CommunistCrimes.org

China is engaged in the most repressive crackdown on Tibetans since 2008

2012-02-02

The government in Beijing is calling the new campaign the “Nine Must-Haves.” Beginning in early December, the government is forcibly imposing the policy throughout ethnically Tibetan regions in several western provinces, including Sichuan, Qinghai and Tibet. It calls for communist officials at every level in this vast area to vigorously implement the nine specific measures.

The nine measures, or Nine Must-Haves, require every Tibetan monastery, school, community center and household to have a composite portrait of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, representing four generations of Chinese communist leadership; a Chinese national flag known as the Five-Starred flag, with the biggest yellow star at the center symbolizing the core leadership of the Chinese Communist Party; and a road leading to the facilities so it is easier for forces from outside to visit. The policy also demands these entities to have a supply of water; a source of electricity; radio and television sets, which will be powered by the mandatory availability of electricity; access to movies; a library; and copies of the Communist Party of China state-controlled newspapers, the People’s Daily and Tibet Daily.

The ideological campaign is aimed at forcing Tibetans, who are deeply religious and devout toward their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to give up their Buddhist beliefs and declare loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and its leaders. Portrait of the Dalai Lama or any other forms of his image are banned in China.

Last week, the Tibetan government in exile, based in India, published an open letter to Hu Jintao, the current Chinese Communist Party leader, expressing “deep concerns” over the repressive policies.

According to reports from the region, Chinese troops since Jan. 23 have indiscriminately shot and killed at least six Tibetans in Tibetan regions of Sichuan province. Scores more were wounded.

Bulgarian President Remembers Victims of Communism

2012-02-02

On Wednesday Bulgaria marked for the second time the official Day of Gratitude and Homage to the Victims of the Communist Regime.

"Freedom and democracy ought not only be used, but also fought for, including in hard times," said Plevneliev upon laying a wreath at the monument. "Getting to grips with our recent history is a necessary condition for taking in earnest the values on which our society is founded," added the Bulgarian President. "The deaths of those Bulgarians who fell at the hands of the communist regime is one of the most vivid symbols of repression against the Bulgarian people," stated Plevneliev.

February 1 was chosen for commemoration because on this date in 1945, the so-called People's Tribunal sentenced to death 3 regents, 67 members of the parliament, 22 ministers, 40 generals and colonels of the royal army and a number of other public figures. The sentences were executed on that same day.

"In the history not only of Bulgaria, but also of many other European countries, the 20th century has been marked by ideologically motivated violence. We must do more to remember the victims who fell," said the Bulgarian President.

Members of the diplomatic corps in Bulgaria, cabinet representatives and MPs were also present at the ceremony at Bulgaria's Memorial for the Victims of Communism.

Situation in Cuba: the Communists Convene

2012-01-27

Castro has lowered expectations for any new economic reform announcements, saying that internal party affairs will be the business at hand. But many Cubans will be watching for signs of who is rising in the party's ranks — and who could take over after Raul and Fidel Castro, both in their 80s, are gone.

During the 47 years that Fidel Castro ruled this island, he often surrounded himself with younger, hand-picked proteges like economic planner Carlos Lage and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. They were always on TV, seemingly groomed as the next generation of Cuban leaders. But in 2009 they were sacked, caught on secret recordings disparaging the Castros and their trusted circle of aging comrades. Raul Castro has made clear that the island's next leaders will have to rise through the party ranks in Cuba's provinces, says Rafael Hernandez, editor of the Havana journal Temas.

Cuba's old leadership was a debate topic this week for Republican primary candidates in Florida facing questions about what would happen if Fidel Castro dies. The retired comandante fired back in one of his opinion columns Wednesday, calling their contest "the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance" he has ever heard.

That's about all Fidel Castro does these days. He's 85 and hasn't appeared in public in months. His brother Raul is firmly in charge, and whoever succeeds him is likely to follow the example he has set, gradually opening the economy to ease Cubans' frustrations. But major political reforms are not in the offing, says Miriam Leiva, a former diplomat who became a dissident writer in Havana.

"The main thing is that they don't let the population decide anything. And they want to [stay] in power and decide everything," Leiva says, "because the Cuban population is accustomed to just accepting what comes from power, and Cubans know they cannot change anything."

Putin’s Oponent Yavlinsky Loses Chance to Run for Kremlin

2012-01-25

Some analysts said the removal was part of the Kremlin’s plan to allow Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to win in the first round of the vote, though others denied ulterior motives behind the decision.

Yavlinsky collected two million signatures in support of his bid as required by law, but two consecutive checks, the second of which was wrapped up Tuesday evening, showed 25.66 percent of them to be invalid, commission secretary Nikolai Konkin said. The law caps the amount of faulty signatures at five percent. “The commission will hold a session later this week to officially refuse registering Grigory Yavlinsky” for the March 4 vote, Konkin said.

The commission also refused registration to Irkutsk Governor Dmitry Mezentsev, an alleged Kremlin ally, also over faulty signatures. But it approved the two million signatures collected by billionaire-turned-politician Mikhail Prokhorov.

Prokhorov will be the only independent to be included on the ballot, along with candidates from the four parliamentary parties, who were not required to collect the signatures. One of the four is Putin, fielded by the ruling United Russia party and expecting to return to the presidency after two consecutive terms in office in 2000-2008. Yabloko’s senior party boss Ivan Bolshakov promised the party would fight Yavlinsky’s removal, Rusnovosti.ru reported.

Yabloko party's founder, Yavlinsky, is set to appear at the anti-government rally in Moscow on February 4, which 21,000 have signed up for on Facebook as of Tuesday evening. Yavlinsky, 59, has been active in politics since the late 1980s, and ran for president twice, in 1996 and 2000. He is known for his critical stance on the Kremlin, and retains a small, but viciously loyal core constituency among intelligentsia and the middle class in big cities.

Nikolai Petrov of the Carnegie Moscow Center said the two to four percent that Yavlinsky could have garnered may be crucial for Putin’s first-round victory. Yavlinsky’s removal “was precisely because they’re banking on winning in the first round,” Petrov said.

Hungary PM likened to Chavez over controversial laws

2012-01-20

Orban, in Strasbourg to defend his government, pledged on Wednesday to row back on disputed laws which have triggered EU legal proceedings against Budapest and inspired MEPs to liken him to Cuba's Fidel Castro or Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Brushing aside the charges, Orban said he stood up for "Christian and family values" and claimed to have brought Hungary back from the brink in 18 months -- decreasing debt, overhauling taxes and health and protecting minorities.

The EU commission on Tuesday threatened to drag Budapest to court for reforms undermining the independence of its central bank, judiciary and data protection authority. It gave Orban a month to reverse the laws. The right-wing Hungarian leader is hoping to obtain a credit line from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund but talks were suspended in December amid concern over the controversial legislation. But he told a press conference after the debate that lasted most of the afternoon that he would not allow government policy to be dictated.

Barroso said he and Orban would be working over the coming days to find legal solutions, vowing to handle "with the highest priority" an issue that spawned accusations Orban was building a "totalitarian" regime. "Today I received a letter by PM Orban. He has indicated to me his intention to modify the relevant legislation," he told the parliament. Wider principles of democracy and freedom in general needed to be addressed, Barroso said, referring to "concerns expressed regarding the quality of democracy in Hungary".

Mercedes apologises for using Che Guevara image

2012-01-17

The high-end car company, known for its impeccable - and pricey - motor vehicles, used the late leader to promote a new car-sharing program, much to the horror of Cuban activists and political conservatives. In place of the star that adorns Guevara's beret in the original, Mercedes affixed its corporate logo.

Activists reacted with horror to the appropriation of Guevara, whom many political conservatives and Cuban-Americans consider a mass murderer who helped subjugate Cuba. In a statement Thursday to msnbc.com, Daimler said the image was just "one of many images and videos in the presentation," which it said was intended to represent "the revolution in automobility enabled by new technologies, in particular those associated with connectivity."

"Daimler was not condoning the life or actions of this historical figure or the political philosophy he espoused," the company said, adding: "We sincerely apologize to those who took offense." Daimler's statement was welcomed by Ernesto Suarez, who organized an online petition calling for Mercedes-Benz to apologize.

Here's Daimler's full statement to msnbc.com: In his keynote speech at CES, Dr. Zetsche addressed the revolution in automobility enabled by new technologies, in particular those associated with connectivity. To illustrate this point, the company briefly used a photo of revolutionary Che Guevara (it was one of many images and videos in the presentation). Daimler was not condoning the life or actions of this historical figure or the political philosophy he espoused. We sincerely apologize to those who took offense.

Kim Jong-il body will be embalmed and put on display in tradition of communist rulers

2012-01-15

Following a communist tradition that dates back to the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, whose embalmed body is still on display at a marble mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow, Kim's body will have its organs removed before being soaked in a chemical bath. The body is likely to be exhibited in the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, where his father, Kim Il-sung, is on display, Independent reports.

The procedure is likely to be performed by an institute in Moscow that looks after Lenin's corpse. The institute worked on the body of the older Kim, as well as on the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, Czechoslovakia's Klement Gottwald and Angola's Agostinho Neto.

Last month, one of the institute's specialists gave a rare interview to a Russian tabloid in which the embalming process was discussed: "It's not a pretty sight," said Pavel Fomenko, who was part of the team that embalmed Kim Il-sung. "First, all the internal organs are extracted, the veins are dissolved and the blood taken from the tissues," he said.

"The body is placed in a glass bath filled with the embalming solution, then closed and covered with a white sheet... Gradually, the water in the cells of the body is replaced by the solution." Mr Fomenko said the process takes around six months, and that the embalmed body then requires meticulous aftercare every week.

Mr Fomenko, now 78, said that Russia was prepared to help with the embalming of Kim Jong-il, and recalled that the North Koreans had paid around $1m for the embalming of Kim Jong-il's father.

"I remember that when Kim Il-sung died, there were reports that he had been buried. But at the same time they were asking us to prepare our products and some days later we took off for Pyongyang."

Kim senior is now on display inside a glass coffin on the top floor of the Kumsusan Palace. Visitors are required to bow three times when viewing the body, and must first pass through a full-body dust-remover, to prevent contamination.

When Kim Jong-il's body is laid to rest alongside his father's, it will be the first time that two embalmed leaders have been displayed together since Joseph Stalin's body was removed from the Lenin mausoleum in 1961, eight years after his death.

Kim died of a suspected heart attack on 17 December, aged 69, and his body was put on display before his carefully choreographed funeral on 28 December. It was also announced yesterday that memorial towers will be built for him in Pyongyang, and that his birthday, 16 February, will become a national holiday known as "Day of the Shining Star".

Kim Jong-il obituary

2012-01-12

Kim Jong-il, who died aged 69 after a heart attack, was the general secretary of the Workers' party of Korea and head of the military in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). He was one of the most reclusive and widely condemned national leaders of the late 20th and early 21st century, and left his country diplomatically isolated, economically broken and divided from South Korea.

