My friend Mike has emailed from India asking me to draw attention to this story, which does not seem to be getting the attention it deserves. It does seem bizarre that only 18 months before China is due to host the Olympic Games, the world’s media are not paying more attention.
The European Parliament is calling for an investigation into the shooting of a 17 year old Tibetan nun as she tried to leave Tibet with a group of 71 refugees.
This is not the first time that refugees are alleged to have been shot by Chinese border guards.
International Campaign for Tibet is calling for our help
Write to the China’s new leader of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and express your concern at the culture of repression that is forcing Tibetans to flee Chinese rule. Political repression in central Tibet has increased during the tenure of TAR chief Zhang Qingli, who said that the Party is engaged in a ‘fight to the death’ struggle against the Dalai Lama soon after his appointment in the region. Since being appointed as the TAR Communist Party Secretary in May 2006, Zhang Qingli has called for an intensification of ‘patriotic education’ in monasteries and nunneries. Monks and nuns among the refugee group who came under fire on September 30 cited restrictions on religious practice as their reason for escaping from Tibet.
We are also called on to write to our MP’s and other elected representatives to urge our governments to put diplomatic pressure on China to end the abuse of human rights in Tibet.
[crossposted at connexions]
Published 1 year, 8 months ago
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Thanks for spreading out the word buddy.
Let us all write moving and passionate letters of protest to Zhang Qingli of the TAR, which will promptly be trashed or deleted or just plain never get past the mailroom. Why? I’d say Zhang doesn’t really care what we think about nun-shooting. Call me a cynic for having lived in China too long, but as long as we continue to have them build our widgets for the world’s lowest-cost labour and move our shiny mulinationals here, we can protest away and they will be happy to smile and ignore us and do whatever the hell they want. To them, public opinion is so cute. Why should they care what we think? They don’t need to win the next election. They shoot a couple nuns. We buy a widget… (and darn cheap!) Wonder if this will be allowed to post?
I agree absolutely that western consumers should think much more carefully about the regimes they’re supporting through their purchases. That gets no argument from me at all. But merely boycotting goods (for example) gives no information about the reasons behind it. Letters on their own may be no more than a gesture, but even gestures that we know will be ignored can be worth making.
In fact, drawing public attention to such instances does exert political pressure, and it will make consumers reassess their patterns of investment and trade; such letter-writing therefore is a precursor to economic action.