students for a free Tibet

Dear Mike,

Early this morning, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake followed by a number of powerful aftershocks struck Kyegundo in Kham, eastern Tibet. Media sources have reported nearly 600 people killed and more than 10,000 injured. Tibetans with contacts in the area have heard the death toll may be as high as 4,000.

All of us at Students for a Free Tibet send our heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost loved ones in the earthquake. Our thoughts and prayers are with those in Kyegundo and the surrounding area. We will continue to post updates on SFT's facebook page and twitter.

How you can help:

1) Donate to organizations working in the region to help support emergency relief efforts:

• Tibetan Village Project: http://www.tibetanvillageproject.org/ (Note: you can also donate via Causes at: http://www.causes.com/causes/472609)
• Tibet Relief Fund: http://www.tibetrelieffund.co.uk/
• Machik: http://www.machik.org/index.php
• Tibet Foundation: http://www.tibet-foundation.org/news/urgent_emergency_appeal_-_kyekudo_yushu_earthquake/

2) Help spread the word. The media is reporting that this awful tragedy occurred in western China. Please help educate everyone that the earthquake struck in Tibet, not China.

• Change your Facebook status and tweet: Quake in Tibet. Please help. Donate here: http://tibetanvillageproject.org/ (Please RT);
• Read and share a moving blog post about the earthquake with reactions from Tibetans in Tibet on High Peaks Pure Earth;
• Read and share the statement on the earthquake issued by the five leading Tibetan exile organizations in Dharamsala, India (including SFT India);
• Write to the editor of your local newspaper and ask that he/she correctly cite the location of the earthquake as Tibet (Kyegundo, Kham province, eastern Tibet).

Fears over potential dam burst: The BBC has reported that a massive dam at the headwaters of three rivers in the area has been damaged and that people have fled to the mountains in fear that the dam might burst. A crack in the dam wall has reportedly prompted Chinese officials to drain the reservoir. The Chinese government has plans to build over a dozen more dams in this earthquake prone area. Read more on the Tibetan Plateau blog: http://tibetanplateau.blogspot.com/2010/02/dams-on-upper-reaches-of-yangtze-mekong.html

Also, according to media reports 85% of the buildings in the town have collapsed and the Red Cross is reporting that 70% of schools have been destroyed. The area is home to Tibetan nomads and farmers who have traditionally lived on the grasslands of the plateau. A Newsweek blog post from today documents the Chinese government's massive push to forcibly settle Tibetan nomads into concrete housing blocks like the kind we see lining the streets of Kyegundo. China plans to settle all the nomads in eastern Tibet within five years.

For updates and ways to take action, keep checking the SFT blog: http://blog.studentsforafreetibet.org

With hope,

Tendor, TenDolkar, Mary Kate, Schuyler, Kate and all of us here at SFT HQ

Read more:

His Holiness the Dalai Lama sends his condolences to the earthquake victims: http://www.dalailama.com/news/post/520-his-holiness-offers-his-condolences-to-the-victims-of-the-earthquake-in-kyigudo

Statement by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi: http://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/pressreleases?id=1629

World News Blog (The sensitivity behind the latest Chinese earthquake): http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/2010/04/14/the-sensitivity-behind-the-latest-chinese-earthquake/

BBC (China earthquake kills hundreds in Qinghai): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8619593.stm

NPR (Earthquake In China Kills 400; Thousands Injured): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125930694

Free Tibet (UK based Tibet Support Group): http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/earthquake-eastern-tibet

New York Times (Strong Quake Kills Hundreds in Western China): http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/world/asia/15quake.html

TIBET UPDATE

Support Tibet | Get Updates

The Tibet Update enewsletter is a bimonthly summary of news and governmental actions related to Tibet. Past issues in PDF format are located at http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/tibet-weekly-updates.

U.S. GOVERNMENT:

ICT Report: Obama-Dalai Lama meeting an opportunity for "an engaging and constructive dialogue"

ICT welcomes the meeting announced on February 11 between President Obama and His Holiness the Dalai Lama as an opportunity both to deepen their relationship and discuss forward steps in U.S. support for the Dalai Lama's leadership and his approach of seeking a solution for Tibet through dialogue with the People's Republic of China. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has said that the White House meeting is set for February 18 and "The Dalai Lama is an internationally respected religious leader and spokesman for Tibetan rights, and the President looks forward to an engaging and constructive dialogue." Read the full ICT report >>

INSIDE TIBET:

ICT Report: Tension in Tibet as Tibetans mark New Year with prayers for the dead

On February 14, several hundred Tibetan monks and laypeople were surrounded by armed troops yesterday on the first day of Tibetan New Year (Losar) as they gathered together and prayed for those killed in the Ngaba area of Sichuan and other Tibetan areas after the crackdown following protests began in March, 2008. According to reports from inside Tibet, Tibetans in Lhasa too, held somber and devotional commemorations of Losar (Tibetan New Year) amid tension as security was stepped up. Read the full ICT report >>

TIBETAN-CHINESE DIALOGUE:

ICT Report: 9th round of Sino-Tibetan dialogue identifies elements to build on

The International Campaign for Tibet welcomed the strong and detailed statement issued today by Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, the Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and chief interlocutor with Chinese officials during nine rounds of dialogue since 2002. The statement which concluded that "we do not see any reason why we cannot find common ground on these issues," included a proposal for "a common effort to study the actual reality on the ground, in the spirit of seeking truth from facts [to] help both the sides to move beyond each others' contentions" and an appeal to Beijing to stop mislabeling the Dalai Lama as a "separatist." Read the full ICT report >>

Statement by the Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lodi G. Gyari

On February 2, 2009, Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari said that he and Envoy Kalsang Gyaltsen, accompanied by two members of the Tibetan Task Force and one member of the Task Force Secretariat visited China from January 26 to 31, for the ninth round of discussions with representatives of the Chinese leadership. In Beijing, they had a session with Mr. Du Qinglin, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference as well as Minister of the Central United Front Work Department on January 30. On January 31, they had a day-long discussion with Executive Vice Minister Zhu Weiqun and Vice Minister Sithar. Mr. Nyima Tsering, a Vice Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region People's Congress, also participated in these meetings. Read the full statement >>

Chinese State Media report on dialogue

Chinese State Media Xinhua, on February 2, reported that the the Chinese central government and representatives of the Dalai Lama had "sharply divided" views in the latest talks "as usual." Xinhua quoted Zhu Weiqun, executive vice minister of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, who told a press conference, "We have been accustomed to such a confrontation of viewpoints as views had been divided in previous talks." But added that he said the talks "had some upside" as they let both sides know exactly their differences and how wide the differences were. Read the full news item >>

FROM THE ICT BLOG:

Legitimacy and otherwise - February 3, 2009