Tibet riots orchestrated?

Here is a post from the Canada Tibet Committee. The title alone struck my interest so I thought I'd post the article in it's entirety and let you come up with your own opinions. I'll do some research and follow up with another post if there is anything more to this.

 

"London, UK -- Britain's GCHQ, the government communications agency
that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed
the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People's
Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that
have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.

GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the
Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering
unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world
attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer.

For weeks there has been growing resentment in Lhasa, Tibet's
capital, against minor actions taken by the Chinese authorities.

Increasingly, monks have led acts of civil disobedience, demanding
the right to perform traditional incense burning rituals. With their
demands go cries for the return of the Dalai Lama, the 14th to hold
the high spiritual office.

Committed to teaching the tenets of his moral authority - peace and
compassion - the Dalai Lama was 14 when the PLA invaded Tibet in 1950
and he was forced to flee to India from where he has run a relentless
campaign against the harshness of Chinese rule.

But critics have objected to his attraction to film stars. Newspaper
magnate Rupert Murdoch has called him: "A very political monk in Gucci shoes."

Discovering that his supporters inside Tibet and China would become
even more active in the months approaching the Olympic Games this
summer, British intelligence officers in Beijing learned the ruling
regime would seek an excuse to move and crush the present unrest.

That fear was publicly expressed by the Dalai Lama. GCHQ's
satellites, geo-positioned in space, were tasked to closely monitor
the situation.

The doughnut-shaped complex, near Cheltenham racecourse, is set in
the pleasant Cotswolds in the west of England. Seven thousand
employees include the best electronic experts and analysts in the
world. Between them they speak more than 150 languages. At their
disposal are 10,000 computers, many of which have been specially
built for their work.

The images they downloaded from the satellites provided confirmation
the Chinese used agent provocateurs to start riots, which gave the
PLA the excuse to move on Lhasa to kill and wound over the past week."

*buddhistchannel.tv

(This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views
expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by
APakistanNews.Com.) 

 Listen to the podcast here: http://podcasts.odiogo.com/a-pakistan-news/podcasts-xml.php 

Sources: http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/4412
             http://www.apakistannews.com/tibet-riots-orchestrated-86324

American bloggers detained in Bejiing

I found this article this morning and found it interesting that China is not only detaining and deporting foreign Pro-Tibet demonstrators but actively seeking out anyone in Beijing with Pro-Tibetan ideals. A group of "citizen journalist" and Pro-Tibet bloggers have been added to the many activists who have been deported for demonstrating. Below is an excerpt from Reuters. Read it and let me know what you think.

For the full Reuters article click here.

More related articles:

Why is China trying to censor foreign media during the Olympic games

Tibet protestors deported from China  

"Students for a free Tibet" take action  

Are Tibet Protestors' messages getting through

Are Tibet Protestors' Messages Getting Through?

One picture...says it all.

I'm not going to write a whole article today. I found this photo that had surfaced recently and wanted to share it right away. I think this image speaks for itself.
To the left is the facade and to the right is truth. Simple as that!
-Wylwyn Reyes-Campaign Tibet

photo from http://www.freetibet.net/

Why is China trying to censor foreign media during the Olympic games?

by Wylwyn Reyes

Chinese police have been arresting and deporting pro-Tibet protesters like they were selling hotcakes. Well it looks like they have now moved on to reporters.
I thought China was offering free and unrestricted reporting during the games just as any foreign reporter would do in a democratic country. Well, just as suspected a free lunch never tastes as good as it looks.

John Ray, an accredited reporter for Independent Television News (ITN) was arrested near the "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium and dragged to a nearby restaurant, where Chinese police threw his shoes in the corner and sat on his arms. This happened shortly after nearby foreign protesters unfurled a pro-Tibet banner. The reporter who had suffered mild abrasions and some bruising later said: "I wonder how this fits in with their solemn promise of free and unrestricted reporting... it was a wrestling match".

The pro-Tibet group Students for a Free Tibet, said two of its protesters who unfurled Free- Tibet banners were arrested while six other members were also detained for protesting nearby. They included six Americans, an Israeli-American and a Japanese National.

Beijing Olympic organizers said they were introducing three "protest parks" near the stadium where anyone could express their beliefs unless it would harm "national unity" and "national, social or collective interests of China".

Well, Ji Sizun, 58, a legal advocate from the coastal province of Fujian who came to Beijing to demonstrate against corruption was arrested after he applied for a permit in one of these designated "protest parks"to hold a protest that would call for greater participation of Chinese citizens in political processes.

So it would seem any speak of Tibet, Xinjiang, or even insinuating corruption in the Chinese government would result in a breif to 24 hour detainment followed by your foreign privileges getting revoked with an intensive interrogation and finally topped off with a sprinkle of deportation. Not to mention a little slam dancing with your new friends the Chinese police.

Imagine what happens to Chinese Nationals if they attempt to protest. Does anyone remember the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989?




More articles on protests during the games in China.

Tibet protesters deported from China
Protester hurt during pro-Tibet demonstration

For more on "Students for a Free Tibet" click here.
For more on John Ray click here.



photo from Tibet Will Be Free // A global blog by Students for a Free Tibet

Tibet protestors deported from China

by Wylwyn Reyes


Lucy Fairbrother and Iain Thom were deported after Iain, an experienced climber, scaled a 120ft pylon outside the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing on Wednesday morning and unfurled a giant banner that read: “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet.”

