New York Tibetans and Supporters Protest Olympic Torch Relay in Tibet

An estimated 700 Tibetans and their supporters gathered on Tuesday, June 17th to protest China’s parading of the Olympic torch through Tibet and called for immediate media access to Tibetan areas. The protest was aimed at inspiring Tibet supporters worldwide one day before a Global Day of Action called by Tibet activists for June 18th. China has announced that the Olympic torch will arrive in Lhasa on June 21st.

Along with New York-area Tibetan community members, activists with Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), Tibetan Youth Congress, U.S. Tibet Committee, Tibetan Women’s Organization, and members of the Tibetan Community of New York & New Jersey gathered at the Chinese Consulate, the United Nations, and China’s mission to the U.N. for a spirited protest, dramatic political theater, and a symbolic head-shaving ritual.

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Transcript of Press Conference by Tibet Activists on Eve of IOC Meeting in Athens

TIBET ACTIVISTS SPEAK OUT ON EVE OF INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE MEETING IN ATHENS
TRANSCRIPT OF STATEMENTS MADE AT PRESS CONFERENCE
JUNE 3RD, FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION OF GREECE, ATHENS

1) INTRODUCTION BY LHADON TETHONG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET (SFT) INTERNATIONAL
2) TENDON DAHORTSANG, PRESIDENT, TIBETAN YOUTH ASSOCIATION IN EUROPE, ON THE CURRENT SITUATION IN TIBET
3) BORIS EICHLER, PRESS OFFICER, TIBET INITIATIVE DEUTSCHLAND, ON THE TORCH RELAY THROUGH TIBET
4) LHADON TETHONG, SFT, ON INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ACCESS TO TIBET

Below is the transcript of remarks by Tibet campaigners at a press conference at the Foreign Press Association of Greece in Athens, June 3rd. The press conference was broadcast live on the Internet and can be viewed at: www.sfttv.org. The remarks were followed by questions by reporters present in the room as well as by viewers who watched the press conference live online and asked their questions in an accompanying web-forum. Transcript may vary slightly from the remarks as delivered by the presenters but the following should be regarded as the official remarks of the identified activists.

INTRODUCTION BY LHADON TETHONG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET INTERNATIONAL

Good Morning and thank you everyone for joining us.

My name is Lhadon Tethong and I am the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet International based in New York.

As you know, we are here in Athens because the International Olympic Committee is meeting from tomorrow, June 4th to June 6th. This is their last meeting before August, followed shortly thereafter by the Beijing Games. Meanwhile, the meeting also comes just days before the Olympic torch is scheduled to make its first stop in Tibet.
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China Earthquake Pushes Tibet to Sidelines

A headline in today’s New York Times sums up a worrisome phenomenon that has SFT leaders debating about how to maintain momentum in a political and media atmosphere that has suddenly changed from the last couple months: China Earthquake Pushes Tibet to the Sidelines.

Reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal writes that the “shift is, partly, tectonic. An earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province killed tens of thousands of Chinese, evoking an outpouring of global sympathy for China and turning it overnight from victimizer to victim.”

The article goes on:

“The protests this spring put Tibet at the forefront of human rights issue — they accomplished a lot — but I think the interest can’t go further right now,” said John Kamm, a leading human rights advocate whose San Francisco-based organization, Dui Hua Foundation, has helped free prominent Chinese political prisoners.

“Now the Chinese people are in a state of mourning,” he said. “I’m not suggesting that we stop putting pressure on China, but we should use judgment in where and when to direct the fire.”

Ms. Rosenthal goes on to write about the eternal difficulty of how underfunded grassroots movements maintain momentum and morale. She notes that since the historic events beginning with the latest March 10th popular uprising against China’s occupation, and followed by the Tibet solidarity protests that overshadowed China’s Olympic torch relay, Tibet groups have:

become more emboldened, forming new alliances and finding themselves deluged with volunteers and donations. About 200 new chapters of Students for a Free Tibet have been started in the past six months, in places like Estonia, the Czech Republic and the state of Montana.

But sustaining that momentum has been difficult. “It is a challenge to keep people engaged,” said Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, which operates on a budget of about $400,000 a year from a ramshackle office above a dry cleaners in New York’s Alphabet City. “There’s no substitute for China bringing the Olympic torch into your neighborhood.”

More on SFT with a thoughtful quote from Tendor (nice job, man) that I think perfectly encapsulates the sentiment that many SFTers dedicated to rangzen – particularly young Tibetans – have towards the Dalai Lama and his leadership:

With its guerrilla style “actions,” Students for a Free Tibet has little in common with the far more established International Campaign for Tibet, which shares a staid Washington townhouse with the Dalai Lama’s representative to the United States.

The International Campaign for Tibet accepts the Dalai Lama’s limited goal of greater autonomy and religious freedom for the Tibetan people. But the students’ group wants more. “Yes, we want independence for Tibet — that is what the Tibetan people want,” said Tenzin Dorjee, vice director of Students for a Free Tibet, who tried to unfurl a banner on the Eiffel Tower during the Paris torch relay and last year achieved that goal at Everest Base Camp. “We have the utmost love for His Holiness and respect for his leadership, and we know where Tibet would be now without him.