Kim's early life was spent in the shadows of his father Kim Il-sung, who returned to Korea in 1945 after independence from Japan, and established, initially with Soviet and Chinese support, the DPRK. He was to witness the Korean war from 1950 to 1953, in which hundreds of thousands of Koreans, Chinese and Americans as part of a UN force fought across the country, returning almost to the point at which they had started. The armistice signed in 1953 settled the border between South and North Korea at the 38th Parallel.

With the arrival of the cold war, relations between the two countries were almost completely broken off, with whole families split for the ensuing decades, some for ever. This event led to the creation of the wholly unprecedented worship of Kim Il-sung.

Kim Jong-il was educated at the newly founded university in Pyongyang, graduating in 1964. The 1960s and early 1970s were the golden years for the DPRK. It undertook rapid industrialisation, economically outstripped its southern competitor and enjoyed the support of both the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. A state ideology, mixing nationalism and basic Marxist economics, going under the name "Juche", was constructed, and Kim Il-sung effectively silenced, disposed of and cleared away any opposition, isolating the country and exercising an iron grip on the military, the state media, the government and party apparatus.

In 1973 he became party secretary of the propaganda department, and, in 1974, was designated his father's successor, creating in effect the world's first communist family succession. In 1980 he was elevated to the Politburo, and was granted the title "Dear Leader", as opposed to "Great Leader", which had been granted by his father to himself. In 1991, he was named commander of the DPRK armed forces. The death of his father in 1994 led to his being appointed general secretary of the Workers' party, the ultimate seat of power.

Kim inherited the very worst legacy of the cold war, a country torn apart by colonisation and war. The economic template for the country had been set in the 1950s and 1960s, long before he had any say. Its unsustainability only became clear in the very final years of Kim Il-sung's life. Kim Jong-il finally had to deal with a complex network of interests in the army and party after his father's death, something which, combined with the immediate impact of bad harvests, created the terrible famines that claimed up to a million North Korean lives from 1995 until 1999. North Korea progressed towards its own nuclear programme in 2003. The election of Barack Obama as US president in 2008 served to provoke a period of harsh rhetoric, nuclear testing, missile launches, and diplomatic aggression.

International politicians who met him were impressed by his memory for facts and his quick and easy wit. But there is little dispute about his responsibility for a system that saw widespread human rights abuses and perhaps the worst record for press freedom and government transparency in the world.

The Death of the Playwright-President: Vaclav Havel (1936–2011)

2012-01-12

Havel's death at age 75 was announced on Dec. 18. The man who wrote absurdist dramas that ridiculed the brutal communist flunkies who ruled his country — indeed, the Soviet bloc — had had severe health problems for years.

Havel was no longer President after the end of his term in 2003. But he remained iconic and relevant, even after reformers and other dissidents — such as Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia and Lech Walesa in Poland — lost their luster.

Havel spent most of his life feeling like an outsider. As a child, he was a shy bookworm embarrassed by his family's real estate fortune. In 1948 Havel became a different kind of pariah when the communists seized power in postwar Czechoslovakia, confiscating his family's property and barring him from high school. Drafted into military service, Havel wrote a rousing drama for his battalion that army officials praised until they took a closer look and realized that this chubby, polite soldier was making fun of them. After the army, he got a job as a stagehand at Prague's Theater on the Balustrade. He wrote acerbic plays that stuck audiences' noses in the ridiculousness of their totalitarian world. These were the relatively relaxed political days leading up to the 1968 Prague Spring, when the communists allowed some criticism. After invading Soviet tanks crushed the Prague Spring, the authorities banned Havel's writings and harassed friends who talked to him. Those were lonely years, but Havel beat back depression and wrote plays, started an underground press and founded the human-rights group Charter 77. That earned him prison time; the longest stretch began in 1979, when Havel received a 4½-year sentence.

When they released him, he kept being Havel and got arrested again; his last arrest came just months before the Velvet Revolution. Havel didn't start the revolution — that happened when police beat unarmed students on Nov. 17, 1989 — but he masterminded it. He told the beaten-down Czechs they could prevail. They believed him and filled Wenceslas Square, giddy with their own courage. And Havel, backed by these people who had rediscovered their backbone, negotiated the communists out of power.

Then he was President, an East European leader utterly unlike the geriatric robots who preceded him. Havel performed the normal duties of Presidents, but to Czechs, his most important role was as a guide, even a talisman. Havel resigned as President of the soon-to-be-defunct Czechoslovakia and returned six months later as President of the newly formed Czech Republic.

Toward the end of his life, Havel hit hard times. His wife died in early 1996, leaving him too lost to even help in planning her funeral. Within a year, doctors had removed half his cancerous right lung.

However, the democratic revolution had not built the civil society he had dreamed of. He himself would leave government after the end of his presidential term in 2003. What he did leave help build, however, was an intellectual renaissance, not just for Czechs and Slovaks but also for the half of Europe that had lived behind the metaphorical Iron Curtain and was desperate to reconnect with the free West after five dehumanizing decades as Soviet satellites. Eastern Europeans had looked to Havel's writing and political activism and heard the voice of 600 years of enlightened humanism.

Czech Republic will pay anti-communist fighters

2011-12-03

An anti-communist resistance law was passed in Czech Republic. Those who participated in the struggle against the communist regime are now entitled to demand recognition of their actions - the appropriate status and one-time financial compensation.

People who until 1989 took part in the fight against a totalitarian dictatorship will be able to demand formal recognition of the status of the fighter with the communist regime and one-time financial compensation, iHNed.cz reports.

Claims for recognition can be submitted to the Ministry of Defence, which has launched dedicated Internet portal and the telephone line.

The law came into force on a symbolic day when the Czech Republic recalls the 22-th anniversary of the "velvet" revolution, which resulted in the communist regime collapse.

According to law members of resistance will receive 100 000 Czech korunas (about 3850 euros). Spouses of deceased participants of resistance will be receive half of that amount. If the resistance fighter pension is lower than the average, the state will as a gift enhance their pension to the level of the average.

Those who are denied recognition of the status of the fighter with the communist regime will apply to the so-called ethics committee which will consider the request again.

Orban: Hungary must close post-communist chapter

2011-12-02

Hungary must end its prolonged post-communist period, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at the founding session of the Hungarian Diaspora Council in parliament.

Orban said post-communism was not just a "feeling" but a structure, one where constitutional institutions are generally weak, where old social networks from the previous regime triumph over market regulation, and where monopolies and cartels squeeze out competition, Politics.hu reports.

He said whereas the Czech Republic had shred this system within five to six years and Poland managed to close the era within a decade, Hungary is among the last states to put an end to post-communism.

Such an attempt was seen at last year's elections, when very many people voted for Fidesz who had never thought of doing this before in the belief that a substantial parliamentary majority was needed to end post-communism, Orban said.

The prime minister said now the government saw its mission to close the post-communist chapter, which is why the past 18 months had been so hectic, charged with debate over changes to the labour code or the public education system, which he said were all logical consequences of the government's efforts to draw a line under the post-communist period.

Orban told the Council, comprising representatives of the Hungarian communities all over the world, that the policy of the nation had proven successful over the past twenty years, but efforts to unite Hungarians scattered over the globe had so far been in vain.

Orban said that in times of economic hardship, the nation needed all its members to help out in efforts to boost economic growth. "14-15 million Hungarians can do much more than 10 million," he said.

Senior official of the Russian Orthodox Church is outraged by glorification of Stalin

2011-11-13

Metropolitan of Volokolamsk Hilarion, who is considered to be second person in current hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, gave a negative assessment to the statements made among the clergy and monastic, which give a positive attitude towards Stalin's role in history and condemn intelligentsia.

"I think that history has made everything clear and nostalgia for stalinism, especially from the lips of a priest, to me sounds like some kind of blasphemy"- Metropolitan Hilarion said in an interview published in newspaper "Rossiyskaya Gazeta".

Metropolitan Hilarion made that remark after newspaper asked him to comment on the statements of the Secretary of the Ivanovo eparchy abbot Vitaly Utkin, who in his blog, made no secret of respect for Stalin.

"How can someone worship the Holy New Martyrs and at the same time respect Stalin? It's like to worship John the Baptist but at the same time have respect for Herod, who beheaded him. How can we glorify the victims and executioner simultaneously?" - Metropolitan Hilarion wondered.

This is not the first time Hilarion publicly condemned Stalin. In 2009 being senior official of the Russian Orthodox Church he called him „a monster", accusing him of genocide, shortly before a European security forum equated the crimes of Stalin and Hitler.

At that time his words have stirred heated debate in the Russian media and blogosphere, American Orthodox Institute reports.

"I think that Stalin was a spiritually-deformed monster, who created a horrific, inhuman system of ruling the country," Archbishop Hilarion had said.

"He unleashed a genocide against the people of his own country and bears personal responsibility for the death of millions of innocent people. In this respect Stalin is completely comparable to Hitler.", he said.

Cuba allows private home sales first time in 50 years

2011-11-06

Cuba has approved a law allowing individuals to buy and sell homes for the first time since the early days of the revolution, official media say.

The law, which takes effect on 10 November, applies to citizens and permanent residents only. Correspondents say this is the most important reform so far in a series of free-market changes introduced by President Raul Castro, BBC News reports.

A housing shortage has meant that many Cubans live in overcrowded apartments.
An article in the Communist Party daily Granma said details of the new law would be published in the government's official gazette.

The change follows the legalisation in October of the purchase and sale of cars, though with restrictions that still makes it hard for ordinary Cubans to buy new vehicles.

Black-market

The ban on property sales took effect in stages after Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959.
Parents were able to pass property on to their children, but buying and selling property was not allowed.

The rules have meant that for decades Cubans could only exchange property through complicated barter arrangements, or through even murkier black-market deals, often involving illegal payments and bribes.

With the new law, Cubans will be allowed to own a maximum of two properties - their main home and a holiday home. A popular aspect of the law will be the abolition of the government agency which regulated house swaps - a system much open to abuse.

Currently, three to four generations of a single family often live together in small apartments, because of the severe housing shortage. Divorced couples have often been forced to live together for years while they seek separate housing.

"Many people have lived and live with the fear of losing their homes because they acquired them in an illegal way. Now they'll be able to legalise them and to sleep in peace," said Osmel Gonzalez, a self-employed food vendor in Havana.

Raul Castro has said repeatedly that the Soviet style system in Cuba is not working since he took over from his ailing brother Fidel in 2008, but he has vowed that Cuba will remain a socialist state.

Former King of Romania makes historic speech and calls to break with the bad habits of the past

2011-10-30

The former king of Romania and the last wartime leader still alive addressed the Romanian parliament for the first time since his forced abdication in 1947.

Sitting resplendent on a throne-like chair King Michael I, 90, called for politicians to provide greater democracy and to restore the dignity of a country that has struggled to bring wealth and prosperity to all of its people since the overthrow of the despotic regime of Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, Telegraph.co.uk reports.

The king had been afforded the rare privilege of addressing both houses of the Romanian parliament in honour of his 90th birthday.

