Image:tchrd
Protests continued today in Rebkong in Eastern Tibet’s Amdo Region, when thousands of Tibetan students took to the streets to oppose China’s illegal and violent occupation of Tibet. Tibetans shouted slogans calling for Tibet’s independence and tore down Chinese flags, while displaying the Snow Lion flag, symbol of Tibet’s national sovereignty. The numbers are reportedly so large that China’s paramilitary has been reluctant to engage the demonstrators.
Under the draconian conditions which are exercised in occupied nations such as Tibet and East Turkestan (renamed as Xinjiang following annexation by Communist China in 1949) there is no normality, as experienced and understood in more democratic and liberal societies. The range and extent of human rights abuses inflicted upon Uyghurs and Tibetans, the ongoing corrosion of language and tradition, under the twin demographic assaults of Chinese colonisation, and a coercive population-control program,which targets Tibetan and Uyghur women with mass campaigns of forced sterilisation, reveal what is in effect a policy of cultural genocide.
Yet the presentation being offered by China’s Ministry of Propaganda is that stability and order have now been returned to East Turkestan, achieved through martial law and thousands of troops patrolling the streets. Meanwhile we are informed that the Chinese brutes who have clubbed their way across Urumchi the past few days have now been put back in their box by the communist authorities. Of course there is always the suspicion that such thugs were in part an orchestrated effort, or at least tolerated by Chinese authorities, whose massively armed forces appeared curiously impotent and indifferent when faced with mobs carrying sticks!
Interestingly the international media is largely conforming to what is a somewhat slanted picture of events, China must be rubbing its hands with glee to see reporters ignoring the political causes of unrest, the decades of injustice and human rights violations suffered by Uyghurs, distracted by what it happily portrays as inter-ethnic violence. Such reportage fails miserably to grasp the underlying reality that gave birth to the protest by Uyghurs on Sunday July 5 and is careful to overlook the role of the occupying Chinese regime. Shamefully it is almost impossible to find any extensive or meaningful news coverage that enquires into how so many peaceful Uyghur demonstrators lost their life on that day. No question of a massacre by China’s security forces was considered. Instead we have a carefully constructed image, assembled and managed by China, that deflects any attention away from causual factors, or the role of Chinese forces, by focussing on the subsequent thuggery which erupted on the streets of Urumchi. A report in today’s English newspaper, The Guardian reveals the nature of official control exerted by the Chinese authorities over foreign journalists, a Chinese government notice issued to the foreign media said:
“Till now, the ’7.5 [July 5] Beating, Smashing, Grabbing and Firing Severe Violent Criminal Event’ has been under effective control. The normal social order, production and people’s life have been restored and all the following-up measures have been conducted systematically.”
The communist authorities then assured journalists that its ‘press officials’ would continue to help journalists cover events, adding that:
“For your convenience and safety, the press centre would like to remind all the reporters that [sic] please follow the related Chinese regulations and rules voluntarily during your interview, do not conduct any activities contradicted to your professionalism. Especially, do not agitate the ethnic [sic] animosity and provoke the ethnic [sic] relationships with improper questions.”(emphasis added)
Sadly, many media outlets, with the honourable exception of the Financial Times http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f21598a0-6a24-11de-ad04-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss have complied with such suffocating restrictions and uncritically consumed and published that perspective, including major news channels such as the BBC.
