OP zaterdag 25 september worden er weer wafels verkocht,
samen met de Tibetaanse gemeenschap van België en dit om studies van Tibetaanse kinderen in India te financieren.We staan vanaf 9u30 tot 18u30 op de Wapper in Antwerpen (pleintje van het Rubenshuis aan de Meir). In de buurt? Kom even langs, ze zijn overheerlijk.... Hopelijk tot binnenkort!
Tibetaanse kinderen die uit Tibet vluchtten en in
India naar school gaan, hebben daar vaak geen familie en brengen dus
noodgedwongen hun vakanties door op school. Vorig jaar bezorgden we dankzij 6
sponsors evenveel kinderen hun eerste échte vakantie in een Tibetaans
gastgezin. Mijn vriend en filmmaker Gerard was erbij. Zijn film tonen we ZONDAG 24 OKTOBER 2010 vanaf 16U Sint.-Kwintenshuis Naamsestraat 153 te Leuven (tgo St. Kwintenskerk) Toegang: 5 euro, 1
drankje inbegrepen (ter plaatse te betalen) Na de film zijn er
drankjes en Tibetaanse momo’s (=deegzakjes gevuld met vlees en groenten). MET DE OPBRENGST
ZAL EEN NEPALEES SCHOOLDAK HERSTELD WORDEN. Breng gerust
vrienden en/of familie mee, maar laat ons wel even weten of je komt: via mail: birgitvandewijer@yahoo.com
of tel: 0496/401795 Ben je verhinderd
en wil je graag dit project steunen, dan kan je je bijdrage storten op het
rekeningnummer van de projecten: 737-0183231-41 met de vermelding: herstel
schooldak Nepal. Hopelijk tot dan,
Birgit en Gerard WIJ WERKEN AAN HET DAK VAN DE WERELD. De Angst Heerst': Tom Van de Weghe brengt verslag uit vanuit Tibet zondag 5 september 2010  Tibet, op het dak van de wereld, is een van de meest mysterieuze en ontoegankelijke gebieden ter wereld. Officieel behoort het tot China, maar daarover bestaat nog altijd grote controverse.In maart 2008 braken in de hoofdstad Lhasa de zwaarste rellen in 50 jaar uit tussen Tibetanen en Han-Chinezen. Wat er precies gebeurd is, hoeveel mensen er zijn omgekomen en wat het lot is van de verdwenen Tibetanen blijft een raadsel. (minstens 200 Tibetanen vermoord,6500 gevangen genomen, en meer dan 1000 Tibetanen vermist! nvdr vvt) Buitenlandse journalisten worden in Tibet door de Chinese overheid niet vrij toegelaten. Toch slaagde VRT-correspondent in China Tom Van de Weghe erin om een week lang Tibet te bezoeken. Vanaf maandag 6 september brengt hij verslag uit van zijn bezoek. 'Na drie jaar aandringen liet de Chinese overheid ons toe op een zeldzame trip dwars door Tibet, de allereerste keer voor de VRT', zegt Tom van de Weghe. 'Alles was gecontroleerd, de hele planning zat eivol en onze bewegingen werden gevolgd door overheidsmensen. We waren er nauwelijks vrij, en de mensen die we te zien kregen, waren vooraf geselecteerd. Maar toch is het ons gelukt om een ander beeld van Tibet te krijgen. Anders dan wat de Chinese overheid ons wilde voorschotelen. Een onthutsend beeld.' Tibet ondergaat momenteel een razendsnelle economische ontwikkeling. Peking investeert miljarden. Heel wat Tibetanen lijken te profiteren van die vooruitgang. Maar tegelijk is er onvrede bij de Tibetanen. Over de beperkte culturele en religieuze vrijheid, waardoor Tibetanen ondermeer hun religieuze leider de Dalai Lama niet kunnen vereren. Over de instroom van Han-Chinezen uit de rest van China die in Tibet hun geluk komen beproeven, waardoor er ongelijkheid ontstaat op de arbeidsmarkt. Over de versnelde ontginning van de natuurlijke rijkdommen en de gevolgen voor het milieu. 'Veel Tibetanen die ik wilde spreken, hadden schrik om vrijuit te praten. Schrik voor repressie. Maar ik ontmoette ook dappere Tibetanen, die voor de camera wilden getuigen over de situatie in Tibet', zegt Tom Van de Weghe. 'Om hen te beschermen werden ze onherkenbaar gemaakt. Want hoezeer de regering in Peking ook haar best doet om de harten en geesten van de Tibetanen te winnen door economische ontwikkeling, hier heerst een sfeer van angst. Er is meer nodig dan geld om dat te veranderen.' Het verslag van deze unieke trip van Tom Van de Weghe door Tibet is vanaf 6 september te volgen in verschillende reportages: in 'Het Journaal' (3 afleveringen vanaf 6 september) en 'Terzake' (reportage op 6 september), op Radio 1 (vanaf 6 september) en op deredactie.be (vanaf 5 september).  