“But we are inspired not just by his divinity, but also his humanity. So we can disagree with some of his ideas.”

And back to Dui Hua’s John Kamm, who has put his negotiations with China for the release of political prisoners before the Olympics on hold “during the relief efforts:”

…he hopes that the earthquake may provide a face-saving exit for China from a torch relay that has often been more embarrassment than celebration. Already, the relay has recently been scaled back in response to the disaster.

“The Dalai Lama said he’s praying for the victims,” said Mr. Kamm, noting that many of the hard-hit areas had large ethnic Tibetan populations. “Maybe this will give the government the opportunity to cancel the relay in Tibet.”

Ah yes, the torch relay through Tibet. Chinese officials put the torch relay on hold for three days to mourn the earthquake’s victims but it seems there’s no intention to let such an important propaganda display as carrying the torch through recently riot-scarred Lhasa slip away. We of course agree with Mr. Kamm that the torch relay must be canceled. Before the IOC even authorized China’s Olympic Committee’s plans for its torch relay, our SFT troublemakers were up at Everest base camp saying “IOC: No Torch Through Tibet.” This remains a critical issue and we can’t let the sensitivity around criticizing China in the wake of the earthquake’s horrific human toll scare us away from pressing on with our campaign to demand the IOC do the right thing.

In concert with other Tibet support groups, SFT is ramping up our efforts to pressure IOC Executive Members before their last meeting in Athens (June 4th-6th) before the torch is scheduled to enter Tibet on June 9th. It goes to Gyalthang in far southeastern Tibet (an area now annexed into Gansu Province) and then comes back to central Tibet, including Lhasa, June 19th-24th.

To conclude with Tendor’s quote from yesterday’s SFT press release that I think sums it all up:

“In the wake of a natural disaster that has devastated many Tibetans as well as Chinese, the IOC is threatening to add a man-made disaster in the form of the torch relay through Tibet, a preventable tragedy which will compound the suffering of thousands of Tibetans who continue to face the Chinese authorities’ violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations for freedom.”

Everest “like a war zone”

MountEverest.net is an amazing site that aggregates all the climbing news of the Himalaya region. With one of the many olympic torches at the Northside (Tibetan side that is!) basecamp, the site is abuzz with updates and news from the area… well, at least what news can get out, due to a basically complete blackout of phones, and an increased presence of armed soldiers.

View selected updates from the last two days below…

12:46 pm EDT Apr 29, 2008
- “There is a small police post at 6400m (ed: camp 2) on Everest and the one armed soldier does the rounds each day, with conspicuous sniper rifle, however they mostly give a friendly Namaste,” is the latest report to ExWeb from Everest south side.

- On Everest south side, BBC (expelled yesterday) reported that a tourism ministry official there, Prabodh Dhakal, said that climbers were not allowed to hold even informal chats with media, in fact, if any mountaineer talked to the BBC, he or she would be expelled. “We are doing this for our friend, China,” Dhakal said.

09:58 am EDT Apr 30, 2008
- International journalists invited by the Chinese Government to Everest’s Tibetan BC are ungrateful campers. Tired and sick from too rapid altitude gain; they’ve come to find a new 90km black-top road and a media center in Rongbuk – but no news to report, or any word on the torch’s whereabouts.

- In any case, most climbers are headed down after acclimatizing in C2 where at 6400m; a huge banner alerts everyone not to proceed beyond this point. A post with armed soldiers guards the spot.

- Everest is like a war zone; expeditions’ websites report little about their members’ movements between C2 and BC, and avoid making other comments. “Due to restrictions on Everest this spring, we apologize for the lack of in-depth reports from the team,” posted Jagged Globe yesterday. “We hope that this will change soon.” Also Brazilians Rodrigo and Eduardo, just back from C2, mentioned they can only use the phone with a soldier listening in.

- The doctor also said he had already treated many members of the military who had fallen sick because of the altitude. Meanwhile, a dozen more soldiers were reportedly on their way to BC yesterday.

Also interesting… there is a special hotline setup for anonymous reports from the mountain:
The “Climbers Without Borders” Everest 2008 hotline allows climbers, their relatives and friends to report anonymously from the mountain as long as the caller is known to ExWeb. Pls call (1) 206-666-2407 (from a sat phone pls dial 001-206-666-2407). State your name and message (your name will be withheld).

read more news from the Himalayas…

Everest Climber Removed Over Tibet Flag

MountEverest.net reports that “an American climber is first man down in the recent ban of pro-Tibetan props on the south side of Everest. The mountaineer has been footed from the peak after police found a Tibetan flag on him. ” What is crazy to us is that it seems the climber simply had the flag IN HIS BAG, and hadn’t even performed a political act… though who know what he could have been planning.
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Torch Demonstration in Bangkok Today

Today at the UN Building in Bangkok. a peaceful demonstration against the presence of the Olympic Torch was held.

