Human Rights: September 2009 Archives

By Investors Business Daily
September 30, 2009

Public Relations: The Empire State Building this week will illuminate red and yellow, celebrating China's 60 years of communist rule. There are many things to appreciate about China, but communism isn't one of them.

What was the Empire State Building thinking in lighting up in celebration of China's long communist rule?

Amid all the charming reasons the classical 102-story skyscraper colors the Gotham sky at night -- the 70th anniversary of "The Wizard of Oz," El Museo del Barrio's reopening, Columbus Day and Gabrielle's Angel Foundation, according to its Web site -- China stands as a negative outlier.

Cynics call it recognition that the Chinese, who buy U.S. debt, now own us. But this looks more like a thoughtless confusion of China with its communist government, in perhaps the same impulse that prompts some to set up kitschy eateries bearing photos of Mao.

Recognizing China's regime with bright lights does New York's most visible landmark no honor at all.

China's 6,000-year-old history and civilization are loaded with things to celebrate -- from its invention of paper money and fireworks, to its great cuisines, its Taoist philosophy, the daring historic voyages of Sanbao (a possible model for Sinbad), millions of Overseas Chinese, and perhaps the awed arrival of Marco Polo into the Middle Kingdom, which ignited the Age of Exploration.

Much of the story of civilization is rooted in the West's longing to connect with China -- and this is not a finished story. In 1989, China saw brave young people stand up to tanks in the name of liberty at Tiananmen Square, an event surely worthy of the Empire State Building's honor as a beacon of freedom.

So it's discordant and jarring to see the tyranny that's plagued China for 60 years now the object of the skyscraper's approbation.

"Would the Empire State Building honor the government of Sudan or the birth of Nazi Germany?" asked Thor Halvorssen, whose Human Rights Foundation has an office in this building. "It's sad that a symbol of free enterprise honors the butchers of Beijing."

Communism is the root of the honor and nothing has harmed China so much. The nightmare began with Mao Zedong in 1949. He imported the alien ideology that is still around, diluted only because the authorities made such an economic hash of the country. By Mao's 1976 death, his successors had no choice but to open up.

Before that, the communist regime was responsible for wars, purges and famine on a scale untold in human civilization. According to University of Hawaii historian R.J. Rummel, the communist regime is responsible for the deaths of nearly 77 million people.

>> Complete editorial

By Radio Free Asia
28 September 2009

Tibetans face increased restrictions on prayer and travel ahead of a sensitive Chinese anniversary.

As authorities prepare for sensitive anniversary celebrations across China, a growing security presence in the country's west is limiting the religious practices and travel of Tibetans, residents say.

The increased security, residents say, is targeting several areas within China's Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), as well as other parts of the country inhabited by Tibetans.

On Oct. 1, China will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Many inhabitants of the TAR oppose Chinese rule in the region.

A resident of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, who asked to remain anonymous said security personnel had been posted around sites of cultural and religious significance to Tibetans.

"There is a huge presence of security forces in Lhasa around the Potala Palace and in the Jokhang [temple]. Fearing Tibetan protests, the Chinese authorities have closed all other shrines in Jokhang except the main shrine," the Tibetan said.

"In the past you would not see any armed personnel inside the Jokhang shrine--only monks. However, on Sept. 24, six armed security personnel were stationed inside to keep watch on Tibetans who come to view and pray at the main shrine," the man said.

'A show of force'

Another Tibetan resident of Lhasa said both armed police and soldiers have been ordered to march around the Jokhang temple in groups of 10 "as a show of force."

He added that Tibetans from other parts of the TAR were being refused entry to the Tibetan capital.

"The Tibetans from Kham and Amdo in particular are checked for their IDs, while those who do not have proper permits have been ordered to return to their hometowns," the man said.

He added that even those Tibetans from villages on the outskirts of Lhasa are "thoroughly checked" for identification when they come to the city.

"Special checkpoints were raised at different entry points and have stopped all Tibetans from going into Lhasa," he said.

Security personnel also carried out combat training to disable explosives and prevent "surprise terror attacks" in the city on the morning of Sept. 24, according to the official Beijing Zhongguo Xinwen She news agency, which called the drills "a complete success."

Other areas targeted

Others said the increased security presence was not limited to policing Lhasa's cultural sites and city entry points.

A resident of Kardze [in Chinese, Ganzi] county in Sichuan's Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, said similar "anti-terror" drills were being held there.

"A convoy of 30 vehicles carrying armed security personnel arrived at the main town center where the Tibetans protested last year," the woman said.

"Armed security personnel were stationed in groups in different parts of Kardze city. The security force was undergoing training in combating Tibetan uprisings," she said.

In March of last year, riots protesting Chinese rule in Tibet spread throughout the TAR, but were met with a swift and violent response from Chinese authorities.

Residents of Kardze, part of what Tibetans know as Kham, have earned a reputation for speaking out against Chinese rule, experts say.

Visas no longer issued

In addition to the increased security presence around the TAR, authorities have stopped granting travel permits for Tibet, according to tourism industry workers in neighboring Nepal's capital of Kathmandu.

"Chinese Embassy officials stopped issuing permits to Tibet on Sept. 21, and they will end the restriction only after Oct. 8," one of the workers in Kathmandu said.

The other Kathmandu resident, who works as a travel agent in the city, said Tibetan travelers from outside Tibet are being told to leave the region before National Day celebrations commence.

