[campaign header="VICTORY! Tibetans Save Sacred Mountain"]

Mining to cease; Chinese forces withdraw after months of peaceful protest

Tibetans in eastern Tibet have successfully stopped a Chinese company from mining their sacred Ser Ngul Lo mountain. Thank you to everyone who took action to help support the protests by Tibetans in Markham.

>>Help keep the pressure on to stop mining in Tibet: www.StopMiningTibet.org
>> Read more about this victory.

[campaign header="Drapchi 14 Are Free!"]
On February 26, 2004, Phuntsog Nyidron, the last of the Drapchi 14 nuns still in prison, was freed. Her release came one year before the end of her 16-year prison term. Phuntsog Nyidron’s release marks a major victory: the completion of the campaign to free the Drapchi 14, a group of 14 nuns who received sentence extensions while in prison for recording a tape of freedom songs and smuggling it out of prison. When SFT prioritized this campaign two years before Nyidron’s release, one nun, Ngawang Lochoe, had died in prison in 2001 and eleven others were still imprisoned. Now all of those nuns are out, including Ngawang Sangdrol and Phuntsog Nyidron, who were serving the longest sentences ever handed down to female Tibetan prisoners.

This is a milestone in the movement for Tibet, as it is the first time ever that an entire group of political prisoners has been freed. [press release] [news article][/campaign]

[campaign header="BP Divests from PetroChina, Gets Out of Tibet"]In 2000, BP became the target of an intense international campaign by Tibetans and Tibet supporters after it invested $578 million in PetroChina, the company responsible for building a pipeline across Tibet to carry gas out of Tibet to industrial cities on China’s east coast. BP’s investment made it the largest foreign investor in PetroChina and provided the amount of capital needed to build the pipeline. Since 1999, the Chinese government has agressively sought foreign investment for its massive resource extraction and infrastructure projects in Tibet; projects that are aimed at consolidating China’s political control. The BP divestment campaign has not been a major campaign for SFT in recent months, but we nonetheless welcome BP’s decision to withdraw its support for PetroChina is a significant victory. [press release][/campaign]

[campaign header="Freedom Fighter Nun Ngawang Sangdrol Freed"] Ngawang Sangdrol, one of the Drapchi 14 nuns, was first arrested at age 13 for a pro-independence demonstration. Arrested again at age 15, her sentence was extended repeatedly for continued protest in prison, which included recording a tape of freedom songs with the other Drapchi 14 nuns that was smuggled throughout Tibet. After intense pressure from people and governments around the world, she was released in October, 2002, 9 years before the end of her 21-year sentence. In April, 2003 she was released to the United States for medical treatment. She is now living in Washington, DC. [message from Sangrol][/campaign]