing in recent years.

Chinese Olympics Propaganda: Pretending to Permit Protest

On July 23rd, at a press conference for foreign journalists in Beijing, Chinese authorities announced that it will "allow protests" in Beijing during the Olympics.

Wow. Really? That’s unexpected. A real about-face for the Chinese authoritarian regime!

But wait, there’s a hitch or two. Or ten.

To demonstrate, one just has to go apply for permission from the city government and police, and give five days notice.

Oh, and a law passed by the Chinese government shortly after the Tiananmen Square massacre bars protests that harm the country’s unity, sovereignty and integrity or threatens social stability or the authority of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

In other words, unless you’re protesting to show your outrage that China isn’t more ruthless in crushing Tibetan resistance, or demanding that Chinese authorities show more of a backbone by immediately invading Taiwan, your application ain’t gonna be approved.

And even with all that, Chinese officials are still being vague.

Liu Shaowu, director of the Beijing organising committee’s security department told reporters: "As for the concrete application, and who handles those applications, I have no clear information at this time."

According to a BBC report:

To underline just how sensitive the issue is, the Chinese authorities seemed reluctant to publicise exactly where protests would be allowed.

A transcript of Wednesday’s press conference on the Beijing organising committee’s website expunged the parks’ names.

Asked by a reporter for our comments on the Beijing "protest zones," Students for a Free Tibet had this to say:

Considering the massive security clampdown that the Chinese government is carrying out right now in Tibet and China, the so-called Olympic "protest zones" are nothing more than a cynical public relations ploy – likely devised for the Chinese authorities by PR firm Hill & Knowlton – a pathetic attempt to convince the world that China is open and free.

It is well known that anyone who protests or even disagrees with official Chinese policy is subject to intimidation, imprisonment, and torture and so the idea that a Tibetan could even safely apply for a permit to protest during the Beijing Olympics is a sad joke.

High-profile Tibetan Writer & Blogger Woeser Under Attack

Woeser, the well-known Tibetan writer/blogger and political dissident, is under intense cyber-attack.

On the evening of May 27th (Beijing time), Woeser discovered that her Skype account and email address were both apparently accessed and her Skype ID hijacked. Contacts of Woeser in China and Tibet have reported that people are impersonating her and contacting them. Woeser said in a statement that “this places me and my contacts in an extremely dangerous situation.” Shortly thereafter, her website was also hacked.

[UPDATE May 29th: Woeser has managed to get her blog back up online. Currently, all the archives are gone and readers can only see posts starting yesterday. Hopefully, she'll soon be able to get everything back up that was there when the site was hacked.]

While it is currently impossible to connect the attacks directly to Chinese officials, a recent profile in The Washington Post notes that Woeser’s books are banned in China and over the past two years, three different blogs she maintained on Chinese servers have been shut down. She was reportedly told by a friend at an internet company that the blogs were shut down on government orders. She has also reported being warned by Chinese police to stop writing about Tibet.

The attack on her website was claimed by the Honker Union of China (it sounds way more badass in Mandarin), a well-known network of nationalistic Chinese hackers. According to Wikipedia, the name Honker (Chinese: 紅客; pinyin: hóngkè) means “Red Guest”, as compared to the usual Chinese transliteration of the term “hacker” (黑客, hēikè, literally “Black Guest”).

The hackers removed the content of Woeser’s website and replaced it with a gif animation of the Chinese flag with the headline “LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA! “DOWN WITH TIBET INDEPENDENCE!” Below the animation is a photo of Woeser with the words “Please remember this Tibetan separatist Woeser’s ugly face. Whoever sees this ugly face, please beat her hard like one beats a dog.” Further text was added and has apparently been changed several times in the hours since the site was hacked. The website is currently hosted on a server in the United States.

More recently, her husband, Chinese writer and intellectual Wang Lixiong, reported that she was placed under house arrest this past March 10th – the 49th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising in Lhasa. Protests commemorating the 1959 uprising triggered another Tibetan uprising of national proportions, with widespread demonstrations taking place throughout Tibet and continuing to this day. It seems that the confinement has been eased but that she remains under constant surveillance.

Woeser, 41, goes by one name in the Tibetan tradition. She was born in Lhasa and lives in Beijing with her husband. She writes in Chinese and has been a lone voice among Tibetans reporting on recent Tibetan protests across the country and the ensuing crackdown, including details about the situation in Tibetan areas in the wake of the May 12th earthquake.

