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Tag Archives: China
Nepal’s Cowards Doing China’s Dirty Work
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When Tibetans engage in justified and legitimate protests at the apathy and cynical inaction of the United Nations, which offers platitudes as China terrorizes Tibet’s people, it would be hoped that their right to dissent and peaceful demonstration would be respected. Not, sadly in Nepal, a nation that has allied itself with China’s regime to such an extent it seizes any opportunity to abuse, oppress and intimidate the Tibetan community living there.
Who’s Behind NYPD Raid On Tibetan Hunger Strikers?
Image:tsewangrangzen/tyc
The decision yesterday by the New York Police Department to forcefully remove to hospital Mr Dorje Gyalpo, a Tibetan Hunger-Striker, who has been without food for 27 days outside the United Nations in East Manhattan poses some interesting questions. Not least of all, was this intervention based entirely upon humanitarian concern for the health of this brave Tibetan, or was it a result of less observable political considerations? To address that we need to assess which parties benefit from seeing an end to this protest, most obvious is China’s Regime, ever sensitive to the issue of Tibet, quietly it must be incandescent with rage to witness, at the very doors of the UN, a demonstration reminding the world of its genocidal occupation of Tibet. Interestingly the Chinese authorities have maintained a singular silence on the event, behind the scenes though it is not unlikely that they are exerting various pressures at their disposal to undermine and end the Hunger Strike. To that end their economic and political influence is considerable, more so within the United States, a nation in financial slavery to China, it has many friends within mainstream media, does that partly explain what has been a virtual news blackout on the Tibetan protest? What can be said with certainty is that China’s Ministry of Disinformation is engaged in an ideological war relating to Tibet, the last thing it wishes to see is media exposure of a high profile protest highlighting China’s tyranny in Tibet. Meanwhile, within the United Nations China’s presence, as a permanent member of the Security Council, is formidable, its representatives would be un-sleeping in efforts to dilute and distract whatever limited support or sympathy as may (or not) exist with the UN towards the Hunger Strike.
Image:tsewangrangzen/tyc
Which brings us to contender number two, the UN itself, in what way would this troubled institution gain from an end to the protest opposite its Headquarters? Well, in terms of public relations, a subject of major importance to that organization, the presence of the Tibetan hunger-strikers, and the demands of the Tibetan Youth Congress is exposing, with greater clarity as each day passes, the shameful lack of action or support extended to Tibet by the United Nations. The fact that these Tibetans were forced, through the silence and callous indifference of the UN, to offer their lives to appeal for their attention and action is colossal indictment. As people around the world read of the sacrifices of these courageous Tibetans, in peaceful demonstration, the questions grow louder. Why has not the United Nations helped the people of Tibet? Why are Tibetans being tortured and killed, yet the UN does and says nothing?
Image:tsewangrangzen/tyc
In addition to these uncomfortable questions for Ban Ki Moon his office is also disadvantaged by the truth of Tibet’s cause, the fact it was an independent nation, invaded and illegally occupied by China, and the reasonable, yet politically demanding nature of the objectives being pressed by the Hunger Strike. These call upon the United Nations to go beyond the usual platitudes and sympathy, usually directed to Tibetans, by pressurizing China to end its violent repression of Tibet, its people and culture. Now the Secretary General and his office are entirely resistant to even considering that course of action, because in so doing they would be inviting major political repercussions from China, that would prove highly disruptive within the United Nations. Furthermore they are able, when challenged by appeals such as those being made by Tibetans, to hide behind a central pillar of UN orthodoxy, which is non-interference within a member state (unless of course it is Iran or some other target of interest of the United States). Yet the demand for action is given a very public and intensified profile by the Hunger Strike, it crystallizes the apathy of the United Nations towards Tibet and exposes for all to see, an accommodation towards China based on double-standards and political self-interest, in which its atrocities against Tibetans are largely ignored. Clearly this is tubful of dirty washing that the Secretary General would prefer was not laundered on the sidewalk opposite his administrative center! Given such sensitivities would the forcible removal of Mr Dorje Gyalpo, by the NYPD, be welcomed by Ban Ki Moon? Does the prospect of this protest being ended avoid difficult politics for the United Nations, and in terms of public profile, evade it being seen as uncaring towards Tibetans and appeasing of China?
Image:tsewangrangzen/tyc
While both China and the administration of the United Nations have motive and a political desire to end the Tibetan Hunger Strike, we must remember that any efforts to do so, or undermine its presence cannot be realized without the political and logistical support of the New York authority, its police department, Mayor Bloomberg’s office, and indeed at a higher level, and probably ultimately more significant the State Department, no doubt irritated by an action it knows is causing difficulties for its Chinese counterparts. Are such forces conspiring to stifle the protest? What of the right to peaceful demonstration? Has a decision been reached that it’s politically expedient to have these inspiring Tibetans locked away in a hospital away from the UN Headquarters? What do you think?
