Free Tibet welcomes Bush's speech and urges action from Brown

Free Tibet Campaign welcomes the decision by President George Bush to speak out publicly about China’s appalling human rights record.

Speaking in Bangkok prior to his departure for Beijing to attend tomorrow’s opening ceremony, President Bush said: "We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labour rights not to antagonise China's leaders, but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to develop its full potential."

Free Tibet Campaign hopes that other world leaders attending the opening ceremony and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown when he attends the closing ceremony will be equally forthright.

In a letter sent today to Gordon Brown, Stephanie Brigden, Director of Free Tibet Campaign, urged the Prime Minister to recognise, as other world leaders have done, that “their attendance at the Games cannot be limited to watching the sporting spectacle alone.”

Free Tibet activists around the world are determined to ensure that the Chinese government’s attempts to hijack the Olympic ideals while trampling on the human rights of the Tibetan people does not go unnoticed.

Stephanie Brigden said: "Human rights are firmly on the agenda at Beijing. For any world leader to accept the Chinese Government's hospitality at the Olympics and remain silent would amount to tacit support for the crackdown in Tibet.”

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For more information, contact Anne Holmes on 020 7324 4605 or 07798 666 658.