Below is the English translation of an urgent statement she sent out in an attempt to warn her contacts.

[Subject:] Woeser warning her correspondents on Skype!

Dear friends, in order to spy on me and others on my Skype contact list, someone has for a while on Skype claimed that he or she is an overseas Tibetan, an officer from the Tibetan government-in-exile, or having secrets to pass on etc. It looks that he or she has stolen the list of my Skype contacts. Yet, after I posted a warning to inform my contacts of such a development, someone hijacked my account around 10 pm on May 27th. My password has been changed and I can no longer log in. As far as I can tell, the hijacker has begun to make contact with people in my account. This places me and my contacts in an extremely dangerous situation. Therefore, I am sending the strongest warning. Please stop any communication with “Degewa” on Skype, delete or lock out this user’s name from your Skype account, warn anyone you know who might try to contact me through Skype, tell them to cease contact with “Degewa.”

From now on, if you receive any Skype message from “me” in any other users’ name, please speak first (Tibetan friends, please speak in Tibetan) to verify “my identity.” If the other side of the contact refuses to talk, it means you are not in touch with me.

Also, I suggest you and other friends to avoid this kind of trap by talking, rather than writing, via Skype.

Woeser
Early morning in Beijing
May 28th 2008

Woeser is probably considered a nuisance by the Chinese government for the simple reason that she engages in courageous truth-telling. Her ‘Tibet Updates’ have chronicled the protests and ensuing crackdown throughout Tibet over the last couple months. Her May 9-15 Tibet Update reported the alarming news that the regional government in the epicenter zone issued an urgent document on the day the earthquake struck entitled “Combining work on anti-separatism and safeguarding stability with disaster relief work.” She wrote that Chinese officials also sent letters encouraging local authorities in earthquake-affected Tibetan areas to “be responsible for both anti-separatism and the disaster relief work.”

Elevating her from a nuisance to a threat in the eyes of Chinese officials is the fact that in addition to telling untellable truths, she writes her essays and poetry in a voice that conveys a specific contemporary Tibetan combination of despair, pride, and resistance. Which is to say that her voice alone bears many untellable truths about Tibet, and the spirit of her generation. That her voice inspires younger generations of Tibetans is in itself another untellable truth.

As enemies of truth, it is obvious and expected that the current hard-line Chinese leadership should try to stop a compulsive truth-teller. But they can’t.

Repressing Woeser only amplifies her truth, and many others, about Tibet.

[excerpt from Woeser's poem, "Secrets of Tibet"]

Once in a while, the masked demon reveals its true face,
frightening even the ancient deities.
Yet, the challenges have emboldened the ordinary birth;
who turn prayers in the deep nights into cries under the sun,
who convert whines behind the high walls into songs spread wide.

They are arrested! Punishments increased! Life sentences!
Executions postponed! Shot dead!

I usually keep quiet because I barely know anything.
Having been born and raised under the bugles of the PLA,
I am a suitable inheritor of Communism.

Egg under the red flag, suddenly cracked and broken.
Nearing middle age, belated anger is about to blurt from my throat.
I cannot stop my tears for the suffering Tibetans younger than me.

It’s Time for a Change

Jamyang Norbu has an op-ed up on Phayul that says what I’ve been thinking since the national uprising started in mid-March inside Tibet:

No amount of begging, pleading or further negotiating with Beijing will bring any resolution, even a little improvement, to this crisis. I think that Dharamshala has one real option left to deal with this situation. It must act in a way that is bold, dynamic and totally unanticipated by Beijing. The exile government must declare that in light of the sentiments expressed by Tibetan people in the recent protests, and the harshness and implacability of the Chinese government’s response to the expression of their basic human rights, the Tibetan government is compelled to reconsider its Middle Path policy. That the Kashag and the Tibetan parliament will immediately commence joint hearings to review the Middle Path policy and that representatives of Tibetan organizations advocating independence will be invited to offer their testimonies at the proceedings.

