For Immediate Release
June 20, 2008

CHINA PARADES OLYMPIC TORCH THROUGH TIBETAN CAPITAL LHASA UNDER LOCKDOWN

Contact:       Lhadon Tethong in New York: +1 917 289 0228
                    Han Shan in New York: +1 917 289 0228

Massive Chinese Security Presence Places Lhasa Under Virtual Martial Law for Olympics Propaganda Exercise

New York – Chinese authorities have placed the Tibetan capital under virtual martial law to prepare for a one-day Olympic torch relay, which begins today at 9am, Beijing time. Three months after a Tibetan popular uprising against China's occupation began in Lhasa, thousands of Chinese police and paramilitary forces have been mobilized in the city. Checkpoints have been set up, paramilitary forces have been marching through the streets, and trucks filled with riot police are patrolling throughout Lhasa.

"China's parading of the Olympic torch through the Tibetan capital only three months after a popular uprising against Chinese occupation is blatantly political and offensive," said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. "The Chinese government is wielding the Olympic torch as a tool of oppression over the heads of Tibetans still suffering under China's brutal clampdown."

An unconfirmed source in Lhasa has reported that Chinese officials have imposed an unofficial curfew banning unauthorized people from the streets until after 1pm when the torch relay concludes. The same source said that people have been told that they must not look out of their windows overlooking the torch relay route. According to a June 2nd report on China Tibet News, Tibetans have been “severely punished” for the crime of “creating and spreading rumors”* regarding the torch relay.

"The torch relay in Lhasa is China's latest episode in a series of betrayals of everything the Olympics represent," said Kate Woznow, Campaigns Director of Students for a Free Tibet. "Parading the torch through Lhasa while Tibetans live under virtual martial law is China's most egregious exploitation of the Games yet."

Even before it authorized Beijing's proposed Olympic torch relay, Tibetans and their supporters worldwide called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reject any plans to take the Olympic torch through Tibet. Many people see China’s torch relay in Tibet as a blatant use of the Olympic Games to underscore China's claims to Tibet. Eight Tibet campaigners were arrested on June 6th in Athens, Greece for protesting outside the most recent meeting of the IOC.

China's Governor in Tibet has promised that Tibetans will be "treated harshly and with no leniency" for protesting during the torch relay. Tibetan exiles and campaigners have heard from sources inside Tibet that Tibetans are opposed to China taking the torch through their lands and are determined to protest. A leaked internal IOC memo recognized the possibility of unrest and suggests IOC staff and leadership express "deepest sympathies or condolences to anyone that was injured or killed, and their families."

"With the way it has militarized the Tibetan capital, China might as well parade the Olympic torch through Lhasa atop a tank," said Han Shan, Olympics Campaign Coordinator of Students for a Free Tibet. "Chinese authorities in Tibet apparently believe that Olympic spirit grows out of the barrel of a gun."

Tibetans across the Tibetan plateau continue to suffer under a massive clampdown by Chinese authorities. Tibet remains closed to foreign tourists and journalists, with the exception of reporters invited to join three small, tightly-controlled government tours since the uprising began on March 10th, anniversary of the 1959 uprising against China's occupation. Hundreds of Tibetans were killed in China's violent crackdown against Tibetan protests, and at least one thousand Tibetans remain detained, according to a recent Amnesty International report. Buddhist monasteries and nunneries have been sealed off, and Chinese officials have touted political indoctrination campaigns designed to break Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule.

"It's an obscene betrayal of the Olympic ideals that the IOC has allowed Chinese forces to terrorize Tibetans in Lhasa to ensure a triumphant torch relay through a city rocked by a revolt against Beijing's rule only three months ago," added Tenzin Dorjee, Deputy Director of Students for a Free Tibet, from India.

Some reports have inaccurately stated that the 'Tibet leg of the torch relay' has been reduced to just one day, taking into account only what China refers to as the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and ignoring the vast area where most of the Tibetan population lives, and where the majority of the recent widespread protests have taken place. After Lhasa, China plans to take the torch to Gormo and Kokonor (Ch: Golmud and Qinghai Hu – Tibetan regions administered under China's Qinghai province) and the border town of Xining (only two hours drive from the town of Rebkong where on April 17th, over 100 monks were detained and beaten by Chinese authorities).

*China Tibet News report:
http://www.chinatibetnews.com/GB/channel2/24/200806/02/84490.html