You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2008.
From an email I received:
Nearly three weeks have passed since Tibetan monks from Drepung Monastery carried out peaceful protests demanding their freedom. Their action spread to Sera Monastery and then to the streets of Lhasa and into the hearts of Tibetans across Tibet and around the world, igniting a nationwide uprising.
Despite massive military presence, widespread incarceration, torture, and an ongoing media blackout, Tibetans continue to rise up.
On Thursday, a group of monks disrupted a tightly controlled Chinese government media tour of Lhasa – the only foreign media allowed into Tibet since the national uprising started on March 10th. As dozens of journalists and their government handlers toured the Jokhang temple, thirty monks burst out of a room to tell the journalists that “Tibet is not free” and not to believe China’s lies.
At great risk to their personal safety, these incredibly brave monks have sent yet another message of freedom to the world.
Help SFT continue its support of Tibetans inside Tibet.
To Donate go to: www.studentsforafreetibet.org/donate
Tibetans are rising up like never before against Chinese rule. After suffering for half a century and in this Olympic year, with all eyes on China, Tibetans are risking everything for their freedom. This is the uprising of a people against their oppressor, and the only possible outcome is freedom. But Tibetans inside Tibet still need our support more than ever before.
SFT has had its work cut out for it over the past weeks: the lighting of the Tibetan Freedom Torch; our recent protests in Olympia Greece; thousands of emails, faxes and letters targeting decision makers around the world to remove Tibet from the torch relay route; working around the clock to ensure the international media tells the true story of what is happening inside Tibet. And we’re just getting started. SFT will continue to be at the forefront of international efforts to ensure that Tibetans’ call for freedom is amplified around the world in the lead up to and during the Beijing Olympics.
Donate now. Help SFT make history for Tibet in 2008.
On Monday, March 31st, as the Olympic torch relay arrives in Beijing with much celebration and fanfare, Tibetans and supporters around the world will take part in a Global Day of Action for Tibet. Click here to find a protest or vigil near you. If you are organizing an event on this day, please let us know by email: kala@studentsforafreetibet.org.
On the day of action, Avaaz – the global organization that has collected an unprecedented 1.2 million signatures in support of Tibet – will be delivering this historic petition to Chinese embassies and consulates around the world. Help reach the goal of 2 million signatures before Monday! Sign the Avaaz petition – Stand With Tibet.
For up-to-date information on the situation inside Tibet, please continue to monitor SFT’s website and blogs.
www.studentsforafreetibet.org
www.blog.studentsforafreetibet.org
www.beijingwideopen.org
Thank you so much for your continued support of SFT and Tibetans around the world.
Tibet will be free.
Kalaya’an Mendoza
Grassroots Coordinator
Students for a Free Tibet
A group of more than 20 Tibetan schoolchildren has staged a protest in the main United Nations compound in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. A UN spokesman said the children, aged between 15 and 18, and dressed in school uniform scaled the wall.
This is the boldest Tibetan protest in nearly three weeks in Kathmandu.
Tibetan exiles say police have also arrested nearly 90 of their community as their demonstrations against Chinese rule in Tibet continue.
A UN spokesman told the BBC the 21 students apologised to senior officials and guards for entering the UN compound.
The children said they wanted to draw attention to the crisis in Tibet and unfurled a flag featuring independence slogans for the Chinese-ruled region, the spokesman said.
Activists from Reporters without Borders attempted to disrupt the lighting of the Olympic Flame. Their attempt was partially successful in that it did cause some disruption and it made news today–keeping the focus on Tibet.
I’m a bit behind with getting this posted here, but The Burma Campaign UK have a new single for sale by Lo-Star. All profits go to help their cause. The video is available below:
The communist government’s leading newspaper called Saturday to “resolutely crush” Tibetan demonstrations against Chinese rule.
The statement came as international criticism against the crackdown on Tibetan protesters swelled.
Monks protest in Dharamsala
Going through the photos coming out of Dharamsala, I intake a breath sharply as I recognize some of the people I met this time last year when I was there. It seems so strange to me now. Only one year later. I feel so USELESS over here. What can I do? It seems so hard to be here and so white.
Faces in the crowd stand out to me. My heart leaps. I remember their kindness and their assuredness that Tibet would once again be home.
From CNN:
Tibetan monks at a monastery in Sichuan province sent word to exiled monks in Dharamsala, India, that two monks were arrested after they e-mailed photographs of monks killed in protests to the news media. Internet and phone service has since been interrupted to the Amdo Ngaba Kirti Monastery in Ngaba County, the exiles told CNN.
