Tibet activists have just blockaded the Chinese Consulate and 2
others have staged a mock hanging from the Consulate building.
ON EVE OF OLYMPICS, TIBET ACTIVISTS BLOCKADE CHINESE CONSULATE
HUMAN CHAIN AND DRAMATIC MOCK HANGING HIGHLIGHT REPRESSION IN TIBET
[San Francisco] - Just hours before Beijing kicks off the 2008
Olympic Games, five Tibet activists, including two Tibetan women,
blockaded the Chinese Consulate this morning to draw attention to
China's ongoing repression inside Tibet. Three of the activists,
Tenzin Khando Tsering (of Salt Lake City, UT), Megan Swoboda (of
Oakland, CA) and Sabba Saleen Syal (of San Francisco, CA) chained
themselves to the consulate's entrance, while Nyendak Wangden (of
Suisun City, CA) and Brihannala Morgan (of Oakland, CA) staged an
eerily realistic mock hanging, intended to symbolize the hundreds
of Tibetans who have been killed by the Chinese authorities in
recent months. As China attempts to shift focus away from its
brutal military lockdown in Tibet during the lavish Olympics
opening ceremonies, over a thousand Tibetans remain missing or
imprisoned following the demonstrations that rocked Tibet in March
and April, and a harsh "patriotic re-education" campaign is
According to Nyendak Wangden, a Tibetan exile and one of the women
who took part in the dramatic mock hanging, "The situation inside
Tibet has never been more dire. While Beijing boasts of increased
freedoms during the Games, the Chinese leadership is returning
Tibet to the Dark Ages with arbitrary arrests and disappearances,
torture, forced 'Patriotic Re-education,' expulsion of monks and
nuns from their religious institutions, and other Cultural
Revolution-era fear tactics." It has widely been reported by Tibet
Support Groups, in addition to Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch, that China's promise to make improvements in human
rights before the Olympics has not been upheld, nor has the
International Olympics Committee's vow to ensure the Chinese
government's progress in these areas.
Just yesterday, four Tibet activists were detained in Beijing after
climbing poles near the Olympic stadium and unfurling banners that
read "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet" and "Tibet will be Free."
Today's action is part of a Global Day of Action. Thousands of
protestors converged in major cities around the world today to
demand human rights and freedom in Tibet and to remind the world
that while Beijing celebrates, Tibetans live in a climate of fear.
