Free Tibet blog |
Keep up to date with what Free Tibet's staff and volunteers are doing in our blog, where we will be adding brief reports on our work and experiences.
During the press conference at No 10. Downing Street, the British Prime Minister no doubt caused visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to shift in his shoes, when he urged, “further dialogue on the Chinese Government to resolve the underlying issues in Tibet But frankly these few lines, in a speech that focussed on trade, paid only lip service to a situation which the Government in Exile has warned could lead to further political unrest and appealed to Governments across the globe.“to actively intervene so that unfortunate incidences of March 2008 may not be repeated”.
The PM’s statement was probably not what they had in mind. Mr Brown, like other members of his cabinet, is hiding behind “regular dialogue” processes as evidence of British Government action on human rights. Yet even senior civil servants recognise that after more than ten years, the 2009 UK- China Human Rights Dialogue round failed to deliver. The Sino Tibetan talks collapsed months ago, with no sign of being resurrected.
Some might argue that perhaps behind closed doors Mr Brown took a stronger stand on Tibet, addressed some of the specific issues, for example secured guarantees that snipers on rooftops in Lhasa and the military build-up across Tibet is not an indication of plans to use the army against peaceful protesters as happened in March 2008. But is that realistic? Unlikely.
Last week, the Government published “The UK and China: A Framework for Engagement”. Securing ‘greater respect for human rights’.
The British Government also aims to secure China’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Is this what the PM was referring to when he said in the press conference that the UK will “seek rapid progress towards all human rights standards” If it is, I wish him luck! China signed the ICCPR more than ten years ago and despite many promises has still failed to bring it into force.
Listening to Wen Jiabao’s speech at the press conference was rather more illuminating. Personally, I cannot help but assume that his references to “a fresh new starting point” and that there is “no baggage of history between us”; was a direct reference to the UK’s recent change in policy in which the Foreign Secretary reversed more than ninety years of UK foreign policy when he recognised Tibet as part of the People’s Republic of China.
Tragically it seems the ‘blockage’ the Foreign Office referred to when it was justifying the change to the UK’s position on Tibet wasn’t with regard to securing human rights in Tibet or China but was actually about strengthening the UK’s trading relationship.
The British Government it seems has betrayed the people of Tibet for promises of greater access to Chinese markets. As dawn raids take place on Tibetan homes, people are ‘disappeared’, torture continues and there is the very real risk of a repeat of the murders of unarmed Tibetan civilians which took place last spring, I wonder if the British Government will conclude that it was worth it?
Stephanie Brigden, Director of Free Tibet, in London
Downing Street's report on the meeting, with video
UK & China: a framework for engagement
Central Tibetan Administration statement
November 6, Geneva
Waiting for my accreditation to the United Nations Committee Against Torture session, I wondered when we would see the Tibetan flag flying in front of the Palais des Nations alongside the other member states.
The UN is often criticised for not having teeth, for failing to protect. But this week, the UN is acting where many Governments have failed. The Committee Against Torture is holding the Chinese Government publicly accountable for a worsening human rights situation in Tibet.
The meeting room was packed, with committee members from Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia, with written submissions, including Free Tibet’s, piled high on their desks. The translators sat above us listening and giving impassioned translations of the NGO presentations. Representatives from Falun Gong spoke of restrictions on religious practices, a member of the Uighur community spoke of his friends’ torture – a man hung by his wrists until the flesh tore away - and then it was our turn.
We spoke of the fate of more than a thousand Tibetans whose whereabouts remain unknown and for whom we fear the worst, the hundreds of prisoners who were transported on the Gormo Lhasa railway to unknown locations. On China’s denial of the use of lethal force to put down the protests which swept across the Tibetan plateau, despite witness testimonies and our own brutal photographic evidence of young dead Tibetan men with bullet wounds in their chests. We outlined how the legal system is used to safeguard the interests of the Communist Party of China and does not protect the rights of the peoples of Tibet and China. We wanted to tell them so much and had such little time, we wondered had we done enough.
Then Phuntsog Nyidrol, in her national dress took to the floor and despite her petite size spoke with a strong and confident voice about her years in Drapchi prison in Lhasa. How she had been beaten, had her nails removed from each finger, heard testimonies of how a fellow Tibetan nun had been raped with an electric baton and how trained dogs had been set upon their naked bodies. And as Phuntsog spoke in her own national language, Tibetan, in a UN forum, and we all sat listening to the English translation through our head phones, I realised the importance of giving witness to these crimes.
Stephanie Brigden, Director of Free Tibet, at the United Nations Committee Against Torture in Geneva
Click here to read our submission to the UN Committee Against Torture
