Protestors Detained in China

Pre-Olympic Rallies to Free Tibet

Sam Price was among six activists who were detained by Chinese authorities last summer for their role in an action designed to raise awareness about the continuing plight of Tibet. He and fellow members of Students For A Free Tibet unfurled a banner on the Great Wall of China, which read: "One World, One Dream: Free Tibet," and they were swiftly taken into custody. Under the illegal Chinese occupation of Tibet, Tibetans do not have religious, political, and cultural freedoms and an influx of Han Chinese into the region means jobs are going to Mandarin-speakers. Access to education and employment are denied Tibetans left out of China's "economic boom." Price and fellow protesters were detained for less than two days before being swiftly deported. Here is his story.

The people of Tibet have been trying to seek a peaceful negotiation through non-violent means for more than 50 years. Resolving the situation in Tibet peacefully would serve as an example for present and future conflicts. Tibet is situated at the headwaters of the major rivers of Asia and the Tibetan plateau is a delicate ecosystem disrupted by Chinese military stationed in this strategic region.

In Lithang, Kardze Province, 200 protesters were detained after Ronggye A'drak called for the return of the Dalai Lama. Drapchi nuns, spent years in prison, some of them only teenagers when they were sentenced, for 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. Tibetans protesting within China would be met with the same brutality and repression.

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. They have lobbied for political prisoners 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.

The protest called beijingwideopen.org) 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 volunteers. Beijing had planned a huge celebration for the one-year countdown to the Olympics, and a great deal of media attention was focused on China.

Our goal was to provoke the Chinese government - they would either make an example of us or try to sweep the incidents under the rug as quickly and quietly as possible. During the interrogation, we endured several hours of questioning all in Chinese using interpreters supplied by the Chinese authorities. Documents are entirely in Chinese, so there is no way to independently verify what you're signing (without your embassy present, of course), so we refused to sign.

They gave us food in12-hour intervals, water, and let us go to the bathroom under escort with the doors open. It was about psychological intimidation and control. Chinese authorities refused to work with our embassies (China and Canada are both signatories to the Vienna Convention) or even acknowledge that we were in their custody. We were cut off from any media.

The deportation came after being charged for breaking Chinese law and being sentenced to five days in prison. I refused to sign without a representative of 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. Because we refused to cooperate, we were still sentenced to five days in prison, but we were to be deported immediately.

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, they must heed the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has demanded they improve their human rights record, environmental standards, freedom of the press, etc.

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. In the lead up to the Olympics, they are trying even harder to repress dissent. Non-violent direct action is the only tool we have in this fight for the inalienable right to self-determination. We have to help those who are truly brave.