His Holiness accepts the Gold Seal from TPIE Speaker Penpa Tsering and Deputy Speaker Dolma Gyari, Bylakuppe, Sept 2, 2010  Two Tibetan monks get lengthy prison terms in Lhasa AsiaNews (07.10.2010) - HRWF (11.10.2010) - www.hrwf.net - Tibetan monks continue to endure arrests, torture and prison. The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court gave two Drepung monks, Jampel Wangchuk and Kunchok Nyima, a life sentence and a 20 years prison term respectively, for their involvement in street protests in March 2008 that Chinese soldiers drowned in blood, this according to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). On 10 March 2008, around 350 monks from Drepung Monastery (one of Tibet's three great monasteries) started a protest, setting off on a march towards nearby Lhasa City to protest restrictions imposed by ethnic Han Chinese on Tibetans. Police stopped the monks before they could reach their destination, forcing them back. They also detained some and deported others to their provinces of origin. A month later (11 April 2008), Jampel Wangchuk and Kunchok Nyima were arrested. Since then, their whereabouts remained unknown until they were sentenced in June 2010 by the court in Lhasa. In the meantime, Drepung Monastery has remained a target for the authorities. A 60-member work team led by top officials has been stationed in the institution to conduct political re-education classes for the monks. 'Black jails' investigated for illegally holding petitioners China Daily (27.09.2010) - HRWF (29.09.2010) - www.hrwf.net - Police in the capital city are investigating a security service company that reportedly earns commissions for helping local governments intercept and lock up petitioners in "black jails", according to media reports. Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau officials have detained Zhang Jun, chairman of Anyuanding Security Service Company, and Zhang Jie, general manager of the company, for "illegally detaining people and illegal business operation", the Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Saturday. The company started business in 2004. In 2008 it began to help Beijing liaison offices of local governments to stop their petitioners from petitioning in Beijing. According to media reports, the company first lied to the petitioners, telling them that their lodging has been provided. Then company workers took them to abandoned hotels or rented houses in suburban Beijing, seized their IDs and phones, and locked them up until the liaison offices told the company to help send the petitioners back to their hometowns. Later, the company expanded its business and got more clients including even remote village governments to help the local governments "maintain stability", the report said. The company charges liaison offices and local governments for "controlling, forcing and escorting petitioners," according to the report. Yang Peigeng, a 75-year-old man, was once locked up by the company in its "jails" for a month. "It was a farmer's courtyard," Yang was quoted as saying. "About 100 people, men and women, were living in the same room. We were very poorly fed." The company's label had been removed and its website was shut down on Sunday. However, the company denied their service includes "allocating petitioners", and said its business is still going. "I don't know about anything reported by the media. I'm in charge of bodyguard recruitment, and we're still doing business. I don't know if our company does any business like the media reported," said a man surnamed Yu who works for the company. This is not the first time that "black jails for petitioners" hit media headlines. On May 15, a guard received his final judgment of eight years behind bars for raping a female petitioner who had been illegally held in custody. Xu Jian, the 27-year-old rapist, attacked a 21-year-old woman during her forced stay in a quasi-official "black jail" located in a Beijing hotel on Aug 4 last year in the presence of others who were held in the same room. Press conference to mark 30th anniversary of China's One Child Policy LRF (24.09.2010) - HRWF (25.09.2010) - www.hrwf.net - On September 24, Laogai Research Foundation Executive Director Harry Wu joined Congressman Chris Smith and other human rights activists at a press conference on Capitol Hill to mark the thirtieth anniversary of China's One Child Policy. This draconian policy has led to unknown numbers of forced sterilizations and abortions; the destruction of homes and other property; the growth of an underclass of unregistered children, mostly girls, who do not have access to education or health care; a shocking sex-ratio imbalance, as high as 130 boys for every 100 girls in some regions; and high suicide rates among women. Indeed, China is the only country in the world to report a higher suicide rate for women than men. In addition to Mr. Wu and Congressman Smith, Chai Ling, President of All Girls Allowed, and Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers, also gave remarks. The Laogai Research Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded by former