From: Tibet Information Network, London

A New Zealand tourist has been accused by the Chinese authorities of trying to overthrow the Chinese government because of a message he sent by fax to his wife.

The official newspaper Tibet Daily says that Guy Cotter, a well-known mountaineer from New Zealand, had tried "to subvert the government, split the country and overthrow the socialist system" because he sent a fax last September in which he mentioned that he had heard a bomb explode near his hotel, the Lhasa Holiday Inn. The fax was sent from the hotel but was intercepted electronically by the Chinese police.

Mr Cotter was cited as an example of how "distorting facts and spreading rumours to confuse people and jeopardize our state security are customary tactics used by Western anti-China forces". The incident was described in detail in the February 29th edition of Tibet Daily in an article marking the third anniversary of the promulgation of new State Security laws in Tibet.

The 1993 laws prohibited "various sabotage activities" which promote divisions between nationalities, including "making up a story, distorting facts, publishing or disseminating writings or speeches, or producing and disseminating audio and video products". They also specified that foreigners are liable to the same laws.

"It was just a note home to his missus", said a friend who was with Cotter when he sent his fax last September. "They over-reacted in the extreme to something that was totally innocent. He sent the note by fax because he thought it would probably not get there in the mail."

Cotter, who is currently on a mountaineering expedition in New Zealand, could not be reached for a comment. Aged 34, Cotter, who comes from Wannaka, is regarded as one of the top mountain guides in New Zealand and has climbed Everest, but was on his first trip to Tibet when the incident happened. He had arrived in Lhasa on 2nd September 1995 as a guide for a group of New Zealand tourists on an approved trip to climb Mount Cho-yu, but he was arrested the next day and was held in detention for a week before being expelled from the country.

"He was out walking on the street the first evening and he heard a loud explosion which he assumed was a bomb, and he saw emergency vehicles racing in the direction of the noise," said his travelling companion, who asked not to be named. "The ironic thing is he decided he had better not get involved in any trouble and walked away, back to the hotel."

Cotter sent the note to his wife the next evening, his last chance to be near an international phone line before his party left for the mountains the next morning. "We were a bunch of climbers going in there, he was writing a letter saying, here, darling, this is what we are up to." said his friend. "I was there when he sent the fax, and no-one took a copy of it. The Chinese must have intercepted it electronically," he added.

The tour group only realised that Cotter was missing as they were about to leave the next day. "We found that his room was locked, apparently from the inside. There was no answer, and the management said they could not unlock the door," said one of the group. Assuming that he was seriously ill, the New Zealanders were about to break the door down when the Holiday Inn management admitted that the police had taken their friend some nine hours earlier and had used special keys to double lock the room after them.

Cotter later told his friends that he had been woken up at midnight to find about 10 police in his room, some of them armed. He had been prevented from making a phone call to his group leader and had been warned not to make any noise as he was escorted past their rooms, they said.

The guide was held for 48 hours in the State Security interrogation facilities in northern Lhasa, where he was interrogated and video-filmed until he made a confession. "After having conclusive evidence in hand, a state security organ in Tibet summoned Guy Cotter for interrogation and solemnly pointed out that he had made up a story, distorted facts and spread a rumour, undermining the celebrations held for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the autonomous region and jeopardizing the state security of the PRC," said the newspaper.

"He was not physically abused, but psychologically he was devastated," said his friend. "He knew that no-one knew where he was and he had no idea about what course of action they were going to take", added the friend, who was not told of Cotter's whereabouts.

After giving "a written statement of repentance" Cotter was made to send a fax to his wife retracting his earlier letter and then put under house arrest for three days at the Holiday Inn. Early on 9th September, one week after he arrived in Tibet, Cotter was told that he was to be expelled and a few hours later was put on a plane to Nepal.

The incident took place at a sensitive time for the Chinese, who had announced six months earlier that they expected attempts to sabotage the celebrations on 1st September of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Tibet Autonomous Region. A new parade square was constructed in front of the Potala Palace for the main celebrations, which foreigners were not allowed to attend.

In his fax Cotter wrote that he heard a bomb explode in the new Potala Palace square, but there are no reports of any explosion there. However, unofficial sources report that two bombs went off in other areas of Lhasa at about the time of the celebration, one at a fuel depot and one at a power station not far from Cotter's hotel.

The Chinese decision to denounce a foreigner by name is unusual, as such statements are normally reserved for famous journalists or human rights activists such as Harry Wu, the Chinese American filmmaker who was given a 15 year sentence last year before being expelled.

Cotter was named alongside a British TV producer, Brian Woods, who helped make "Return to the Dying Rooms", a documentary shown on Channel 4, a British TV station, which accused the Chinese of maltreating children in orphanages in China. "Wu-zi visited China twice and secretly filmed abuse of orphans ... which did not conform to reality. He did so to distort facts and spread rumours in order to attack China," said the paper.

Cotter, who apparently has no connection with any pro-Tibet or human rights groups, is not an obvious choice as a model enemy of China. "He doesn't belong to any of that nonsense - he is a totally open minded guy", one of his colleagues said.

The Tibet Daily accuses Cotter of not behaving like a normal tourist. "He did not visit ancient Tibetan culture, temples and great mountains but walked to the square before the Potala Palace the same day," it says, although it goes on to describe events in the square that evening as relaxed: "a festive atmosphere prevailed in the square where people of various nationalities were singing and dancing," it says of that evening. None of the main temples in Lhasa can be approached from the Holiday Inn without going through the Potala square. Cotter's friends add that he had visited all the main Lhasa temples and tourist sites with them.

At least five other westerners were detained in 1995 in Lhasa for carrying letters from Tibetans, with two held for a week before expulsion, but these incidents seem to have been handled less aggresively by public security rather than state security officials.

The article appears to have been designed to deter others from trying to collect news from Tibet. "Hostile forces and ethnic separatists abroad ... rack their brains to find ways to secretly send persons into our country to collect what they call "data" on "no human rights" and then to distort and exaggerate such "data" by every possible means," said the article, adding that "the tricks they have used are not so clever ... slanders and distortions can only hoodwink people for a short while."

"We must not ignore rumours spread by hostile forces and ethnic separatists at home and abroad", said the paper, calling for "severe punishment of such acts".