Thursday 25 October 2007

Stumbling again on Human Rights and China


Along my search for Burma's news, I am continously stumbling on connected articles about Human Rights violation by China. For exemple in the BeijingBlogger there are few NEW (to me) exemples of violations, such as :
Beijing police round up and beat African expats (The Guardian): Chinese police officers dressed in black jumpsuits, equipped with tasers and batons, went into the Sanlitun Bar District of Beijing and arrested and beat every black man in sight. "There was blood on the streets. They were basically beating up any black person they could find," a witness told the Guardian newspaper.
China: Tibetan Schoolboys Detained as Crackdown Worsens: police detained some 40 students on or around September 7. The students were alleged to have written slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama and a free Tibet. One of the detainees, aged 14, is reported to have been badly beaten during or after the arrest and was bleeding profusely when last seen by relatives. “Arresting and beating up teenagers for a political crime shows just how far China has to go before it creates the ‘harmonious society’ China’s leaders talk so much about.” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Chinese troops fired on a group of 73 Tibetans, including children, attempting to flee Tibet : Chinese People’s Armed Police (PAP) shot dead a 17-year-old girl named Kelsang Namtso from Nagchu on September 30. At least one other Tibetan, 23-year-old Kunsang Namgyal from Kardze, was shot twice and arrested, and is feared dead. Other fell on the mountain as well. They were part of a group of 73 Tibetans who were attempting to cross the border into Nepal through the 6,000-meter-high Nangpa Pass. Link to the Video showing Chinese snipers shooting at the group as they walk:





















China maintains close relations with and provides aid to countries where severe, ongoing human rights violations occur : Darfur (see BeijingBlogger's previous posts on Sudan), Angola, Zimbabwe, Congo, Saudi Arabia, Burma, North Korea, Iran, ... China has NOT ratified the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, which it signed in 1998.

Inside China, Human Rights abuses go on primarily for supressing the Tibetans, and the Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim population in Xinjiang Province. Executions, and imprisonment of Uyghur nationalists are common. In Tibet, suspected 'separatists', many of whom come from monasteries and nunneries, are routinely imprisoned for long years.

Thus, more and more, it comes out that the key player for many Human Rights deviations in the region is China.

And, again, it turns out that one key occasion to bring China to face its responabilities are the Olympics. "The Olympics were awarded to China in hope that human rights and democracy would improve in the country. However, this has backfired, repression, suppression and human rights abuses are still rife, and the government shows no sign of letting". Followed up on http://www.olympicwatch.org/.

Again an interesting argument by BejingBlogger : Taiwan will hold a referendum next year as a precursor to decide independence, quite "suspiciously" close to the dates of Olympics. To declare indipendence during Olympics could be a move considered by Taiwan. Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang (perhaps the most repressed province) are less likely to take that step but they too may be thinking of actions during that period. Two meditations :

1. Everyone needs to keep up the pressure on China's Olympics, also more and more called Genocide Olympics even by authoritative journals as Washington Post, Boston Globe and The Economist :


The Eco : One year to go

The Boston Globe : Genocide Games
Journalist blog : http://genocideolympics.wordpress.com/


























2. Taiwan, Burma, Tibet, North Korea, Laos, the Uyghurs, Inner Mongolia and other minorities should join forces to try to resist to the Chinese oppression (negative view) and help democratise it (positive view, you take what you like). And the role of Singapour and other ASEAN countries should be to help them, were their democracies be sincere.

2 comments:

Scot said...

On opposition by these minority groups you mention, how do you suppose they do this?

Bordon Jules said...

Up to now many of these minorities ignore each other. The people are submitting themselves to a kind of censure, everybody has already so many in-house problems that speaking about others may only add a new problem that they can not handle. But even if Taiwan, Tibet, Burma issues are not similar, they have the same root. So joining up can reinforce their efficiency, being alone they are frail and exposed to repression. Remember, NOTHING MORE THAN SUBMISSION ELICITS DOMINANCE.