political prisoner Harry Wu in 1992. Its mission is to gather information on and raise public awareness of the Laogai-China's extensive system of forced labor prison camps. China's war on women turns 30 By Reggie Littlejohn, President (*) Women's Rights Without Frontiers, a member of Human Rights Without Frontiers WRWF (23.09.2010) - HRWF (24.09.2010) - www.hrwf.net - September 25 marks the 30th anniversary of the Chinese One Child Policy. Affecting 1.3 billion people, it is the most massive, systematic human rights atrocity in history. It doesn't matter whether you are pro-choice or pro-life on this issue. No one supports forced abortion, because it's not a choice. On September 25, 1980, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party sent its open letter to party members setting forth its plan to control the population. The letter states that the new Policy would be temporary, lasting 30 years. Liping grew up under the One Child Policy in Henan Province, yet she had no concept of its true brutality until she became one of its victims. At age 23 she was seven months' pregnant with a baby she and her family very much wanted. Although this was her first pregnancy, she did not possess a government-issued birth permit. She was walking down the street one day and was stopped by family planning officials, beaten and dragged to a hospital. There she was roped to a sickbed and forced to abort. When she cried for help, the hospital staff beat her again. Although her baby had received a poison injection to the skull during labor, it "cried mournfully for some minutes, and later the crying ceased." When the nurse told Liping that her baby was dead, she fainted. When she regained consciousness, "there was a doctor standing by my bed and asking for money to 'get rid of the fetus' body.' I said I had no money and so they just used a plastic bag to wrap my baby and put it beside me." She concluded, "I could not imagine that I would be deprived of my human rights like this in a society ruled by law." Liping's story is not isolated. Forced abortion, forced sterilization and infanticide are all too common in present-day China. Here are some of the ways in which the coercive enforcement of the One Child Policy results in violence against women and girls: 1) Forced abortion is traumatic to women. It is a form of torture.To see a dozen expert reports documenting of these practices, including Liping's full story told in her own words, visit http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=congressional. Although it was meant to be temporary, China's One Child Policy will not end any time soon. In March, 2008, China's top family planning official stated that the One Child Policy would not end for at least a decade. As recently as January 19, 2010, Vice Premier Li Keqiang stated that "China would continue to pursue a low birth rate." For the Chinese Communist Party to function as "womb police," wielding the very power of life and death over the people of China is a terrible violation of both women's rights and human rights. After 30 years of such a legacy, one thing is clear: it is time for the international community to rise up for women like Liping. To sign a petition against forced abortion in China, click here: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/index.php?nav=sign_our_petition Reggie Littlejohn is President of Women's Rights Without Frontiers, a non-partisan, international coalition to oppose forced abortion and sexual slavery in China. As an expert on China's One Child Policy for Human Rights Without Frontiers and China Aid, she has delivered an address at the European Parliament in Brussels, briefed the White House and testified before Congress (the United States Congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission). She has spoken at the Harvard Law School, Stanford Law School, George Washington University, and The Heritage Foundation. A graduate of Yale Law School, Ms. Littlejohn has represented Chinese refugees in their political asylum cases in the United States. Website: http://www.womensrightswithoutfrontiers.org/ (*) Reggie Littlejohn Interview on Voice of America - Broadcast into China, Taiwan and Hong Kong September 23, 2010: http://www.voanews.com/chinese/news/ Police fire on mine protesters  At least four Tibetans may have been killed in a standoff with police over a planned mine expansion Students for a Free Tibet (26.08.2010) / HRWF (30.08.2010) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Police in China's southwestern Sichuan province have responded with lethal force to a group of Tibetans protesting the expansion