CitizenReporter.org Podcast on Brian Conley & Beijing6

Bicycle Mark posts:

The following podcast features an interview with Brian’s wife, Eowyn, who explains what she knows about Brian’s situation, the group, and people who have risked their freedom and well-being in protest of the Chinese government and their disregard for basic human rights. More information can be found here. Please listen to the program and do pass on the link, otherwise all we have is the image of the mainstream press… the picture perfect images of the olympic games and China on television.

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FINDING THE LOST HORIZON: Update from the March to Tibet

“When the clouds part, you can see Tibet on the horizon,” said Ven. Ngawang Woeber.

He dipped his face in the river at Baanspatan, and joked that monks don’t need to use soap because they have renounced vanity. A couple of hours later, Ven. Woeber was arrested. A former political prisoner, he is the president of Gu Chu Sum, one of the five organizations coordinating the historic March to Tibet, which started in Dharamsala on March 10th. Along with him, five other leaders of the march were also arrested on Tuesday and formally jailed yesterday afternoon in Haridwar Jail. The other detainees are Tsewang Rigzin, President of Tibetan Youth Congress; B Tsering, President of Tibetan Women’s Association, Chime Youngdroung, President of the National Democratic Party of Tibet, Tenzin Choeying, National Director of Students for a Free Tibet India, and Lobsang Yeshi, Coordinator of the March to Tibet.

The last few days have been tense and painful for the marchers. Hours after the arrest of the march leaders on Tuesday, the police confiscated their trucks and intensified the restriction on movement to and from the site, effectively cutting the marchers off from food and other supplies. The marchers are now considering the possibility of eating only one meal a day so that they can hold the ground for a little longer.

The day before yesterday, nearly one thousand police marched to the marchers’ camp and blocked the entrance. Sensing the likelihood of arrest, the marchers sprung into action, staging a Gandhian style sit-in while chanting prayers and singing the Tibetan national anthem. After a stalemate that lasted about an hour, the police retreated. Yesterday, the same thing happened again. Today, more buses and trucks brought more police reinforcements including a bus full of policewomen.

In the evenings, the atmosphere grows light again. Most Tibetan monks and nuns seem to have an uncanny ability to remain calm and happy even under great pressure. Or may be it’s because most of these marchers are actually Tibetans raised in Tibet who came to India in their late adolescence or early adulthood, and the problems they have faced so far on this march are nothing compared to what they had experienced growing up under Chinese rule in Tibet.

Most marchers and volunteers get to take a little breather in the evening, but one person never stops. Lobsang Army, so called because of his past stint in the military, is busy stitching shoe after shoe under a small blue tent. He is the march’s unofficial shoemaker. When he was in the army he had taken a shoe repair class – a skill he had forgotten and had to relearn once he realized that walking twenty kilometers a day was rough on people’s shoes. Lobsang has so far repaired about 200 shoes.

There is little doubt that the police will eventually arrest them, but the fact remains that no one can stop these marchers. “The police may arrest us today, but we will continue the march tomorrow,” said Tenzin Tsundue, a leading youth activist, who has lost much weight since I saw him last. “I heard that people have set off from parts of India to join us. We can’t wait to see them. The more people we have with us, the stronger our message to Tibetans inside Tibet, to China and to the world – we are committed to return and will never give up our struggle for freedom and justice.”

As the Chinese authorities work overtime to ensure a smooth Olympics, and attempt to hide the reality of their rule in Tibet behind a wall of silence and deceit, the movement of this group of unarmed men and women threatens Beijing’s massive propaganda exercise. They are a nonviolent force dedicated to their people, their nation and the truth. They refuse to be silenced at a time when China’s long arm of oppression and manipulation stretches around the world. Their journey north – towards the border across which so many Tibetans have crossed in search of freedom – demonstrates their commitment.

As the stand-off continues, marchers are calling for Tibetans from throughout India to join them in spirit and in person. And they are appealing for support from people around the world who value freedom, justice and peace. Visit www.tibetanuprising.org to follow news about the March. Send a message of encouragement to the marchers. Tell your friends and family about it. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. And keep the marchers in your prayers.

–dispatch from SFT’s Tendor, writing from Nainital, Uttaranchal, India

China Earthquake Pushes Tibet to Sidelines

A headline in today’s New York Times sums up a worrisome phenomenon that has SFT leaders debating about how to maintain momentum in a political and media atmosphere that has suddenly changed from the last couple months: China Earthquake Pushes Tibet to the Sidelines.

Reporter Elisabeth Rosenthal writes that the “shift is, partly, tectonic. An earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province killed tens of thousands of Chinese, evoking an outpouring of global sympathy for China and turning it overnight from victimizer to victim.”