"Those Tibetans who are in Tibet to visit their relatives were ordered to leave Tibet before Oct. 1," the travel agent said.

Chinese authorities are implementing a nationwide security clampdown ahead of the Oct. 1 National Day celebrations, closing key Web sites and discussion boards, and detaining people who try to lodge complaints in Beijing about local governments.

The anniversary comes as Beijing struggles to quell ethnic tensions in China's northwest and to silence outspoken dissidents, petitioners, and civil rights lawyers, who have been warned against using the occasion to protest against the government.

Original reporting by Norbu Damdul and Thupten Sangyal for RFA's Tibetan service. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original source

By Radio Free Asia
September 14, 2009

Chinese authorities detain parents observing the anniversary of a far-reaching milk scandal that sickened their children.

Three parents of children sickened in China's 2008 tainted-milk scandal were detained after observing the one-year anniversary of the milk scandal, and another who planned to join them has been taken to an unofficial "black prison," victims' parents say.

Guo Caihong and Zhou Jinzhong from central Henan province and Xiang Qingyu from southern Jiangsu province met last Friday at a restaurant in suburban Beijing's Daxing county, parents said. But authorities then detained and questioned them.

Milk powder contaminated with an industrial chemical killed at least six babies and sickened nearly 300,000 others with painful kidney stones last year. Friday marked one year since Sept. 11, 2008, when a Chinese dairy recalled hundreds of tons of baby formula and the government vowed "serious punishment" for those responsible.

Chinese authorities are jittery and eager to crack down on dissent ahead of the 60th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party on Oct. 1. Police have arrested or detained leading dissidents and are harassing lawyers who defend them.

Zhao Lianhai, a representative of victims' parents, said a local official from Henan contacted Guo Caihong on Friday and promised to take her home from Beijing.

"But on Saturday afternoon, a volunteer told me that the three parents had been taken by their respective local officials to an unknown place instead of home. When they were led away, local police were there as well," Mr. Zhao said.

Zhou Jinzhong, one of the three parents, described what has happened.

"On Saturday, I was taken away by staff members from the Henan Province Office in Beijing, and then they questioned me. Now I am with local officials from our township and our village. I will be heading home tomorrow," Zhou said in an interview Monday.

He said the two other parents received similar treatment.

Another parent of a tainted-milk victim, Liu Hai from Siyang city, had planned to attend anniversary activities in Beijing but was sent to a "law study group," an unofficial detention center also known as a "black prison."

"My husband has been taken away by an office of the local government," Liu's wife said.

"This is the news his uncle managed to get through his connections. For me this is the end of the world."

Original reporting by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Ping Chen. Written for the Web in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original source

By Michael Wines | The New York Times
September 2, 2009

Chinese officials imposed an information blackout on Tuesday on the situation along its border with Myanmar and began taking down tents that had sheltered an estimated 30,000 refugees who fled into China to escape recent fighting between Myanmar's military and ethnic rebels.

But news reports stated that many thousands of refugees remained in China, unwilling or unable to return to Myanmar, formerly called Burma, and it was not clear how the Chinese government intended to address their plight.

The Chinese authorities withheld comment on the border situation on Tuesday, aside from saying, in a Foreign Ministry briefing, that "necessary humanitarian assistance" was being provided. And they began ordering foreign journalists to leave the area around Nansan and Genma, Chinese towns on the mountainous border where the refugees have been housed in seven separate camps.

While about 4,000 refugees had returned to Myanmar on Monday, the day after the fighting ended, the pace has since slowed significantly. Only about 30 people crossed the border into Myanmar in a half-hour period on Tuesday morning, The Associated Press reported.

"It seems to be slowing down," one foreigner near Nansan said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "There's still a large number of refugees in and around Nansan, both in the camps and hanging around." The foreigner, who asked not to be identified, said Chinese Army troops had stepped up patrols in the area.

An unknown number of those who fled to China during the fighting are Chinese citizens who have been conducting business in Myanmar, where China is building dams and other projects and has extensive mining ventures. They are unlikely to return soon.

China has insisted that the northern Myanmar region of Kokang is safe and stable after the fighting last week, in which hundreds of government troops overwhelmed an armed ethnic group, breaking a cease-fire that had prevailed for two decades. Human rights groups and others have warned that the junta's actions could ignite a wider conflict in the area, where other, better armed, ethnic groups also are resisting government control.

Thai newspapers and The Irrawaddy, an independent magazine that focuses on Myanmar, have reported that the government is sending fresh troops into the northern state of Shan in an attempt to consolidate its control there. The army wants the rebels to disarm and join a government border patrol force, as required under a new Constitution. Most of the rebels have resisted the order, which would effectively place them under government control.

Myanmar's military junta apparently seeks to take control of the region before elections, the first in almost 20 years, that are scheduled for next year. Outside monitors accuse the military junta of brutal human rights violations as part of its effort to stay in power. The Myanmar government has said that 26 of its soldiers and at least 8 rebels died in three days of battles.

The Myanmar conflict has thrust the Chinese government, one of Myanmar's only staunch backers, into an awkward situation. China has provided diplomatic support to the junta in exchange for access to its considerable mineral wealth and cooperation in efforts to suppress a growing cross-border trade in heroin and other illicit drugs. The flood of refugees prompted the Chinese to issue muted criticism of the junta, on Friday calling for it to secure Myanmar's borders.

>> Original source