of a gold mining operation they say is harming the environment, according to Tibetan sources. At least four people were killed when police officers opened fire on a crowd outside the Palyul (in Chinese, Baiyu) county government offices in Sichuan's Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, sources said. As many as 30 Tibetan protesters were wounded in the Aug. 17 shooting, with some believed to be critically injured and receiving medical care in the provincial capital of Chengdu. The number of dead in the incident could not be independently confirmed. Drakpa Yeshe, a Tibetan based in Nepal, said Aug. 25 that he had spoken recently with relatives in the area. "Lately I heard that about four people died in the shooting in the Palyul incident," Drakpa Yeshe said. "Those who were seriously injured were taken to a hospital in Chengdu. Among them, two are reported in serious condition." Drime Gyaltsen, a Tibetan monk living in India, said he was informed by sources in Palyul that additional security forces had been sent to the area to quell further unrest. "Additional forces arrived from the neighboring Kardze and Dege counties. Right now all the roads leading to Palyul are blocked and residents are not allowed to move about freely," he said. An on-duty officer who answered the phone at the Palyul police station said he had only recently joined the force and was not fully informed regarding the confrontation. "That incident is not resolved yet. I don't know the details. You can call tomorrow when our senior officials come to our office," he said. Mining protests Drime Gyaltsen said that on or around Aug. 13 a group of Tibetans from Tromtar township's Sharchu Gyashoe village, led by village leader Tashi Sangpo, traveled to the Palyul county government headquarters to express concerns about an increase in mining activities in the area. The group complained that gold mining operations by the Chinese-owned Kartin Company had led to an overcrowded population, severely degraded the fertility of their farmland, and adversely affected the local grassland habitat. "The county officials refused to hear their plea and, instead of listening to them, had the petitioners detained," Drime Gyaltsen said. "The Tibetan villagers saw this as deliberate bullying, and about 40 additional Tibetans arrived at the Palyul county center demanding the release of those detained and calling for officials to compensate them for the destruction of their land," he said. The group picketed in front of the county government office for three days, and in the early hours of the fourth day police used an incapacitating gas on the crowd and attempted to take them away in waiting vehicles, Drime Gyaltsen said. "When some of the protesters affected by the gas were being forced into the vehicles, their comrades who were unaffected ... resorted to shouting and began protesting. At that time, the police fired their weapons," he said. "The first target was Tashi Sangpo ... He was shot in the leg and his relatives rushed to his aid. In the commotion and shooting, one Tibetan was killed outright, and about 30 were injured. Among them five were reported seriously hurt." "In the scuffle two police were also injured. One was wounded in the eye and the other suffered injuries to his hand and legs." According to a report by Tibetan website phayul.com, three Tibetans were killed in the shooting, including Tashi Sangpo's relatives Soeso and Papho. An official of the Palyul county government said in a telephone interview that negotiations with the Tibetan protesters are ongoing. "Regarding that incident, some compromises have been made and negotiations are being conducted," the official said. "We are aware that the mining activities are negatively impacting the natural environment. The Chinese government is taking action to investigate the mining activities." Increased activity Kartin, a Shanghai-based mining company, has been operating gold mines in the area for nearly 20 years, but enlarged to large-scale capacity in August 2006. Over the past four years, the company has brought in increasing quantities of heavy machinery and equipment to expand its operations. The majority of the company's employees are from Shanghai. In addition to concerns about pollution and the environment, local Tibetans are also concerned about the mining expansion leading to increased natural disasters in the area. Nearby Drukchu (in Chinese, Zhouqu) county in Gansu province and Gyegudo (in Chinese, Yushu) county in Qinghai province both recently experienced severe earthquakes and mudslides that some Tibetans in the area believe were