Under the present Chinese occupation of Tibet, which has been internationally recognized as illegal, Tibetans do not have the same religious, political, cultural and basic freedoms we have in the West.

Right now, there is a remarkable influx of Han Chinese into the region and as a result, many of the jobs are going to people that speak Mandarin, rather than those that speak Tibetan. Access to education and employment are just some of the barriers for local Tibetans who should be participating in this so-called economic boom that the rest of China is seeing.

I've been involved with Students for a Free Tibet since 1999. The people of Tibet have been trying to seek a peaceful negotiation through non-violent means for more than 50 years. On the world stage, that's something that stands out for me. I think we need to pay attention to it because too often solutions are sought through violent means. If we can resolve the situation in Tibet peacefully, it would serve as an example for present and future conflicts.

On the whole, I think that Chinese-occupied Tibet is an issue that strikes a chord with anyone interested in human rights, culture, religion, politics or the environment.

Tibet is situated at the headwaters of the major rivers of Asia, and geographically it is the top of the world. Militarily-speaking, it's obvious why there is a build up of Chinese military in Tibet.

The Tibetan plateau is a delicate ecosystem, and Tibetans have lived there more or less in harmony for thousands of years. The pressures that have been put on Tibet by the development initiatives of China and other countries investing in private companies, such as Canada, are pushing the environment to its limits.

In Lithang, Kardze Province, about 200 protesters were detained after Ronggye A'drak got up on stage at a festival and called for the return of the Dalai Lama. There are many occasions where Tibetans have spoken out, only to be met with brutal repression from the Chinese authorities - just look at the Drapchi nuns, who spent years in prison, some of them only teenagers when they were sentenced, for simply shouting "Free Tibet" and "Long live the Dalai Lama." These women endured torture and deprivation for years for something that people in the West could do while standing on any street corner.

As Westerners - as people who have that privilege to speak freely - we have the responsibility to speak up for those who can't speak up for themselves. The reason you see someone like me on the Great Wall instead of a Tibetan is deliberate. Tibetans protesting within China would be met with the same brutality and repression that Tibetans inside Tibet would receive.

*****

Members of Students for a Free Tibet have been staging direct actions and protests for a number of years: against the World Bank Population Transfer Project, against BP's investment in SinoPec, against Goldman Sachs, to name a few. And then there are the political prisoners we have lobbied for, like Ngawang Choepel, the Drapchi Nuns, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, or the world's youngest political prisoner, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who was kidnapped by the Chinese authorities when he was just six years old, after being declared the reincarnation of the tenth Panchen Lama.

These actions in Beijing (the Great Wall and beijingwideopen.org [2]) took months to plan. The world saw only two climbers on the Great Wall or Lhadon Tethong blogging from the streets of Beijing, but there were literally hundreds of people working in support, most of them volunteers.

As we do for any direct action, we strategize and plan for as many scenarios or outcomes we can foresee. The greatest risk comes from what we cannot plan for and in this case it was the response of the Chinese authorities.

We expected the authorities would be very angry, and they were, but this was a calculated risk. Beijing had planned a huge celebration for the one-year countdown to the Olympics, and with that we knew there would be a great deal of media attention focused on China.

Our goal was to provoke the Chinese government to show their true colours and crack down on freedom of expression. In the fallout from that we thought they would either make an example of us or try to sweep the incidents under the rug as quickly and quietly as possible. Luckily for us, they chose the latter.

Prior to our trip to China, we had a fairly good idea of how interrogations go. What normally happens is several hours of questioning, all in Chinese, using interpreters supplied by the Chinese authorities. Once the interrogation is done, they require you to sign the documents generated by the whole process. Because the documents are entirely in Chinese, there is no way to independently verify what you're signing (without your embassy present, of course), so we refused to sign.

In terms of how we were treated, they gave us food after about 12 hours and at 12-hour intervals. They gave us water and let us go to the bathroom under escort, of course, with the doors open. We were treated humanely; it was more about psychological intimidation and control. They wanted to let us know that they were completely in control of our lives from that point.

Our strategy was to cooperate once we had contact with our embassy. Even though Canada and China are both signatories of the Vienna Convention, they denied us that right, and so we refused to cooperate. In the end, the Chinese authorities refused to work with our embassies or even acknowledge that we were in their custody. We were completely cut off from any media while we were detained.

****

The deportation was a surprise, and it all happened very quickly. In the late afternoon of the 8th, we began to realize that they would most likely hold us until after the countdown celebrations. Because we still hadn't seen any embassy representatives, we felt we should prepare to wait it out; to wait for some sort of negotiation once we had people with us we could trust to negotiate in Chinese.

It was after 6 p.m. and our latest round of interrogations when I tried to settle down for what I hoped could be a few hours sleep. Just then another official burst in, calling each of us out, one by one.

We were taken to the room where interrogations had occurred, but this time there were many more officials, cameras and a video recorder. I was read a document in Chinese and then one of the officials translated it in to English. They said I was being charged for breaking Chinese law and would be sentenced to five days in prison. The paper was thrust into my face and I was ordered to sign it. I refused and said I wouldn't sign anything without a representative from the Canadian embassy present.

I had no idea if their translation was accurate - I could have been singing a five-year prison sentence, or signing my life away. In disgust, they ordered me back to our holding area where I rejoined my friends. After a bit of shouting, an official stepped forward and told us because we refused to cooperate or to sign their documents, we were still sentenced to five days in prison, but we were to be deported immediately.

The night of our arrest, we were driven from a smaller police station near the Great Wall to the Public Security Bureau centre in Beijing. En route they had taken us past the airport before taking us into the city, making us think we would be deported and going home quickly. This time, after the officer read out the deportation verdict, we wondered if this could be another trick to demoralize us and none of us were absolutely certain until our plane took off for Hong Kong.

*****

I feel we accomplished our objective, which was to put Tibet in the spotlight and put the attention of the world upon the leadership in Beijing. China has always hoped that the 2008 Olympics would be a coming out party, not unlike the 1936 Berlin Olympics were for Nazi Germany. If the Chinese Communist Party wants to be treated as an equal on the world stage, it must act accordingly.

Our objective was to call them out and say, look, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has demanded that you improve your human rights record, environmental standards, freedom of the press, et cetera. That was a condition for receiving the privilege of hosting the Olympics, and it hasn't happened. Other groups, like Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have stated clearly that conditions have not improved. By the IOC's own standards, China never should have been given the Olympics in the first place.

Now that they have the Games, the IOC just sits back and says that the Olympics is not political, even though everyone knows that it is. Having the Olympics is a propaganda tool for Beijing to make it appear as though all is well, and in the lead up to the Olympics, they are trying even harder to repress dissent. That was what we set out to highlight, and I hope we did just that. Our goal is to take this unprecedented opportunity to expose the regime in Beijing for what it really is and to demand freedom for Tibet.

I believe that the situation in Tibet will be resolved in my lifetime. I couldn't continue the fight for Tibetan independence otherwise. Non-violent direct action is the only tool we have in this fight, and so we will continue to use it to bring attention to Tibet's plight and bring about real change for Tibetans there.

In the end, it's not my decision what is right for Tibetans in Tibet, and it is definitely not the Chinese government's decision. This is a question of the inalienable right to self-determination. We want to create a safe environment for Tibetans to have just that.

Tibetans inside Tibet need to know that there is someone watching and making sure that every action and reaction by the Chinese will be accounted for. They need to know that they have the world's support when they try to speak out like they did in Lithang.

In our case we had our families, friends and government working for our safety. I think we have to help those who are truly brave; like that student standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square, like anyone inside Tibet demanding their human rights.