Stupidity, natural disaster and mass murder

Burma - it's incredible to see what ignorance + guns (a junta) can do.

First, they don't inform their people about a natural disaster at the doorstep.
Second, the natural disaster happens and kills tens of thousands, and makes over a million homeless.
Third, they call for outside aid, but avoid it gets to the people who need it.
Fourth, they continue their sham elections to ensure they 'justify' more illegal oppression.

The first light in this: France has decided to ship in aid, without the proper permissions of the madmen who lead Burma into hell. Bravo France!

Please USA, this time send two F15's, just to scare the hell out of Than Shwe and his hunting dogs, and send them packing; it could save over a million lives with one tiny gesture. Please invoke the new international legal doctrine known as Responsibility to Protect. There is no oil in Burma, so this time you can show you do care about people.

A good summary (as usual) on Agam's blog.

Background on Tibet & actual stories

Today I have very little to add to the two excellent posts on Agam's blog:
SOME GOOD READING ON TIBET AND CHINA provides a quite interesting collection of articles via links, a must-read for people interested in Tibet.
TIBETANS STEADFAST, WITH NO LET-UP IN CHINA'S REPRESSION reports on a murder on a girl with a vengeance, which makes you wonder if some of the Chinese qualify as humans, and it ends with a lovely story I want to share here from Letter from Lhasa:

"Yesterday I saw a little boy, around one or two years old; that I believed displayed a good example of Tibetan spirit.
The baby looked as if he had just learnt how to walk and was out with his grandmother and her little dog. They were standing in front of the Jokhang Square where military in blue ensures nobody crosses the square. The baby walked up the three steps to the square and started to make prostrations towards the Jokhang while his grandmother also prayed but her frail body prevented her from prostrating as well. When the boy finished he looked at the guards, then at his grandmother, and then started to walk closer to the temple. The guards looked at the baby, not knowing what to do. After about ten meters the baby boy stopped and prostrated again, then turned around, walked back to one of the guards and took his hand to say goodbye.
Seeing this reminded me that all Tibetan people want is religious freedom and the right to preserve their culture."

OM MANI PADME HUM

Unbelievable suffering in Burma

Please take a moment to reflect on the tens of thousands of deaths and the unknown number of hurt and homeless people in Burma after the storm. The Junta apparently nows nothing better to do then to keep foreign helpers out of the country...
Dictatorships only help the dictators.

OM MANI PADME HUM

How talks are not talks at all

From Agam's Blog:

"Even as the talks were taking place, China maintained its constant verbal attacks.
Xinhua quoted Chinese experts on Tibet as saying the Tibetan Youth Congress, an exile group, was dedicated to separating Tibet from China and was the "armed spearhead of the 14th Dalai Lama group."
It quoted a researcher from the Beijing-based China Tibetology Research Center as saying the Tibetan Youth Congress was behind the March 14 riots.
"We hope the 14th Dalai Lama could truly give up 'Tibet independence,' stop secessionist activities, stop instigating violence, stop disrupting the Beijing Olympics, effectively prevent TYC's violence and denounce its terrorist acts," Xinhua quoted Liu Hongji as saying."

But it gets worse - believe it or not;

Following the March 14 incident in Lhasa, the Dalai has not only refused to admit his monstrous crimes, but he has continued to perpetuate fraud," an article in Monday's Tibet Daily said.
The article, which did not refer to Sunday's talks, described the Dalai Lama's demands for "genuine autonomy" in Tibet and the "greater Tibetan region" as fraudulent.
The "Dalai Clique" is trying to "confuse public opinion and incite ethnic hatred," the article said. The Dalai Lama's attempt to realise a "greater Tibetan region, is part of his attempt to split the motherland," it said.

I think the only thing they have not (yet) accused the Dalai Lama of is holding weapons of mass destruction...
So what many feared, appears to come true. the Chinese government keeps blaming the Dalai Lama for something he did not do, the Chinese did, do and will do nothing wrong. Why the 'talks' were held? To save face and give in to foreign demands for talks. China does not want talks, it merely wants to bully everyone - including foreign press and governments into submission.


