‘Beijing 6′ Brian gives Shout Out to SFT on PBS Idea Lab

Brian Conley, creator of the well-known videoblog, Alive in Baghdad, and one of the ‘Beijing 6‘ citizen journalist detained this summer in Beijing for capturing images and videos of pro-Tibet actions during the Olympics, was interviewed for PBS Idea Lab about his incredibly important new project Alive in Tehran.

During his interview, Brian gave the following shout out to SFT and our efforts to break through China’s Great Firewall. Read and listen to the fill interview.

Ryan: So while you weren’t on the ground in Gaza, you had connections who were, and were able to get information out, too.

Brian: Exactly, and then we used Twitter to pull in questions from people and enable people to sort of interact with our guy on the ground there. So then when Iran started happening it seemed like a natural fit to try and use the same tools for the folks there, to enable them to basically communicate out. The primary thing that we’re trying, that we’re pushing right now, is basically a phone number that people can call, get to a voicemail box and record whatever they would like to say, and right now I have a public voice mailbox available via an Alive in Tehran Facebook [group].

Also, people can message me via twitter.com/baghdadbrian and then for people who are more private or who have family, they just want to share one voicemail box…we can set up a specific number for any individual. Beyond that, we’re looking at other tools. I’ve learned a little bit about how Students for a Free Tibet have gotten video out of Tibet. So there’s one tool I’m sort of sharing with people privately. Then there on Alive in Tehran we have a list of tools Iranians can use to communicate securely. So basically, right now it’s a lot of organizing and working it.

SFT Canada’s Tsering Confronts HDI/Continental Minerals’ Executives

Footage from HDI/Continental Minerals Shareholders’ meeting in Vancouver, Canada on June 24th. Tibetans and their supporters protested at the meeting to intenisfy pressure on the company to Stop Mining Tibet.

When the Party’s over…the joke will be on them

It’s unbelievable the lengths to which the Chinese government will go to cover up the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre: It has denied it ever happened; erased it from China’s history books; imprisoned and exiled survivors; threatened anyone who dares to openly mourn, demand justice, or even talk about what really happened in Tiananmen Square in the lead-up to and on that fateful day. They have forced an entire generation to ‘forget,’ and they have effectively kept the next generation from ever hearing of their parents’ struggles, hopes, and horrific losses.

Twenty years later, as the above video demonstrates, the Chinese government has not changed. However, the Party leadership has learned that when a government opens fire on its own people, it attracts intense international scrutiny – exactly 100% more negative attention than they want. In turn, they have adapted and developed new, more subtle tactics, like the umbrella assault, to distract the world’s attention from the Chinese government’s brutally repressive policies.

Your instinct when watching this video is to laugh; even one of the Chinese undercover thugs reveals a smile. But behind the humor and the lightness of the umbrella assault is a smart, strategic, and very scary government that regularly detains, tortures, and disappears Tibetans, Chinese, and anyone who threatens its control by advocating for change.

But, this video also demonstrates the Party’s ultimate weakness. By not acknowledging or taking responsibility for its heinous crimes in 1989 in Tiananmen Square, or today, the Chinese leadership is driving a wedge between the Party and the people. The people remember the brutality, the death, and the pain. If you are never able to mourn openly, to grieve and to share the truth of your experience, how can you ever fully move on? The Chinese government’s strategy of balancing an open economy, while simultaneously keeping the door to historical honesty and political freedom slammed shut, is unsustainable.

If one thing is certain, it’s that change will come to China. The scales will inevitably tip in favor of political openness, and when the Party falls, it will fall hard. In the end, the joke will be on them.

Tibetans, Supporters March on Eve of Tiananmen Massacre Anniversary

Photos of yesterday’s Solidarity March in NYC. We took to the streets in support of the survivors of Tiananmen Square, their families and all those in China who continue to courageously advocate for their basic rights and freedom. Check out SFT HQ’s Flickr site to view more photos.

China’s Re-election to the UN Human Rights Council

On Tuesday, May 12th, China was re-elected to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in what can only be described as a step backward for human rights and a major blow to the integrity of the UN Human Rights Council.

In spite of China’s brutal human rights record and ongoing crackdown in Tibet, there was sadly little doubt that they would be re-elected to the Council. However, opposition to China’s membership did not go unnoticed.

Tibetan NGOs in Geneva joined forces with human rights organizations to challenge China’s re-election. Tibetans and their supporters also made sure our opposition to China’s membership was heard loud and clear outside of the UN General Assembly building here in New York City.

