Tag Archives: Tibettruth

Harry Wu Internationally Respected Champion Of Human Rights For China

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Our colleagues who run @tibettruth recently launched an open appeal to the highly respected Chinese dissident, Mr Harry Wu and his organization the Laogai Museum, which is the leading research and campaign body on the issue of China’s slave labor camps. Having arranged last week an important  meeting on the human rights situation within Tibet, it was thought that due exposure would be given to China’s forcible sterilization of Tibetan women. After all this internationally known campaigner had previously spoken out on the subject of Chinese women suffering China’s coercive birth control program,  See Here so there was a hope for solidarity in exposing what is a major violation  of women’s rights in occupied Tibet.

On Friday June 8th @tibettruth contacted Harry Wu and his Institute via Twitter, here’s the record of their appeal:

“@TheHarryWu We wish your Laogai Conference Every Success & Applaud Your Remarkable Courage & Integrity, However We Do Have Some Concerns >> relating to the troubling issue of China’s forced sterilizations, a subject you have spoken out upon. >> likely-hood that once again a major human rights forum on China’s tyranny will do wonderful work YET give no exposure or >> or detail to the reality that Tibetan women are also being forcibly sterilized. We naturally are troubled by such a silence >> more so when one of your main panelists, the International Campaign For Tibet, has kept shamefully silent on the fact Tibetan >> women are subject to the horrifying atrocities of China’s population control program. We shall be posting further on this >>  We Have Challenged Your Guest Speaker Mary Beth Markey of the ICT to Address this question HERE http://bit.ly/LD5Huz >> As a main organizer & host for the conference on human rights violations in Tibet we call upon you & your organization to >> speak out on China’s forcible sterilization of Tibetan women. Continuing evasion and silence on this major human rights >> will completely undermine the credibility of orgs such as ICT while removing any moral integrity for them to speak >> on the issue of human rights in Tibet. We sincerely hope you may help us to ensure this subject is not ignored at your >> important conference. To that end we submit our report for your attention http://bit.ly/w5BGPn “

For whatever reason this request was entirely ignored until on the last day of his Conference our colleagues received a private message in response to their tweets of June 12 “@LaogaiMuseum Our appeal was openly tweeted to @TheHarryWu on Friday June 8 Sadly No response >> We sincerely hope that your conference on human rights/Tibet did not ignore our appeal?” The message in reply stated:

“We apologize that we are unaware of your appeal. Please forward it to media@laogai.org, and we will ensure it gets to the appropriate people”

It was a disappointment to receive such a reply, as one of our many friends on Twitter  noted “all too little too late and evading entirely the appeal made by @tibettruth”.
 
Reading the Conference Statement issued by Harry Wu and participants of his event there is not a single word on the atrocities being forced upon Tibetan women by China’s population control program, as anticipated by our Twitter colleagues. Once more evasion and silence has greeted this subject from those who gathered to discuss examine and condemn human rights violations in occupied Tibet. As another follower of @tibettruth stated “It’s very sad and I simply do not understand it”. Many will share that feeling at how and why such an eminent campaigner for human rights in China and a number of leading Tibetan organizations chose to ignore the forcible sterilization of Tibetan women. It is very troubling indeed and raises some key questions for Harry Wu a man of supreme integrity and amazing courage, yet whose decision to avoid this issue has invited scrutiny, as @tibettruth have since asked:

“We are asking publicly @Laogai Museum & @The HarryWu To Clarify If They Believe China’s Lie That Tibetan Women Are Not Forcibly Sterilized?” (Tweet Sent June 13)

We understand that this question continues to be ignored.