From London to Lhasa: Students for a Free Tibet UK

A series of events are being organized by the Chinese, Uighur & Tibetan Solidarity UK, marking 60 years of tyrannical rule and oppression by the Chinese Communist Party.

The Coalition will be holding a protest and vigil on 1st October, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, to call for freedom and human rights for all people in the PRC and for end to one-party autocracy. There will also be three film screenings (on the 26th, 29th September and 1st October), each describing an aspect of each ethnic group's repression by the Chinese government.

The Chinese, Uighur & Tibetan Solidarity Coalition UK opposes the tyrannical rule of the Chinese Communist Party and upholds the values of freedom, human rights and democracy.

You can also join the facebook group by searching "Chinese, Uighur & Tibetan Solidarity Coalition UK (CUTS UK)"

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FILMS
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" Cry of the Snow Lion", followed by Q&A. Refreshments will be served.
Date: Saturday 26th September 2009
Time: 4.00pm - 7.00pm (film starts at 4.30pm)
Location: The Kailash Centre
7 Newcourt Street, St Johns Wood, London
NW8 7AA
(nearest tube: St Johns Wood)
Details: The film "Cry of the Snow Lion" (1hr 44 mins) reveals the horrifying reality of Tibet today.

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"Looking for Lin Zhao's Soul", followed by Q&A.
Date: Tuesday 29th September 2009
Time: 6.00pm - 9.00pm (film starts at 6.30pm)
Location: RS NLT2 Lecture Theatre 1 & 2 (Old Cinema)
The University of Westminster, 309 Regent
Street, London W1B 2UW
(nearest tube: Oxford Circus)
Details: "Looking for Lin Zhao's Soul" is a 90 minute independent Chinese documentary (with English subtitles). The screening will be followed by a Q&A.

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"The Forgotten Nation", followed by Q&A and turkish
refreshments!
Date: Thursday 1st October 2009
Time: 2.00pm - 5.00pm (film starts at 2.30pm)
Location: RS NLT2 Lecture Theatre 1 & 2 (Old Cinema)
The University of Westminster, 309 Regent
Street, London W1B 2UW
(nearest tube: Oxford Circus)
Details: "The Forgotten Nation" is a series a four short documentaries on East Turkestan (Xinjiang). The screening will be followed by a Q&A.

PROTEST & VIGIL
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Event: Protest - End the Oppression in China!
Date: Thursday 1st October 2009
Time: 11.00am - 1.00pm
Location: opposite the Chinese Embassy
49-51 Portland Place, London W1B 1J
(nearest tubes: Great Portland Street, Regents
Park or Oxford Circus)
Details: The Chinese, Uighur & Tibetan Solidarity Coalition UK will be holding a protest to mark 60 years of tyrannical rule and oppression by the Chinese Communist Party.

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Vigil - Remembering the victims of 60 years of oppression in China
Date: Thursday 1st October 2009
Time: 7.00pm - 9.30pm
Location: opposite the Chinese Embassy
49-51 Portland Place, London W1B 1JL
(nearest tubes: Great Portland Street, Regent
Park or Oxford Circus)
Details: The Chinese, Uighur & Tibetan Solidarity Coalition UK will be holding a candle-lit vigil.

(Far left - Pete Speller)

Having grown up with Buddhist parents, Tibet has always been part of my life. I first heard about the invasion from my parents' friend Chime Rinpoche when I was maybe 5/6 years old. As I got older I learned more about Tibet and when I heard my sister had started a campaigning group for Tibet at university it seemed the obvious next step to join. I tried to start a group at sixth form but The Man wouldn't let me in case I offended any Chinese students. So to stick two fingers up at The Man I proceeded to reference Tibet in as much of my photography work as possible (I was studying photography A-Level and our work was regularly displayed). In 2004 I travelled to Tibet with my friend from sixth-form, former SFT UK board member and Beijing Olympics action veteran Lucy Fairbrother and new board member and long time SFTer Luke Ward. At university I founded a proper SFT chapter and joined the Board in 2005. Since joining the board I have served as part of the campaigns team and as the National Coordinator. I have taken part in two major high-profile direct actions for SFT, as a tech (sexy-ninja-geek style) for the banner drop from the Great Wall in August 2007 and as a climber for the banner drop on Westminster Bridge in April 2008 as well as numerous smaller actions in the UK.

