Plenty of Work Left in China-Tibet Matters

This is from an email (and their website) from the International Campaign for Tibet, to its supporters and others.

"The 2008 Beijing Olympics are behind us and, as a result of Tibetan activism, the situation in Tibet was clearly the most significant human rights backdrop for the Games.

Monks march in protest at LabrangThe spring demonstrations across the Tibetan plateau and the protests along the route of the international torch relay not only put the Tibet issue on the Olympic agenda - it preempted Beijing from using the Olympics to show economic progress and social harmony in Tibet.

Just a year ago, the media was ignoring Tibet in its preparation for covering the Games in China. All that changed after March 2008.

Tens of thousands of Tibetans protested across Tibet this spring . . . not to demonstrate against the Olympics, but against Chinese misrule. Then, as the resulting Chinese crackdown intensified in Tibet, tens of thousands of Tibet supporters protested its parading of the Olympic torch around the world. Even during the Olympics Tibet supporters managed to hang banners in Beijing and show that the right to freedom of expression cannot be extinguished by dictatorial rule.

Despite the Chinese government’s efforts to silence Tibetans and make the world think there is no Tibet problem, exactly the opposite occurred.BBC News: Tibet Banner Hang

As a New York Times editorial said, the final gold medal for authoritarian image management can be safely awarded to China’s Communist Party leadership:

“Along the way, government critics were pre-emptively rounded up and jailed, domestic news outlets tightly controlled, foreign journalists denied full access to the Internet and thousands of Beijing’s least telegenic residents were evicted from their homes and out of camera range.”

I want to thank each and every one of you for helping to ensure that the voices of the Tibetan people were heard before and during the Olympics.

We have a tremendous amount of human rights work ahead of us: hundreds of Tibetans detained this spring have yet to be tried and sentenced. We must win the release of these men and woman, many who are Buddhist monks and nuns. In our new report, Tibet at a Turning Point, ICT confirms the names of more than 900 Tibetans detained.

Two Tibetan filmmakers who made a powerful film in Tibet about how Tibetans really feel about the Beijing Olympics have been arrested. Their whereabouts are currently unknown and we must win their release.

Before the Olympics, ICT was concerned that the Chinese government’s intense focus on the success of the Games would undermine the struggle of brave Tibetans and Chinese for human rights, democratic freedoms and self-determination.

Beijing did its best to silence them.

But thanks to you and tens of thousands of other Tibetan activists inside and outside Tibet, our cause has been strengthened and we go forward from the Olympics with a renewed confidence in the spirit and tenacity of the Tibetan people."