The article goes on:

“The protests this spring put Tibet at the forefront of human rights issue — they accomplished a lot — but I think the interest can’t go further right now,” said John Kamm, a leading human rights advocate whose San Francisco-based organization, Dui Hua Foundation, has helped free prominent Chinese political prisoners.

“Now the Chinese people are in a state of mourning,” he said. “I’m not suggesting that we stop putting pressure on China, but we should use judgment in where and when to direct the fire.”

Ms. Rosenthal goes on to write about the eternal difficulty of how underfunded grassroots movements maintain momentum and morale. She notes that since the historic events beginning with the latest March 10th popular uprising against China’s occupation, and followed by the Tibet solidarity protests that overshadowed China’s Olympic torch relay, Tibet groups have:

become more emboldened, forming new alliances and finding themselves deluged with volunteers and donations. About 200 new chapters of Students for a Free Tibet have been started in the past six months, in places like Estonia, the Czech Republic and the state of Montana.

But sustaining that momentum has been difficult. “It is a challenge to keep people engaged,” said Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, which operates on a budget of about $400,000 a year from a ramshackle office above a dry cleaners in New York’s Alphabet City. “There’s no substitute for China bringing the Olympic torch into your neighborhood.”

More on SFT with a thoughtful quote from Tendor (nice job, man) that I think perfectly encapsulates the sentiment that many SFTers dedicated to rangzen – particularly young Tibetans – have towards the Dalai Lama and his leadership:

With its guerrilla style “actions,” Students for a Free Tibet has little in common with the far more established International Campaign for Tibet, which shares a staid Washington townhouse with the Dalai Lama’s representative to the United States.

The International Campaign for Tibet accepts the Dalai Lama’s limited goal of greater autonomy and religious freedom for the Tibetan people. But the students’ group wants more. “Yes, we want independence for Tibet — that is what the Tibetan people want,” said Tenzin Dorjee, vice director of Students for a Free Tibet, who tried to unfurl a banner on the Eiffel Tower during the Paris torch relay and last year achieved that goal at Everest Base Camp. “We have the utmost love for His Holiness and respect for his leadership, and we know where Tibet would be now without him.

“But we are inspired not just by his divinity, but also his humanity. So we can disagree with some of his ideas.”

And back to Dui Hua’s John Kamm, who has put his negotiations with China for the release of political prisoners before the Olympics on hold “during the relief efforts:”

…he hopes that the earthquake may provide a face-saving exit for China from a torch relay that has often been more embarrassment than celebration. Already, the relay has recently been scaled back in response to the disaster.

“The Dalai Lama said he’s praying for the victims,” said Mr. Kamm, noting that many of the hard-hit areas had large ethnic Tibetan populations. “Maybe this will give the government the opportunity to cancel the relay in Tibet.”

Ah yes, the torch relay through Tibet. Chinese officials put the torch relay on hold for three days to mourn the earthquake’s victims but it seems there’s no intention to let such an important propaganda display as carrying the torch through recently riot-scarred Lhasa slip away. We of course agree with Mr. Kamm that the torch relay must be canceled. Before the IOC even authorized China’s Olympic Committee’s plans for its torch relay, our SFT troublemakers were up at Everest base camp saying “IOC: No Torch Through Tibet.” This remains a critical issue and we can’t let the sensitivity around criticizing China in the wake of the earthquake’s horrific human toll scare us away from pressing on with our campaign to demand the IOC do the right thing.

In concert with other Tibet support groups, SFT is ramping up our efforts to pressure IOC Executive Members before their last meeting in Athens (June 4th-6th) before the torch is scheduled to enter Tibet on June 9th. It goes to Gyalthang in far southeastern Tibet (an area now annexed into Gansu Province) and then comes back to central Tibet, including Lhasa, June 19th-24th.

To conclude with Tendor’s quote from yesterday’s SFT press release that I think sums it all up:

“In the wake of a natural disaster that has devastated many Tibetans as well as Chinese, the IOC is threatening to add a man-made disaster in the form of the torch relay through Tibet, a preventable tragedy which will compound the suffering of thousands of Tibetans who continue to face the Chinese authorities’ violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations for freedom.”

China Begins Sentencing Protesters

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reports that the Chinese government has begun to hand down public sentences for Tibetans “tried” in connection to protests in Lhasa.

China’s state media today morning announced that 17 Tibetans have been sentenced between three years to life imprisonment in connection with the Lhasa revolt in March 2008. It is the first instance of a group of Tibetans handed down with harsh prison terms since protests broke out in Lhasa and various Tibetan areas under Chinese administration beginning from 10 March 2008. The state media did not reveal whether the current group of Tibetans sentenced to harsh terms were part of those who gave in before the official surrender deadline issued by the authorities.

