Global Phonathon to Stop Mining in Tibet!
We need your help to turn up the heat on HDI/Continental Minerals, a Canadian company that is preparing to begin operations at a massive mine site in Tibet.
Tomorrow, June 24th is HDI/Continental Minerals annual shareholders’ meeting. YOU can help ensure that the company hears opposition from people of conscience worldwide.
TAKE ACTION!
Call the company’s head office at 1-800-667-2114 or +1 604-684-6365 to voice your opposition to HDI/Continental Minerals’ Tibet operations. Click here for helpful talking points.
Change your Facebook profile picture and Twitter avatar to the Stop Mining Tibet logo and encourage others to take action on your twitterfeed and status update.
Check out SFT’s fan page for updates on this global action. We want to hear from you! Become a fan of our page and let us know about your call to Continental Minerals.
With a proposed lifespan of 14 years, HDI/Continental Minerals’ mine will irreversibly disrupt the lives of Tibetans in Shetongmon, central Tibet. The mine is located dangerously close to the Yarlung Tsangpo river, which is the main water source for Shigatse, Tibet’s second largest city and many other Tibetan towns and villages. Help stop HDI/Continental Minerals in its tracks!
Learn more about this important campaign: http://www.StopMiningTibet.org
Even as Tibet remains under military lockdown, we’re hearing incredible reports of Tibetans risking arrest, imprisonment, and even death to protest devastating resource extraction operations on their land. Help stop foreign companies and the Chinese government from profiting off the Tibetan people’s land and help protect Tibet’s fragile environment for generations to come.
Stop Mining Tibet Protest - on CTV
Watch SFT Canada’s Tenzin Lobsang being interviewed by CTV during the Vancouver protest of HDI/Continental Minerals to Stop Mining Tibet.
When the Party’s over…the joke will be on them
It’s unbelievable the lengths to which the Chinese government will go to cover up the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre: It has denied it ever happened; erased it from China’s history books; imprisoned and exiled survivors; threatened anyone who dares to openly mourn, demand justice, or even talk about what really happened in Tiananmen Square in the lead-up to and on that fateful day. They have forced an entire generation to ‘forget,’ and they have effectively kept the next generation from ever hearing of their parents’ struggles, hopes, and horrific losses.
Twenty years later, as the above video demonstrates, the Chinese government has not changed. However, the Party leadership has learned that when a government opens fire on its own people, it attracts intense international scrutiny – exactly 100% more negative attention than they want. In turn, they have adapted and developed new, more subtle tactics, like the umbrella assault, to distract the world’s attention from the Chinese government’s brutally repressive policies.
Your instinct when watching this video is to laugh; even one of the Chinese undercover thugs reveals a smile. But behind the humor and the lightness of the umbrella assault is a smart, strategic, and very scary government that regularly detains, tortures, and disappears Tibetans, Chinese, and anyone who threatens its control by advocating for change.
But, this video also demonstrates the Party’s ultimate weakness. By not acknowledging or taking responsibility for its heinous crimes in 1989 in Tiananmen Square, or today, the Chinese leadership is driving a wedge between the Party and the people. The people remember the brutality, the death, and the pain. If you are never able to mourn openly, to grieve and to share the truth of your experience, how can you ever fully move on? The Chinese government’s strategy of balancing an open economy, while simultaneously keeping the door to historical honesty and political freedom slammed shut, is unsustainable.
If one thing is certain, it’s that change will come to China. The scales will inevitably tip in favor of political openness, and when the Party falls, it will fall hard. In the end, the joke will be on them.
Video of NYC Tiananmen Solidarity Protest
SFT’s Executive Director, Lhadon Tethong, speaks in front of the NYC Chinese Consulate on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Share this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sn3K6fsTeM
More than 100,000 people attend vigil for Tiananmen in Hong Kong
In a remarkable show of solidarity and support for democracy, more than an estimated 100,000 people took part in a 
candlelight vigil this evening in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park.