partially caused by mining and land excavation. Tibet, whose Chinese name Xizang means "Western Depository," is one of China's largest national sources of gold. Mining operations in Tibetan regions of China have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms of disrupting sites of spiritual significance and polluting the environment as they extract local wealth. Original reporting by RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. GREENS/EFA PRESS RELEASE 15.07.2010 On the occasion of the hearing on Human rights in China organised in the premises of the European Parliament, Green MEP Heidi Hautala (Finland), Chairwoman of the Sub-Committee for Human Rights, deplored the deterioration of working conditions for the civil society and the harassment of human rights activists. Wan Yanhai is one of China's most prominent defenders of the rights of people living with HIV. His organization Aizhixing, has together with many other independent organizations faced increased restrictions from the authorities and has been threatened with closure. Apart from having been under close police scrutiny over the last decade and detained several times, Wan cites visits by up to twelve different government departments to his organization this spring. The fiscal authorities are still investigating the activities of Aizhixing and Wan fears that fines will be imposed. "By restricting civil society, the Chinese government turns on itself" says Wan in Brussels, where he delivered a speech to the European Parliament's Human Rights Committee. He believes his work does enjoy widespread support in China. "It is worrying that the government force us to self-censorship". Heidi Hautala stated that the Chinese authorities, that attach great importance to collective rights, should rather endorse the work of Wan Yanhai as a community service. Wan was involved in uncovering the blood-selling scandal in Henan, where up to 150 000 people became HIV-positive as a result of local government maladministration of blood donations. He is also known for advocating the rights of the lesbian, gay and transgender communities in his country. From abroad, Wan is developing new ideas for engaging Chinese in civil society activism. "Social media is very popular, but people should connect to pursue a cause, not just entertainment. Existing communities should be mobilized into social forces." Reuters (03.07.2010) / HRWF (12.07.2010) - Website: www.hrwf.net - A Chinese court on Saturday sentenced a Tibetan environmentalist who organized villagers to pick up litter and plant trees to five years in jail for inciting to split the nation, his lawyer said. The environmentalist, Rinchen Samdrup, is the third brother in his family to be jailed. Mr. Samdrup ran an environmental group in the Tibet Autonomous Region near Sichuan Province that organized about 1,700 local villagers to reforest the area and report poaching, and also ran a small magazine. His group worked with international conservation groups and was praised by Chinese media. Exile Tibetan groups say Mr. Samdrup ran afoul of powerful local interests after accusing a local police officer of poaching. Mr. Samdrup was accused of posting a favorable article about the Dalai Lama on his website, his lawyer, Xia Jun, said. He pleaded not guilty But the Chamdo prefecture court convicted him of incitement to split the country, the lawyer said, and deprived him of his political rights for three years. He has 10 days to appeal. Late last year, Mr. Samdrup's youngest brother, Jigme Namgyal, was sentenced to 21 months of re-education through labor for endangering state security for assisting Mr. Samdrup in running his environmental group. The court found he had helped compile three audio-visual disks on the ecology of the region, possessed materials regarding the Dalai Lama, incited locals to interfere with government work and tried to register the group with the government. In June, Mr. Samdrup's other brother Karma Samdrup, a wealthy collector of antique black-and-white Tibetan amulet beads who had tried to defent his brothers, was sentenced to 15 years in jail by a court in neighbouring Xinjiang for excavating and robbing ancient tombs, a charge originally brought and dropped in 1998. Several Tibetan artists and intellectuals have been detained or have disappeared in recent months in what activists say amounts to the broadest suppression of Tibetan culture and expression for years. By Gisela Sommer Epoch Tiimes (28.06.2010) / HRWF (07.07.2010) - Website: www.hrwf.net - An espionage incident only weeks prior to chancellor Angela Merkel's planned China visit may be