"The time has come after 20 years to ... break for good with the bad habits of the past", said the king. Taking a swipe at the country's present ruling elite, often chided for apparent self-interest and corruption, he added in 2011 "demagogy, selfishness and attempts to cling to power" should not have their place in Romania.

"All united, we have to pursue our efforts in order to become once more respected and dignified", he said in a speech that won a standing ovation and shouts of "Long live the King!" from some MPs.

Michael ruled Romania as a child from 1927 to 1930, and again from 1940 to 1947, overseeing a tumultuous period for the country which saw the country fall under fascist then communist rule, while in the meantime switching sides in the Second World War. In 1947 he abdicated after the communist government said it would shoot 1,000 people if he failed to step down. Michael left for exile and was only allowed to return in 1992.

Despite the genuine warmth the king's address received not all politicians were happy with his presence in parliament. President Traian Basescu refused to attend, describing Michael's abdication as a "betrayal" and calling him "Russia's servant".

Although there is little sentiment in Romania for the re-establishment of the monarchy some politicians resent the king's willingness to use his position to highlight their shortcomings and the country's problems.

After his address to parliament the king attended a glittering birthday meal attended by members of other European royal families, including King Carl Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Sofia of Spain.

Hungary is planning to cut pensions of its communist-era leadership

2011-10-29

More than 20 years after the fall of communism in Hungary, legislators are considering slashing the pensions of the leadership that ran the dictatorship.

Those pensions are often much higher than the average €300 ($418) a month received by Hungarian retirees today because of the high salaries the apparatchiks paid themselves, The Washington Post reports.

Deputies from Hungary's governing Fidesz party say they favor imposing a "reparations tax" on the pensions of thousands of former functionaries from the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party - which ran the country during most of the communist regime ending in 1990.

Other parties want to recalculate individual pensions to exclude wages received for political duties.
Maria Wittner, the Fidesz lawmaker who initially proposed the legislation, said Tuesday that any savings stemming from the pension cuts should benefit veterans of the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution.

In 1957, Wittner was condemned to death for taking part in the uprising. The sentence was later commuted to life in prison, from where she was released in 1970.

Communist-era decision makers continue to reap the advantages of having served the dictatorship through their higher pensions, said Janos Lazar, head of the Fidesz parliamentary faction.

"They need to give back to society the part of their pensions above the bare minimum," Lazar said, adding that while the rules to determine whose pension would be cut have yet to be determined, in 1987 the communist party had some 5,700 people in leading positions.

Lawmakers from four of the five parliamentary parties - all except the Socialist Party, the former communists - met to coordinate their proposals and agreed that pensions would not be cut below minimum living standards.

A preliminary draft of the legislation is expected to be ready within two weeks.

Cuba may make unprecedented move and impose term limits on leaders

2011-10-23

The Communist Party of Cuba has announced that it will consider President Raul Castro's unprecedented call for term limits for all government officials.

A statement said the party conference in January would discuss a maximum of two five-year terms. The document also called for the promotion of qualified young leaders, BBC reports.

Earlier this year, President Castro said Cuba must prepare a new generation to take over. Raul Castro, who is now 80, said the same limits would apply to him. He took over from his brother, Fidel, in 2008. Between them, they have ruled Cuba for 52 years since 1959.

The statement on the proposal for term limits will be discussed at party meetings in the coming months. It said the aim was to achieve a "gradual renewal in leadership".The proposal also spoke of a need to promote racial and gender diversity in positions of responsibility.

However, it reaffirmed the Communist Party's position as the only one allowed in Cuba. The document also warned that the government's foreign enemies were "lurking and waiting to pounce".

"The imperialists pin their hopes on the supposed vulnerability of the new generations... They try to foment division, apathy, dismay... and a lack of confidence in the leadership of the revolution and the party," it said.

President Castro raised the issue in April at the start of the first congress of Cuba's ruling Communist Party for 14 years. He said the party leadership was in need of renewal and should subject itself to severe self-criticism.

In his speech then, Raul Castro said the limit of two consecutive five-year terms would apply to "the current president of the Council of State and his ministers" - a reference to himself.

The proposal is unprecedented under Cuban communism.

Well-known anti-communist activist dies in Romania

2011-10-16

Ion Diaconescu, an anti-communist activist who helped Romania's push toward democracy, has died. He was 94.

Diaconescu, whose was imprisoned for 17 years by the communists for his political beliefs, died Tuesday night, said former Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea. No cause of death was given, but Diaconescu had recently been treated for heart problems, Associated Press reports.

Parliament held a minute of silence last week on Wednesday for Diaconescu who was acclaimed as a politician who was guided by principles, not personal interests.

"Today's politicians only think about their own interests. ... That is why Romania is crawling along," said Romania's best-known political dissident, Doina Cornea. Like Diaconescu, Cornea was put under house arrest by Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu for criticizing the communist regime.

"Ion Diaconescu understood that faith and principles are national treasures, and he didn't betray these (values), enduring 17 years in communist prisons," said Cornea.

Diaconescu entered politics in the late 1930s as a member of the youth organization of the Peasant Party. He was arrested in 1947 after the Communists came to power in Romania and survived prison, unlike tens of thousands of Romanians who died in the communist gulags.

He was released under an amnesty for political prisoners in 1964 and helped re-establish the center-right Peasants' Party after communism ended in Romania in 1989.

Diaconescu was speaker of Parliament's Chamber of Deputies from 1996 to 2000 and headed the Democratic Convention, a loose governing coalition that was marred by political infighting. A consensus seeker, he was widely respected, even by his political rivals.

Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu and current President Traian Basescu both paid tribute to him Wednesday. Basescu said Diaconescu remains "a symbol of the fight against communism."

Former Romanian President Emil Constantinescu said Diaconescu was "a symbol of communist resistance in Romania and Eastern Europe, and a symbol of honesty and honor" in politics.

Diaconescu's open coffin was put on display at the Peasant's Party headquarters on Wednesday. He was not survived by any close relatives.

He was buried in Bucharest on Thursday.

Pope says faith suffered "acid rain" under communism

2011-10-15

Pope Benedict has praised Catholics in eastern Germany who held on to their Christian beliefs despite the "acid rain" that corroded their faith under the Nazis and communism.

The pope said mass for some 30,000 people in the medieval main square of this city in former communist East Germany, where only about seven percent of the people are Catholic, Reuters reports.

"You have had to endure first a brown and then a red dictatorship, which acted on the Christian faith like acid rain," he told the crowd from the altar, set against a hill dominated by Erfurt's cathedral and another Catholic church.

About two hours before the mass a man fired an air gun at security staff at a checkpoint in Erfurt, police said. Detained on the spot, the unidentified man told police he was protesting at the strict security measures.

The pope's third trip to his homeland since his election in 2005 has attracted small crowds and some protests against the church's positions on homosexual marriage and birth control, and a sexual abuse scandal.

The 84-year-old praised those who remained faithful despite the pressures of the Nazi and communist regimes but appeared disappointed there had been no resurgence in faith since German reunification in 1990.

Benedict held a surprise meeting in Erfurt with victims of sexual abuse by priests. Church officials said on Saturday there were three men and two women present, chosen from many victims around Germany who had asked to meet the pope.

"There was no dispute, that wasn't the atmosphere of the conversations, but to really listen, and it was obvious that the Holy Father felt deep regret, he expressed that clearly," said Bishop Stephan Ackermann.

About 700 Germans have filed for compensation for abuse by priests and Church personnel. A record 181,000 Germans left the Church last year, many in protest at the abuse scandal.

A Vatican statement after his meeting with victims at the Erfurt seminary said the pope had been "moved and deeply shaken" and had assured victims the Church was "committed to the promotion of effective measures to protect children".

Victims' associations have said the Vatican has not done enough to bring the perpetrators of abuse to justice. German victims joined 8,000 protesters on a march through Berlin, where the Pope began his visit.

Hong Kong snubs North Korea leader's "lovely" grandson

2011-10-15

A 16-year-old grandson of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has reportedly been denied a visa to study in Hong Kong, despite being described by his prospective school as a "lovely kid" with a "good sense of idealism", Telegraph reports.

Kim Han-sol was accepted by an international school run by the United World Colleges (UWC) network but his visa bid was turned down despite several requests, the former school principal said.

Hong Kong's immigration department declined to confirm whether the teenager had applied for a visa, saying it did "not comment on individual cases", but suggested such a decision would be in line with general policy.

The department said people from countries including North Korea, Nepal and Cambodia were barred from obtaining a student visa - although exceptions are given in certain cases based on merit.

"The government will take into account factors which include immigration and securities considerations, economic, social and cultural ties between Hong Kong and the country," it said.

Former school principal Stephen Codrington, who interviewed Kim Han-sol, described him as a "lovely kid, very bright, charismatic" with "good English" and a "good sense of idealism", the South China Morning Post reported.

The 16-year-old's father is Kim Jong-Nam, the North Korean leader's exiled eldest son, according to the Post. The pair are said to have lived in Macao - an hour's ferry ride from Hong Kong - since the father fell out of favour with Kim Jung-Il years ago.

Kim Jong-Nam is understood to have once been the front-runner to succeed the North Korean leader. But youngest son Kim Jong-Un is now being groomed to take over one of the world's most isolated countries.

Following the visa denial in Hong Kong, Kim Han-Sol was enrolled at another UWC school - in the southern Bosnian town of Mostar. A school spokesman said last Friday he was still waiting for a Bosnian visa and was yet to arrive. The Bosnian school said the enrolment was the result of the UWC's special outreach programme for North Korea.

The UWC is a worldwide network of schools and colleges, which promotes international understanding and is attended notably by pupils from war-affected areas.

Earlier this week a Facebook account believed to belong to Kim Han-sol was unearthed, depicting a trendy teenager with dyed hair who believes in democracy and lists 'Love Actually' as his favourite film.

Platform of European Memory and Conscience to be established in Prague

2011-10-14

On Friday, 14^th October, heads of 19 organisations dedicated to researching and raising awareness of the European totalitarian legacy will sign the founding document of the platform. Among the initiators there are six organisations from the Baltic States.

The ceremony will take place in the Lichtenstein Palace in Prague and will include the Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Petr Nečas and Vice-President of the European Parliament László Tökés.

Mr Uve Poom, head of one of the founders—the Unitas Foundation—expressed his enthusiasm for the newly created platform: “So far we have mainly focused more on the Baltic co-operation and this will make the creation of Pan-European projects considerably easier. The Unitas Foundation has a special focus on innovation in education and we hope to share our activities with other platform members. For example, our project “Different Nations—Shared Experiences” could be of help to other European nations wishing to share their history and raise consciousness on past events.

The Platform of European Memory and Conscience unites governmental and non-governmental institutions and organisations active in research, documentation, awareness raising and education on totalitarian regimes. The European Parliament and the European Commission were among the numerous institutions which called for the creation of a Pan-European co-operation network to increase collaboration among national research institutes specialising in the subject of totalitarian history.

Other founders from the Baltic States in addition to the Unitas Foundation include the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, the Occupation Museum Association of Latvia, the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania, Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, and the Occupation of Latvia Research Society.