The Chinese government – likely feeling vulnerable about the upcoming 20th Tiananmen Square anniversary and its ongoing crackdown in Tibet –  went out of its way to submit a 5-page propaganda paper to the UN General Assembly in an attempt to convince them that human rights have improved in China.

The very notion of China as a human rights defender is a complete farce. And as former president for the Czech Republic and Nobel Peace laureate, Vaclav Havel, suggests: China’s candidacy (and the candidacy of other human rights offending governments) for the Human Rights Council casts a dark shadow over the very purpose of the Council.

There are those who argue that engaging China on the Council will make a difference for human rights . In reality, China’s membership will only serve to embolden the Chinese government to use its position to deflect criticism of its human rights abuses and to silence any discussion about its ongoing military crackdown in Tibet.

The day after China’s re-election to the Council, Human Rights Watch released a video highlighting the Chinese government’s ongoing victimization and harassment of Tiananmen Square survivors, their families, and anyone who dares challenge the government’s version of history. Watch the video.

The message in Human Rights Watch’s video is clear and one that the Human Rights Council should heed: Unless the international community is willing to exert real pressure on the Chinese government, it will continue to violently oppress and disregard human rights in Tibet, China and other Chinese-occupied territories –  violating everything the UN Human Rights Council is intended to protect.

South Africa: Let the Dalai Lama In!

Tibetans and their supporters are speaking out against the South African government’s recent decision to bow to Chinese pressure and ban the Dalai Lama from attending a peace conference.

Sign the Avaaz petition to President Motlanthe now.

The move has caused a major outcry in South Africa over China’s encroaching influence in the country and, following the highly publicized withdrawal of Nobel Laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former South African president F.W. de Klerk, the conference was suspended.

But South Africa’s President Motlanthe continues to defend the decision. South African Tibet supporters are working to pressure the African National Congress (ANC) government to reverse its decision.

Please support their efforts by calling on the ANC - the party that successfully fought against South Africa’s apartheid regime - to stand true to its principles and proud history by supporting the Tibetan people’s struggle for human rights and freedom.

Send a letter to the South African embassy or consulate nearest you and add your voice to the global outcry against this injustice. Download a sample letter and find contact details for South African consulates and embassies. Sout

State Department’s 2007 Human Rights Report On Tibet

The US State Department has released their 2007 human rights report on Tibet. My understanding is that it is for the calendar year of 2007 and thus does not include any analysis of the impact of the popular uprising in Tibet this spring and China’s harsh crackdown in response. Nonetheless, the report includes this assessment:

The government’s human rights record in Tibetan areas of China remained poor, and the level of repression of religious freedom increased. Authorities continued to commit serious human rights abuses, including torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, and house arrest and surveillance of dissidents. The government restricted freedom of speech, academic freedom, and freedom of movement. The government adopted new regulations and other measures to control the practice of Tibetan Buddhism, including measures that require government approval to name all reincarnated lamas. The preservation and development of the unique religious, cultural, and linguistic heritage of Tibetan areas and the protection of the Tibetan people’s other fundamental human rights continued to be of concern.

Mr. Kristof, Please Stop

Just when I thought the New York Times columnist Nick Kristof was going to pull out a decent column on Tibet and China - something I don’t believe he’s ever done before -  he writes:

Yes, heaven forbid Tibetan Buddhists practice their religion in a way that offends the atheist Chinese Communist Party. What were they thinking?

And what temerity do these Tibetans have, calling the death of over 1.2 million Tibetans as a result of China’s invasion, occupation, and repression of Tibet (which, incidentally, is roughly 25% of China) genocide. Don’t Tibetans know that it’s only genocide when it happens in countries that Kristof doesn’t like?

Kristof then goes on to put forward what he deems to be a Serious and Responsible Solution to the Tibet question, which naturally involves even less political autonomy than the Dalai Lama’s Middle Way solution (something Kristof knows first hand is being deemed as not far enough by Tibetans he interviewed inside of Tibet and cited early in his column). The important thing for Kristof is that cherubic Tibetans get to continue to practice their endearing religion and their culture is preserved “through this century.” Kristof does not say what he thinks should happen to Tibet after this century concludes and I suspect that his larger concern is to keep “authentic Tibetan culture” around so Tibet can continue to be the premier location for Han Chinese tourists to fetishize their rugged minority brothers.

Kristof closes his column with this Very Serious observation:

Time is running out, however, for at this rate, Shangri-La may become a breeding ground for terrorists.