threatening the bilateral relations between Berlin and Beijing said German news magazine Spiegel Online in a June 26 article. Just days earlier, China's intelligence gathering activities were prominently highlighted in a report issued by Germany's Ministry of the Interior. Germany's Federal Prosecutor's office is investigating two high-ranking Chinese officials on allegations of espionage, and the matter could make Angela Merkel's upcoming China visit more difficult. According to information obtained by the Spiegel, Federal Prosecutors are investigating two Chinese individuals on accusations of spying against practitioners of Falun Gong in Germany. One of the accused is said to hold the position of a Chinese vice-minister and serves as head of the "610 Office," an extra-judicial arm of the Chinese Communist Party, which executes the Communist Party's directive to fight the Falun Gong meditation movement worldwide. The Spiegel report also mentioned that at the end of last year, in another case, a diplomat of the Chinese Consulate in Munich was ordered to leave Germany in December 2009 after he was found to have spied on the German Uighur community. Fighting the 'Five Poisons' Just days before the Spiegel article, on June 21, Germany's Ministry of the Interior issued its 2009 Constitutional Protection Report that addresses terrorism and espionage threats to the country. The report devotes several pages to spying activities by the Chinese intelligence service, describing methodical information-gathering methods pertaining not only to political, industrial, and military applications, but also to groups of people the Chinese regime considers a threat to its rule. One section in the report is called "Fighting the Five Poisons." The report describes how the Chinese regime defames groups of people it considers the greatest danger to its own rule, calling these the "five poisons.": "Affected are most of all those whom China suspects of separatism: Uighurs and Tibetans, as well as adherents of the meditation movement Falun Gong. Beyond these, China's communist party also considers members of the democracy movement and advocates for an independent Taiwan as state enemies," the report says. 610 Office According to Falun Gong sources, the 610 Office is an extralegal, Gestapo-like agency that was formed on 6/10/1999 at the direction of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, specifically to persecute practitioners of Falun Gong. A recent Clearwisdom (a Web site run by Falun Gong practitioners that reports cases of persecution) report tells about the agency's use of extreme torture. Along with beatings to the face and body with heavy objects, some of the most common torture techniques that 610 personnel administer or supervise include sleep deprivation for days and weeks, shocks to sensitive body parts with up to six high voltage batons simultaneously, the prying out of fingernails, etc. In addition to torture, 610 agents administratively send Falun Gong practitioners directly to labor camps, detention centers, and brainwashing classes -where they can be locked away for three years without a court hearing or other due process rights guaranteed to the Chinese people under Chinese law. Hao Fengjun, a former Tianjin City 610 officer fled to Australia in 2005 because he no longer wanted to participate in the mistreatment of Falun Gong practitioners. In February 2004 Hao was placed in 30 days solitary confinement after calling the party's anti-Falun Gong propaganda "lies." The former 610 officer said that though many of his colleagues disapprove of the 610 Office's work, plenty others were quick to tap into the 610 Office's system of rewards. "There were people who worked very hard because the more Falun Gong practitioners they arrested, the more bonuses they would get," Hao said. Even more lucrative than arresting practitioners in China is collecting intelligence on overseas adherents; basic information about practitioners' personal lives, if deemed valuable, typically fetches as much as 50,000 yuan (over US$7,300). Through a system of informants otherwise leading ordinary lives overseas, the 610 Office builds entire profiles of overseas communities. Hao says he "personally received intelligence information about Falun Gong practitioners in Australia, the United States, and Canada" so detailed as to reveal where people worked and which activities they joined. Human rights in China: Moving beyond dialog? By Michael Allen, Editor of Democracy Digest(13.05.2010) As the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialog resumed today, democracy and human rights advocates