Oh yes, the Chinese fascist flame will continue to Uighur after Tibet , so let's throw half the population there in jail, just in case...:

"The Chinese authorities have been heavily cracking down on the Uighurs in order to bring the torch through East Turkestan," Kadeer said, using the Uighur term for the region.
"We have learned that many Uighurs are being detained and arrested by the Chinese authorities to prevent their peaceful protests in relation to the torch," she told AFP in an e-mailed answer to queries.
Leaders of Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Muslim central Asian people who have long chafed under Beijing's control, accuse China of harsh oppression and policies that they say are aimed at extinguishing their culture.
"I am opposed to the torch passage because it comes with severe repression of the Uighur people," she said.
Kadeer's comments follow allegations Saturday by another overseas Uighur leader that more than 10,000 people were believed to have been rounded up in Xinjiang over the past four to five months.
"Everywhere, homes, hotels are searched. People are arrested," Dolkun Isa, secretary general of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress, told AFP in Tokyo."
"Even people with no past records have been arrested simply because they look suspicious."
Kadeer, who spent six years in a Chinese jail from 1999-2005 and now lives in exile in the United States, also repeated her charge that China fabricated recent claims that it broke up Xinjiang-based terror cells targeting the Olympics.
"China is using the occasion to host the 2008 Olympics as an opportunity to further demonise the Uighur people's legitimate and peaceful struggle and justify its heavy-handed repression in East Turkestan," she said.

In the mean time, you can rest assured that thousands of Tibetans are being beaten up in jails, Falun Gong practitioners are waiting to be killed for their organs, and everything else is also 'normal' in China.
OM MANI PADME HUM

Warning to journalists who will visit Tibet soon

Please take note of this warning from Woeser if you are invited to make a visit to Tibet soon:

In Lhasa the authorities have created the appearance of harmony. The soldiers who were on duty all took off their uniforms and dressed up as tourists to walk around everywhere. Most soldiers on guard duty changed into the police uniforms, and the same soldier would change into uniforms for ground force, armed police and policemen. The authorities also created the false appearance of the freedom for religious belief. While some work units notified their employees their place of work is to circumambulate the Potala Palace, the neighborhood committees also organized and encouraged people to go on circumambulation tour and to pay homage in Sera Monastery which has been ordered to open to the public by the authorities themselves. They rewarded these people for doing so with bonuses. It is learned that recently there will be another journalist group, including foreign journalists, to visit Lhasa. In order to show that people enjoy the right to hold demonstrations freely, some work units will organize their employees to hold demonstrations, and the content for holding the demonstrations is about some trivial matters.

So now the government is going so low as to act as if there is freedom of speech in Tibet - how sick can you get? I hope the foreign journalists will be smart enough to see through this deception.

Letter from Lhasa and organ harvesting

For those of you who may think that things have normalized in Lhasa these days, please have a look at this Letter from Lhasa. Due to the virtually total communications blackout by the Chinese, it is very difficult to know exactly what is happening, but there seems to be very little reason to be optimistic.

Yes, the Chinese gevernment should be talking to representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama (who was just announced to be Time Magazine's most influencial person in the world), but the Chinese press is not changing its vitriolic language against him at all. One could carefully conclude from that, that chances for a real breakthrough are minimal. I do pray that I'm wrong of course...

Also, Status of Chinese People comes out with a new report of ongoing organ harvesting done apparently on an ongoing basis on Falun Gong practitioners and prisoners who are sentenced to death.
So while you go to the Olympics, why not pick up a fresh liver or kidney while you are there?...

At the same time, the Chinese government are moaning that putting out the Olympic torch is seriously disturbing China's internal harmony. When do these people get real? Do we really need to give President Hu and his whole corrupt clique a standard torture and re-education treatment in a Chinese prison to get through their thick skulls?

Developing Human Rights - the Fascist Way

From: Boycott 2008 Communist Olympics:

The Olympic message (slightly edited/shortened)

In 2001, the International Olympic Committee awarded Beijing the 2008 Olympics. Liu Jingmin, Vice President of the Beijing Olympic Bid, in April 2001, said: "By allowing Beijing to host the Games you will help the development of human rights."

From the Human Rights Torch Relay issues of concern:

- An estimated 100 million Falun Gong practitioners and their families are enduring ever more stringent persecution; tens of thousands of Falun Gong prisoners of conscience have had their organs forcibly extracted and sold.

- Hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens are held as political prisoners without charge or trial, including democracy activists, lawyers, human rights defenders, religious leaders, journalists, trade unionists, Tibetan Buddhists (including monks and nuns), Uighurs, ‘unofficial’ church members, Falun Gong practitioners, environmental activists, health and reproductive rights activists, and political dissidents.

- People have been evicted from their homes to make way for commercial construction, and beaten or killed if they protest; any meager payment offered to them is usually stolen by corrupt local officials.

- Millions of Chinese are sent without trial to slave labor camps, where they are tortured and forced to work long days producing consumer goods.

- China continues to impose forced abortion and sterilization to enforce its gruesome ‘One Child’ policy, as per-family population control measures.

- China imprisons more reporters, and executes more prisoners, than any other country in the world.

- The military junta in Burma, controlled by the CCP, has enforced 19 years of brutal oppression on the Burmese people, and most recently violently cracked down on monks, sympathizers and reporters.

- The Chinese regime funds and arms the Sudanese-government-supported Janjaweed militia, which is committing genocide in Darfur. Hundreds of thousands have been murdered and nearly two million displaced from their homes.

- Close monitoring and suppression of free speech at all levels.

And a few extra from myself:

- People who practice their right for petition as per Chinese law are jailed (see 3 messages ago).

- Freedom of religion is 'ensured' by Chinese law, in practice however, there is no freedom of religion at all.

- People's houses are raided and persons are arrested on a large scale without apparent reason, often these people are beaten/tortured and - if they are lucky - freed after some time.

- Many trials in China are a complete farce; they are not public, accused have no access to a lawyer and are not even allowed to make a statement; the latest 'trials' of Tibetans are a good example of this.

- (Child) Slavery, it exists, and probably not just a few isolated cases.

- The bodies of people who die because of torture in prisons, whose organs are cut out for organ donation, or are shot during protests are often cremated to cover up any remaining evidence - nothing short of what Nazi Germany did in their famous concentration camps.

- People are forced to undergo 're-education sessions' in an attempt to brainwash any ideas that are not convenient to the central government. During the last weeks a new re-education was ordered to take place in Tibet.

But, it seems the happiness of some athletes is more important then all of this...

Beijing Olympic torch - uncensored version

From Getty Images

Really hate to say this, but I told you so...

From the Human Rights Torch Relay site:

In front of the Congress, on April 24, Olympic torch was relayed in Canberra, Australia. “Ït shows to everyone in the world that the event like what happened today in Australia is actually a new round of ‘Cultural Revolution’. ” (Mr. Chen Yonglin, a former Chinese diplomat).

You can look in the archive of this blog for April 2. Perhaps Mr. Yonglin has been reading it?

Freedom of speech outside of China

The eye-witness report from a good friend of mine of what happened in Canberra

"The atmosphere was very aggressive and unpleasant. In this video a white Australian couple had a cardboard placard asking for autonomy in Tibet. They were surrounded, had their placard covered by the Chinese flag, and shouted down, "One China", " Go away", "who hired you?" and at the end "Use your own f***cking brain! You are against the free will of 1.4 billion people - --one fourth of the world's population. Do you think we care?"

Other friends were punched in the stomach, kicked, spat on, had their flags and placards snatched away and stomped on. Several people were hit with flagpoles. Didn't matter if we were Tibetan or Australian. Nigel was given a hefty shove and rescued by the Chinese PAP. So much for respect for elders!

The worst thing was that in our own country, we were prevented from exercising our right to free speech and point of view by foreign nationals.

At least 10,000 Chinese, mainly students were bussed from Melbourne and Sydney and Adelaide, with all expenses paid for. On arrival they were fed, they listened to Chinese military music and were coached, with leaders in most groups shouting out slogans. Even the police were overwhelmed and horrified. The worst incident I heard of (reported by Reuters but not the local press) was a 15 year old Tibetan boy. He was set upon as he was on his way to the kiosk to get something to eat. 150 Chinese students belted him and chased him. Desperate to get away he ran into the waters of Lake Burley Griffin. The owners of the kiosk called the police and he was rescued by the police launch. Many Tibetans were distraught, it brought back awful memories for them."

This seems to be the only flame in the world that spreads darkness...