Category: Tibet & China

Video of Labrang Monk Protests

This is video of monks in Labrang protesting during a dog and pony show put on for foreign and Chinese journalists by the Chinese government. You can hear them shouting “Bhod Gyalo,” which means victory for Tibet and is a common cry among supporters of Tibet’s independence. You can also see them carrying a large Tibetan flag – which is banned in Tibet and the  possession of which alone is likely to send them to jail.  This protest is yet another unequivocal statement of Tibetans commitment to freedom.

Protesting the Torchwashing of China’s Atrocities

Kirk James Murphy M.D. has a great post at FireDogLake about the San Francisco torch relay and the protests surrounding it.

As the whole watching world knows, today China’s attempt to torchwash nearly sixty years of brutal imperialism in Tibet, the massacres of Tienanmen Square, and the genocide that is Darfur failed on the streets of San Francisco. The fearful overlords of China – and the US – whittled an already condensed “relay” down to a three mile “hide and seek” that started in midtown SF, and crammed multiple runners on each short leg. Even then, one brave torch holder from the South Bronx used her spirit to whip out a Tibetan flag. Today, our freedoms doused China’s Great Torch March Forward. And last night, the ancient values to Tibet doused our rage and anger at China’s crimes. Both Tibet and the US shared their freedoms – one spiritual, one political – with their sadly impoverished comrades on the other side of the world.

Today in SF I saw thousands come out to celebrate the freedoms our sad Boi Mayor tried to deny us – and extend those freedoms around the globe to peoples they’d never met. Save for a few adolescent exceptions, we were joyous and courteous – much like the PRC supporters wearing pre-printed, mass produced slogans praising China’s freedoms. My organizer friends and I counted only three arrests (two of them anticipated from “lock-downs”) among a real “people’s army” of thousands who reclaimed our Constitution from the mewling “leaders” – local, State, and Federal – who thought they could defy our best traditions and offshore our greatest treasure to the PRC.

And who were our allies when Mayor Hair Gel hid the march route from the people – but apparently let Beijing’s servants in on the “secret”? Public servants in uniform – disgusted by the ruse and the Boi Mayor’s supine choice to let Beijing’s secret police on our streets.

The MSM I’ve too often reviled — best surveillance force we’ve ever had. And hundreds of regular folk who phoned the torch’s location: on all three miles of the route through SF.

By 3:30, the whole farce was over – the Blood Olympics Torch and the secret police minders took the buses where they’d spent much of the day off to the airport. The gala “closing ceremony” in SF was canceled – replaced by some tawdry little sham at SFO.

And the night before – the fight was already over. We’d won before the whole desecration ever started. And we in SF had been given a great gift…a gift we used today.

That gift is the gift of freedom. Thousands of people came to the streets of San Francisco this week to protest for Tibetan freedom and human rights in China. Despite underhanded efforts by SF Mayor Gavin Newsom to suppress protest before and during the torch relay, protests took place that continued to demonstrate the global opposition to the Beijing Olympics and the torchwashing of China’s brutal occupation of Tibet. Murphy’s post goes on to discuss how the political dynamics of Newsom’s aspirations for greater affinity with the Chinese and IOC bigwigs corrupted his ability to exercise the freedoms that he too enjoys and, as Mayor, is responsible for protecting.

I’ve long said that one of the fundamental reasons that I work for Tibetan independence is because I have meaningful rights as an American that Tibetans do not. I can write what I want on this blog. I can assemble with others in public and call for freedom in Tibet while waiving a Tibetan flag and walking alongside a monk who carries a picture of the Dalai Lama. I can do these things and not fear detention, torture, imprisonment, or violence. These are all rights and protections that Tibetans lack. While we enjoy these rights and while Tibetans seek freedom without them, I see a moral responsibility to act in solidarity with them. Murphy’s post gets at this and recognizes that people in San Francisco, Paris, and London have made a stark contrast between their real freedoms and the repression that exists in China. In so doing, the free global community has helped stop China’s use of the Olympic Games as a political tool to whitewash their atrocities in Tibet.

Update:

Calitics has some great photos of yesterday’s protests in San Francisco, courtesy of Bob Brigham.

