Opposition groups ask tourists to boycott new link
Tomorrow's opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway has stirred a new wave of demonstrations among pro-independence Tibetan groups that fear the link will increase migration of Han Chinese to the region, making Tibetans a minority in their own homeland.
From New York to London to India, they have called on Tibetans to show their opposition by wearing black armbands and demonstrating at Chinese embassies and consulates tomorrow. They have urged tourists to boycott the railway.
Tenzin Choedon, programme co-ordinator for Students for a Free Tibet, said: 'Once the Chinese start coming, Tibetans will be marginalised economically and socially. Survival of culture and identity would also be threatened.'
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of Han Chinese in the autonomous region nearly doubled between 1990 and 2000, going from 74,500 to 155,300 and making up 5.9 per cent of the population of Tibet .
Tibetans made up 92.2 per cent of the autonomous region's population in 2000, accounting for 2.41 million of the 2.62 million total.
One pro-independence group sees the opening of the railway as a way for the central government to tighten control over the region.
'Our position is that tourists should boycott this railway,' said Yael Weisz-Rind, campaign manager for London-based Free Tibet.
'We see this railway as a very destructive project. It is politically motivated to consolidate China's control over Tibet and we believe that by using the railway tourists would morally and politically support [China] and help finance China's effort in this direction.'
Free Tibet has already registered with police in London to hold demonstrations outside a tourism trade show today and tomorrow calling for a boycott of the railway.
GW Travel, one of the exhibitors, is offering a 10-day Tibet rail tour from Beijing to Lhasa for US$4,295.
Its managing director, Tim Littler, said he had received 200 letters from protesters urging the company to stop promoting the tour but had also taken 600 bookings.
He said his company had a standard reply to the protest letters in which it explained tourists' rights to travel to Tibet.
Mr Litter also said that his company would be employing Tibetan guides to 'provide unbiased information and reading materials about the current situation'.
Despite criticism from pro-independence groups, the Dalai Lama's Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamsala, India, is not totally opposed to the railway.
Information secretary Thubten Samphel said it was taking a wait-and-see approach.
'We have said that we welcome the railway if it goes to benefit the majority of the Tibetan people,' he said. 'At the same time, there are some concerns that the opening of the railway might increase the inflow of Chinese settling in Tibet.'
Mr Samphel called on Tibetan groups opposed to the railway to refrain from holding 'provocative demonstrations'.