Actually, Nick, at this rate China will continue to flood Tibet with Han Chinese settlers. At this rate every act of protest by Tibetans will be met by violence, mass imprisonment, and murder. At this rate, columnists on the world’s most important op-ed page will continue to apologize for the physical and cultural genocide of Tibet at the hands of the Chinese government.

While all of that continues, is it possible that at some point Tibetans inside Tibet take up arms to resist China’s military occupation and repression machine? Of course that’s a possibility. But can any individual honestly look at the ongoing situation in Tibet, the results of China’s nearly 60 years of brutal occupation, and say to themselves, “You know what would make this situation unacceptable? If Tibetans tried to kill a few Chinese. Then it wouldn’t be Shangri-La any more.”

Nick, while no thinking person wants to see Tibetans turn to violence as a means to achieve the political, social, and religious freedom they deserve as a birthright, it takes some serious, unrepentant throb-wankery to imagine that hypothetical, as yet unrealized situation is being the main problem faced today in Tibet.

Mr. Kristof, please stop writing about Tibet. No one asked for your opinion and as someone who has done honorable work raising awareness about the genocide in Darfur (85 columns on it to date), I would think you would want to avoid becoming one of the premier genocide apologists for China in American punditry.

China’s Troubled Torch Arrives in Australia

China’s Olympic torch faced a new wave of creative and media catching protests upon it’s arrival in Australia. Overnight the words “Don’t Torch Tibet” were beamed onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a national landmark, and this morning two Tibet activists were arrested for attempting to unfurl a banner on the bridge.

Click here to view Reuters coverage of the projection action.

One of the arrested bridge protesters, Kerryn, a 30-year old travel consultant was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“I’ve traveled through Tibet and I’ve seen first hand the fact that there’s human rights abuses still going on within the country,” she said.

“I was stopped from talking to the Tibetan people in Lhasa for even the basic levels of communication.”

Meanwhile, four activist were arrested for protesting Coke’s sponsorship of the Olympic torch relay at Kings Cross, unfurling a large banner off a Coke billboard.

“Pro Tibet activists unfurled a huge banner over the Coca-Cola sign at Kings Cross today.

The red banner, designed to look like the Coca-Cola sign, said: “Enjoy Compassion. Always Tibet. CHINA - TALK TO THE DALA LAMA”

It was unfurled by four activists - three men and a woman - standing on a platform above Sydney’s iconic landmark about 4pm.

Once the banner was unfurled one of the activists shouted “free Tibet’ as some onlookers cheered.”

More protests are in store when the torch relay starts in Canberra tomorrow. China’s troubled torch has been dogged by Tibetans and supporters speaking out for truth and justice for Tibet as the torch has skipped across Asia. China’s “Journey of Harmony” hit a slight snag - the principles of democracy and freedom of speech in many of the host countries the torch has visited.

Deadly Force Authorized Against Everest Torch Protests

Under obvious pressure from Chinese authorities, the Nepalese government has given the security forces guarding their side of Mount Everest free reign in dealing with any protests. Apparently, they would rather shoot non-violent protesters then let a media coup occur, as happened last April at Everest Base Camp in Tibet.

More from the AP Article,Nepal authorizes deadly force to stop Olympic torch protests:

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepalese soldiers and police guarding the slopes of Mount Everest are authorized to shoot to stop any protests during China’s Olympic torch run to the summit, an official said Sunday.

Chinese climbers plan to take the torch to the summit of Everest — the world’s highest peak on the border between Nepal and Tibet — in the first few days of May. During that time, other climbers will be banned from the mountain’s higher elevations.

Police and soldiers “have been given orders to stop any protest on the mountain using whatever means necessary, including use of weapons,” Nepal’s Home Ministry spokesman Modraj Dotel said, adding that the use of deadly force was authorized only as a last resort.

Perhaps the Nepalese should take some lessons from Chinese soldiers, who have great experience in high-altitude sharp shooting of non-violent targets, as demonstrated on Nangpa-la Pass last year, and reported on by this NTD Taiwanese news video (take THAT anti-CNN fanatics!):

and another: 藏民被射殺片段 以 美 國 為 基 地 的 人 權 觀 察 表 示 ， 中 國 政 府 應 容 許 獨 立 機 構 ， 調 查 一 批 藏 民 被 解 放 軍 射 殺 事 件 。

Many, many more videos covering the shootings can be found on YouTube under “Nangpa”