A Disrupted Relay

This is a map of the torch route and the sorts of protests, crowds, and events that took place along the way – as well as alterations to the route.

google_earth

I was getting updates on my cell phone from the SMS feed going out on Twitter; this succeeded in conveying the true chaotic nature of the chess match between protesters and the relay organizers. I haven’t seen pictures yet, but there were at least two banner hangs done along the route. The torch was hidden on buses and vans, it was put on a boat and floated away from demonstrators, and the torch relay was eventually cut short and the closing ceremony canceled.

Additionally one torch bearer, Majora Carter, pulled out a Tibetan flag and was promptly roughed up by Chinese security forces – the infamous People’s Armed Police.

“The Chinese security and cops were on me like white on rice, it was no joke,” Majora Carter told the AP. “They pulled me out of the race, and then San Francisco police officers pushed me back into the crowd on the side of the street.”

There were other reports of PAP physically harassing protesters, an offense to American sensibilities and sovereignty, courtesy of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. But what would have happened to Carter and other protesters if this had been part of the Olympic torch relay in Tibet? They’d be beaten or killed, according to the TAR’s governor.

In China, government officials warned against disruption of the relay as the torch reaches Tibet. “If someone dares to sabotage the torch relay in Tibet and its scaling of Mount Everest, we will seriously punish him and will not be soft handed,” said Qiangba Puncog, governor of the Tibetan Autonomous Region.

It’s hard to imagine a more disgusting response to peaceful protest. But the message is clear, China will murder Tibetans who mar their torch relay with dissent. While they weren’t allowed to do it San Francisco, there will be no restrictions back in Tibet.

EU Boycott Resolution Expected Today

CBC News reports:

The European Union is expected to pass a motion Wednesday urging European countries to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing unless Chinese authorities begin talks with the Dalai Lama.

The motion, which is non-binding, stems from China’s crackdown in Tibet after violent protests against Chinese rule broke out last month.

“There is this growing momentum to send some sort of signal to China,” CBC’s David Common said.

The resolution by the 27-member union obtained by Reuters says:

“The European Parliament calls on the EU presidency in office to strive to find a common EU position with regard to attendance at the Olympic Games opening ceremony with the option of non-attendance in the event if there is no resumption of dialogue between the Chinese authorities and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.”

Common said the motion is expected to pass.

This is great news. The EU continues to be a moral leader on Tibet and the Olympics. Now we need individual member states to take action to give this resolution real weight. I’d hope that the nations voting to pass this resolution do go through and boycott the opening ceremonies. Moreover, I hope they extend their involvement in this issue to include calling on the IOC to cancel the portion of the Torch Relay that runs through Tibet. Non-binding resolutions are better than press releases or doing nothing, but continual pressure on the IOC and China is better than a resolution.

Tibet News & Solidarity Update

Lots of stuff happening both inside and outside Tibet yesterday, including a huge demonstration in San Francsico of today’s Olympic torch relay.

Tibetan monks have again disrupted one of the Chinese government’s dog and pony shows for foreign media. These monks from Labrang are taking tremendous personal and physical risks to speak the truth to reporters. This is an immeasurable act of patriotism and an unquestionable statement about Tibetans commitment towards freedom from Chinese rule.

Despite international outrage and a month long uprising in Tibet, China remains committed to bringing the torch through the occupied country. China Digital Times reports on a profoundly disturbing statement about China’s commitment to stop Tibetan separatism through murder.

It is learned that on April 2 Zhang Qingli, the party secretary of TAR made a stern speech on the meeting attended by cadres who were at least county magistrates or department heads in Tibet Autonomous Region. He said that they should strengthen the effort to arrest the “Separatists”. Their arrest orders should be approved rapidly, these people should be arrested fast , then they should be prosecuted fast and killed promptly, too. In addition, he became more serious when he declared that “a group of people will be killed.”

The IOC should know at this point that if the Olympic torch passes from Mount Everest to Tibet and a single Tibetan is killed while protesting, the blood will be on their hands. This is beyond the point where even the most self-interested supporter of the Olympics and China’s rise in the world could reasonably think bringing the torch through Tibet is a good idea, let alone a moral one.

Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, explains why the Olympic Torch Relay is being protested by Tibetans and their supporters in a debate-style piece on the BBC News website.

