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9th December 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE USE
CHRISTMAS SHOPPING FUNDS TORTURE IN TIBET
International Human Rights Day Vigil December 11th: 5pm to 8pm Opposite Chinese Embassy, 49 Portland Place, London W1
On December 11th the weekly Tibet Vigil will mark the London launch of a new international campaign called BOYCOTT Made in China and mark the annual International Human Rights Day.
Stuart Ullathorne, the Tibet Vigil Press Officer stated," The link between what we buy in the High Street this Christmas and the network of prisons in Tibet and China is clear. Every time you buy a product that is made in China some of your money will fund that prison network where men, women and children as young as four are routinely tortured and beaten often resulting in death. Goods to avoid include a considerable precentage of toys, shoes, cheap tools , machine tools and of course Christmas deocrations. At this moment in time there are an estimated 5 million prisoners labouring in 1000 camps across Tibet and China.An effective boycott of goods can change that situation for the better." In a smuggled letter from a labour camp a prisoner has written: "On occasion, inmates work throughout the night without sleep. It's very common to see inmates spitting blood and fainting from exhaustion in the workshops." Already launch events have been planned on December 7th in the US, New Zealand and Canada, and other countries are expected to join too. Many groups worldwide have pledged their support for the campaign, including most recently the well-known Chinese dissident Harry Wu, who has written and spoken at length about the laogi (labour camps), together with the Laogai Foundation. This is not a boycott of Chinese restaurants or other Chinese businesses operating in the UK. We are boycotting Chinese goods, not Chinese people, who have often come to Britain to escape ill-treatment themselves.
Notes For Editors:
Contact: Stuart Ullathorne Tibet Vigil
Tel: 077599 72212
E-mail: s_ullathorne@hotmail.com
www.buyhard.fsnet.co.uk/article22.htm