Society for Threatened Peoples warns in Hanover: "Volkswagen drives for Olympia – but not through Tibet please, Herr Wulff!”

The Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff, must use his influence as a member of the Volkswagen (VW) board and prevent the carrying of the Olympic torch through Tibet being accompanied by vehicles of the VW motor company. This plea was made on Monday by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) and emphasised by a vigil in the city centre of Hanover with the motto "Volkswagen drives for Olympia – but not through Tibet please, Herr Wulff!” On Monday the Olympic flame will also arrive in Peking to begin from there its "Journey of Harmony” throughout the world. It will also be carried through Tibet. VW will be providing the vehicles which accompany the Olympic flame on its journey over the whole of China from the 4th May onwards.

"We beg you earnestly to make sure that VW does not allow itself to be misused for Peking’s propaganda”, says the appeal of the human rights organisation to Wulff, which will be delivered to the office of the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony at the end of the human rights campaign. "Carrying the Olympic flame through Tibet makes a mockery of the victims of the persecution by the Chinese regime and will sow great anger among the Tibetans. If the torch is carried through their country, in which freedom of belief and speech is repressed by force, they will feel themselves objects of ridicule. It cannot be the aim of Volkswagen to exacerbate the Tibet conflict.”

Indeed the image of VW, and also that of Lower Saxony, will suffer if the motor company just follows mutely the lead given by the Chinese government and allows its vehicles to roll through Tibet, said the GfbV Asia expert, Ulrich Delius, during the vigil in Hanover and drew attention to the fact that VW feels itself committed to the "Global Compact” of the United Nations for responsible company management and the OECD guide-lines for multi-national concerns. The concern has expressly acknowledged these guide-lines for the respect and preservation of human rights as its company philosophy.

More than 140 people have been killed in the past three weeks in the bloody crushing of protests against the suppression and persecution by Peking, which have continued for decades. About 1000 Tibetans have been arrested by the Chinese security forces.

VW intends to provide a total of 1000 VW, Audi and Skoda vehicles for the carrying of the torch. For the transport of athletes, officials and foreign state guests during the Games 5000 vehicles are to be provided by the Wolfsburg company. The director of VW Olympia marketing in China stated that the sponsoring is to make sure that VW’s position as leading motor company in China is secured.