BBC Grovelling To China’s Tyrants
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Tibetans, Beware! You Have No Friends In The Media
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UNCSW: In Denial And Silent On China’s Atrocities
Graphic: thanks to @tibettruth Image: courtesy of unwomen
International Women’s Day Again Ignores China’s Forced Sterilizations
Image: courtesy of @tibettruth
During previous activities to mark International Women’s Day on the 8th March much focus was rightly given to a range of themes. Unfortunately absent from the orchestrated championing of women’s human rights was any prominent exposure concerning communist China’s treatment of women, and in particular its coercive population-control program. The only visible reference to China on the International Women’s Day website is a trumpeting that this day is a Chinese national holiday, hardly a cause for celebration given the harrowing reality of China’s targeting of women for forced sterilizations.These atrocities grossly violate the principle of freedom of choice and a woman’s right to control over her own body. In occupied Tibet, East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia, Manchuria and communist China women are denied these freedoms and subject to the dictate of a male-dominated regime that inflicts a series of draconian penalties; including financial/mental/physical coercion, forced sterilizations and forced abortions.
The extent of these state-engineered abuses is staggering, yet the collective apathy from the women’s movement is puzzling and alarming. Imagine the response if just one woman was dragged from her home in Washington DC, Paris or London, beaten, tied to a medical slab and forcibly sterilised. There would be riots on the streets and rightly so! Such barbarity is a central element in China’s population program and has traumatised countless women across the communist Chinese Empire and yet all we have from the concerned sisterhood is silence! How can supposed feminists claim to be genuinely concerned about human rights and yet ignore or deny the plight of women subject to this brutality?
What possible motivation or reasons may begin to understand such a troubling position? We must firstly discount any absence of evidence or testimony, as a wealth of detailed documentation has been assembled over the years, and material continues to emerge. Much of this has been made available to a number of women’s organisations, yet the indifference remains. Faced with years of in-action and fudging from women’s groups it seems we dealing, not with an absence of evidence, but a singular lack of integrity.
On an individual emotional level this is indeed an appalling subject and perhaps too horrific for some, better perhaps to pretend its not happening. For others not softened by such humanity it would appear that reducing global population levels is worth any price, including human rights violations (even the devastated lives of women across Tibet, East Turkestan and Communist China).
Perhaps others may hold all things communist in fond regard and so shunt any inconvenient or odious manifestations of that dogma into a siding, far away from any prying conscience. It appears easy for some, driven by their chosen world-view, to exclude any fact, which may destabilise a perspective that places economic rights above other freedoms. Surely all are equal and interdependent?
Consideration should also be given to the health of bank-balances, which for some women’s organisations may well have prospered considerably. As the saying goes ‘Silent Mouths Stuffed with Gold’ and one can only wonder to what degree the cynical and adamantine silence which has surrounded this issue is explained by merciless self-interest. Whatever the reasoning, this issue lies at the sensitive core of feminist ideology, touching, as it does, on freedom of choice and women having control over their own bodies. Such fundamental rights do not exist under communist Chinese rule, the state’s needs are seen as greater than those of the individual. It’s nearly seventeen years since delegates arrived in Beijing for the UN Conference on Women, fuelled by the noble vision of furthering women’s rights.
Yet during that time the systematic abuse against women has continued, making a mockery of the recommendations and agreements of the Platform for Action and Beijing Declaration. We were assured by the massed ranks of women’s groups, who attended, that active engagement with the Beijing Conference would help moderate the grim excesses of China’s totalitarian machine and improve the plight of women. As predicted by those organizations which boycotted the event the violations resulting from the program remain; forced sterilizations, torture, arbitrary arrests, forced abortions and infanticide.
Well one action you may wish to consider is contacting International Women’s Day and ask them, why each year they and their associates are silent on the subject of China’s forced sterilizations? They maybe contacted via Twitter at @womensday
However abhorrent this harrowing human rights issue, what is equally offensive is the cold-blooded response, which is shared by a considerable section of prominent women academics, campaigners and organizations. In remaining silent on the plight of Muslim-Uighur, Tibetan and Chinese women their inaction attracts the charge of complicity in a deliberate effort to conceal these atrocities.
Unlike the US Senate, Amnesty International USA,Congressional Committe on China, the British Medical Association, UK Parliamentary Foreign Parliamentary Committee and many other leading human rights groups and individuals, such as Dr Harry Wu, all of whom have acknowledged and condemned theses violations, many women’s organizations seem unwilling to engage this issue or campaign in support of their ‘sisters’. The traumatised women of East Turkestan, Tibet and communist China have little to thank them for and no reason to look forward to International Women’s Day.