View more and comment on pictures from bangkok demonstration post or view the entire Bangkok-focused blog: http://notorch.blogspot.com/

Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai withdraws from torch relay

Kenya’s Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai has pulled out of the Olympic torch relay in which she was due to take part over the weekend in Tanzania, citing concerns for worldwide human rights.

Maathai said she withdrew to show solidarity with activists over rights issues, including in Tibet where China’s crackdown on recent protests have sparked international anger.

“Yes, I have pulled out,” Maathai told AFP by telephone Thursday from the Tanzanian commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

“I have decided to show solidarity with other people on the issues of human rights in Sudan’s Darfur region, Tibet and Burma.” (more…)

US House Passes Pro-Tibet Resolution

Great news from the US Congress. The Gavel reports:

The House has just overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on the Chinese government to end its crackdown in Tibet and to enter into a substantive dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, H.Res. 1077. House Resolution 1077 was introduced by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and members of the bipartisan Congressional Delegation that met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in India. Speaker Pelosi, along with Reps. Rush Holt, Jay Inslee, and Hilda Solis traveled with the Congressional Delegation and spoke in favor of the resolution during debate last night, as did Chairman Howard Berman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Speaker Pelosi: “I was reading the paper the other day as the torch was going through Paris that one of the carriers of the torch said that what was happening with the protesters was ‘very unpleasant.’ And I thought ‘You think that’s unpleasant? Maybe you should be in the subhuman conditions that the refugees are in Darfur. If you think that’s unpleasant maybe you should be in a prison in Tibet for your faith in His Holiness the Dalai Lama. If you think that’s unpleasant maybe you could still be in prison from the Tiananmen Square Massacre, some people are still in prison from that time.’” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9nY-8AwnE0

Rep. Holt: “I have in my office a crayon-drawn Tibetan flag given to me during our delegation’s visit to the Tibetan children’s village and I keep this flag in my office because it reminds me of the human toll of this situation. Children and adults flee the villages of Tibet, cross the highest range of mountains in the world to reach the promise of a life where they can preserve their culture and have freedom. The journey is treacherous but children try to escape the oppression in Tibet. I am pleased that all the members of this important trip joined Speaker in introducing this resolution.”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcb_RgzAlcE
Chairman Berman: “China’s response to Tibetan protests over the last month has been tragically predictable. For half a century the Tibetan people have struggled under the repressive policies of the Chinese authorities. And sadly, the current crackdown is only the most recent example of Beijing’s mistreatment of Tibetans. As the world watched events unfold inside China, we were sickened, not only by the shock of seeing images of Chinese authorities beating Tibetans in the street, but also by the realization that these are images we have seen before and fear we may see again.”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9NZH51up20

These statements and this resolution come not from Tibetan exiles or activists marching on the streets of American cities, but some of the most respected leaders of the US government. This resolution is a recognition of the brutal oppression Tibetans live under, the courage it takes for them to rise up in protest, and the importance of speaking out on about the political weight of the Beijing Olympics.

Report: IOC Debating Ending Torch Relay

The Associated Press reports:

Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the committee would consider ending the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay because of anti-Chinese protests.

Rogge told The Associated Press he was ”deeply saddened” by violent protests in London and Paris and concerned about the upcoming torch relay in San Francisco, where activists expressed fears Monday that the torch’s planned route through Tibet would lead to arrests and violent measures by Chinese officials trying to stifle dissent.
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Rogge said the IOC’s executive board would discuss ending the international leg in a meeting Friday.

The IOC and the City of San Francisco should cancel the torch relay stop scheduled for tomorrow in the Bay Area immediately. The rest of the torch relay should be canceled as well and the IOC should rescind their approval for the torch to run through Tibet. This is not a hard decision. It’s time for Rogge and the IOC to finally do the right thing.

Call SF Mayor Newsom & Ask to Cancel the Torch Relay

Now that the full scale of the controversy that is the Beijing Olympics is beginning to be broadcast around the world through three days of major protests in London and Paris, it is time for San Francisco – the next stop in the torch relay and the only stop on American soil – to cancel the torch relay in San Francisco. The Mayor of Paris had the sense to cancel the remainder of the torch relay and the torch ceremony in Paris following widespread protests from Tibet and human rights activists. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has the advantage of knowing what has happened this weekend. He can make the right decision now and cancel the SF Olympic Torch Relay.

Call Mayor Newsom’s office and politely ask that he take immediate action to cancel the Torch Relay.

Mayor Gavin Newsom
Telephone: (415) 554-6141  – this actually gets you a real person!

You can also email Mayor Newsom at gavin.newsom@sfgov.org. Here’s what I sent him (you can use the same text):

Mayor Newsom:

With global controversy growing over the running of the Olympic torch, and given the brutality of the current Chinese government crackdown in Tibet, it is completely irresponsible for the Mayor’s office to further exacerbate tensions by allowing the torch through San Francisco. We call on you to immediately cancel the Olympic Torch Relay and to officially protest the Chinese government’s plan to run the torch through Tibet.

Sincerely,

F.X. Leach