"VW drives for Olympia – not through Tibet please, Herr Winterkorn!”

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) appealed on Monday together with the Society of Tibetans in Germany and exile Tibetans in a vigil in Wolfsburg to the Volkswagen company not to accompany the Olympian torch run through Tibet. The run can only bring the Tibetans and the People’s Republic more suffering and violence, says the human rights organisation in its appeal.

The GfbV welcomed the fact that Audi, the subsidiary of VW, has cancelled a publicity campaign to Mount Everest with respect to the protests. However this is only a first step to respecting its own company principles. The motor company has by signing the "Global Compact” created in 2002 by the United Nations and the OECD Principles for Global Companies committed itself to respecting human rights in its zone of influence.

"It is clear that the run through Tibet will stir up fresh conflicts and violations of human rights. VW must have no part in this!” says the GfbV appeal to the managing director of VW, Martin Winterkorn. For many Tibetans it is a provocation if the Olympic flame is carried through their native country, in which the freedoms of speech and religion are being suppressed by force. The authorities have in any case already announced a red alert when the torch reaches Tibet. House searches will be carried out and there will be raids and arrests to scare off demonstrators.

More than 140 people have died since the middle of March in the bloody crushing of the protests and at least 4000 have been arrested by the Chinese authorities. The Tibetans have been suffering for decades under the persecution of the Chinese regime. Tension has been building up in Tibet for several years now because the native Tibetans feel disadvantaged and suppressed by the Han Chinese who are immigrating in increasingly large numbers.