The Unitas Foundation was established in 2008 by the former two-time Prime Minister of Estonia, Mart Laar, the US philanthropist Mr Damian von Stauffenberg and entrepreneur Meelis Niinepuu with a mission to build reconciliation within and between societies divided by totalitarianism.

Deputy Speaker: Communism is still alive in Malaysia

2011-10-09

Deputy speaker of Malasian parliament Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar says the communist ideology is still very much alive in the country today, and urges the people to be aware, Borneo Post reports.

According to him, the ideology was more subtle this time; the proponents waging psychological warfare against the government. "Even though they have ended the physical war against us, the communist element is still very much alive", he said.

"Their former leader Chin Peng is still active spreading the ideology. It is not physical but psychological warfare," said Wan Junaidi.

He said that Chin Peng had admitted that the ideology was still there, thus the people must be very careful. Recently, Malaysian Ex-servicemen Association (PBTM) president Datuk Muhammad Abdul Ghani acknowledged in the association's website that there were some irresponsible groups using schools and colleges to revive the communist ideology.

"What is regrettable is that they are undermining the peace and the rule of law in this country, and discrediting the present government," he said.

Bulgaria opens Museum of socialist art

2011-09-28

Twenty-two years after the fall of its communist regime, Bulgaria opened last week its first-ever museum of the state-sponsored, propaganda art characteristic of that era.

The Museum of Socialist Art in Sofia exhibits some 77 sculptures, 60 paintings and 25 smaller plastic art works created between 1945 and 1989 by the most renowned sculptors and painters of the time, YAHOO!7 NEWS reports.

Mostly commissioned by the regime for propaganda purposes, the collection contains numerous full-length statues, busts, heads and portraits of the Soviet Union's founding father Vladimir Lenin, Bulgaria's first communist leader Georgy Dimitrov and long-ruling dictator Todor Zhivkov.

Innumerable stone and bronze sculptures, paintings, statuettes, red stars and hammer-and-sickle symbols adorned public squares and key buildings across Bulgaria during the 45-year reign of its communist regime.

Other works glorify the life of the working classes and the feats of the partisan movement that brought communism to Bulgaria in 1944. "It was high time to put that era where it belongs -- in a museum," Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov said at the opening.

Displaying them, however, was expected to turn into "one of Sofia's biggest tourist attractions to both foreigners and younger Bulgarians, who did not live Communism," Finance Minister Simeon Djankov said.

Georgia's Ilia State University has launched a master’s program in Soviet and post-Soviet systems

2010-11-05

TBILISI - The 1968 student movement in Germany was the first time young people en masse asked their parents publicly: were you a Nazi? Many historians cite the era as the start of the country’s reassessment of its Nazi past.

In Eastern Europe, the reassessment of the totalitarian past began in the 1990s and continues. Lustration laws were adopted almost simultaneously in the mid-1990s in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and the Baltic states.

But despite 70 years under the Soviet regime, that period of history has not been systematically studied in Georgia. The facts that most people think they know are superficial and mainly based on oral accounts.

The country has produced practically no serious literature analyzing the period. And the national security archives, which might have provided fruitful ground for scholars, were opened only several years ago and are not complete; some records were destroyed in the 1990s and some material remains in Russia.

This year, however, scholars will start to fill in the blank spots. Ilia State University has launched a master’s program in Soviet and post-Soviet systems, an organization was launched devoted to researching the Soviet past, and a trickle of young people has begun studying the security archives.

“The Soviet era for us is the past that hasn’t become history. Actually we still live with those traditions, because we haven’t studied our most recent past,” said Sergo Ratiani, director of the university’s new Soviet studies program, which has attracted 14 students in its inaugural year.

The courses will start in January, with lectures by Georgian and foreign professors. The university will also have books and other foreign materials translated into Georgian and will make information from the country’s security archives more accessible to students, Ratiani said.

Tako Tolordava, a third-year social sciences student at Ilia State University, was one of the first to sign up. She became interested in Soviet history last year when she attended lectures on the Soviet regime and its legacy.

“I discovered that my knowledge of the Soviet past was really spotty. If we don’t analyze that period properly, the problems that we have today won’t get solved, we won’t even be able to create a civil society for a long time,” Tolordava said.

Lasha Bakradze, a historian and critic who teaches a course on the fundamentals of Soviet history at the university, said Georgians may have been reluctant to confront this part of their past because they live in a small society, with many clan connections. Genuine lustration and research into security archives could unearth uncomfortable information about people close to them.

Bakradze also cautioned that these new studies must not be co-opted by ideologues and that Georgians must not think of themselves only as victims. “We were victims and we were offenders. This must be a scientific pursuit without ideological pressure,” he said.

Keeping that distance could be a challenge, said Timothy Blauvelt, country director for the American Councils for International Education in Georgia. Blauvelt has lectured on the history of Sovietology in Western countries. “I know that when you have experienced it yourselves, it’s hard to stay objective, but if you want to research and study the issue from the scientific point of view, it’s better to be distanced from the epoch and from your own feelings” Blauvelt said.

But Ratiani, the program’s director, said objectivity should not necessarily be the scholar’s goal. He said the Soviet Union, just like Nazi Germany, was a definite evil and to look for the positive sides of the regime would be misguided. “We must find the reasons that led us to totalitarianism. We must stand for our principles and values.”

Though it lacks a similar program in Soviet studies, Tbilisi State University has seen mixed interest in the subject in the last two years. A Russian studies program launched there in 2008 includes courses on the history of the Soviet Union and on the ideology of the Soviet system. Still, only 10 students have enrolled in Russian studies at the university.

The director of the program, Dali Kandelaki, blames the university for not properly promoting the courses.

According to one of the program’s students, however, it also suffers from a lack of literature and professors sufficiently versed in the subject. David Jishkariani, 24, who said he supplements his studies with outside research, chose Russian studies as his master’s program after the 2008 Georgian-Russian war. “I finally came to the conclusion that we need to study Russia thoroughly, especially the Soviet and post-Soviet epoch. We’re in a transitional period in Georgia and if we want to get over it successfully, we must know where we’ve been,” he said. Jishkariani is researching the Stalinist persecutions of 1937 in Georgia, during which thousands were murdered or deported.

Along with Bakradze, the historian, Jishkariani and a handful of others helped launch a new organization called the Soviet Past Research Laboratory. Its first project will be a map of places in Georgia connected with terror and repression, including houses where the repressed families lived, prisons, places of execution, and houses where secret organizations met. By the end of the year the group plans to launch a website where it will upload photos and texts about the Soviet period as well as some materials from the country’s security archives.

Bakradze said Georgia can learn from Germany’s experience. “No real changes will come until we investigate and understand the past.”

Source

http://www.tol.org/client/article/21909-the-past-that-hasnt-become-history.html

Independent Journalist and Youth Activist Violently Arrested after National Civic Resistance Front Meeting

2010-11-04

A group of activists from the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience Front held a meeting in the Párraga Municipality of the City of Havana to restructure the organization, which coordinates nonviolent resistance actions on a national level. Upon walking out to the street, they noticed officers from the Castro regime's political police and Rapid Response Brigades surrounding the household, in preparation for a repudiation rally. The activists then began to shout anti-dictatorship and pro-freedom slogans, and sang the national anthem.

“Agent Juan had the audacity to enter the household and we began to shout anti-Castro slogans, and he ran off due to our shouts for freedom and democracy. At that time, a group of opposition activists from different organizations were meeting in Havana,” stated Eriberto Liranza Romero, from the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, and one of the coordinators of the Front in the City of Havana.

According to a later statement made his wife Yaimí Alfonso Lirea during a telephone conversation with the Cuban Democratic Directorate, the activists were attacked by political police around 5:30 PM, and Liranza was violently arrested.

Some of the activists in attendance at the meeting were: Rafael Hernández Fajardo from the Hard Line Front, Niola Camila Araujo from the Cuban Civic Foundation, Ermógenes Inocencio Guerrero Gómez and Boris Rodríguez Jiménez Frente from the Hard Line Front and the Frank País 30th of November Democratic Party, Eriberto Liranza Romero and Raúl Parada Ramírez from the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy, Modesto Leopoldo Valdivia Varela from the Unity and Liberty Cuban Movement for Human Rights, Ernesto Herrero Viel from the Independent Union of Light Industrial Workers affiliated with the National Independent Workers Confederation ofCuba/Confederación Obrera Nacional Independiente de Cuba (CONIC), Eli Hernández Rodríguez of the País 30th of November Democratic Party and Benito Aguirre De la Cruz of the Marti Civic League.

The activists stated that they were supported by the residents of Párraga while the police attacked the household, placing themselves between activist Eriberto Liranza Romero and an aggressor from the Rapid Response Brigade known as Michel who was holding a machete, in order to protect the activist. According to Yaimí Alfonso, the neighbors also helped to remove the children who were inside the household to protect them from the attacks.

Source

http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2857

Violent attacks against ‘Zapata Vive’ March in Holguin end in beatings and arrests of Reina Tamayo and activists

2010-11-01

On the morning of October 31^st after attending Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Charity Church in the municipality of Banes, Holguin, 46 activists and family members of murdered Cuban political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo carried out a public march along the streets of that city to the cemetery where his grave is, when 39 of them were beaten with rocks and then arrested by State Security officials.

“It was terrible. I could hear Reina from the dungeons cells. She said ‘Down with Fidel, Down with Raúl, Zapata lives!’. The march was great and had the townspeople’s acceptance. The police surrounded the entrance of the cemetery and there were beatings and arrests. I understand some activists have been taken to the State Security Unit for investigation. I was released early today, November 1^st. But the march was beautiful. The streets were echoing. It was beautiful,” stated Marlon Martorell, an activist who participated in the march.

According to independent journalist Caridad Caballero Batista, on October 31^st at noon she received a call from José Marino Ortiz, Reina Tamayo’s husband, who explained that Reina had been detained and that the participants were beaten, dragged, and taken away from the area on buses. A young girl, Lisset María Ortiz, who is 12 years old was also arrested and released at around 8:00 p.m. according to sources from the resistance movement.

“Reina was brutally beaten, detained, and handcuffed. The cemetery was completely surrounded by police, State Security, and the Rapid Response Brigades. At this point all phone lines belonging to not only the participants, but also to the activists who did not participate, have been cut. I have been told that some are detained in the Pedernales State Security Detention Center and others in the Police Unit in Holguin. I haven’t been able to leave because State Security has completely surrounded my house,” informed Caridad Caballero Batista from the city of Holguin.

Finalizing this release, the Cuban Democratic Directorate confirmed that Reina Luisa Tamayo Danger was released in the afternoon of October 31^st. She has beatings in the mouth, neck, and arms. Activist Marlon Martorell confirmed that at the moment of her arrest she was gagged with a gasoline-drenched cloth to silence her screams.

The Cuban Democratic Directorate denounces these aggressions against peaceful human rights activists and the mother of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, a murdered political prisoner, by the Castro brothers’ tyrannical regime. Our organization also calls upon the international community, especially the European Union to take into consideration the increase in repression in Cuba and the aggressions in the streets against human rights defenders.