The Xinhua report stated, “Two men, including a Buddhist monk identified as Basang (Passang), received life sentences… Basang was accused of leading 10 people, including five other monks, to destroy local government offices, burn down shops and attack policemen… Of the five monks, two were sentenced to 20 years, and the other three to 15 years in jail.” “The other man who received a life sentence was identified as Soi’nam Norbu (Sonam Norbu), a driver for a Lhasa real estate company”. No details were given on the 10 other people sentenced.

The Chinese authorities have arbitrarily arrested thousands of Tibetans following the pan-Tibet protests in March 2008. While the official media claims 2300 Tibetan protesters were arrested, The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) fears the actual number of arrests can be manifold.

We don’t know exactly how many Tibetans have been detained and may well never know the exact figure, though I have seen estimates as high as 24,000 (according to RFA).

“The Real China and the Olympics”

This week, a Beijing court sentenced human rights activist Hu Jia to 3.5 years in prison for subversion. He was arrested in part for co-authoring, with Teng Biao, this open letter on human rights.

The letter includes a section on Tibet (below):

On July 13th 2001, when Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese government promised the world it would improve China’s human rights record. In June 2004, Beijing announced its Olympic Games slogan, “One World, One Dream.” From their inception in 1896, the modern Olympic Games have always had as their mission the promotion of human dignity and world peace. China and the world expected to see the Olympic Games bring political progress to the country. Is Beijing keeping its promises? Is China improving its human rights record?

When you come to the Olympic Games in Beijing, you will see skyscrapers, spacious streets, modern stadiums and enthusiastic people. You will see the truth, but not the whole truth, just as you see only the tip of an iceberg. You may not know that the flowers, smiles, harmony and prosperity are built on a base of grievances, tears, imprisonment, torture and blood.

We are going to tell you the truth about China. We believe that for anyone who wishes to avoid a disgraceful Olympics, knowing the truth is the first step. (more…)

Chinese troops parade handcuffed Tibetan prisoners in trucks

As we wrote before, the terror has started. 

Chinese forces have begun to systematically terrorize the Tibetan population.  From parading shackled prisoners, to house-to-house searches, the aim is as much to terrorize the people as it is to find protesters and dissidents.

From the Times (UK):

The Chinese Army drove through the streets of Lhasa today parading dozens of Tibetan prisoners in handcuffs, their heads bowed, as troops stepped up their hunt for the rioters in house-to-house searches.

As the midnight deadline approached for rioters to surrender, four trucks in convoy made a slow progress along main roads, with about 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing with their wrists handcuffed behind their backs, witnesses said.

A soldier stood behind each prisoner, hands on the back of their necks to ensure their heads were bowed.  [...]

Soldiers began house-to-house searches, checking all identification papers, residents said. Anyone unable to show an identity card and a household registration permitting residence in Lhasa was being taken away.

They described people laying out all their papers on a table in their homes. One said: “The soldiers come in and check that the number of people in each house equals the number of identity cards. Anyone extra may be taken away.”

At government offices and work units, leaders were required to do a roll call of all employees and to account for anyone missing, as the authorities tried to track down those involved in the violence.

The Terror Has Started…

From the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy:

 March 16 - Hundreds of Tibetans are arbitrarily arrested in the ongoing house-by-house raid by Chinese security forces in Lhasa beginning from 15 March 2008. All former political prisoners have already been rounded off and thrown into prisons by the security forces according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

With streets filled with patrolling Chinese armed troops and tanks in Lhasa city, the security agencies comb each and every house in Lhasa and pick up all suspected Tibetans, especially youth, from their houses accompanied by severe beatings by the armed forces. In testimonies received by TCHRD, mothers and elderlies in the families helplessly plea at security forces upon seeing their sons and loved ones being beaten and dragged away.

Make no mistake: this marks the start of the Chinese government’s cold, brutal and efficient effort to systematically terrorize and suppress the Tibetan people.

The Chinese government will try to keep its repression, torture, and killings hidden from the outside world to salvage what shreds of legitimacy it can still cling to in its occupation of Tibet.  The Chinese government will try to hide its actions in Tibet, in the hopes of avoiding Olympic boycotts and protests by athletes and spectators. 

So that is exactly what the world should give the Chinese government: Olympic boycotts and protests.

