Letter To Mayor Newsom - August 8, 2007

San Francisco



* San Francisco Tibetan Youth Congress * Tibetan Association of Northern California * Gyuto *
* Students for a Free Tibet * Nechung * Bay Area Friends of Tibet * Committee of 100 for Tibet *

August 8, 2007

The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Mayor of San Francisco

Dear Mayor:

Allow us to introduce ourselves as the San Francisco Team Tibet Coalition, part of an international movement of Tibetans and Tibet support groups that is pressing for substantive and measurable improvements in the situation in Chinese occupied Tibet by 2008.

We are writing to express our opposition to San Francisco’s welcoming of the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay. You have been quoted as stating “We’re very proud and deeply honored to be part of the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay…As the only American city selected and also as the gateway to the Pacific Rim, I believe San Francisco truly reflects the diversity that is consistent with the Olympic Games.”

Beijing’s torch, however, does not represent any values consistent with those of the city of San Francisco, through which it is meant to pass on its way to Tibet, a contested land under military occupation. This Chinese Torch is tainted with oppression and cultural genocide and stands in complete opposition to the true spirit of the people of San Francisco and the Olympic Games.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics will take place even as China suppresses human rights in Tibet and refuses to accept the political aspirations of the Tibetan people.

Chinese government officials promised reforms, including the protection of minority nationality rights, before winning the right to host the games. Recent reports on the situation inside Tibet, however, indicate the implementation of new constraints on religious freedom, the forcible relocation of nomads and farmers off their lands, exploitative resource extraction and ecological damage, and new restrictions on travel. In fact, the second most-revered Tibetan Buddhist religious figure has been held under house arrest since May 1995 and mere pictures of Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama are forbidden in Tibet. Just this past week, Human Rights Watch released a report, which states that “the Chinese government shows no substantive progress in addressing long-standing human rights concerns.”

The San Francisco Team Tibet Coalition is calling on the Chinese government to end its egregious human rights abuses in Tibet and to resolve the issue of Tibet through earnest negotiations with the Dalai Lama or his representatives. We also call on you, Mayor Newsom, to say “No” to Beijing’s torch in San Francisco, so long as the Chinese government continues its brutal reign in Tibet.

Since you took office, you have been known to take bold steps to further equality and justice. Your welcoming of the Olympic torch would suggest a real departure from that course and indicate that San Francisco is ready to turn its back on the cultural genocide in Tibet and ignore the continuing suffering of the Tibetan people. It would suggest that you are ready to turn your back on a unique opportunity to promote legitimate international concerns and take a stand for justice in Tibet and China.

We applaud your previous human rights efforts and solicit your support in pushing China to take the necessary steps toward ending Tibetan and human rights abuses.

We San Franciscans do not want to be used as a propaganda tool of the Chinese government. We call on you to decisively demonstrate your support for human rights and dignity by publicly withdrawing your welcome of the tainted Olympic Torch.

As Ben Blanchard from The Guardian has already reported: "Free Tibet activists on the Great Wall, a barrage of critical rights reports, a shroud of smog hanging over Beijing -- China's government must surely have imagined a more auspicious one-year countdown for the Olympics."

Surely you envisioned something different for our city as well.

Therefore, we request a formal meeting with you to discuss the cancellation of the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay through San Francisco.

We look forward to your response.

Thank you.

Sincerely,


Giovanni Vassallo
for the San Francisco Team Tibet Coalition:
Tibetan Association of Northern California
Gyuto
Students for a Free Tibet
San Francisco Tibetan Youth Congress
Nechung
Committee of 100 for Tibet
Bay Area Friends of Tibet
Tibet Justice Center

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