Eric Witte May 19th, 2008

The Dalai Lama ended a lonely five-day visit to Berlin today, with Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul the only German government minister agreeing to meet with him.  She reportedly did so against the wishes of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.  In explaining his snub of the Tibetan spiritual leader, Steinmeier offered up this gem of an explanation: “It takes a lot of courage not to meet with the Dalai Lama these days.”   

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Eric Witte April 7th, 2008

Despite 3,000 police and other security measures, the Olympic torch 

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was extinguished three times in Paris and the Tibetan flag was flown briefly from the Parisian city hall today, following similar protests in London.  China’s economic, diplomatic and demographic weight may make it difficult for democratic governments to make protest of the crackdown in Tibet (or Darfur, or…) a top issue in their relationships with Beijing.  (This was perhaps in evidence over the weekend when the French government distanced itself from remarks on Tibet attributed to President Sarkozy.)  But China may be learning that it will be impossible to control popular sentiment around the world.  Indeed, the Olympic torch relay appears to be turning into a “Free Tibet” relay.

Update: Even before the Olympic torch arrives in northern California, protesters today scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to hang “Free Tibet” banners and a Tibetan flag. 

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Eric Witte April 5th, 2008

• Morgan Tsvangirai, the Movement for Democratic Change candidate for Zimbabwe’s presidency, is warning that President Robert Mugabe is preparing to deploy his security forces around the country to intimidate the population ahead of a run-off vote as the election commission still has not released official results from the first round. With Zimbabwe on edge and the MDC calling for international action to prevent violence, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, which surely has the greatest external leverage over Mugabe, is arguing that “it’s the time to wait.” Mbeki has been waiting in deference to Mugabe ever since he succeeded Nelson Mandela.
• According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Burma’s proposed new constitution has leaked to the press and public. It would leave the military in ultimate control and ban Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from the presidency. How will the international community respond if this report is accurate?
• French authorities have arrested Mohammed Bacar, the renegade leader of Comoros who refused to leave power and prompted an intervention by the African Union and Comoran troops. Bacar was arrested in the French territory if Reunion following an extradition request from the Comoran government.
• France’s Human Rights Minister, Rama Yade, is denying that she told the newspaper Le Monde that President Nicolas Sarkozy had placed three conditions on his attendance at the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics - all related to Tibet. Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is calling on President George W. Bush to consider boycotting the opening ceremonies. According to the New York Times, Pelosi said “that if the International Olympic Committee wanted to portray the Games as a gathering that transcends sports, its members should hold the host country to high human rights standards.” The White House continues to insist that Bush will attend.

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Kurt Bassuener March 26th, 2008

On his current trip to Great Britain, French President Nicholas Sarkozy has called on Chinese authorities to engage in a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.  Prime Minister Gordon Brown, prepares to meet the Dalai Lama in May, and Sarkozy may follow suit, depending on how the situation in Tibet progresses.  The European Parliament’s President, Hans-Gert Poettering, invited the Dalai Lama to address the body and questioned the attendance of the Olympic opening ceremonies.  Former Czech President Vaclav Havel and five others in his Forum 2000 group suggest an even stronger response: 

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Even as we write, it is clear that China’s rulers are trying to reassure the world that peace, quiet, and “harmony” have again prevailed in Tibet. We all know this kind of peace from what has happened in the past in Burma, Cuba, Belarus, and a few other countries – it is called the peace of the graveyard.

Merely urging the Chinese government to exercise the “utmost restraint” in dealing with the Tibetan people, as governments around the world are doing, is far too weak a response. The international community, beginning with the United Nations and followed by the European Union, ASEAN, and other international organizations, as well as individual countries, should use every means possible to step up pressure on the Chinese government to

• allow foreign media, as well as international fact-finding missions, into Tibet and adjoining provinces in order to enable objective investigations of what has been happening;
• release all those who only peacefully exercised their internationally guaranteed human rights, and guarantee that no one is subjected to torture and unfair trials;
• enter into a meaningful dialogue with the representatives of the Tibetan people.

Unless these conditions are fulfilled, the International Olympic Committee should seriously reconsider whether holding this summer’s Olympic Games in a country that includes a peaceful graveyard remains a good idea.

U.S. President George Bush also phoned Chinese leader Hu Jintao to “engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama’s representatives.”

The death toll of the wide Chinese crackdown in Tibetan-populated areas in western China is estimated by exile groups as well over 130.

As of now, there is little reason to hope that the violent repression will be softened by international criticism.  But China’s Olympic coming-out party, already dogged by jusitified criticism of its Darfur, Burma, and Zimbabwe policies, may well be less joyful and universally hailed than the Chinese Communist Party leadership had planned.

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Eric Witte March 18th, 2008

China’s crackdown on Tibet continues. The extent to which government forces are provoking or reacting to the attacks on Chinese-owned shops that have taken place in addition to the peaceful protests since March 10 is unclear. What is clear is that Chinese government reaction has been brutal. Troops continue to stream into Tibet and house-to-house searches are reportedly underway.  Meanwhile, today the Dalai Lama threatened to resign if anti-Chinese violence in Tibet continues, saying that violence in the name of Tibetan autonomy is “suicidal”.

As the protests have spread, not only to the bordering Chinese provinces of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan, but into other countries, Beijing is receiving the support of its neighbors. Moscow’s enthusiasm for brutality in squelching the demands of an oppressed minority is hardly shocking, but it is disappointing to see the world’s largest democracy, India, follow suit.  On Friday, India arrested Tibetan protestors seeking to march to Tibet. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherje assured parliament yesterday that this was all part of a longstanding policy of “non-interference” in Chinese affairs, but it sure looks a lot like complicity. Mukherje was similarly unimpressive when Burma’s regime was killing, beating and detaining monks last October, stating: “It is up to the Burmese people to struggle for democracy, it is their issue.”

In Nepal, an ongoing police crackdown on peaceful Tibetan protestors yesterday became so brutal that the local UN office has protested and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is also investigating.  The beating and arresting of peaceful protestors is a major setback for Nepal’s own tentative democratic progress, coming as it does after the April 2006 restoration of its parliamentary government.

China may have less luck in containing outrage elsewhere. European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering has raised the prospect of politicians’ boycotting the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games that begin in August.  French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner today called that idea “interesting”.  If China’s violent repression of Tibet continues, it’s hard to see how such calls won’t escalate and expand. The mounting international debate over whether the Olympic Games should be boycotted in part, in whole, or not at all, is not a debate that China wanted to be engaged in just five months from the games.

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