By Mata Press Service

Tibetan monks sit atop a hill looking down at the work on the Qinghai-Tibet rail beneath

Tibetans worldwide have started a global protest to stop train services on a newly constructed track connecting China to Tibet, a project which has been hailed as an architectural marvel and an ethical disaster at the same time.

China last month announced the completion of the pan-Himalayan railway track that runs across Tibet‘s snow-covered plateau, known as the roof of the world.

Qinghai-Tibet Railway workers

The nearly 1,200-kilometre rail line will be the first to connect China to Tibet‘s capital city and is opposed by Tibetans both inside and outside Tibet.

It has been criticised as an environmental and cultural threat to Tibet and the railway is itself threatened by rising temperatures that could one day melt the frozen ground beneath it.

As part of the “Stop the Train!!!“ protests, the Tibetans around the world have started petitioning Bombardier Inc, the Canadian multinational company that this year signed a contract with China Railways, agreeing to supply coaches for the railway.

Urging Bombardier Inc. to cancel the pact, protesters started sending petitions via letters, emails, fax and phone calls to the company‘s offices in Australia, Europe, the U.S., Canada, India, and Northern Ireland.

Marches have also been planned to these offices.

The protests are expected to be the strongest in India, where the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of the Tibetans, has his official seat.

Bombardier Inc. has a branch in Vadodara in India‘s Gujarat state.

The protesters said a two-minute travelling presentation will march through the Dalai Lama‘s seat in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, to spread awareness about the railway construction and its “ill effects on Tibet and its neighbouring countries.“

Bombardier‘s participation in the controversial railway being built by China through Tibet is an “ethical disaster,“ say the Students for a Free Tibet a network of more than 650 schools worldwide

The Canadian company‘s participation in the project has also come under fire from environmentalists and activists who claim the political project is aimed at consolidating China‘s control over the region.

Bombardier is one of the first western corporations to directly partner with the Chinese government in the construction of the railway.

Once completed, it will bring an influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet, further marginalizing Tibetans and posing a threat to the survival of their culture and identity, Students for a Free Tibet said.

“We will initiate a global email campaign and also initiate mass petitioning asking Bombardier Inc. to withdraw its co-operation from the Government of China in carrying out this project in Tibet,” said Tenzin Choeying — President, Students for a Free Tibet (India).

The Asian Pacific Post reported last April that Bombardier‘s participation in the project has also come under fire from environmentalists and activists who claim the political project is aimed at consolidating China‘s control over the region.

“The Tibet railway threatens the very survival of Tibetans as a people,“ said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet.

“Bombardier‘s involvement is an ethical disaster and we are fundamentally opposed to it.“

The railway is a cornerstone of China‘s politically charged ‘Western Development Plan‘, which is designed to solidify China‘s grip on Tibet and East Turkestan and eradicate nationalism and the cultural identity of Tibetans and Uyghurs.

Tibetan rights groups informed Bombardier of the social and political implications of the railway in 2003.

“The Chinese government has publicly admitted that the railway is not commercially viable and is being built for political reasons,“ said Maude Cote, a member of Students for a Free Tibet in Montreal. “There is no excuse for a Canadian company to join hands with the Chinese government on this devastating project and we urge Bombardier to withdraw immediately.”

Construction of the first phase of the railway started in 1958, eight years after the Communist Party sent troops into Tibet to impose its rule. A year later, Tibet‘s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and he has lived there ever since.

The line links the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, with the northwestern province of Qinghai. Although it is complete, Xinhua said test runs would not begin until next July, 2006.

The railway that was previously the world‘s highest is in the Andes Mountains in Peru.

Bombardier signed the C$402 million rail passenger car contract with China‘s Ministry of Railways in Beijing in February. According to the contract, the consortium will supply 367 cars for new railways to Lhasa, capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region in western China.

The consortium includes Bombardier Transportation, Bombardier Sifang Power (Qingdao) Transportation Limited???-its joint venture in East China‘s Shandong province???-and Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co. Ltd., a local company.

As part of China‘s efforts to develop its vast western region, these new rail routes from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, capital city of southern Guangdong province, will open from June 2006.

Most of the rail cars operating on these routes will be made at the joint venture in Shandong, which was established in 1998 and has delivered 338 rail cars in China so far.

“This (the deal) represents another important commitment from Bombardier to China‘s railway development,“ said Zhang Jianwei, vice-president of Bombardier Transportation.

“These projects represent a very important technology challenge as trains will reach an altitude of 5,000 metres and will be exposed to Tibet‘s difficult environment conditions, such as low temperature, low oxygen and sand storms,“ Zhang said.

The trains will be equipped with unique state-of-the-art technology, the company said.

Last year, Bombardier Transportation won contracts worth more than C$611 million in China.

Besides the joint venture in Shandong, Bombardier has two joint ventures in Northeast China‘s Jilin province and eastern Jiangsu province. The venture in Jilin produces metro vehicles, while that in Jiangsu makes propulsion components for rail vehicles.

Bombardier also has a wholly-owned venture in Shanghai???-Bombardier Railway Transportation Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.

Bombardier is the No. 1 supplier to the Chinese regional aircraft market. At present, seven Chinese airlines operate 37 Bombardier airplanes. The company employs 1,400 people in China.

Bombardier announced its participation in the controversial project, followed three weeks later by Nortel Networks, which will supply a wireless network for the rail line.

Nortel‘s Research & Development (R&D) operations in China have grown by about 20 percent in the past year. Since the beginning of 2003, its R&D presence in China has doubled.

The company, which employs about 1,000 R&D engineers in China, has estimated that a Chinese R&D professional costs only one-third as much as a similar specialist in North America.

Last June at Bombardier‘s annual general meeting, chairperson Laurent Beaudoin told protestors that “we don‘t think it‘s our responsibility to settle the political differences between China and Tibet.”