Source

http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2859

Independent Journalist and Youth Activist Violently Arrested after National Civic Resistance Front Meeting

2010-10-28

Source

http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2857

Heavy sentences for VietNam labour activists condemned

2010-10-27

Amnesty International has condemned the nine and seven-year prison sentences given to three activists in Viet Nam for carrying out their legitimate work on labour rights.

Doan Huy Chuong, Do Thi Minh Hanh, and Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung were today convicted and sentenced after a speedy trial yesterday for ‘disrupting security’. They had distributed leaflets and supported workers’ rights at a factory.

“The authorities should immediately release three labour organisers, and stop this needless crackdown on government critics and peaceful activists” said Donna Guest, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific.

“Today’s harsh sentences, and the continuing arrests of activists and bloggers, paint an increasingly bleak picture of freedom of expression and association in Viet Nam.”

Doan is a founding member of the unofficial United Workers-Farmers Organization (UWFO) and previously spent 18 months in prison between 2007 and 2008 on the charge of ‘abusing democratic freedoms’. Do and Nguyen are members of Victims of Injustice, a petitioners’ movement.

The three activists are the latest to be convicted in an ongoing wave of arrests and trials of activists, organisers and bloggers.

There have been at least seven other trials of 17 dissidents in Viet Nam since September 2009, and seven further arrests in the last five months alone.

There have been two arrests of Vietnamese bloggers in the last few weeks: Phan Thanh Hai, known as Anh Ba Saigon and Nguyen Huong Tra, known as Do Long Girl. The prominent imprisoned blogger and journalist Nguyen Hoang Hai known as Dieu Cay completed a prison sentence for politically-motivated charges last week, but instead of being released, is now under investigation for ‘spreading propaganda against the state’.

Four more activists are awaiting trial for ‘attempting to overthrow the state’ following their arrests in July and August. Three of them - Nguyen Thanh Tham, Tran Thi Thuy and Pastor Duong Kim Khai - have campaigned for social justice for farmers, while the fourth, Professor Pham Minh Hoang, had protested against bauxite mining in the Central Highlands. All are members of the overseas Vietnamese network Viet Tan, which calls for political reform.

At least 30 prisoners of conscience are currently imprisoned in Viet Nam, including members and supporters of banned political groups, independent trade unionists, bloggers, businessmen, journalists, and writers.

The trial, conviction and sentencing of the three labour activists comes on the eve of the ASEAN summit in Ha Noi, beginning on 28 October.

Source

http://www.vietnamhumanrights.net/website/AI_102710.htm

US lawmakers ask Clinton to raise Vietnam rights

2010-10-27

US lawmakers on Wednesday called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to raise human rights with Vietnam on an upcoming visit, amid fresh convictions of activists and villagers.

The latest appeal was led in part by Representative Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat from California who is facing a tough re-election bid next week against Vietnamese American candidate Van Tran.

Sanchez and three other members of Congress asked Clinton to "raise specific cases and demand actual progress" when she meets Vietnamese leaders at an Asia summit later this week.

"We encourage you to take the opportunity to make human rights a cornerstone of US-Vietnam policy and to demonstrate America's support for the basic freedoms of the Vietnamese people," they wrote.

In a similar letter, Senator Barbara Boxer of California asked Clinton to "urge the Vietnamese government to immediately release all prisoners detained for peaceful advocacy of their beliefs."

The two letters asked Clinton to raise the case of writer and dissident Tran Khai Thanh Thuy. She was sentenced in February to three and a half years in prison on a charge of assault, which she denies.

The letters also criticized Vietnam's recent arrests of members of US-based Viet Tan, which the lawmakers called a "pro-democracy group" but Vietnam bans as a "terrorist organization."

The lawmakers sent the letters just as Vietnam, in two separate cases, convicted three labor activists and six Catholic villagers.

US lawmakers made an earlier appeal for the six villagers in Con Dau, alleging they were tortured as part of Vietnam's clampdown on freedom of worship. Vietnamese authorities deny any injuries, calling the incident a land dispute not connected with religion.

Source

http://www.vietnamhumanrights.net/website/AFP_102710.htm

Three Vietnam labour activists on trial

2010-10-26

A founder of an independent trade union and two other labour activists went on trial in Vietnam Tuesday charged with disrupting security, a court official said.

Doan Huy Chuong, Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, and Do Thi Minh Hanh, are on trial in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, said the official who declined to be named.

"A verdict is going to be issued Wednesday," she said. "The accused have not asked for defence lawyers."

US-based Human Rights Watch said the trio, all in their twenties, were arrested in February for distributing anti-government leaflets and helping workers to organise strikes for better pay.

Chuong was earlier arrested in October 2006 after helping to found the United Workers-Farmers Organization (UWFO), which Vietnam has banned. He was later sentenced to 18 months' jail by a court in southern Dong Nai province for "spreading distorted information to undermine the state," government-controlled media reported at the time.

Vietnam bans labour unions that are independent of the ruling Communist Party.

The charge of disrupting security is punishable by between two and 15 years in prison upon conviction.

Source

http://www.vietnamhumanrights.net/website/AFP_102610.htm

Internal Communist Party Documents Disclose New Campaign to Forcibly "Transform" Millions of Falun Gong Practitioners in China

2010-10-26

A series of internal Communist Party documents, some of them posted online, reveal the details of a new three-year, multi-billion dollar campaign targeting Falun Gong practitioners across China.

The campaign’s stated goal is to “transform” 75 percent of all known practitioners, who number in the tens of millions despite eleven years of brutal suppression. Specifically, the campaign calls upon security forces to go into “villages and households” to “educate and conquer” Falun Gong practitioners.

Transformation—a euphemism for forcing practitioners to renounce Falun Gong and pledge allegiance to the Communist Party—has been at the core of the anti-Falun Gong campaign since its inception. As part of the transformation process, individuals are typically subjected to physical and psychological torture. “What these documents call for is a campaign of surveillance, extralegal abductions, physical torture, and psychological abuse on a massive scale,” says Falun Gong spokesman Erping Zhang. “The scenes playing out across China could be taken right out of Orwell’s 1984.”

“When Chinese authorities talk of ‘transforming’ Falun Gong practitioners, what they mean is torturing out of people the aspiration to be honest, kind, and tolerant. They torment healthy, rational people to the point where the victim either betrays his or her most deeply held beliefs and completely submits to the will of the Communist Party, dies from abuse, or is driven to the edge of sanity. They push practitioners to the point where life is a living hell.”

The Falun Dafa Information Center has obtained eight documents from various localities describing a campaign to intensify efforts to transform Falun Gong practitioners from 2010 to 2012. Seven of the documents are available online, while the eighth was obtained from an internal source whose identity and location cannot be revealed for fear of retribution.

Based on details in the documents, the campaign is a multi-billion dollar initiative. On one webpage from Xinglong township in Sichuan province, the instructions call for an increase in funding for transformation efforts. The document states that “to transform one Falun Gong person costs on average 45,000 yuan [$6,750] nationwide, 40,900 yuan in Sichuan provice, [and] in my township, 39,000 yuan.” Given that Falun Gong practitioners in China number from 20 to 40 million, the total cost reaches tens of billions of dollars.

Although all eight documents are from the level of county or below, there is little doubt that the instructions originated at the top echelons of the Communist Party. One document explicitly states that the campaign was initiated by the central 6-10 Office, an extralegal security force that has led the persecution of Falun Gong since 1999. In addition, identical wording is evident among the documents, as are references to campaign performance being a criteria for evaluation at the end of the year. Both are elements typical of high-level instructions implemented down the ranks of the Party apparatus.

“Beyond the revelations they provide on the latest danger facing Falun Gong practitioners in China, these internal documents dispel—in the Communist Party’s own words—the common misconception that Falun Gong has been crushed,” says Zhang.

“After all, if the Party had succeeded in eliminating the group, as it often claims publicly, why would it need to invest billions of dollars in a three-year campaign to strengthen the ‘battle’ against Falun Gong?”

Henan Province Document Lists Transformation Quota

An online notice from the Communist Party Committee of Laodian township in Henan dated May 2010 is one of the most detailed of the documents describing the campaign. It speaks of implementing “a 2010-2012 plan to educate, transform, and conquer key targets” in order to gain ground in the “overall battle” against Falun Gong. To do so, the order requires “every administrative village” and “all units under the township” to push the campaign forward “in full force.”

The document then articulates the campaign’s goal to “achieve a transformation rate of 75% by the end of 2012” and to keep the rate of those who resume practicing Falun Gong upon release from custody “to less than 6%.”

To fulfill these quotas, local officials are first tasked with identifying all Falun Gong practitioners in a given area. Then, they are to send the practitioners to “law education seminars,” more commonly known as brainwashing centers. Inside the brainwashing centers, practitioners are pressured to sign statements asserting they have given up their belief in Falun Gong. Those who refuse face physical and psychological torture, as well as the prospect of indefinite detention.

The document encourages local authorities to continuously refine so-called “effective” methods for forcing practitioners to renounce their belief, including making use of scientific expertise to accomplish that goal. For practitioners not taken to brainwashing centers, neighbors from local Party committees and other organizations are recruited to regularly monitor and harass them in an effort to compel them to stop practicing.

Reports of Abductions, Deaths in Brainwashing Centers

The Communist Party has consistently used brainwashing centers in its decade-long persecution of Falun Gong. Nonetheless, since the issuing of the above orders in mid-2010, the Falun Dafa Information Center has noted increased reports of practitioners being taken by the dozens to such facilities.

Since mid-September alone, cases have been received of practitioners being taken to brainwashing centers in Beijing, Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin, Hebei, Hubei, Sichuan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Given the temporary and extralegal nature of the facilities, many of the above mentioned centers are located in schools, hotels, and other public buildings.

As an indication of the severe treatment meted out at these facilities, cases of Falun Gong practitioners being killed within days of being taken to brainwashing centers have also emerged. On August 2, 2010, the director of a local residential committee and several police officers abducted Ms. Yan Pingjun, a seamstress, from her stall in Shijiazhuang of Hebei province. Police then ransacked her home, extorting 550 yuan from her husband to allegedly pay for his wife’s living expenses while at a brainwashing class. Eight days later, police informed him that Ms. Yan had died at a “Legal Education Training Center” in the city’s Xinhua District. She was 45 years old.

Source

http://faluninfo.net/article/1091/?cid=84

3 monks sentenced to varying prison terms in Tibet's Dhingri

2010-10-26

Dharamsala, October 26 - 3 monks of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Dhingri in south western Tibet under Shigatse prefecture have been sentenced to varying prison terms, the Voice of Tibet reported Monday.

Tenzin Gephel and Ngawang, both monks of Shelkar Choede monastery, have been sentenced to 12 years in prison while another monk of the same monastery has been sentenced to 5 years in jail. However, the dates of trial and verdict announcement are not known as of now.

The 3 were arrested along with 10 others on May 19, 2008 when Chinese work team officials arrived at the monastery to force patriotic reeducation upon the monks in the monastery.