urged the Obama administration to press Beijuing on media and Internet freedom, Uyghur and Tibetan minority rights, attacks on human rights defenders. The dialogue was frozen between 2002 and 2008 but the administration suggested that there would be a full agenda. "Rule of law, religious freedom, freedom of expression, labor rights and other human rights issues of concern will be raised over a two-day period," said State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley. China is expect to object to the recent State Department decision to fund the Global Internet Freedom Consortium, an Internet censorship circumvention software developed by associates of the Falungong spiritual movement. "We firmly oppose any government or organization providing support to anti-China forces in their anti-China activities," said foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu Some activists suggest that the dialog can be less productive in generating real gains than other sources of leverage, as this report notes: "If some positive change comes as a result of this discussion, great," says Sophie Richardson, a China expert with Human Rights Watch in Washington. "But we've seen that not only is this one of the vehicles that is least likely to produce the kind of change we want to see, but it can also in fact be damaging because it steals a sense of obligation from those vehicles that tend to be much more productive." An example? Other US government agencies whose pronouncements China cares about, she says. Last summer the Chinese government withdrew plans for a personal computer filtering system after the US Department of Commerce and the US Trade Representative suggested the system could constitute a violation of World Trade Organization rules and said it would be a threat to freedom of expression. "That was heartening," Ms. Richardson says, "and it also got the Chinese government to back down pretty quickly." The shortcomings and frustrations of bilateral dialogs has led others to stress the value of building issue-based coalitions through what analyst Kelly Currie calls "vigorous outreach to groups outside the traditional human rights community who are increasingly attuned to the downside of Chinese autarky: the business community, security analysts, internet freedom advocates, faith communities, environmental activists, and especially local and regional activists in Asia." Such coalitions must be strategic and targeted, she writes, "developing strategies that play to the strengths of a loose-knit, diverse group working across open societies, and similarly exploits the weaknesses of China's brittle, top-down authoritarian structure and political culture." Note: Human Rights Without Frontiers is in contact with the editor of Democracy Digest. Aborted baby cries before cremation Author:Wang Xiang ShanghaiDaily.com (14.05.2010) - An aborted baby declared dead by doctors in south China's Guangdong Province cried before he was due to be cremated, but died hours later as doctors refused to treat him. A mortuary worker at Nanhai Funeral Home in Foshan City said the baby cried and scared him as he was about to throw the coffin into a furnace, Information Times reported today. He opened the box and found the seven-month fetus moving, but apparently choking on some cotton wool in his mouth, the report said. After the worker cleared his mouth, the baby yawned and breathed peacefully. Workers rushed him back to Guanyao Hospital which delivered the baby as medical waste earlier that day. But doctors left him in the lobby, and confirmed after an hour that the baby died. The vice head of the funeral house said Guanyao Hospital sent many aborted fetuses or still-born babies for cremation. This baby apparently survived an abortion at seven months, and he had videos to prove the baby was still alive before the cremation. Hospital official Liu Sanhong said its staff checked the baby for an hour and made sure it was dead. Liu did not say whether the doctors tried to save the baby or not. The body was later sent back to the funeral house. The report said all workers were ordered not to talk about the incident. On March 31, at least 21 fetuses and dead babies were found dumped in a river in east China's Jining City. Eight had tabs with clinic code numbers attached to their feet. The Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University responsible for the corpses said they were "medical waste." Two hospital staffers have been detained while the director and deputy director of the hospital's logistics department were sacked. A vice president of the hospital was suspended. Top |