This suits the political and propaganda objectives of the communist regime, which appears to have learned a number of manipulative lessons from its experience during the Uprisings in Tibet of 2008, although again there was a concentration on what was claimed to be ethnic violence. Such artifice enables China to appear distanced from events, concealing its state-engineered injustices and violations with a carefully constructed fabrication that misrepresents the factual nature of events. Key to such a distortion is to deny any political legitimacy to demonstrations, which themselves are a direct response to communist Chinese occupation, by actively transforming protests. Any one who observed matters in Tibet last year will notice a familiar pattern, one that suggests a covert strategy is at work, in which demonstrations are effectively hi-jacked, their political objectives and demands buried under an engineered violence, and then subsequently presented as riotous and criminal activity, supporting the fiction that the Chinese authorities are simply trying to restore social order. What many journalists have chosen to ignore is that it’s the violence and oppression of the Chinese state against the Uyghurs of East Turkestan that is responsible for the tragic scenes on Urumchi’s streets. Until justice and freedom is returned to the region the propaganda words of Urumchi’s Chinese-controlled Mayor, Jerla Isamudin, “Under the correct leadership of the regional party committee and government… the situation is now under control.” will remain a hollow and perverse lie.
Mr. Asgar Can, Vice-President of the Uyghur World Congress http://www.uyghurcongress.org/En/home.asp has informed AFP that between 600 and 800 people have died in violence in Urumchi, capital of East Turkestan (re-named as Xinjiang following Communist China’s annexation of the region in 1949). Living in exile in Germany he said on Wednesday: “Some have told us 600, others have said 800. We estimate that it is between 600 and 800.” Such estimates he said were based on eyewitness accounts.
Source: 9news
An interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal which exposes the propaganda distortions of communist China.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124698273174806523.html
Has anyone else noticed the relative silence from Muslim states, who seem rather casually indifferent to the suffering of their brothers and sisters in East Turkestan (re-named as Xinjiang by communist China). One would have hoped that given the emphasis Islam places upon brotherhood and aiding fellow Muslims, that across the Islamic world condemnation and angry protest would have greeted communist China’s bloody suppression of Uyghur protests in Urumchi. Yet we have largely silence.
What reaction has emerged has proved remarkably tentative, as if afraid of upsetting the communist Chinese regime, take the statement released July 6 by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC).
“The spokesperson of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), expressed on behalf of the Secretary General of (OIC) his deep concern on the recent incident and use of disproportionate force that caused death of 140 people and more than 800 injured civilian casualties which took place in the Xinjiang Uygur [sic] in Autonomous Region of China (also known as East Turkistan).
The Secretary General called upon the Government of China to carry out prompt, effective and transparent investigation of the this greave [sic] incident and bring those responsible to quick justice and to take all possible measures to prevent its recurrence and to see to it that the victims are adequately compensated.
The great number of casualties among civilians indicates that the principle of proportionality of the use of force and fire arms was not observed. According to international basic principle on the use of force and fire arms, law enforcement officials should resort to non-lethal methods in confronting civilian riots.
The Islamic world is expecting from China, a major and responsible power in the world arena with historical friendly relations with the Muslim world, to deal with the problem of Muslim Minority in China in broader perspective that tackles the root-causes of the problem.
The OIC is ready to extend assistance and to consult with the Chinese Government about efforts to create a climate of peace and stability in the region.”
Would the Organization of Islamic Conference have issued such measured and cautious words had Israel so violently suppressed protesting Palestinians?
In an interview with German Television (DW-TV) German Human Rights Commissioner Guenther Nooke on Monday July 6 spoke out against the violence between Chinese Security forces and Uyghurs in East Turkestan (renamed Xinjiang by communist China).
Deutsche Welle: How does the German government view the events in the Xinjiang province [sic]?
Guenther Nooke: We have not been in a position to come to an official assessment because not enough information has been made available yet, but of course we know that there have been ongoing problems with the Uighurs because they are seen by the leaders in Beijing, and by the Chinese in general, as suspected terrorists. This has led to tensions between the Han Chinese and the Uighurs.
Deutsche Welle: What sort of influence can the German government exercise?
Guenther Nooke: I think we have to call on the Beijing leadership to act in accordance with the rule of law, even if there are grey areas, and properly investigate situations like the one in the toy factory in southern China, which seems to have sparked the unrest, and that they refrain from reacting with disproportionate force. That is unacceptable, no matter what factors may have contributed it, including the possibility that demonstrators committed acts of violence.