The monks were forced to denounce the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama during the patriotic reeducation campaign but the monks stood defiant despite warnings of expulsion and even arrest saying that the Dalai Lama was their root religious teacher and that they revered him greatly.

A total of 13 monks were arrested on May 19, 2008. 10 were released after a year in 2009. The local Chinese authorities have stopped admission of new monks to the monastery since the incident.

Source

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28430&article=3+monks+sentenced+to+varying+prison+terms+in+Tibet's+Dhingri

Tibetian Youth Congress:China has no "moral right" to host Asian Games

2010-10-26

By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala, October 26: The largest pro-independence Tibetan youth organistion on Tuesday protested against China's hosting of the Asian Games next month, saying it lacks "moral right" to hold such an important international sporting event.

"Generally the spirit of any international games represents friendship, solidarity and promotion of peace and freedom. The Asian Games in particular is about helping weaker countries, helping them rehabilitate and develop an understanding of mutual friendship and cooperation," the Tibetan Youth Congress said in a press statement.

The statement said a country hosting such an important event "essentially should not only represent but respect these principles."

Calling China the "biggest colonizer" in modern times, TYC said it should not have been given the right to host the forthcoming 16th Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou from November 12 to 27. Instead of "promoting peace and friendship", the organisation said China continues to use its "military and economic might to stifle smaller and weaker countries".

"So long they do not conclude the occupation of Tibet, words such as freedom, truth and peace for the Chinese government is just another rhetoric. Therefore China has no moral right to host such an important sporting event," the organisation said.

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28431&article=China+has+no+%22moral+right%22+to+host+Asian+Games%3a+TYC

EU plans to relax its stance toward Cuba

2010-10-26

The European Union plans to relax its firm position toward Cuba and has instructed its High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, to explore ways to improve trade and diplomatic relations with the Castro regime, a European diplomatic source told Agence France-Presse.
The firm position will remain in place for now, however.
Ashton was asked by the E.U. foreign ministers meeting Monday in Luxembourg to consider a revision of the European Union's 1996 policy toward the Cuban government in the light of the recent release of political prisoners, the source said.
This policy, called the "common position," prevents the normalization of relations with the island in the absence of improvements in human-rights observance and democratic progress. A dialogue has existed since 2008 but remains very limited.
The idea is to "explore ways to try to move forward" on the issue, said the European diplomat.
Ashton intends to report on her efforts in December, possibly at a meeting of foreign ministers, the source told AFP.

Source

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/#ixzz13V54Df4u

American held in Cuba expresses regret to Raul Castro

2010-10-25

Judy Gross said that in the letter, which Castro read but did not respond to, she pleaded with him to free her husband Alan because their daughter has been diagnosed with breast cancer and he is needed at home.

Alan Gross, 61, who worked for a Washington-area company contracted under a U.S. Agency for International Development program to promote democracy in Cuba, was arrested at the Havana airport on December 3 and has been held on suspicion of espionage and subversion.

In an interview this weekend, his wife denied he was a spy and said he went to Cuba five times last year to help Havana's Jewish community gain Internet access to Jews worldwide.

Cuban officials say Gross committed "serious crimes" by giving restricted satellite communications equipment to local dissidents, but no legal charges have been filed.

His detention has stalled efforts by Washington to improve ties with the communist-led island.

Judy Gross criticized the White House for not doing enough to seek release of her husband, whom she called a "pawn" caught up in a decades-old ideological feud between the United States and Cuba. She said she has heard nothing from President Barack Obama.

The White House said on Sunday it shared her "concern and frustration with the continued unwarranted detention of her husband."

"Administration officials have repeatedly made clear to Cuban authorities that Alan Gross should be released immediately to be able to rejoin his wife and family -- and we will continue to do so," National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said in a statement.

In an August 4 letter to Castro, she wrote, "I recognize today that the Cuban government may not like the type of work that Alan was doing in Cuba."

"But I want you to know that Alan loves the people of Cuba, and he only wanted to help them. He never intended them, or your government, any harm," she said.

"To the extent his work may have offended you or your government, he and I are genuinely remorseful," she wrote.

She told Castro her family needed Gross home since his 26-year-old daughter, whose name she asked not be used, was diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy.

The only response came at a meeting this month with Jorge Alberto Bolanos, head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, who offered mother and daughter visas to visit Gross in Cuba. He said President Castro had read her letter.

Source

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69N0RK20101024

Vietnam: Free Peaceful Bloggers and Government Critics

2010-10-25

Human Rights Watch

New York, October 23, 2010

Vietnam should immediately drop charges against the peaceful online critics Nguyen Van Hai, known as Dieu Cay, and Phan Thanh Hai, known as Anhbasg, and release them, Human Rights Watch said today. The government’s politically motivated prosecutions of independent bloggers and critics of the government violates their rights guaranteed under international law and spotlights the country’s poor human rights record, Human Rights Watch said.

On October 20, 2010, the day the blogger Dieu Cay’s 30-month prison sentence on trumped-up “tax evasion” charges was to finish, police officials refused to release him. Police said he would be held pending investigation of a new charge that he had violated article 88 of the Penal Code by carrying out “propaganda against the Socialist Republic.” His former wife, Duong Thi Tan, who was preparing to pick him up from the prison, was detained and interrogated by police in Ho Chi Minh City, and authorities searched her house.

“The Vietnam government is shameless in constructing charges and rationales to keep peaceful critics like Dieu Cay behind bars,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The pre-Party Congress crackdown is swinging into full gear and government critics are being targeted.”

Dieu Cay is the founder of an independent group called the Club of Free Journalists. The tax charges were widely viewed as a pretext to muzzle his criticism of the government and its policy toward China. On October 18, police in Ho Chi Minh City also arrested Phan Thanh Hai, another member of the group. Two other members, Ta Phong Tan and Uyen Vu, both bloggers, were placed under intrusive police surveillance at their homes. Police also briefly detained a democracy activist, Do Nam Hai, on October 19.

“In a country where the state controls all traditional media outlets, independent bloggers have emerged as important sources of news, information, and social commentary,” Robertson said. “The government should embrace the key role that independent bloggers are playing in society instead of harassing and imprisoning them.”

The repressive measures against bloggers have coincided with a recent wave of arbitrary arrests that appear to be part of an official effort to stifle critical voices in the months before the Vietnamese Communist Party Congress, in January 2011. Vietnam bans opposition political parties and independent media and requires all associations, religious groups and trade unions to come under government control.

On August 13, the police arrested Pham Minh Hoang, known by his pen name, Phan Kien Quoc, of Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic University, who is a contributor to a website critical of Chinese-operated bauxite mines in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Police accused him of working with Viet Tan, an overseas opposition party, and attending meetings at which methods of nonviolent resistance were discussed. Others arrested for alleged involvement with Viet Tan in recent months include Duong Kim Khai, a Mennonite pastor arrested on August 10 in Ho Chi Minh City; and land-rights petitioners Tran Thi Thuy, arrested on August 10 in Dong Thap, and Nguyen Thanh Tam, arrested on July 18 in Ben Tre.

Three labor rights activists – Doan Huy Chuong, Do Thi Minh Hanh, and Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung – are scheduled for trial in Tra Vinh province on October 26, charged with “disrupting security.” The three were arrested in February for distributing anti-government leaflets and helping workers to organize strikes for better pay. Also scheduled for trial next week are six villagers from Con Dau parish in Da Nang province who were arrested in May when police forcibly dispersed a funeral procession to a cemetery located on disputed land.

The 17^th summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which begins on October 28 in Hanoi, provides an excellent opportunity for ASEAN heads of state and other governments to raise concerns about the persecution of government critics, Human Rights Watch said.

“Participants to the ASEAN summit should ask their Vietnamese hosts what they think a ‘people-centered ASEAN’ really means to a Vietnamese blogger in prison,” Robertson said. “ASEAN should insist that Vietnam immediately release these prisoners and respect the ASEAN Charter’s human rights principles.”

For more Human Rights Watch Reporting on Vietnam, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/asia/vietnam

20 Tibetan students detained, protests over language continue in Tibet

2010-10-25

More protests against the Chinese government's education policy have been reported on Sunday as thousands of students took to the streets of Chentsa County to demand that the government revert its decision to replace Tibetan language as medium of instruction in Tibetan schools by Chinese language.

Sources also said that 20 students were detained following protests on Saturday in Chabcha County.

Sources say that teachers and school staff also joined the protest on Sunday that started around 7.30 in the morning yesterday. Students in Chentsa also protested on 19th and 21st October.

Meanwhile, similar protests have been reported from other areas as well. The first protests were reported from Rebkong on 19 October when Tibetan students from 6 different schools carried out protests demanding “Equality of People, Freedom of Language”.

The past few days saw protests by thousands of Tibetan students in Chabcha, Chentsa, Khrigha, Golok and Beijing where 400 Tibetan students held protests against the forced replacement of Tibetan language by Chinese as the medium of instruction.

Meanwhile, a letter of appeal signed by several teachers was submitted to the Qinghai government on October 15 urging the provincial government to reconsider its decision to change the medium of instruction from Tibetan to Chinese. Khabda.org, a Tibetan language blog says it has obtained a part of the letter submitted in both Tibetan and Chinese.

The incomplete letter, Khabda.org says, contains signatures of 103 teachers but adds about 300 teachers signed the original letter.

Citing the Chinese constitution, the teachers wrote in the letter that the Article 4 of the Chinese constitution provides for all ethnic groups the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages and to preserve or reform their own folkways and customs.

