Free Tibet

If you are even remotely interested in social justice, or have ever met a hippie, then odds are that you have heard the phrase "Free Tibet." Since you may or may not know what exactly is going on here, I'll take the liberty to fill you in.

• China's invasion by 40,000 troops in 1950 was an act of unprovoked aggression. There is no generally accepted legal basis for China's claim of sovereignty.
• Some 1.2 million Tibetans are estimated to have been killed by the Chinese since 1950.
• The International Commission of Jurists concluded in its reports, 1959 and 1960, that there was a prima facie case of genocide committed by the Chinese upon the Tibetan nation.
• Some 3,000 people are believed to have been detained for political offences since September 1987, many of them for writing letters, distributing leaflets or talking to foreigners about the Tibetans' right to independence.
• The number of political detainees in Lhasa's main prison, Drapchi, is reported to have doubled between 1990 and 1994. The vast majority of political inmates are monks or nuns.
• Since 1994, the Chinese have strengthened their drive to re-educate young Tibetans about their cultural past at all levels of Tibetan education. They use a distorted history programme which omits reference to an independent Tibet.
• Religious practice was forcibly suppressed until 1979, and up to 6,000 monasteries and shrines were destroyed.
• Chinese traders are favoured by lower tax assessments and the dominant position of Chinese in government administration. Chinese officials are paid various bonuses for working in Tibet.
• Estimates of deforestation vary, but at least half Tibet's natural forest cover has gone since the Chinese occupation.
• China has admitted to dumping nuclear waste on the Tibetan plateau. There is a 20 km2 dump for radioactive pollutants near Lake Kokonor, the largest lake on the Tibetan plateau.

This is just a small sampling of the facts. If you want to know more, or what you can do, check out www.freetibet.org or www.studentsforafreetibet.org.

"Rescue those who are being taken away to death;hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, 'Behold, we did not know this,'does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?" -- Proverbs 24:11-12