Second Day of Protests in Tibet Ends with Tear Gas and Gunfire

More information trickles out of Tibet about the largest protests in about twenty years. Radio Free Asia reports on a second day of protests, which were suppressed with tear gas and gun shots:

Armed Chinese police fired tear-gas Tuesday to disperse a crowd of several hundred protesting Tibetan Buddhist monks near the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.

It was the second day of protests by monks around a key Tibetan anniversary, after hundreds of monks from a major monastery staged a rare demonstration March 10 that was stopped by police.

“There were probably a couple of thousand armed police, PSB personnel, wearing different uniforms. Police fired tear-gas into the crowd,” one witness told RFA’s Tibetan service. PSB denotes the China’s Public Security Bureau.

The monks, estimated at 500 to 600 people, had left Sera monastery around 3 p.m. March 11 to demand the release of fellow Sera monks detained for protesting a day earlier. They shouted slogans as they walked, witnesses said, including, “We want freedom!” “Free our people!” “We want an independent Tibet!” and “Free our people or we won’t go back!”

[...]

Authoritative sources in the area also described hearing gunshots overnight from the general direction of Drepung monastery, with all roads to the monastery blocked by police. Fifty to 60 monks from Drepung monastery outside Lhasa were detained Monday as they tried to walk the roughly 10-km (5-mile) route from Drepung to the city center.

Chinese officials responded with house-to-house searches to terrorize Tibetans and look for hiding monks:

Lhasa neighborhood committees meanwhile mobilized to inspect every household in predominantly Tibetan areas of the city, searching for unregistered monks or nuns sheltering illicitly in private homes, sources told RFA’s Tibetan service.

The protests spread beyond Lhasa:

Monks in two more monasteries in Qinghai province—Lutsang monastery, in Mangra (in Chinese, Guinan) county, and Ditsa monastery in Bayan (in Chinese, Hualong) county—also staged protests on Monday, sources said. Armed police surrounded Ditsa monastery during the protest but neither intervened nor detained anyone there, the sources said.

March 10 in Tibet — Hundreds Protest Despite Danger

As Tibetans around the world commemorate the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising, Radio Free Asia reports on brave protests in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa:

Chinese authorities in Tibet today detained dozens of Tibetan monks staging a rare protest march into the regional capital, Lhasa, on a key anniversary.

An authoritative source who declined to be identified told RFA’s Tibetan service as many as 300 monks set out from Drepung monastery outside Lhasa on the roughly 10-km (5-mile) walk into the city center. [...]

Authorities at a checkpoint along the way stopped and detained between 50 and 60 monks, the source said. Witnesses reported seeing about 10 military vehicles, 10 police vehicles, and several ambulances at the checkpoint. [...]

Another witness reported that official vehicles then blocked off access by road to Drepung monastery, and that many monasteries in and around Lhasa were surrounded by members of the paramilitary People’s Armed Police.

RFA reports that there was a separate, apparently uncoordinated, protest in Lhasa the same day:

Separately, witnesses reported that nine monks from another major monastery, Sera, and two laypeople staged a loud protest in front of the Tsuklakhang cathedral in central Lhasa, waving banners and shouting slogans.

Onlookers surrounded the 11 protesters, keeping security officers at a distance. People’s Armed Police officers later pushed through the crowd and detained them, the witnesses said.

Update on Lhasa Crackdown

Information on the crackdown in Lhasa continues to trickle out. After clashes following Tibetans’ celebration of the Congressional Gold Medal being awarded to the Dalai Lama, Chinese security forces are “mopping up.”

Radio Free Asia reports:

Chinese authorities in Tibet have detained three monks and are questioning more than a dozen others after the monks tried to put up prayer flags celebrating the award of a U.S. congressional gold medal to the Dalai Lama, local sources say.

Chinese officials are also threatening those Tibetans with government jobs or pensions, which in Lhasa is the majority of middle-class professionals:

officials also warned current and retired Tibetan staff against any religious activities until Oct. 30, the sources said, including burning incense or putting up prayer flags.

“If they do, current employees would face disciplinary actions including termination of their services. If any retired Tibetan staff engage in these activities, their retirement benefits will be forfeited,” one source said.

In a sign of how afraid Chinese officials are, they also temporarily closed Pangsa Monastery in Lhasa. This was after thousands of Tibetans started flocking there as a result of a comment by the Dalai Lama on the sacred nature of the monastery’s main reliquary statue. Chinese officials are clearly worried about large gatherings of Tibetans, and are also desperate to fight the Dalai Lama’s influence in Tibet (clearly a losing battle, sorry China).

All these developments amount to a strong statement of Tibetans’ loyalty to the Dalai Lama, and a reminder that the Chinese government may have the guns, but it does not have Tibetans’ hearts.