Tibet

Free Tibet Activists to Rally at Alameda City Hall on Oct. 1st

 Free Tibet Activists to Rally at Alameda City Hall on Oct. 1st  Benny Lee's China  No Responses »
Sep 302013
 
 
MEDIA ADVISORY                                                                                                 Photo Opportunity
 
DATE               September 30, 2013
 
Contact:
Tenzin Gyaltsen, 510-384-2566
Tenzing Dolma, 510-254-1420
Giovanni Vassallo, 415-264-3264
Alarm, Protests, & Candlelight Vigil at Alameda City Hall for the City Raising the Flag of the People’s Republic of China
 
WHO:            San Francisco Team Tibet
 
WHAT:       Daytime Rally & Protest of the Raising Red Flag of China
                        Evening Candlelight Vigil for Tibet
                       
WHERE:        2263 Santa Clara Ave, Alameda City Hall
                                   
WHEN:     Daytime:                                   October 1, 2013, 10 AM- 5 PM
                      Evening Candlelight Vigil:    October 1, 2013, 7-9 PM
                       
WHY:             
We the People of the Bay Area and Alameda support Human Rights and do not want Alameda to be tainted by the political event, namely, to raise the Flag of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 2013, which is China’s National Day, at Alameda City Hall.  China’s illegally occupied Tibet in 1949/50 and over one million Tibetans have died resisting the Chinese flag.  Tibetans deserve liberty and justice and wish to stop living under the Chinese police state, which severely oppresses Chinese, Uighurs, and the Tibetan people.  We demand more transparency and accountability to democracy so that Alamedans & the public know about this flag-raising endorsement of China’s dark human rights record. Recently, 122 Tibetans lost their lives by self-immolation to urge the public to help Free Tibet and Return the Dalai Lama home to Tibet. The public should  know the true meaning of the raising of the Flag of the People’s Republic of China.

Pawo Shichung, Tibetan father of 2, Self-Immolates to Death Today

 Pawo Shichung, Tibetan father of 2, Self-Immolates to Death Today  Benny Lee's China  No Responses »
Sep 282013
 

pawoPawo Shichung lit himself of fire and died today, Sept. 28th.  He was 41 years old, married, and the father of two teenage daughters.

Schichung attended a prayer function, went home, lit some butter lamps in front of a portrait of the Dalai Lama (this constitutes a crime in China) and then set himself on fire.  He walked onto the road, to make the motives of his protest clear.  His body was rescued by Tibetans, but then forcibly taken away by the Chinese police.  Had the Tibetans tried to keep the body to give his family, they would have been arrested.

Schichung lived in the Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. The region is part of the Tibetan cultural and historical region of Amdo and it’s where many of the Tibetan self-immolations have taken place.

With this, Schichung becomes the 128th Tibetan known to self-immolate calling for Tibetan freedom and for the return to Tibet of the Dalai Lama.  Self-immolation as a form of protest has a long history in Buddhist culture.
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Action Against Raising the PRC flag in Alameda

 Action Against Raising the PRC flag in Alameda  Benny Lee's China  No Responses »
Sep 252013
 

Update: Apparently, contrary to what Benny Lee said, there were never any plans to raise the PRC flag at the Alameda City Hall.

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From the Tibetan National Congress

The City of Alameda plans to raise the Chinese flag on Oct 1 to celebrate the Chinese National Day and Mao Zedong.

Last week, we successfully suspended the flag raising in the City of San Leandro.

Please call/email/fax Alameda’s Mayor Marie Gilmore and ask her not to taint her city:
Phone: (510) 747-4701
Fax: (510) 865-1498
Email: mgilmore@ci.alameda.ca.us

OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR GILMORE

September 25th, 2013

It has come to our attention that the City of Alameda will be raising the Communist flag of China on Oct 1st, the Chinese National Day — to celebrate Mao Zedong’s brutal and bloody victory to rule China, which came by way of unleashing unimaginable pain and misery onto millions of Chinese citizens.

The flag represents a government that ran tanks over their own children who were protesting peacefully in Tiananmen Square in 1989. For others, like Tibetans and Uighurs, it represents a symbol of occupation of their homeland and unremitting oppression as countless innocent citizens are arbitrarily imprisoned, routinely tortured, and even executed without proper representation. 121 Tibetans in Tibet have self-immolated to protest this extreme racist and cruel strategy to annihilate the very traces of Tibetans on the plateau. Falun Gong practitioners, one of the most peaceful religious organizations in the world, are routinely rounded up, persecuted, and their organs harvested to be sold to the west.

Chinese Christians are also harassed, their Bibles confiscated and their churches destroyed. Closer to home, for many American Veterans of the Korean and Vietnamese wars, this flag represents the force that put their friends and fellow soldiers into the ground in the name of Communism. And for many unemployed Americans, it represents the regime that uses espionage, currency manipulation and trade abuses to rob them of their jobs.

Earlier this week, the City of San Leandro, due to strong public objection and petitions, decided to suspend a similar flag raising ceremony scheduled for October 1st. We were very pleased and grateful that the leadership made the conscientious decision to listen to the impassioned opposition to the proposal; and proved that America is still a country that stands for democracy, freedom of speech and thought, and equality for all. As long as China remains an oppressive regime which denies all that we in America take for granted as our basic human rights, we cannot display the red communist flag least we devalue the very spirit that has wrought this great country.

We urge the honorable Mayor Marie Gilmore and the respected members of the City Council to follow the stellar example set by the City of San Leandro and vote to suspend the decision to raise the flag until further deliberations are entertained and public voices are heard on this matter.

Your’s Sincerely,

Jigme Ugen
President

Benny LeeThis post comes to you thanks to San Leandro Council Member Benny Lee