Source

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28417&article=20+Tibetan+students+detained%2c+protests+over+language+continue+in+Tibet

Window on Eurasia: Moscow’s Unwillingness to Support Russian Nation Reflects Its Own Imperial Agenda, Kazan Scholar Says

2010-10-25

by Paul Goble

Like their Soviet predecessors, the current powers that be in the Russian Federation are quite prepared to sacrifice the national interests of the ethnic Russian people in the pursuit of an imperialist agenda, but this sacrifice will not serve either Russian national interests or Moscow’s imperial goals, according to a Kazan sociologist.
Aleksandr Salagayev further argues that “the legal vacuum which characterizes the situation of ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation and the position of the powers that be who are ignoring this contradiction is the source of inter-ethnic conflicts with migrants, the extremism of Russian organizations in Russia and the weakness of Russian diasporas abroad.
In a 3200-word essay posted on the Regnum.ru news agency, Salagayev, a specialist on social and political conflicts at the Kazan State Technological University, traces the long and complicated history of the relations between the ethnic Russian nation and the states within which it has existed (www.regnum.ru/news/1337042.html).
Prior to 1917, he notes, “Russians were an imperial nation.” The state’s slogan, “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality,” applied only to them, but the Russian nation included the Great Russians, the Little Russians (Ukrainians), and the Belarusians, as one might expect an imperial people, as opposed to a nation, to do.
The country’s nationality policy changed dramatically with the coming to power of the Bolsheviks. Their ideas about “proletarian internationalism,” Salagayev argues, instituted “a double standard” with the rights of the non-Russians being protected and the rights of the ethnic Russians as a community being ignored or at least slighted.
While that balance shifted over time, the Kazan scholar says, many now believe that “the main cause of the destruction of the USSR was the weakening of the Russian ethnos and the loss of its role in economic and state-political life which took place after the October 1917 coup” that brought the Bolsheviks to power.
In the first years of Soviet power, the communist tilt toward the non-Russians was most pronounced, with the non-Russians being given republics and the ethnic Russians, routinely denounced for “great power chauvinism,” being denied one repeatedly. Salagayev notes that efforts to form a Russian republic were blocked by Soviet leaders in 1922, 1923, 1925, and 1926.
After Stalin declared “the final solution of the nationality question in the USSR” in 1934, the Russian nation was redefined. No longer was it “the former oppressor nation” with a historic “debt” to the others, but rather the Russian nation became the elder brother – or as “Leningradskaya Pravda” put it in 1937, “the eldest among equals.”
But despite the rhetorical change, Russians were still expected to provide funding for the non-Russians to help them catch up with modernity, a policy that continued throughout the rest of the Soviet period and one that by “ignoring the interests of the Russian people [was] inevitably accompanied by Russophobia” on the part of the regime.
That is because this attitude “was expressed not so much in the denial of the ‘positive features of the Russian nation and its positive contribution to world history’ as in a fear of the Russian national factor … and the possible resistance from the side of the most numerous people of the communist reconstruction of the country and the world.”
Indeed, KGB and then CPSU leader Yuri Andropov famously observed, Salagayev recalls, that “the chief concern for us is Russian nationalism; as to the dissidents, we would take them all in one night.”
In short, “self-determination of the Russian people was assessed as chauvinism but the self-determination of other peoples was considered as a necessary condition of their national development,” Salagayev says. And as a result, “the national interests and the interests of Russians in autonomous formations were simply ignored.”
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, this policy continued. “Ethnic mobilization” seized “all the ethnic groups” of the country except the ethnic Russians “who despite the actual loss of their imperial status preserve the illusions about their imperial destiny, responsibility for the fate of Russia and other such myths.”
Ethnic mobilization among ethnic Russians thus has been dominated by marginal groups like the RNE and Primorsky partisans and by “the spontaneous ethnic mobilization of Russians” in relatively small cities such as Kondopoga. In his article, Salagayev lists 22 such cases of the latter since 1999.
None of these efforts can be called successful, he says, largely because Moscow opposed all of them. The 1996 law on national-cultural autonomy did not apply to Russians and efforts beginning in 2001 to adopt “a law on the Russian people” were blocked by the powers that be and have come to nothing.
“In thus preserving the imperial ambitions of Russians,” Salagayev continues, “the powers that be are not showing any interest in the fate of the Russian people and in fact are struggling against those who recognize the real situation, calling such people Russian extremists or Russian fascists.”
Moscow continues to subsidize the non-Russian republics at far greater rates than the predominantly Russian areas, but its failure to support the Russian nation is undercutting its own imperial strategy because it is leading ever more ethnic Russians to flee non-Russian areas back to the center of the country.
In Salagayev’s opinion, “the situation is very similar to the policy of support of the national borderlands of the Soviet Union at the expense of the central oblasts which are populated primarily by Russians, a policy which in the final analysis led to the collapse of the USSR. It is obvious that such a policy will preserve the territorial integrity of Russia.”
The Kazan scholar suggests that there are two possible solutions to this situation, a “radical” one in which ethnic Russian oblasts would be formed and non-Russian republics liquidated, and a “moderate” one in which ethnic Russians would gain the same right to form national cultural autonomies that other nations now have.
Salagayev adds that some combination is likely, and he concludes by suggesting that Moscow must address the Russian question at home if it is to have any hope of protecting compatriots abroad, many of whom have been reduced to the status of “second class citizens” there in a way paralleling that of ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation itself.

Source

http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/10/window-on-eurasia-moscows-unwillingness.html

Vietnam: Free Peaceful Bloggers and Government Critics

2010-10-24

Human Rights Watch

New York, October 23, 2010

Source

http://www.vietnamhumanrights.net/website/HRW_102310.htm

Prisoners refuse to be freed if they cannot resume political activism

2010-10-22

The Cuban government might release this weekend several political prisoners who have refused to be sent to Spain, says the Spanish daily El Mundo.
One of the prisoners, Pedro Argüelles Morán, told the newspaper that he and others had been informed by the authorities that they could be released as early as today Sunday.
The release would come one day before the meeting in Luxembourg of the European Union, where the continuation of the Union's "common position" toward Cuba will be debated.
According to El Mundo, the prisoners who refuse to leave the island say that they will accept their release only if they can "continue their political and journalistic endeavors as human-rights activists."
They also want the authorities to expunge their police records.

Source

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/#ixzz13V2Sxg5d

Analysts see award to Fariñas as fourth setback in a week to the Castro regime

2010-10-22

A prestigious human rights prize awarded to dissident Guillermo Fariñas on Thursday was the fourth admonition to the Cuban government this week that its reforms are not enough, Cuba watchers said Thursday.
Fariñas, 48, a psychologist and independent journalist whose 135-day hunger strike earlier this year put him near death, was awarded the Sakharov prize and more than $60,000 by the European Parliament.
The Raúl Castro government had no immediate comment on Fariñas' prize, but Cuba watchers noted that it was the latest in a string of setbacks that Havana suffered just this week:
• President Barack Obama declared that Cuba has not changed enough to merit U.S. gestures.
• Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, often criticized as too friendly to Havana, was replaced.
• The European Union was reported unlikely to end a policy that ties assistance to Cuba's human rights record.
"These are four messages to Cuba that it's not doing enough, that it needs a more defined policy of change," dissident Havana economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe told El Nuevo Herald.

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/#ixzz13Uk6GtMC

Chinese dissidents plan their own WikiLeaks

2010-10-22

by Choi Chi-yuk

A group of Chinese dissidents plan to launch their own version of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks to expose central government secrets and promote democracy.

The organisers have signalled their intentions through social networking sites such as Twitter. They aim to launch "Government Leaks" on June 1 next year and they are calling on people to upload confidential government information to their database.

"I think by making government secrets open we can promote democracy in China. This is a fight against the dictatorship, and to return the right to information to the people. I believe it will advance China's political reform," said the founder of the website, who identified himself as "Deep Throat" when talking to the South China Morning Post (SEHK: 0583, announcements, news) .

Deep Throat said a team of professionals had been aseembled to run the site, including journalists, editors, lawyers and hackers - who would help defend against possible cyberattacks.

The founder said he was inspired by Watergate, the US scandal of the 1970s, and the success of WikiLeaks, which gained worldwide recognition after it published a massive trove of US intelligence documents relating to the war in Afghanistan, a move that infuriated the Pentagon and energised opponents of the war.

Ironically, the founders of WikiLeaks include some Chinese dissidents, according to its website, and it has recently launched a Chinese language version. The Chinese WikiLeaks has not so far published any sensitive information on the Beijing government though.

Deep Throat said at first he tried to form a partnership with WikiLeaks. "I sent them a letter on October 1, to all three e-mail accounts listed by WikiLeaks. I told them that I wanted to co-operate with them. But the e-mails never went through as their system was always down. I ended up with three undelivered e-mails in my box," he said.

"Government Leaks has no relations with WikiLeaks, but you can call us the copycat version of WikiLeaks in China," he said.

Unlike WikiLeaks, which is based in Europe where the freedom of speech and rights to information are guaranteed by the European Union's constitution, Government Leaks would inevitably anger the central government.

Many technology-savvy net activists on the mainland feel Government Leaks is too open in its approach. They say the idea is naive and dangerous. Some fear it could become a trap for the authorities to round-up whistle-blowers.

John Kennedy, the Chinese language editor of Global Voices Online, who is more widely known in China by his pseudonym Feng 37, described it as "a blind man riding a blind horse" - a Chinese idiom of things doomed to fail.

Kennedy, a Canadian national, said five out of the seven e-mail service providers of Government Leaks are based on the mainland - meaning they would be subject to severe surveillance by the authorities. "No one would send them anything, except those stupid guys," he said. He also criticised the website for lacking encrypted links to protect informers.

Another mainland net activist, calling himself Zola, also questioned if the security technology of Government Leaks could provide enough protection to whistle-blowers. "In the worst case, the informer could be prosecuted for illegally possessing state secrets," he warned.

He cited the example of mainland journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2005 for leaking state secrets. Shi was incriminated by the central government after the authorities obtained a secret document he sent to an overseas website through a mainland-based Yahoo China server.

Deep Throat said informers' safety would be treated as the most important issue. Government Leaks would not use normal e-mail accounts to communicate with informers. It is also studying encrypted technologies to receive reports. "We will also keep contacting WikiLeaks and see if they can help," he said.

Another challenge for the website is verifying information and fact checking. Deep Throat said he would invite well-known public figures to help authenticate documents.

"We are not formally launched yet. But once the site is up, we will definitely run things through them before publishing them."

Since making the open call for information a few months ago, Deep Throat said Government Leaks was receiving four or five documents on average each week.

But he said most of the information would hardly be considered classified. "Some are out-dated. Some is actual information that is available on the internet. So far we have got only one document that really fits the bill."

Zola said he would not send any sensitive information to Government Leaks unless he was 100 per cent certain about safety.

He does not suspect Deep Throat's motives and background, but he is sceptical over Government Leaks' ability to overcome the daunting technological and legal challenges it faces.

"They have got to have the right mentality in terms of the seriousness of security in the first place. Then they have a chance of being in full command of the network technology. Only then, can privacy and, hence, the safety of both the website operators and potential informers be secured."

Source

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28408&article=Chinese+dissidents+plan+their+own+WikiLeaks

Tibetan students' protests reach Beijing

2010-10-22

by Barbara Demick

Between 200 and 300 students at the Central University for Minorities protest plans to elevate Chinese to the main language of instruction in Tibetan schools in Qinghai Province. Earlier in the week, as many as 9,000 people protested in Tibetan communities in Qinghai and Sichuan provinces with banners reading "Equality for minorities; equality for languages."

The protests were set off by plans of education officials in Qinghai to use only Chinese-language teaching materials except for language lessons in Tibetan and English. Qiang Wei, the province Communist Party chief, has been quoted recently speaking out in favor of students learning a "common language" — shorthand for Mandarin Chinese.

"Chinese law says that ethnic minorities have the right to study their mother tongue first in school — that's why the students are angry," Xiong Kunxin, a professor at the Central University for Minorities in Beijing, said on Friday.

A source at the university who did not wish to be identified said between 200 and 300 students participated in the two-hour protest at midday, after which the president of the university and teachers called them into classrooms and asked them to write out their complaints in Chinese.

Among Tibetans, the language of instruction in schools is a flashpoint for protest. While many families wish their children to learn Chinese in order to attend college and apply for better jobs, they also worry that Chinese officials are seeking to diminish their language, culture and religion.

The largest of the protests this week was in Tongren, known as Repkong in Tibetan, a city in Qinghai province that has frequently been the scene for ethnic clashes. These were the largest demonstrations by China's Tibetans since 2008, when clashes erupted in the city of Lhasa and spread through most of the Tibetan communities in China.