The Telegraph’s Malcolm Moore describes the remarkable protest in his blog post “Astonishing Scenes at Tiananmen Square Vigil in Hong Kong.”
Keith Bradsher from the New York Times writes about the moving scene at Victoria Park in his piece “Hong Kong Tiananmen protest Is Enormous and Somber.”
Prosperity Can’t Erase Tiananmen: Op-ed by Wu’er Kaixi
Excerpt from a powerful op-ed by Wu’er Kaixi, Tiananmen student leader in today’s Wall Street Journal.
In the aftermath of the bloodshed in Beijing 20 years ago — when I first went into hiding — my mother had a stroke. It paralyzed one side of her face. I was 10 years in exile before my brother told me. I do not regret what we did in Beijing that year the Berlin Wall fell, when there was so much hope of change in the air, but the deaths have haunted me for 20 years, and I want to hug my mother and tell her: “Sorry.”
I can’t. The Chinese government will not issue passports for my parents. China will not allow me to go home. It is difficult to explain the feelings I have at this moment to a world that has come to see China as a responsible member of the global community — the motor of global economic growth, the miracle that will jumpstart global capitalism. But the feelings can largely be summed up as disappointment: disappointment that China’s “progress” has been so one-sided.
Read the full op-ed here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124405068737681917.html#
Kristof’s Monument to Passivism On Tiananmen Sq Aniversary
by Matt Browner-Hamlin, Current SFT Board Member and Former SFT Staff
Read the full post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-browner-hamlin/kristofs-monument-to-pass_b_211291.html
For as long as I’ve been blogging about Tibet and China, I’ve had problems with Nick Kristof. Any reader of my writing knows that I think New York Times columnist Nick Kristof is one of the most intellectually dishonest and profoundly unserious members of the American press who write with any regularity on China. That’s why I found it quite surprising last night to read Kristof’s column on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests. Kristof was the Beijing bureau chief for the Times then — something I did not know — and was covering the protests. His retelling of the protests and the zeitgeist in Beijing in 1989 is powerful and it seems Kristof is walking down what for him is a rarely walked path: criticizing the Chinese government and ruling Communist Party. Of course I was wrong to get excited about the first half of his colum, as what followed in the second half was Grade A wankery.
Tibetan people express solidarity with and support for the Chinese Democracy Movement
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, exile Tibetans stand in solidarity with the Chinese democracy movement and express support for their demand for freedom, human rights and democracy in China. In commemorating twenty years since the watershed event in the history of contemporary China, we condemn the brutal manner with which the heavily armed troops suppressed and killed the unarmed pro-democracy protesters and bystanders. According to Amnesty International, 1000 people were killed and thousands more injured in early June pro-democracy protests.
On June 3, Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement (TPUM) will organize a signature campaign during the day and a candlelight vigil in the evening followed by the screening of the feature-length documentary movie about the Tiananmen Square protests, “The Gate of Heavenly Peace”. June 4, will be observed as ‘White China Day” an initiative by Wan Dan, a key figure in the 1989 pro-democracy protests in China. We request Tibetans around the world to wear “White Clothes” on June 4 to pay our respect to the victims and heroes of the Tiananmen protests. The series of events have been organized to express our deepest solidarity for the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre and to express our profound and unwavering support for the Chinese democracy movement.
It can be evidently inferred that the Chinese army’s quelling of the 1989 protests is similar to the Chinese government’s brutal crackdown on the thousands of Tibetans who took part in the peaceful uprising against the repressive Chinese rule in 2008. The protests have continued this year despite the imposition of ‘de facto’ martial law and in the midst of abominable acts of arbitrary arrests, unfair trials and executions including the death sentences for two Tibetans; Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak that could virtually take place any day.