New Year Arrives In The World’s Largest Ghetto
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On the first day of Tibetan New Year (17th Rabjung Tibetan Year 2139) across occupied Tibet there are few smiles and little celebration as China intensifies its tyrannical stranglehold over Tibet’s people. With demostrations and isolated self-immolations continuing to defy China’s illegal occupation and demanding Tibetan independence, towns and villages are under military siege, including Tibet’s capital, Lhasa. The following report from Rangzen Alliance exposes a harrowing degree of cultural suppression and violence that targets Tibetans, by a foreign occupying regime determined to eradicate Tibet’s national identity. We cannot permit the suffering and persecution of Tibetans by another jack-booted tyrant to go unchallenged or remain under-reported. Please share this with friends, post onto Twitter, Facebook or your Blog. Thank you.
Image:boxun
Tibetans are disappearing;everyone is terrified about the bloodshed which seems inevitable.Lhasa consists of approximately 1.2 million Chinese and approximately 200,000 Tibetans.The majority of these Tibetans live in an area which is now almost entirely enclosed by military compounds with walls between 10-16 feet; some with barbed wire. This isolation gives the impression of what the Warsaw Ghetto was like. Inside the “enclosed” area groups of armed soldiers, S.W.A.T. teams, and police patrol the streets 24 hours a day. Military drill songs can be heard throughout the day. S.W.A.T trucks and rows of 6 to 15 armored vehicles and tanks come through the area on a daily basis. Each vehicle has 3 to 4 soldiers at the opening turret, armed with assault rifles or machine guns aimed at the Tibetans.
Image:dossiertibet
All Tibetans must carry identification at all times. Tibetans residing in Lhasa are required to register with the police. There are approximately 134 new Police station checkpoints in Lhasa for random searches of pedestrians and vehicles. In addition to the military compounds in and around Lhasa, permanent military posts holding 1-10 armed soldiers have been established throughout the city.
The Kala Chakra Ceremony in November 2011, held in Bodh Gaya, India by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was attended by approximately 10,000 Tibetans from China. Among these were reportedly 3000 Government informants. The remaining 7000 Tibetans from China, on returning to Tibet via India, Nepal, Hong Kong, etc. were ALL brought to reeducation camps for a minimum of three months. Elderly people begged to go home in the evenings due to the cold, but they were not allowed. In many instances when family members brought blankets for their elderly family, they were told they were no longer there and the authorities didn’t know where they were. Among the 7000 Tibetans in reeducation camps, interrogation from the Chinese police was common practice. Tibetans are made to disclose their jobs (from which they are fired), loose pensions or other such benefits, disclose names of relatives and their contact information, including addresses and professions. Random identification checks and House searches are done; family members are brought in for “questioning”.
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Approximately 50 nuns going to a retreat on a bus, were detained and held for questioning after an informant accused them of speaking against the government. Their whereabouts are presently unknown. A Tibetan artist who painted a Tibetan looking upwards towards a clock above their head, titled “Waiting” was arrested for the symbolism used in the painting. I was told that many people were taken away by the State Security and don’t come back. They just disappear. Roadside checkpoints in the Tibetan Autonomous Region are used to keep Tibetans that are not residents of Lhasa, away from the city. In addition, if a monk or nun is in a vehicle the police/soldiers will make them return to their monasteries on foot. All Tibetans riding in such vehicles will have their full identification listed. The Potala Palace is a place of pilgrimage for Tibetans, especially during Losar (Tibetan New Year) but the roadside checkpoints prevent this and limit the number of Tibetans in Lhasa.
Image:telegraph
Approximately 300-400 monks previously resided at the Potala Palace; today the number is around 36. Soldiers and other military personnel now live in the rooms where the monks used to reside. Although it is listed as a World Heritage site, the Chinese government now uses the Potala as a military post. A large Military complex is situated within several blocks. The nunnery, located across from grounds before the Potala Palace, now has Military bunkers.
Jokhang Monastery has such a large military presence in and around the area that you have to be careful not to bump into soldiers and police as they crowd the streets of the surrounding market when they go on patrol. Drepung Monastery was home to 7 to 10,000 monks now has only between 500-700. A hunger strike of 100 monks is said to be underway. Sera Monastery once had approximately 6,000 monks now has 200-300 monks. Sera Monastery is surrounded by police stations and military compounds. Soldiers and police constantly patrol the grounds of the monastery, including where the monks debate.
Norbulingka Palace has between 6-10 monks from almost 300 in the past. The Dalai Lama’s small personal menagerie has been sold to a Chinese businessman and a separate admission is charged to see the animals, although the entire Norbulingka park is listed as a World Heritage site. Please send this report to anyone who can help, especially US government officials, newspapers, humanitarian organizations, etc. Thank you for your help! Source : Rangzen Alliance
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