'No Torch in Tibet': The Protest at Mt. Everest 

everest protestOn April 25, five Americans staged the most high-profile Tibetan freedom protest at the base of the highest mountain in the world. On the eve of China's announcement of the Olympic torch relay route, which includes the summit of Mount Everest, the five members of the global action group Students for a Free Tibet unfurled a massive banner that read, "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008," a parody of the 2008 Beijing Olympic logo.

The group planned meticulously for the protest, creating false itineraries and motives. The Americans told officials that they were part of a Himalayan wedding at the base of Everest and entered the site separately from different directions. One of the protesters, Jeff Friesen of Boulder, Colorado, brought equipment for a live satellite feed to broadcast the event over the internet. The students claimed the equipment would be used to videotape the phony wedding. Friesen was "the best man."

According to the account of the protesters, after the group filmed the video in which they held the banner and criticized the Chinese occupation of Tibet, "about 30 police cars" showed up at the Everest base camp to squash the protest. As initially planned, Friesen took the video tapes and ran from Chinese officials, while the remaining four students were apprehended by police. He then handed the videos to a couple that was not part of the protest and remained on the run for nearly a day.

Friesen was arrested at 3am the next morning in his hotel room, more than 18 hours after the other four had been taken into the custody of the Chinese government. He told officials he had thrown the tapes on the side of the road. Chinese officials forced him to return to the camp site and reveal where he discarded the recordings. Friesen claimed to have stalled as long as possible so that the couple in possession of the tapes could get out of the country. As Friesen said of his plan to the AP, "it worked."

The day following the arrest was not so rewarding for the other four protesters. They told the media from Katmandu, Nepal on Friday that they were deprived of sleep for over 30 hours and were not allowed to eat or drink for 14 hours. Shannon Service described the experience as the equivalent of being "psychologically terrorized." The San Francisco native told authorities that while in custody, a female prison guard had threatened physical abuse if she didn't speak. The official grounds for arrest was the organization and execution of "illegal activities aimed at splitting China."

The protester who narrates the video recording from the base of Everest is Tenzin Dorjee, a Tibetan-American from New York. On Wednesday, Dorjee became the first known Tibetan exile to return to the occupied region to protest. The 27-year-old left Tibet as a child, grew up in Northern India and came to America to attend Brown University. Dorjee currently works as a staffer for Students for a Free Tibet. In the video, he points out the tents of the Chinese officials who are planning the expedition for the torch to be brought to Everest's summit. "This land doesn't belong to you," proclaims Dorjee. "For the last 50 years, you have ruined this land."

The other two protesters were Laurel Mac Sutherlin of San Francisco and Kirsten Westby of Boulder. The group lit a torch symbolizing Tibetan freedom and sang the Tibetan national anthem. According to an eyewitness, Dorjee was wearing a shirt that said, "No Torch in Tibet."

After nearly three days of detention and interrogation, the Chinese government released the five protesters late Friday only after forcing the group to parade in front of the Chinese state media, which Friesen described as "being driven into a building that looked a four-star hotel." The Chinese media urged the Americans to eat fruit to create the illusion on TV and in photographs that the detainees were pampered by Chinese authorities. After the media pit stop, the group was expelled from China and taken to Katmandu where they gave statements to the international media about the protest, the arrest and the time spent in Chinese custody. Shannon Service told the press in Katmandu, "There are people all over the world who are Tibet supporters and this is just the first of a cascading waterfall of actions."

Students for a Free Tibet has echoed Service's prediction in its own rhetoric following the Everest protest. The organization promises to oversee a flurry of Olympic-related Tibet protests in the coming months. Tenzin Choeying, the National Director of Students for a Free Tibet India stated on the SFT website that "Tibetans worldwide are looking to the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an unprecedented opportunity to expose the truth about Chinese rule in Tibet...China can expect more protests of this nature in the months leading up to and during the Games."

As the Beijing Olympic Games draw near, China will become more and more susceptible to Western-style protests over their geo-political actions. Already, there have been calls to boycott the Olympics if China doesn't end its financial support of Sudan's government, which has contributed to the genocide in Darfur. Taiwan has declined to be a part of the Olympic torch relay. And now, as a result of the Everest protest, the issue of Tibetan freedom will likely be used in the coming months as a powerful political weapon.


-David Flumenbaum


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