Tibetans continue to peacefully protest the mining activities in Markham County in Chamdo prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region. Local sources report that approximately 500 Tibetans continue to blockade the road leading to Ser Ngul Lo Mountain, although officials in Markham told Radio Free Asia on May 27 that the standoff was close to being resolved. The blockade reportedly started on May 16th to protest the mining activities of Zhongkai Co., a Chinese mining and lumber company. Local Tibetans also complain that mining in the area has contributed to water contamination in the region. In response to the protests, Chinese authorities in Markham are reported to have deployed at least 300 troops in the region.
A local source reported that, on May 31st, Markham county officials declared it illegal for anyone to pass information to the outside world about the protests or the deaths caused by the mine. The source appealed for help from the international community stop the mining operations and averts the environmental crises befalling Tibet. We call on the Chinese government to immediately withdraw troops from the region, agree to negotiate an end to the mining operations, and offer compensation to all families affected by the water contamination.
With the affirmation and reassertion of our support for the Tiananmen massacre victims, we join the voices of the Tiananmen mothers in their call for reassessment of the June 4 incident by the government. We demand the Chinese government to release all the political prisoners of the June 4, 1989 protests in Beijing and the March 2008 Uprisings in Tibet. The Chinese government needs to realise that the call for freedom, justice and democracy will catapult into becoming a stronger, unified and an irrevocable force. While we reaffirm our commitment to work together with the Chinese community as an integral part of finding a lasting solution for democracy, we support the Chinese democracy movement and call for human rights in China and freedom for Tibet. From Tiananmen Massacre (1989) to Charter 8 (2008) to the Tibet Uprisings (2008-09), the road to democracy is steadfast and resolute. TPUM is convinced that a truly democratic China will enable Tibetans to determine their own future.
The Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement, organized by The Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Ex-political Prisoners Movement, National Democratic Party of Tibet and Students for a Free Tibet (India) aims to revive the spirit of the Tibetan National Uprising of 1959, and by engaging in nonviolent direct action, bring about an end to China’s illegal occupation of Tibet.
China’s Re-election to the UN Human Rights Council
On Tuesday, May 12th, China was re-elected to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in what can only be described as a step backward for human rights and a major blow to the integrity of the UN Human Rights Council.
In spite of China’s brutal human rights record and ongoing crackdown in Tibet, there was sadly little doubt that they would be re-elected to the Council. However, opposition to China’s membership did not go unnoticed.
Tibetan NGOs in Geneva joined forces with human rights organizations to challenge China’s re-election. Tibetans and their supporters also made sure our opposition to China’s membership was heard loud and clear outside of the UN General Assembly building here in New York City.
The Chinese government – likely feeling vulnerable about the upcoming 20th Tiananmen Square anniversary and its ongoing crackdown in Tibet – went out of its way to submit a 5-page propaganda paper to the UN General Assembly in an attempt to convince them that human rights have improved in China.
The very notion of China as a human rights defender is a complete farce. And as former president for the Czech Republic and Nobel Peace laureate, Vaclav Havel, suggests: China’s candidacy (and the candidacy of other human rights offending governments) for the Human Rights Council casts a dark shadow over the very purpose of the Council.
There are those who argue that engaging China on the Council will make a difference for human rights . In reality, China’s membership will only serve to embolden the Chinese government to use its position to deflect criticism of its human rights abuses and to silence any discussion about its ongoing military crackdown in Tibet.
The day after China’s re-election to the Council, Human Rights Watch released a video highlighting the Chinese government’s ongoing victimization and harassment of Tiananmen Square survivors, their families, and anyone who dares challenge the government’s version of history. Watch the video.
The message in Human Rights Watch’s video is clear and one that the Human Rights Council should heed: Unless the international community is willing to exert real pressure on the Chinese government, it will continue to violently oppress and disregard human rights in Tibet, China and other Chinese-occupied territories – violating everything the UN Human Rights Council is intended to protect.
Watch our videos!
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- China should resume dialogue with Dalai Lama:Merkel January 29, 2009
