50th anniversary of the uprising in Tibet

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Lhasa uprising in 1959 when the Dalai Lama fled from Tibet.  Tibetans around the world and their supporters are peacefully protesting again about the Chinese occupation and the denial of the rights of people in Tibet.  Supporters in the UK are lobbying their MPs in person or by letter, phone or e-mail.  One of the requests is for more MPs to sign Early Day Motion 978, tabled by Norman Baker.  You can join in by going to They Work For You and sending a message to your MP. 

A new report on China's crackdown in Tibet comes from the International Campaign for Tibet.  The report is titled A Great Mountain Burned by Fire.  One of the cases described is of a Tibetan monk named Wangdu who was given a life sentence for "espionage".  He had worked previously for an HIV prevention project in Lhasa, linked to the Burnet Institute, an Australian public health organisation.