Image:xinhua

If we are to believe communist China’s propaganda machine, Xinhua, the image you are looking at represents the standard of health care available for Tibetans under the tender mercies of the occupying communist regime. According to a report which celebrated International Nurses Day on May 13th a young Tibetan patient is being treated by “Yangzong (editors note: a Sinocised version of a Tibetan name, used to suggest the economic and employment opportunities which presumably abound inside Tibet, thanks to Beijing’s ‘enlightened’ rule) a nurse of the department of pediatrics of the People’s Hospital of southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, takes care of a child who suffers from food poisoning”.

It is only when we stand back and consider that this scene was arranged with a psychotic attention to detail that the chilling awfulness of what we are witnessing dawns.  This cynical deception obscures a disturbing truth that in their own nation Tibetans are second-class citizens denied access to a quality health service, through a range of economic, social and political measures, which are wholly to the advantage of Chinese colonizers. Rather like the crude disinformation peddled by Nazi-Germany   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camp  which sought to convince the world that Gypsies, Jews and other oppressed peoples were receiving high levels of care, China’s ministry of propanganda is unsleeping in its efforts to camouflage the suffering and deprivation it has inflicted upon Tibetans and Uyghurs.

Under a regime of medical apartheid for Tibetans there are no ‘angels-of-mercy’ dispensing comfort and treatments in high-tech and modern facilities, most Tibetans find themselves at the back of a depressingly long line when it comes to health provision, and then are charged rates few can afford. Little wonder so many have to rely upon traditional Tibetan medicine, or so-called barefoot doctors. The only time that the Chinese state mobilises health provision  across Tibet is when implementing one of the many campaigns of mass sterilisations, where Tibetan women are subject to forced sterilisation, often without anaesthetic, and most certainly utterly lacking the service and care so crudely staged in the image above.

Image: tibettruth

Talking of censorship, what on earth is going on with TrueVision, UK Channel Four Television or Google with respect to the acclaimed 2008 Dispatches film ‘Undercover in Tibet’? Visitors to sites which formerly presented this video may have noticed that it appears to have been removed. It has also seemingly been displaced from Google Video and YouTube. What is it about this film that requires a blanket removal? Are we talking copyright infringement here? Or is that possible being used as a front for some other, more political, reason? 

The film is rare in that it is one of only a handful of documentaries which examined the issue of forced sterlisations, this one particularly as it featured a Tibetan woman recounting her harrowing experiences from inside Tibet. Many will be aware of  Google‘s past associations with China, which have not always been received favourably, could some pressure have been brought upon them by the film’s producers to pull it? Yet surely a company would not go to such troubles to assemble a powerful film exposing the human rights situation inside Tibet, only to possibly orchestrate its removal from websites and organisations dedicated to the cause Tibet? Having produced ‘Undercover in Tibet’ are TrueVision/Channel Four now content for it to be consigned to some dusty archive out of public view? Such an important and ground-breaking film, which would not have been possible without the sacrifices and courage of Tibetans inside Tibet, demands the widest public exposure as a powerful tool to advance the cause of human rights and freedom for Tibet.

Now that the film has been screened, and is unlikely to be broadcast on any regular basis, the freedom and global reach of the Internet is the most effective and accessible platform to ensure that an international audience is made aware of this issue. Yet for whatever reason, it must be asked if it has been withdrawn, either by Google unilaterally, or seemingly at the behest of the Producers, either TrueVision or Channel Four?

Interestingly, TrueVision were approached by Tibettruth on April 2nd 2008 with a request to feature the section on forced sterilisations upon the website, as it would greatly assist the campaign to increase awareness of this subject. They replied the same day:

—- Original Message —–
From: “True Vision”
Sent: Wednesday, April 02, 2008 1:14 PM
Subject: Undercover Tibet Thank you for your comments. We will be in touch shortly. Kind regards,
True Vision Team

They never did respond, despite a further email being sent to their offices on April 8, 2008.

They did however manage to include a set of Tibet-related organisations upon their website http://www.truevisiontv.com/tibet/index.htm  apart that is from the only one which is actively researching and campaigining on the subject of China’s coercive birth-control program, Tibettruth.

If you would like to help the appeal to have this film made available on the Internet please email the following:

True Vision tibet@truevisiontv.com

Channel Four International info@c4i.tv

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