The Dalai Lama has threatened to quit as head of Tibet’s government-in-exile in Dharamsala if the violence by Tibetans spirals out of control. He also warned of the consequences of any attempts to push for independence from China.
He met Wednesday with leaders of several Tibetan activist groups, including younger activists who demand Tibetan independence and hope to derail the 2008 Beijing Olympics
The Dalai Lama, who calls for “meaningful autonomy” and supports the Olympics, said Thursday that he will suffer the consequences of the protesters’ actions.
“I have no authority. I have no power to tell the movement to shut up,” the Dalai Lama said during an hour-and-40 minute briefing at his headquarters in Dharamsala.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Wednesday that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised him he would be ready to talk with the Dalai Lama if the religious leader renounces violence and demands for Tibetan independence.
It was not immediately clear if this meant the Chinese leader was ready to start that dialogue anytime soon. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he is not calling for Tibet’s independence from China, but wanted “genuine autonomy.”
So, the Terrible protests and Violence in Tibet continue, and one must ask the question “how does the rest of the world feel?” As I live in the U.S. I must turn to the President of this country. George Bush. Where is he? Is he in India? Is he talking to the Dalai Lama? Is he talking about this issue? No. Instead I find:
“On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with the Dalai Lama in India and called on the world to denounce China’s crackdown in Tibet.”
The Speaker of The House. Not the President. Not the Vice President. Not anyone in the Upper Echelon… but the Speaker of the House.
But then, there is no oil in Tibet. Just as there is no oil in Darfur.
Cultural genocide doesn’t matter if there is nothing to be gained in return…
A list of the dead?
20 Tibetans were reported dead following the crackdown by Chinese forces on March 16th, and 9 have been confirmed and identified as:
1. Tashi (27-year old male from Lhade Gongma Tsedrugtsang Village)
2. Tsezin Totsang (32-year old male from Thechung)
3. Lhundup Tsomo Jigjetsang, (17-year old student at Tibetan Middle School, from Ngoshu Village)
4. Atisha Gangwatsang (male from Denshu Village)
5. Norbu Phurwagoen (15-year old male, student at Tibetan Middle School, from Shanglung Village)
6. Butrang Dhargyetsang (female)
7. A Monk from Zamthang
8. Sangay (18-year old male from Raro Village)
9. Gyamtso Beize
Photos of the identified victims are available at: www.studentsforafreetibet.org/ngaba
Photo – Adam Zilinskas 2007
Finally China admits that it “shot” at some protesters. But is it much too little too late? Watching the video from the BBC of the confrontation that perhaps started all of this; I am moved to tears.
Chinese police opened fire and wounded four protesters “in self-defence” last Sunday in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province, the Xinhua news agency says.
It is the first time China has admitted injuring anyone since anti-Chinese protests in Tibet began last week.
Xinhua said police opened fire in Aba county – the same place that Tibetan activists said eight people were killed during protests near Kirti monastery.
Activists released graphic photos of dead bodies showing bullet wounds.
China has said that only 13 people have been killed during the protests, and that all were innocent and killed by “rioters” in Lhasa.
The Tibetan government in exile has said at least 99 people have died so far, including 80 in Lhasa – and have accused the security forces of firing on crowds.
Earlier on Thursday, China admitted for the first time that the protests had spread outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region to nearby provinces in south-western China where large numbers of ethnic Tibetans live.
In a phone call to her Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged China to show restraint and enter dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists.
Meanwhile White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said President George W Bush would go ahead with a visit to the Beijing Olympic Games in August despite the unrest, and would use the opportunity to speak openly to President Hu Jintao.
Map of Unrest: (Clearly shows that it’s more than just Lhasa…)
Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao has accused the Tibetan spiritual leader of masterminding the protests — which culminated in a riot on Friday in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa — from his base in the Northern Indian town of Dharamsala, where he lives in exile.
Prayer Flags outside HHDL Residence, Dharamsala, Northern India, 2007
© CCC 2007
“We are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a life and death struggle with the Dalai Clique,” Tibet’s Communist Party secretary, Zhang Qingli, told a teleconference of the region’s government and Party leaders.
“Leaders of the whole country must deeply understand the arduousness, complexity and long-term nature of the struggle,” he said in remarks carried online by the China Tibet News.
Image from FreeTibet.Org
I can’t believe in this world, we still face these crises.
I can’t believe that we fight and kill like people
are pawns and don’t matter.
The stench of death lies over the land. The oppressed are hungry
and tired, and the oppressors fat and restless.
What is it all for?
What is any of it for?
An acre of another man’s land?
A barrel of oil, slick black blood
languidly fueling the heart
of this terrible machine?
