Tag: Mining

#Op_Tibet Release Video Statement On Their Action Against Chinese Mining Companies

Following several days of reports of Anonymous attacks against Chinese mining companies that are causing major environmental issues in occupied Tibet hacktivists #Op_Tibet have released across Twitter a video statement detailing their intention to target a number of websites of mining corporations that are operating within Tibet. Thanks to @AnonymousTibet for the headsup on this development.

Anonymous Target Chinese Mining Company Operating In Tibet

Image: print-screen from tweet by @AnonymousTibet

There’s a been a number of reports coming out of Tibet’s eastern regions of Kham and Amdo about Tibetans protesting against Chinese mining corporations that are causing environmental pollution and destruction of ecology. One such company is mining for gold at a mountain considered sacred by Tibetans, now it has attracted the attention of Anonymous hacktivists who have been all over social media in the past few days to notify folks that the website of that Chinese company is to be targeted. Today our Twitter account received further information on this and what’s been called ‘Operation Goldfucker’ has been launched. Many thanks to @AnonymousTibet and @teamriddler for sharing updates on this ongoing action.

Tibetans In Kham Region Protest Chinese Mining Corporation Poisoning A Local River

Cell phone footage of Tibetans protesting against pollution of a river near Lhagang in Kham region of occupied Tibet, increased mining by Chinese companies is having a disastrous effect upon the Tibetan environment.

Within Tibetan culture fish are considered sacred and so the poisoning of this water and the death of so many fish causes anguish, as can be heard from the protestors.

This footage was uploaded across a number of social sites by Tibetans and also featured May 6 by Voice Of America. Unfortunately VOA reports repeat and endorse Chinese propaganda claims regarding Tibetan territory and so are misleading those who know little of Tibet.

Eco-Terrorism Polluting Tibet’s Rivers

Image:ferroatlantica/graphic courtesy of @tibettruth

With a tragic inevitability the establishment of such profit-seeking ventures in what was formerly a pristine ecology has resulted in pollution, affecting wildlife and Tibetan communities who depend upon such water.

According to a local Tibetan whose testimony featured in a Radio Free Asia report: “On or around Oct. 13, 2013, contaminated water from a mining site at Balang township overflowed into a 20-30 mile stretch of the river, resulting in the deaths of countless numbers of fish and other animals,” including horses, sheep, and goats. The spill has also contaminated the drinking water of five to six villages,”

What has the high-profile Spanish corporation to say of such eco-terrorism?

Maybe we are a touch under-informed, idealistic but is there not legislation operating within the European Union which restricts or prevents European corporations from activities and or partnerships which raise issues of ethics and/or can impose suffering or environmental damage to people’s beyond the EU? Furthermore, does that fragile institution not have policies, and a moral integrity, which impose a number of regulatory requirements upon European companies that seek to collaborate with China’s regime. Particularly in which an oppressed people, such as Tibetans are marginalized and whose lands and culture are negatively impacted as a consequence of such a venture?

That being so would someone at the European Union or Parliament care to explain the presence of Ferro-Atlantica, a Spanish Corporation operating near the Tibetan town of Dartsedo, in Tibet’s Eastern Region of Kham. See Here Has this company been subject to any environmental, ethical regulations, or assessed in terms of the ecological effects of its operation upon Tibetans and their environment? Have procedures been diligently followed? If so by whom and when?

We consider these to be important questions for the EU to address, which is always ready to issue platitudes in praise of the Dalai Lama, yet seems less outspoken on China’s environmental record in its colonialist exploitation of occupied Tibet. Surely it has something to say on the role of a Spanish corporation operating inside Tibet and the serious environmental consequences of locating a Silicon processing plant in such a pristine environment,apart from troubling questions on the ethics of collaboration with a regime that is viciously suppressing local Tibetans.

Online Action

If you are based with the European Union you can be a real force for good by raising this issue with your MEP. Ask them to submit questions on Ferro- Atlantica and its presence in occupied Tibet, along with the environmental and ethical concerns mentioned above. Request your MEP to obtain documentation as to what regulatory, environmental or ethical policies were exercised by the EU in endorsing this venture, to identify if an independent, EU approved, ecological risk assessment was carried out, and what system of monitoring it has put in place to properly evaluate any environmental impacts.

The MEP of your region may be identified here, along with email contact details