Students Protest Against Canadian Mining Company in Tibet

Comment: We do not want the Canadian uranium companies either!!

Published Mar 5, 2009 by ■ Chris V. Thangham

Canadian company Hunter Dickinson/Continental Minerals (HDI) is planning to set up large-scale mining operations in the Occupied Tibet area.

Many worry this will displace the local Tibetans and replace them with the mainland Chinese.

China has occupyed Tibet for more than 50 years, and it claims the territory belonged to them thousands of years ago. This month will mark the 50-year anniversary of the exile of the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese are worried there will be more riots this year, similar to last year's protests. China has sent more troops to the troubled area. While there is no end in sight for local Tibetans, others like Hunter Dickinson/Continental Minerals (HDI) are trying to profit in a major way.

HDI plans to mine gold and copper in central Tibet. It will destroy the environment in that area and affect the local Tibetans. Soon, workers from mainland China will fill the mining area and displace the ethnic population in Tibet.

A group is now protesting HDI’s actions in Tibet. Seven pro-Tibet protesters from the “Students for a Free Tibet” group disrupted a Toronto mining convention earlier this week. It is shown in the video posted above.

Kunga Tsering, president of the Canadian-Tibetan Joint Action Committee, one of the protesters, said in a statement:

"It's unconscionable for a Canadian company to be operating inside Tibet when Tibetans are facing a brutal military clampdown and the most repressive conditions in three decades,"

Ron Thiessen, chair of Continental Minerals and a partner in the Hunter Dickinson (HDI) project responded and told The Star:

“We respect everyone’s right to make statements...We’re not mining yet (in Tibet), we hope to be.”

Other Canadian companies participating in Tibet are Bombardier, Power Corporation and Nortel, who are helping build a railway line between China and Tibet.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/268546