Human rights demonstration for Tibet in front of Volkswagen factory Volkswagen (VW) is making itself a tool of Peking !

A dramatic spectacle marked the demonstration of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) in front of the factory-gates of the Volkswagen Company in Wolfsburg today, Wednesday, together with Tibetans against the Olympia sponsorship of the motor company: between two VW cars decorated with red flags a defenceless Tibetan hangs in chains. "Volkswagen is making itself a tool of the dictatorial Chinese government by escorting without a murmur the Olympic torch-run with its vehicles through the oppressed country of Tibet ", criticised the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. "We call on the motor company to use its contacts with the Chinese authorities now and to speak up for the immediate release of the Tibetan political detainees. After the bloody crushing of the demonstrations in Tibet for human rights and self-government in March more than 5,000 Tibetans have been taken into custody. There they are threatened with mishandling, torture and long prison sentences.

The Olympic torch-run was supposed to arrive in Tibet today on 18^th June. However Peking changed the timetable at short notice, evidently to let the protests pass unnoticed. VW is providing the escorting vehicles for the run in China and appears to be prepared to carry out meekly the wishes of the Chinese rulers in arbitrarily changing the date.

"VW as a leading German company with an international reputation has burst with its publicity campaign the moral bounds of advertising", said Delius. VW is arguing that the so-called "Run of Harmony" is encouraging the good relations of people in the People's Republic. But evidently the company has little faith in this harmony if it silently accepts that the Chinese public is being duped concerning the situation of Tibetans and Uigurs in the occupied regions. It was hand- picked extras who stood out on the streets before the TV cameras on Tuesday in East Turkestan to cheer on the bearers of the Olympic flame.

The GfbV accuses VW of fostering infringements of human rights with its Olympia sponsorship. The suppression of Tibetans and Uigurs, which has for years been increasing, has reached a new high-point in the lead-up to the Olympiad. In Tibet it has been above all monks and nuns who have had to suffer under increased reprisals. The pressure on their monasteries has been markedly increased.

Apart from the campaign in Wolfsburg events will be taking place in 14 German towns, led by dedicated groups and individual people providing information on the dramatic human rights situation in Tibet: in Munich, Tübingen, Nuremberg, Hamburg, Bremen, Göttingen, Bautzen, Berlin, Münster, Eichstätt, Bad Kreuznach, Kassel, Düsseldorf and Cologne.