RFA’s Tibetan service had this interview with the head of Students for a Free Tibet, Lhadon Tethong:
“Yes there was a team of six that went to the Great Wall of China and hung a banner off the wall with two climbers. I believe it is a 20-foot banner which read “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008” in Chinese and English. Then Chinese security personnel swarmed in and at this point of time we don’t know much, other than that they were detained. They did the protest because the countdown was putting the spotlight more on Beijing. They want to send the message that until China leaves Tibet and stops the abuse of human rights there, the Tibet issue will remain as a painful and embarrassing reminder, always coming up through protests and things like this around the Olympics.
There were two women and four men. Both the climbers were Canadians. There was one British man and three Americans. No I don’t have any information more than what I told you. At this point most point for the Chinese to realize is that whole world is watching them. They should make sure to deal responsively with these activists. By inviting people from all over the world, they have brought the spotlight on themselves and the issue of Tibet will continue to plague them till they resolve it.”
I was actually at IOC President Jacques Rogge’s hotel early this morning. I was able to when came out of the elevator to leave lobby, security officials held me back but I was able to yell, “Dr. Rogge, I want to talk to you about Tibet.” He looked up and then looked down and walked out of the door. At that point, I yelled again and said, “I am a Tibetan and want to talk about human rights”. Then he was gone. The security did not touch me but the general manager of the hotel told me to leave. We will be going to the Beijing Olympics organizing committee and trying to meet someone there. I heard about Amnesty International’s report and also about Reporters Without Borders protesting against China on freedom of press coverage, but by word of mouth. Here all information is blocked. Last night CNN ran some story about the protests but screen went blank. Everything is censored here. There are over 60 different events happening all over the place. These are not very big events, but they are organized by different Chinese athletic groups. The main event will be tomorrow at Tiananmen Square when the countdown ceremony is to take place with about 200 representatives from all over the world. There will be top Chinese officials and about 10,000 selected public spectators. We are being followed everywhere. They disappeared yesterday but they came back again last night. They were with us today and there are lot of them. They can follow us and we are absolutely doing nothing wrong. The fact of following us indicates that they fear us. No they don’t interact at all. They sit in the lobby of the hotel all day and all night. The location was Mutanyuan from where they hung the banner. The protest banner was hung at 9 am local time on August 7, 2007.
The protesters are:
Climbers Melanie Raoul and Sam Price from Vancouver, Canada, U.S. citizens Leslie Kaup of St Paul, Minnesota, Nupur Modi of Oakland, California and Duane Martinez of Sausalito, California, and Pete Speller of Cambridge, UK.
Filed under: 2008_olympics, China, East Asia, Newsdesk, china_media, china_rights, china_unrest, east_asia, freespeech, governance, human_rights, religion, tibet, tibetan | Tagged: china_africa, china_darfur, china_humanrights, dalai_lama, GE, genocide_olympics, johnson&johnson, lhasa, radio_free_asia, steven_spielberg
Say, isn’t RFA funded by the government, and my tax dollar? Isn’t our government’s official position that Tibet is part of China? Why is RFA promoting Tibet Independence?
I will have to talk to Sara Jackson Han about this.
And why don’t we righteous Americans/Canadians set a good example for the Chinese by reliniquishing our established statehood towards Native American Independence? First Nation Independence?
Of cours not, we are hypocrits. We want to keep our stolen land and demand Tibet Independence.
Proverb goes “people living in glass house should not throw stones.”
Hi Charles
Thank you for your comment. Personally, I think you are quite right to point out the Native American issue as something which needs examining. The main difference is, I suppose, that the words “First Nation Independence” won’t set off alarm bells ringing in some US Internet policing bureau resulting in this blog being closed down or you receiving a visit from the Feds. That being the case, there are no bans on our reporting something, even if it doesn’t accord with US government policy, because our editorial policy isn’t dictated by a propaganda department. Moreover, reporting something isn’t the same as supporting it. Our job is to provide news that people in China and Tibet wouldn’t be able to access because of these restrictions operating in their area. This is our mission as a surrogate broadcaster. The purpose of this blog is to provide information to readers of English about selected broadcasts and interviews made in our target languages, because we are part of the English language community which has an interest in these matters.
Very nice, but does this mean you are free to be biased?
For example, are you aware of the fact Students for a free Tibet is conntected with the Canadian government thru PM Harper’s advisor Tenzin Khangsar:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Tenzin+Khangsar+Students+For+Free+Tibet
Why don’t you report that? Is RFA allowed to tell the truth about NED/CIA funding for Reporters Without Border?
I think you know the answer.
BTW, “needs examining” translates to – NO INDEPENDENCE FOR YOU!!!
I hope you are a big Seinfeld fan like me
Thank you for your additional comments. Please feel free to continue to set forth your views in comments on this blog.
Here you go, check out RFA’s honorable mention in this BBG article:
http://www.govexec.com/features/0599/0599s5.htm
“Taken as a whole, the overseas broadcasting enterprise is the product of two separate philosophical forces that have shaped U.S. foreign policy over the past half-century. One is the militant anti-communism of the Cold War era; the other is “American exceptionalism” – the belief that the U.S. experiment in democratic governance stands as an example for the rest of the world to emulate.”