Deportation reinforces China’s failure to uphold promise of openness before Games

Hong Kong – Two members of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) were barred from entering Hong Kong today, the same day that 17 Tibetans were sentenced in Lhasa to between three years and life in prison in connection to the March protests against China’s occupation of Tibet. The two Canadians deported from Hong Kong, Tsering Lama, 24, from Toronto, and Kate Woznow, 27, from New York, were detained and questioned for three hours upon their respective arrivals at Hong Kong International airport. The activists had planned to hold a press conference in Hong Kong to coincide with the Olympic torch run through the city on May 2nd. The press conference, organized jointly with London-based Free Tibet Campaign, would have drawn attention to the likelihood of further protests and another violent crackdown by Chinese authorities in Tibet if the International Olympic Committee does not cancel the provocative Tibet leg of the torch relay. The torch is scheduled to summit Mt. Everest in May and pass through other areas of Tibet in June. Free Tibet Campaign’s Press Officer, Matt Whitticase, was also refused entry into Hong Kong today.

“The Chinese authorities are doing everything in their power to hide their campaign of intimidation and repression in Tibet from the outside world,” said Kate Woznow, Campaigns Director for Students for a Free Tibet, before being deported. “The Chinese government has shut out international observers and media from Tibet, and now they have even stopped individuals from speaking out in Hong Kong about the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Tibet. They clearly have much to hide.”

Protests by Tibetans inside Tibet and consequent detentions, beatings, and disappearances are still being reported in Tibet, including in areas through which the torch is scheduled to pass and from which the international media has been refused entry since late March. Arrangements for reporters scheduled to accompany the torch when it summits Everest were changed at the last minute to reduce the time they could spend in Lhasa, and Tibet campaigners fear that journalists might not be allowed free access as the torch passes through or near Tibetan areas from June 8th to 30th. Compounding Tibet groups’ fears of what may happen along the torch route is a leaked internal memo from the International Olympic Committee, which makes clear that the IOC knows that deaths may occur because of protests along the torch route within China (including Tibet), but advises officials to respond simply by expressing “deepest sympathies or condolences.”

“The message from the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee seems to be ‘no criticism of the torch, whatever the cost,’” said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “Today Hong Kong took a blow to freedom of speech when authorities denied entry to Tibet campaigners, and the IOC earlier threw the Olympic Ideals to the wind when it calculated that the price of Tibetan lives is less than the cost of angering China by changing the Olympic Torch route to avoid Tibet.”