June 99: Former SFT Director John Hocevar and current Development Director/Action Coordinator Han-shan hang from the World Bank in Washington DC

The World Bank dropped plans to fund the China Western Poverty Reduction Project, which would have moved 58,000 Chinese farmers into Tibet's Amdo Province. The move comes after fifteen months of intense campaigning by a broad international coalition of human rights organizations, Tibet support groups, environmental organizations and Bank-watching groups to stop the controversial project. The project would have facilitated China's continuing population transfer efforts, which have already made Tibetans a minority in parts of their own nation and continue to erode Tibetan culture.