To His Holiness I would respectfully suggest that he make a public announcement stating that though he had genuinely and unreservedly supported China’s bid to host the Olympic Games, the lives and welfare of the thousands of Tibetans – victims of China’s crackdown – were far more important than a sporting event (even one as major as the Olympics). That unless China agreed to allow international agencies as the Red Cross, the UN or Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, and other such organizations, to send their personnel freely throughout Tibet to verify the conditions of these people and check on their legal situation, he would be compelled to appeal to the world to boycott the Beijing Games. Furthermore he would call on all his subjects, his friends, supporters and disciples worldwide, to engage in non-violent but direct action to disrupt China’s massive ultra-nationalist propaganda exercise, for which the 2008 Olympic Games is being effectively employed.

Real negotiations might follow, for the first time.

The Middle Path has been pursued in earnest for over 30 years. Not once have the Chinese welcomed the entreaties of the His Holiness nor the TGIE to solve the Tibet question through meaningful autonomy. For two months, Tibetans inside Tibet have spoken out for their freedom and for their rights. The response has been universally brutal, with untold thousands imprisoned and at least hundreds, if not more, murdered by Chinese police, paramilitaries, and military forces.

The demands of the Tibetan people inside Tibet and the brutality of the Beijing regime demand a shift in policy. While SFT has always pursued independence as the only solution for Tibet, I join Jamyang-la to personally hope the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in Exile properly assess the current situation and stand up for independence as the only necessary conclusion for Tibet.

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China’s Troubled Torch Arrives in Australia

China’s Olympic torch faced a new wave of creative and media catching protests upon it’s arrival in Australia. Overnight the words “Don’t Torch Tibet” were beamed onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a national landmark, and this morning two Tibet activists were arrested for attempting to unfurl a banner on the bridge.

Click here to view Reuters coverage of the projection action.

One of the arrested bridge protesters, Kerryn, a 30-year old travel consultant was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“I’ve traveled through Tibet and I’ve seen first hand the fact that there’s human rights abuses still going on within the country,” she said.

“I was stopped from talking to the Tibetan people in Lhasa for even the basic levels of communication.”

Meanwhile, four activist were arrested for protesting Coke’s sponsorship of the Olympic torch relay at Kings Cross, unfurling a large banner off a Coke billboard.

“Pro Tibet activists unfurled a huge banner over the Coca-Cola sign at Kings Cross today.

The red banner, designed to look like the Coca-Cola sign, said: “Enjoy Compassion. Always Tibet. CHINA - TALK TO THE DALA LAMA”

It was unfurled by four activists - three men and a woman - standing on a platform above Sydney’s iconic landmark about 4pm.

Once the banner was unfurled one of the activists shouted “free Tibet’ as some onlookers cheered.”

More protests are in store when the torch relay starts in Canberra tomorrow. China’s troubled torch has been dogged by Tibetans and supporters speaking out for truth and justice for Tibet as the torch has skipped across Asia. China’s “Journey of Harmony” hit a slight snag - the principles of democracy and freedom of speech in many of the host countries the torch has visited.

China and IOC in crisis talks

The Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee are reportedly in crisis talks, after they massively underestimated worldwide ourtage over Beijing’s repressive rule in Tibet.  This report is from the Financial Times:

Beijing officials are to hold urgent talks with senior members of the Olympic movement about the torch relay, as concern grows among International Olympic Committee members over the impact of pro-Tibet protests on the Games.[...]

IOC insiders discounted the prospect of routes being curtailed or cancelled, but one said that in light of recent events, discussions would take place with Beijing about “how the integrity of the torch can be maintained”. One said the backlash against China’s action in Tibet was in danger of casting a “stain on the Olympic movement”.

[...]

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, made his strongest comments yet on China’s handling of unrest in Tibet, saying in Beijing he was very concerned “with the international situation and what’s happened in Tibet”.

Although he added there was no momentum for a general boycott of the Games, IOC insiders said he and other senior IOC members were becoming increasingly worried about the Olympics movement becoming tainted by the international focus on China’s handling of Tibet.

Note to the Chinese government: Your big coming out party was a bit hasty.  As long as you continue to occupy Tibet, you will never really be accepted in the international community.  In case you didn’t get the memo, imperialism is so 19th century.  Free Tibet, and then you can get the respect you so desperately crave.

Note to the IOC: I hate to say “we told you so,” but what did you expect when you allowed the Chinese government to exploit the Olympics for its own political ends?  OK I can’t resist… we told you so.