MB Civic

China curbs Everest climbers ‘for Olympics’ (TOI)
———————————————-Times of India
11 Dec, 2006

KATHMANDU: Mountaineers preferring the
Tibet route to access Mt Everest because of
low fees and relaxed rules face a rude jolt –China is going to rein in climbing
expeditions next spring apparently because
of the 2008 Olympics.

The China Tibet Mountaineering
Association in Lhasa (CTMA) says it has
negotiated with the China Mountaineering
Association in Beijing for limiting the
number of climbers in the Everest area in
spring 2007 to prepare for the 2008
Olympic Torch Race.

However, seasoned climbers and human
rights activists say it is an effort by Beijing
to keep negative publicity at bay, especially
after the international furore over graphic
reports from mountaineers of the shooting
of Tibetan refugees in September that
resulted in the death of a 17-year-old nun.

China plans to kick off the Olympics with a
spectacular flames ceremony when the
torch will be carried atop Mt Everest, the
world’s highest mountain at 8,848 m,
before it is taken to Beijing.

The trial run of the torch ceremony on the
mountain is to be held this coming spring.

China set a precedent of igniting a
ceremonial flame on the highest point on
earth in 1999 when the torch for a sports
competition was taken atop the peak. In
the rarefied atmosphere, the flame was
kept alive by connecting the torch to an
oxygen tank with an igniter ready to
relight the flame when blasts of icy cold air
snuffed it out.

According to the CTMA, costs of
expeditions would be increased next year,
which might make some of international
expeditions return to the earlier popular
route through neighbouring Nepal.

A trial run of the torch ceremony would be
held coming spring and CTMA says the
numbers of international expeditions
would be restricted due to that.

In September, Beijing came under fire for
gross human rights abuse after climbers on
Mount Cho Oyu witnessed and reported
the death a 17-year-old Tibetan nun
gunned down by Chinese border patrols as
she and a group of other Tibetans, many of
them young children, were attempting to
escape into neighbouring Nepal.

The footage of the shooting made several
western governments register their
concern.

John Ackerly, president of International
Campaign for Tibet, an NGO working to
protect the rights of Tibetans,
said: “Climbers come into Tibet with
advanced communications devices such as
satellite phones and high-speed internet.

“Chinese authorities are likely to be
concerned about the ability of these
expeditions to record problems and
communicate them to the outside world in
ways that it cannot control, particularly at
such a symbolic moment as the Olympics,
when the prestige of the country is at
stake.”