So after 6 or 7 years as part of SFT UK, 4 of which on the Board of Directors, I find myself wondering what to say. SFT has changed my life probably in more ways than even I will ever really know and I hope that, for my part, I have helped to bring Tibet closer to freedom. Jigdal asked me to write something for the SFT blog after I wrote a fairly self-indulgent goodbye email to the SFT UK Board and the New York HQ, but that doesn't really seem right to share here. I could write about the numerous stories from my time with SFT; sitting in a service station on the M4 between Cardiff and Swansea with Namdrol Lhamo and Gyaltsen Drolkar, two of the Drapchi Nuns, thinking about how English I felt after being disgusted at the amount of salt they put in their tea. Or I could write about lying under a plastic sheet on a hill opposite the Great Wall of China soaked to the bone in the biggest thunder storm I have ever experienced with lightning hitting trees mere yards behind me surrounded by electronics Skyping with Han and Nathan in NY. But again that doesn't really seem to be right either.

Campaigning for Tibetan independence is hard work. Every day China seems bigger and more powerful than the day before. If this were a numbers game, we would lose; there are almost certainly more people just in the Chinese Communist Party than there are Tibetans and supporters in the world. But this is not a numbers game, and that's what counts. We may be small but we know how to hurt the CCP. We know where the chinks in their armor are and more importantly we know how to exploit them.

I have yet to come across a movement with so many people willing to give up so much time and put their lives on the line in the way SFT's supporters have and will again. With this kind of support behind us I know Tibet's freedom is not an unachievable pipe-dream but an inexorable truth. Bhod Rangzen!

SFT UK exists on a shoe-string budget and cannot continue to work without your support. Please donate  today www.sftuk.org/cms/Support-us

London, 6^th August'09 – Protesters gathered opposite the Chinese Embassy, braving the torrential 'summer' rain to mark the anniversary of the release of the film 'Leaving Fear Behind' (Jigdrel), Tibetans and supporters protested against the imprisonment of Dhondup Wangchen. The Chinese government has charged Dhondup Wangchen, the Tibetan film-maker who made Leaving Fear Behind, of "inciting separatism," a charge which carries a severe prison sentence in China. His trail will be held in Siling in eastern Tibet (Chinese: Xining, Qinghai Province). Dhondup Wangchen's lawyers have been barred from representing him, casting serious doubt over the fairness of his trial. He has been subject to torture while in detention and is in very poor health after being brutally beaten and tortured by Chinese authorities.

Jigdel of Students for a Free Tibet UK clearly outlined the demands of the protesters - 'We demand the immediate release of Dhondup Wangchen, and that the Chinese government give fair trials to all political prisoners, so that miscarriages of justice like this do not happen.' The charges against Dhondup Wangchen follow a wave of harsh sentences carried out as part of the Chinese government's violent campaign to silence and intimidate Tibetan voices of dissent. China's crackdown against the mostly peaceful protests that spread across Tibet in March 2008 continue today, with more than 1,000 Tibetans still detained, imprisoned, or missing. As Tibetan areas remain largely closed off to foreigners and journalists, getting information out about the situation on the ground is very difficult, making it even more important that people worldwide hear the voices of Tibetans speaking in this film.

Last year, two members of SFT UK unfurled banners outside the Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, two days before the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics. In the subsequent twelve months, China's Olympic pledge to improve it's human rights record has been exposed as an outright lie.

Please help promote the film 'Leaving Fear Behind' by organizing a screening on your campus or in your community. For more information about the film, go to: http://sftuk.org/cms/LEAVING-FEAR-BEHIND

On July 5, 2009, thousands of Uighur students took to the streets of Urumchi to show their condemnation of the Chinese government’s handling of a mob attack on Uighur workers a week earlier in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, in which 18 Uighurs were killed and more than 300 were injured, and to get an answer to why the police did not show up for hours to stop the Chinese attackers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_PJTO2k0PM

Armed Chinese troops have flooded Urumchi, the capital of East Turkestan (Chinese: Xinjiang) following days of violent unrest. The situation remains incredibly tense. Chinese president Hu Jintao has vowed to "restore order" and "severely punish" Uighurs that have protested, after he returned from the G-8 Summit in Italy to oversee the intensified political and military crackdown against the Uighur people.

Events in East Turkestan mirror what happened in Chinese-occupied Tibet last year. Chinese authorities have arrested more than 1,400 Uighurs, blocked phone lines and the internet, and launched a propaganda campaign to portray the Uighurs as the sole perpetrators of the violence.

To condemn this injustice, the Uighur community in the UK is organizing a demonstration on Wednesday 15 July. We therefore request all freedom-loving people to join us in supporting the oppressed people in East Turkestan.

Organisers: The Uighur UK Association
Date: Wednesday 15 July
Time: Starts at 12pm
Venue: Gather opposite the Chinese Embassy, 49-51 Portland Place, London, W1B 1JL. (Nearest underground stations: Regents Park, Great Portland St and Oxford Circus)

Schedule:

12pm: Gather opposite the Chinese Embassy, 49-51 Portland Place, London, W1B 1JL

1pm: We march to Richmond Terrace, off of Whithall (opposite Downing Street).

3pm: A Uighur UK Association delegation will petition the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street

5pm: Finish