When the two arrived back to the London City airport Lucy said: "We are only a very small part of this campaign and the ongoing struggle. There WILL be more protest." and Iain said:"It was definitely all worth it but expect there to be more. The job is not done."

Iain said he smuggled his climbing gear and banner materials in his suitcase.

“Airport security was tight but the equipment I brought in was standard climbing equipment,” he said. “We bought the banner in Britain, and we took it in blank and made it there.”

They were held by officials for 12 hours and interrogated for 5 until they were finally brought to the airport to be deported back to London.

I think the two are incredibly brave for making such a remarkable demonstration. I wonder if it will inspire other Tibet activist to take action. It did however bring more awareness to the cause.

The two are both members of the organization studentsforafreetibet.org you can find out more here.

You can watch a video of the homecoming here.

Photo form Views from North Britain

Olympic protest group promises more

Obama says Bush should weigh boycott of Olympic ceremony

LEVITTOWN, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - President George W. Bush should boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympics if China does not take steps to help stop genocide in Darfur and improve human rights in Tibet, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Wednesday.

But Obama qualified that by saying any decision should be made closer to the date of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

"If the Chinese do not take steps to help stop the genocide in Darfur and to respect the dignity, security and human rights of the Tibetan people, then the president should boycott the opening ceremonies," Obama, a Democratic senator from Illinois, said in a statement.

"I am also deeply concerned about China's failure to support efforts to halt the genocide in Darfur. Regarding the Beijing Olympics this summer, a boycott of the opening ceremonies should be firmly on the table, but this decision should be made closer to the Games," he added.

Obama, who holds a lead over his rival Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York in the race to become the Democratic presidential nominee, did not go as far as Clinton in his statement on China and the Olympics. Clinton's call for Bush to weigh a boycott did not include any qualifiers about making the decision at a later date.

Clinton and Obama are vying to become their party's nominee to run in the November election to pick a successor to the Republican Bush.

Bush plans to attend the Summer Olympics opening ceremonies in Beijing in August and so far has resisted pressure to change his plans in response to a violent crackdown against protesters in Tibet by Chinese authorities.

China has also been accused of refusing to use its influence on the Sudanese government to get it to stop what the United States calls a genocide in Sudan's Darfur region.

At a rally earlier in the day, Obama was asked about China and said the United States needed to take a stronger and more consistent stance toward Beijing when it comes to human rights issues.

"In our policy toward China, we have not been consistent enough and tough enough in pushing them to deal with Tibet properly but also (on) their continued support of Sudan, a country that has been engaging in genocide against the peoples of Darfur," he said.

But Obama also said the United States lacked leverage with China because the country holds so much U.S. debt.

"It's very hard to tell your banker that he's wrong," he said. "And if we are running huge deficits and big national debts and we're borrowing money constantly from China that gives us less leverage."

(Reporting by Caren Bohan, editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Tibet effect: China shutters 25 video sites, penalizes 32

ARS Technica Article
By Nate Anderson

Originally published: March 21, 2008 - 01:51PM CT



If video is going to be streamed in China, the state wants to know about it. China requires a streaming company to obtain a state license and then avoid airing clips that might inspire fear, contain pornography, or endanger national security. That's a huge burden for sites that feature user-generated content, especially when "endangering national security" includes showing video clips of Chinese unrest. This week, China mounted a crackdown on 62 separate web sites that in violated a new law against showing online audio and video without permits.

When the government first instituted the law back in January, Internet video sites had already become hugely popular in China, and it was widely suspected that the rules would not be strictly enforced. At first, these suspicions appeared justified, as nothing happened for two months, even to the many sites that never bothered to obtain the state license to broadcast.

But yesterday, authorities penalized 32 sites for infractions, shut down 25 more for not having a license, and referred five cases to another department for follow-up. It was a fairly gutsy display of central control, one that may have been hastened in part by recent protests in Tibet (China recently blocked YouTube access over clips from Tibet that were appearing on the service).

It's not that the ruling Communist Party doesn't like online multimedia services; it does. Even capitalist advertising, which is surging in China, is no problem. After all, every minute spent watching a squirrel water-ski is a minute not spent thinking about massive economic inequality, rural unrest, corruption, one-party rule, or what might really be going on in Tibet.

Sina.com, the largest portal in China, is reportedly spending millions of dollars to upgrade its infrastructure in advance of the Olympics to be held this summer in Beijing, when millions of Chinese users are expected to watch the games over the Internet. While the games might seem like a perfectly innocuous thing to air, recent calls for international boycotts or protests over Tibet and other human rights issues could politicize the games more than China would like.

The country will also have to drop many of its filtering restrictions in the Beijing area to accommodate an influx of visitors. Not everyone sees a block on sites like YouTube as no big deal, and China knows it.

It has to tread carefully, however. Regulations last year designed to make bloggers register their real names with the government were abandoned in the face of popular protest, and even this year's imposition of licenses for Internet broadcast sites included concessions for established (and popular) companies.