Nobel Peace Prize winners Václav Havel and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have joined Prince Hassan Bin Talal, Vartan Gregorian and Yohei Sasakawa to pen an op-ed in The Guardian calling on the Chinese government to stop their planned execution of two Tibetans who protested for Tibetan independence last spring. Along with Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, two other Tibetans were sentenced were also sentenced to death with sentences immediately suspended, and a third receiving life in prison. The piece focuses on the fact that these five Tibetans could not have received a fair trial, which was done in secret, and China’s legal treatment of Tibetans must be open and transparent. The op-ed closes with this powerful line:

Only by allowing an international presence to report, dispassionately and truthfully, on what is happening in Tibet, will China’s government dispel the idea that its continued rule there means that even more severe human rights abuses will be inflicted on members of China’s ethnic minorities.

I don’t expect the Chinese government to respond favorably to this request.