Nima Taylor Binara, a friend I’ve known as long as I’ve been involved in the Tibet movement, has a powerful op-ed in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Nima’s op-ed is a powerful deconstruction of China’s claims to Tibet, as well as a convincing argument that the protests we see going on today throughout Tibet are a far more meaningful and fecund uprising than the famed 1989 protests in Lhasa. Nima concludes his piece:

The magnitude and vociferousness of the protests across Tibet demonstrate that Beijing cannot forever contain Tibetan demands for self-rule. Trying to do so only leads to instability. Through their courage and resilience in the face of a half-century of military occupation and religious and cultural oppression, Tibetans have made it abundantly clear that they want more than ever to determine their own future. The world should stand by their side.

Bob Brigham has great pictures from yesterday’s Free Tibet rally in San Francisco over at Calitics.

White House Spokesperson Dana Perino left the door open on the possibility that President Bush will skip the Olympics’ opening ceremonies.

French athletes may have violated IOC rules by wearing badges saying “For a better world.” The Times reports that, ” Rule 51 of the Olympic Charter prohibits athletes from engaging in political demonstrations at Olympic events or sites.” So let me get this straight. It’s not political when China runs the Olympic flame through occupied Tibet, up Mount Everest, and back through Tibet (not to mention, through occupied East Turkestan). But it is political when athletes put on a patch that says wishing for a better world. Now that I’m clear on these landmark differences in circumstances, could the International Olympic Committee be any more obtuse in their refusal to be an agent for making the world a better place?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says China is making the torch relay “a political event” and commended people protesting the torch’s presence in her home city of San Francisco.

Reporters Without Borders has obtained an internal IOC memo that shows they didn’t expect there to be protests surrounding the Olympic Torch Relay related to China’s human rights abuses. Obtuseness strikes again.

Tibet Will Be Free remains the best place for news and updates from the protests in San Francisco. They will be streaming the events live again today.

Torch Relay Crisis

Yesterday Lhasa Rising reported that the International Olympic Committee and Beijing were in crisis talks about what to do about the massive, global protests that are taking places where ever the Olympic Torch Relay stops. Surely the huge banner hang off of the Golden Gate bridge has contributed to the IOC and Beijing’s fears about what may happen when the torch reaches American soil and a city with a large local Tibetan population. CNN has reported that the IOC is considering canceling the remainder of the torch relay – a decision that would surely reduce tensions in connection to the Beijing Olympics. The BBC, however, is reporting a more misguided, milquetoast response to the torch relay crisis:

What is most likely is that the Beijing international relay will continue, and a decision will be taken after the Games in China about the desirability of holding international relays before future Games, our correspondent adds.

So the IOC is sticking to their crack “Close the barn door after the horse has escaped” strategy. Brilliant!

Via SFist, CBS 5’s Eye on Blogs reports that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has decided to alter the SF torch relay route and will not make any changes to it public.  Newsom said:

“The bottom line is we’ve said from Day One, we will continue to adapt. This route is not fixed. It will continue to change. It will change up until that torch is passed–potentially through even the middle of the relay.”

This is a laughable imitation of disclosure. Brock at SFist asks of the SF torch relay, “Can we watch it? Will it be inside a gymnasium? On the beach? Virtual?” Newsom seems to be ready to replicate the failed tactics of the London and Paris torch relays, which continued to change their route throughout the run. But neither worked. The London police commander in charge of the route was furious that the Olympic Committee was given full control over the course of the relay, leaving his officers in confusion and failing to keep things calm. The route in Paris was so disrupted by protests and five occasions where officials extinguished the Olympic flame and put it on a bus (guarded by over 60 police), that the relay itself was canceled, along with the accompanying ceremony. In short, Newsom is about to institute tactics that are already proven failures.

What’s worse is that in so doing, Newsom is making a mockery of the notion of a transparent, civil torch relay. He is replicating the policies of Beijing in an American city. He is specifically and concretely trying to stifle lawful acts of protest. Given the large Tibetan community, San Francisco’s liberal streak, and widespread media coverage following this weekend’s protests, I expect the SF relay to be just as disastrous – if not more – than the stops that preceded it. Newsom should change course and cancel the torch relay in San Francisco.

Whatever decision may be made to alter the torch relay to cease the public, 24/7 coverage of the protests related to the Games and China’s oppression in Tibet it’s clear that China has been shamed. They are not being welcomed onto the international stage as a respected member of the global community and this must be a humiliating defeat for Hu Jintao and the CCP cadre that planned to use the Olympics as a means of secure much-wanted prestige. It’s sad that an American city is about to facilitate a rise in the tension and chaos associated with the Beijing Olympics.