Latest reports now claim that over 150 people have been killed during the bloody crackdown by communist Chinese security forces during what was a peaceful demonstration in Urumchi. The overwhelming majority of deaths would have been Uyghurs, who faced troop carriers, hundreds of body-armoured securty forces and machines guns, as revleaded by the disturbing footage from events in Lhasa during April 2008, China’s response to any form of mass protest, no matter how ordered, is to use excessive and brute violence.
Meanwhile in a gesture of staggering hypocrisy the US White House claims it’s deeply concerned by reports of dozens of deaths and injuries. In a statement issued from Moscow, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the White House urges everyone in East Turkestan (re-named Xinjiang by communist China) to exercise restraint. It will be recalled that the United Sates in 2002 allowed Chinese security officers to abuse and forcibly interrogate innocent Uyghurs being held illegally in Guantanamo Prison, while the current President chose not oppose the forcible relocation of Uyghurs to a remote island in the Pacific, following their release from Camp X-Ray, having been found completely innocent of any crimes by a US Judge.
He declined further comment.
Image:ap
Reports from communist China’s propaganda machine Xinhua state that 140 people have been killed and more than 800 injured following a brutal crack-down by Chinese security forces of a peaceful demonstration in the capital city of Urumchi, East Turkestan (renamed as Xinjiang by communist China. Other sources in the region have claimed that the death-toll “was still climbing.”
Uyghur exiles condemned the crackdown, Alim Seytoff, vice president of the Washington, D.C.-based Uyghur American Association said
“We are extremely saddened by the heavy-handed use of force by the Chinese security forces against the peaceful demonstrators. We ask the international community to condemn China’s killing of innocent Uyhgurs. This is a very dark day in the history of the Uyghur people”
Meanwhile Beijing has again been actively msirepresenting events, describing the protest as a violent riot, which they claim was orchestrated by exiled Uyghurs. The occupying regime in East Turkestan has accused former businesswoman now living in America, Rebiya Kadeer, of generating events via the telephone and Internet.
Communist Chinese puppet-governor, Nur Bekri, said in a televised address earlier today that “Rebiya had phone conversations with people in China on July 5 in order to incite and Web sites … were used to orchestrate the incitement and spread propaganda.”
China’s Ministry of Deception was eager to present the protests as “a pre-empted, organized violent crime. It is instigated and directed from abroad and carried out by outlaws in the country.”
Alim Seytoff, in a telephone conversation from Washington, D.C., replied that that the accusations were baseless.
“It’s common practice for the Chinese government to accuse Ms. Kadeer for any unrest in East Turkestan and His Holiness the Dalai Lama for any unrest in Tibet” he said.
Arrested Monks Face Dark Days in Chinese Prison
Image:phayul
A report from Voice of Tibet Radio (April 26) stated that communist China has sentenced four Tibetan monks, from Lutsang monastery, near Tsolho in Tibet’s Amdo Province -renamed as Tibet Autonomous [sic] Prefecture, Qinghai Province by China) to two years imprisonment.
The report noted that Chinese security forces arrested 6 monks from the monastery on April 10, 2009. An informed source said that the sentences were given by so-called Mangra County Court on Kalsang Gyatso; 21, Soepa Gyatso; 24, Lungtok Gyatso; 22, and Soepa Gyatso;19.
A bulletin from Phayul reports that:
“ The four were among the 109 monks of Lutsang monastery who carried out a peaceful protest march from Lamo Yongzin Phodrang (spelled as pronounced) to the Mangra county government headquarters on the first day of the Tibetan new year (Losar). All 109 were arrested and given severe patriotic reeducation, say Tibetan rights groups. On March 20, 103 were released and 6 continued to be held in detention. The 6 were released earlier this month. In another incident, two other monks of Lutsang monastery, Thabkhay Gyatso and Kunchok Gyatso, were arrested by the police few days ago. They are said to be currently held at Mangra County.”
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