Past Campaigns

The Tibet Resolution is intended, through moral pressure, to encourage Tibetan's control of their economic development, to end human rights abuses by the Chinese government, and to support a peaceful negotiated solution to the Tibetan conflict.
The Tibet Resolution calls upon individuals and companies doing business in Tibet to follow the economic development guidelines of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, which has stated that development in Tibet should be small scale, decentralized initiatives controlled by Tibetans. The Resolution supports the conclusion of the U.S. Congress that Tibet is and occupied country under international law, whose true representatives are the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government-in-exile. It calls on the Government of China to negotiate a solution to the question of Tibet based on the will of the Tibetan people. This resolution is based on the selective purchasing Resolutions and Laws which first became popular in the U.S. during the 1970's and helped end apartheid in South Africa. They are currently being used on federal, state and local levels in the U.S. to promote democracy in Burma.

The Resolution was submitted by Smith SFT with assistance from the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, and was sponsored by the Northampton Human Rights Commission. It passed on April 22, 1999.

World Bank
In April of 1999, the World Bank proposed to help fund the China Western Poverty Reduction Project, a scheme to resettle Chinese into a traditionally Tibetan area. SFT, along with other Tibet support groups, launched a grassroots campaign which broke the World Bank's fax machines due to overload! The World Bank Board of Directors approved the project but withheld the funds until an inspection panel could review the effects of the project. SFT turned on the heat at this point, especially after getti ng reports that independent researchers, one of them Tibetan, had been thrown into jail while visiting the site of relocation. John Hocevar of SFT and Han Shan of Ruckus hung a banner off of the World Bank that read "World Bank approves China's Genocide in Tibet". Pressure continued, and when the report from the panel came back and the Board was meeting to vote, SFT camped out front of the offices until the word came back that the project had been turned down and China would receive no funds. Another v ictory for SFT and Tibet!

Free Ngawang Choephel
A Tibetan Fulbright scholar from Middlebury College, Ngawang Choephel traveled to Tibet to document traditional music and dance and was arrested on false charges of "espionage" in 1995. In the summer of 2000, Ngawang's mother, Sonam Dekyi, was able to visit him in prison and reported that he was ailing, with respiratory and liver failure. He was serving an 18 year prison sentence, but thanks to campaigning by groups around the world, Ngawang was released in January of 2002.

Ongoing Campaigns

Free the Panchen Lama
Twelve year old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is  the 11th Panchen Lama of Tibet, the second highest lama in the Tibetan tradition and the world's youngest political prisoner. He was taken captive by the Chinese government shortly after he was recognized as the reincarnated Panchen Lama in 1995. Currently his whereabouts and health are unknown.

Negotiations between Tibet and China
We are urging U.S. government officials to push Chinese leadership to enter negotiations with the Dalai Lama of Tibet with the hope of moving towards some relief for the Tibetan people and eventually a resolution of the issue.

PetroChina
PetroChina is a state-owned Chinese enterprise whose proposed pipeline will extract Tibet's oil and gas from northeastern Tibet. The project will cause environmental damage and force Tibetans to leave their homes. SFT already targeted investors, and caused the IPO, underwritten by Goldman Sachs, to be billions of dollars less than hoped. BP Amoco saved PetroChina by becoming the largest foreign investor, buying $600 million worth of shares. Currently BP Amoco is being targeted in this campaign.

The Drapchi 14
Between 1988 amd 1994, many Tibetan nuns were imprisoned in Drapchi Prison (notorious for torture and ill-treatment) in Lhasa for peaceful demonstrations. Fourteen of these nuns dared to record freedom songs and messages to their families which were distributed thoughout Tibet. This resulted in sentence extensions. Two of the nuns are rumored to have been released, and one of the nuns died in February 2001. Students for a Free Tibet calls for the immediate release of the Drapchi 14.