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Tibet support groups, hotel staff
clash
PROTEST: Clashes broke out between Grand Hotel
staff and Tibet support groups, with management chasing people carrying the
Tibetan flag around the hotel lobby
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter
Members of the Grand Hotel
management try to grab a Tibetan flag from a man who displayed it in the lobby
yesterday. Tibet support groups protested in the lobby after their reservation
of a news conference venue was canceled by the hotel.
Photo: Loa Iok-sin, Taipei Times
Clashes broke out between Tibet support
groups and Grand Hotel staff in the lobby yesterday after the management
canceled a room reservation made by the groups in preparation for the arrival of
a delegation headed by Sichuan Province Governor Jiang Jufeng (蔣巨峰).
“We have signed a [room rental] contract with you and it was clearly written on
the contract that the room would be used to hold a press conference. How can you
cancel our reservation at the last minute? Is this how the Grand Hotel honors
its business contracts?” Taiwan Friends of Tibet (TFOT) president Chow Mei-li
(周美里) asked Grand Hotel manager Michael Chen (陳行中) after being informed of the
cancelation.
TFOT’s press conference was to be held 30 minutes before the news conference by
Jiang.
PURPOSE
Chen said the reservation was canceled because the group rented the room “for
certain purposes” that could “have an impact” on the hotel.
“Of course we came here for a purpose, who would reserve a hotel room without a
purpose?” Chow said. “It’s written clearly on the contract that our purpose is
to hold a press conference here.”
TFOT was to hold a press conference on the second floor of the hotel, as a
symposium on business investment and tourism in Sichuan Province was to take
place simultaneously on the 12th floor.
More serious verbal and physical conflict broke out when Tibetans accompanying
Chow grew impatient and took out banners and Tibetan flags that were to be used
to decorate the news conference venue. They shouted slogans calling on Jiang to
release the more than 300 monks arrested from Kirti Monastery in the
predominantly Tibetan area of Ngaba in Sichuan Province and to withdraw troops
and police that had placed the monastery under siege.
The manager and other members of the hotel management tried to take the signs
and banners from the Tibetans by force.
The two sides pushed and shoved, while hotel management and staffers chased
Tibetans running around the lobby with Tibetan flags in hand.
Political commentator Paul Lin (林保華), head of the Taiwan Youth Anti-Communist
Corps who had been invited to talk at the press conference, fainted after his
blood pressure spiked.
POLICE INTERVENTION
The conflict ended when police arrived at the scene to break up the fight and
helped negotiate terms for another room for TFOT and other supporting groups.
In the delayed news conference, Lin said that Jiang had served as Sichuan
governor since 2007 and “should be held responsible for the arrests and bloody
crackdowns of Tibetans in the province, as well as corruption and scandals
related to the handling of donations” for the massive earthquake that devastated
the province in May 2008.
Victims of Investment in China Association president William Kao (高為邦) warned
entrepreneurs thinking of investing in Sichuan that it was not only one of the
provinces in China with the worst human rights records, but also one with
numerous cases of officials cheating Taiwanese investors.
CRACKDOWN
Toward the end of the conference, a video showing images of Tibetans who died
during bloody crackdowns by Chinese security officials was shown.
In tears after watching the video, Chow urged the public to express their
concern over human rights abuses in Sichuan in whichever way possible.
“You don’t have to be a Buddhist, a Tibetan, or Taiwanese,” Chow said. “You can
be anyone, but as a person, you should give your full support to the Tibetans
suffering there.”
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