As many as 6,000 people were reported to have demonstrated Tuesday, although there were no reports of violence. Free Tibet, a London-based advocacy group, said that police did not interfere with the protests.

"The Chinese are enforcing reforms which remind me of the Cultural Revolution. This reform is not only a threat to our mother tongue, but is in direct violation of the Chinese constitution which is meant to protect our rights," the group quoted a former middle school teacher from Tongren saying.

"The Chinese have been talking more and more about promoting the 'common language,' but now they are re-allying implementing these policies with textbooks and also broadcasting," said Tsering Shayka, a Tibetan historian based in Canada, who has been blogging about the protests.

In July, there were protests in Guangdong about plans to switch the language of many television shows from Cantonese, the language widely spoken in southern China, to Mandarin.

Source

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28410&article=Tibetan+students'+protests+reach+Beijing

Blogger’s detention prolonged illegally, two other bloggers arrested

2010-10-21

Nguyen Hoang Hai, a blogger better known by the pen-name of Dieu Cay, should have been released yesterday or the day before on completing a two year jail-sentence, but he is still being held and has reportedly been transferred to a different prison. His wife was also briefly arrested.

“The authorities seem to be seeking a pretext for keeping Dieu Cay in detention and are acting in a completely illegal manner,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He must be released without delay and the harassment of his family members must also stop.”

Arrested on 19 April 2008, Dieu Cay was sentenced by a Ho Chi Minh City court on 10 September 2008 to two and a half years in prison on a trumped-up charge of tax fraud designed to silence a troublesome dissident.

He had written about the protests accompanying the Olympic torch relay prior to the 2008 Beijing Games and was arrested just before the torch was paraded through Ho Chi Minh City. He had been under close police surveillance since taking part in protests at the start of 2008 against China’s claim to sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel Islands.

Reporters Without Borders also calls for the immediate release of two other Vietnamese bloggers who have reportedly just been arrested.

One of them is Phan Thanh Hai, who is also known by the blog name of Anh Ba Saigon. The police reportedly arrested him at his home on 18 October, seizing three computers. He is facing a possible four-month jail sentence on a charge of “propaganda against the state,” according to his wife.

She quoted the police as say he was arrested for posting false information in his blog, in which he writes about Vietnam’s territorial disputes with China and the bauxite mining being carried about China in Vietnam. He has also expressed his support for other Vietnamese dissidents.

A series of hacker attacks on dissident websites, including the site of To Hai, a famous composer who became a dissident, is also currently under way. Reporters Without Borders condemns the increase in these cyber-attacks, which are designed to sabotage websites that tackle sensitive issues.

Vietnam is ranked 165th out of 178 countries in the world press freedom index that Reporters Without Borders released yesterday.

Source

http://www.vietnamhumanrights.net/website/RWB_102110.htm

Cuban dissident wins Sakharov Prize

2010-10-21

STRASBOURG, France—The European Parliament awarded its annual human-rights prize on Thursday to Guillermo Farinas, the Cuban dissident whose 134-day hunger strike helped draw attention to the plight of political dissidents jailed in a 2003 crackdown.

Cuba began freeing the 52 political prisoners earlier this year after an agreement ironed out with the help of the Roman Catholic Church, prompting Mr. Farinas to end his protest.

Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas spoke on the phone at his home in Santa Clara after hearing news of his winning the Sakharov Award.

A 48-year-old psychologist and freelance journalist, he has spent more than 11 years in prison for a variety of offenses, though he wasn't behind bars during the hunger strike. He decided to launch his protest after the death of a jailed political prisoner following a long hunger strike.

Cuba's government considers him a common criminal paid for by Cuba's enemies in Washington, and notes that some of his legal troubles include an assault on a co-worker and other violent behavior. Mr. Farinas has said all the charges are linked to his activism.

Reached by telephone at his humble home in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara, Mr. Farinas said the award sent a strong signal to the government in Havana.

"The award is a very direct message to Cuba's leaders, who have done so little" to respect human rights, he said. Mr. Farinas warned he will begin another hunger strike if the Cuban government doesn't fulfill its July 8 pledge to free all 52 political prisoners jailed in 2003 within four months. To date, 39 have accepted exile in Spain in return for their freedom. At least some of the remaining 13 appear to be holding out because they don't want to leave Cuba.

The European Parliament said it will invite Mr. Farinas to come to Strasbourg on Dec. 15 to collect the assembly's 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The prize carries a cash award of €50,000 ($69,745).

The prize is bound to rile Havana's communist leaders and complicate efforts to improve their relations with Europe that have been strained since the crackdown on dissent.

Cuba's leaders are already angry over the recent decision to award the Nobel Prize for literature to Mario Vargas Llosa, the Chilean author whose disdain for Fidel and Raul Castro is well-known, and the Nobel Peace Prize to a jailed pro-democracy activist in China, an important Cuban ally.

Previous winners of the Sakharov Prize include Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's opposition leader, and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

Europe's top human-rights prize was awarded twice before to Cubans: in 2002 to pro-democracy activist Oswaldo Paya and in 2005 to a dissident group, Ladies in White.

Mr. Farinas, a former Cuban soldier, is a contributor to the independent press agency Cubanacan Press, which is maintained by anti-Castro Cuban-Americans.

Since 2006 he has repeatedly chosen hunger strikes to protest what he says is the lack of freedom—notably the internet censorship—and shaky respect for human rights in his country.

The Sakharov Award was announced four days before the EU foreign ministers are to assess the 27-nation bloc's relations with Cuba. The EU's view has long been that Cuba must improve its human rights record before relations can be upgraded. Spain spearheads a bid to improve relations, but the bloc's former communist members in Eastern Europe oppose this.

Mr. Farinas said he opposes any improvement in European relations with his country, and he brushed off the release of political prisoners as insufficient. "The release of prisoners is not enough to make Cuba a democratic country," he added.

Source

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304023804575566102690123906.html#printMode

Giving Fariñas the Sakharov prize debases the award, Spanish member of the EP says

2010-10-21

At least one Euro-deputy does not share the European Parliament's enthusiasm over Guillermo Fariñas.
Maria Muñiz de Urquiza, 47, a Spanish socialist member of the EP, said Thursday in Strasbourg that presenting the Sakharov Prize to the Cuban dissident "discredits" the award. The prize has been "politicized," she said, and the EP ignored recent positive developments in Cuba.
Giving Fariñas the credit for the prisoners' release "implies ignoring or trying to minimize the efforts of Spain's foreign policy and of other agencies, like the Catholic Church, and focusing only on Cuba, as if human rights violations didn't exist anywhere else in the world," Muñiz told the Europa Press news agency.
The award "has been utilized politically from the standpoint of sectarianism" without considering events in Cuba, "where a gradual release of political prisoners has been taking place."
The Parliament "has decided to give the award again to a well-known cause that is being solved, whereas there were others [...] that deserve international recognition," she said.
Cuban dissidents were given the Sakharov Prize in 2002 and 2005 (see our previous blog item).
Rewarding another Cuban oppositionist "absolutely devalues the Sakharov Prize," Muñiz said. "It discredits and diminishes it, because you cannot pay attention to only one cause of human rights violations in the world, which, in any case, is being solved."

Source

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/#ixzz130Y8qxqP

Repeal of 'common stance' seems unlikely

2010-10-20

The European Union is expected to reaffirm next Monday its "common position" toward Cuba, although it might accept some "gesture" from Havana that would enable it to negotiate another type of relation, Europa Press reported Wednesday.
The Common Position conditions European nations' diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba to progress in human rights observance and economic liberalization.
A change in the common stance requires a unanimous vote from the 27 European Union nations. According to diplomatic sources interviewed by the news agency, at least two countries – Germany and the Czech Republic – will vote against change.
The EU's foreign-policy chief, Catherine Ashton, reportedly has already drafted a statement revealing the Union's decision and proposing that new possibilities be explored.

Source

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/#ixzz130Zkv7AP

Cuba not doing enough, Obama maintains

2010-10-19

United States policy toward Cuba will remain unchanged despite Cuba's release of imprisoned dissidents and its announced changes in economic structure.
That's not enough, President Obama told Hispanic reporters Tuesday at a Washington gathering. No transcript of the meeting was made immediately available by the White House.
"Any release of political prisoners, any economic liberalization that takes place in Cuba is positive, positive for Cuban people, but we've not yet seen the full results of these promises," Obama said, according to Agence France-Presse.
"We want to continue to explore the possibilities of changing relations [...] but before we take any more steps, we want to see that the Castro regime is serious about different ways to deal with the situation," Obama said, quoted by El Nuevo Herald.
"We need more information before we make a definitive decision or take additional steps," the newspaper quoted him as saying.
As to the release of prisoners, "there are still political prisoners in Cuba," the president said. He did not go into specific figures.

Source

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/#ixzz130b1aMkx

Amnesty International asks U.S. to review case of five Cubans and show clemency

2010-10-18

Amnesty International this week issued a public statement expressing "its concerns about the fairness of the trial of five men convicted in 2001 of acting as intelligence agents for Cuba and related charges.
"Cuban nationals Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández and Ramón Labañino, and U.S. nationals Antonio Guerrero and René González were tried in Miami and convicted on various counts, including acting and conspiring to act as unregistered agents of the Republic of Cuba," the document says.
The five are serving terms ranging from 15 years to life in U.S. federal prisons.
"In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on 4 October, [...] Amnesty International said that, while it did not take a position on whether the five men were guilty or innocent of the charges against them, it believed there were doubts about the fairness and impartiality of the trial which have not been resolved on appeal.
"A central, underlying concern related to the fairness of holding the trial in Miami, given the pervasive hostility to the Cuban government in that area and media and other events before and during the trial," the document went on, adding that "there was evidence to suggest that these factors made it impossible to ensure a wholly impartial jury."

Source

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/#ixzz130aKEvAX

Labor Union Activists in Vietnam Charged with 'disrupting security'

2010-10-18

Vietnamese authorities have brought charges against three labour activists for 'disrupting security,' an official said Monday.

The indictment said the three often contacted and received money from Tran Ngoc Thanh, chairman of the Warsaw-based Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers, to print and distribute anti-government leaflets and to foment labour strikes.

It said 'those offenders' crimes are very serious, operated and organized with the intention to destroy the country's security, and need punishing.'

The accused are Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, 29, Do Thi Minh Hanh and Doan Huy Chuong, both 25 years old, said Nguyen To Toan, deputy head of security department No 2 of the prosecutor's office.

In November 2006, Chuong established the United Workers-Farmers Organization of Vietnam (UWFO) to advocate for labour rights. He was arrested and sentenced to 18 months in prison in December 2007 for
'abusing democratic freedoms,' but was released on May 13, 2008 due to poor health.

His father, Doan Van Dien, 55, a co-founder of UWFO, was also sentenced to four-and-a-half years in December 2007.

Hung and Hanh were accused of distributing anti-government leaflets and soliciting farmers' complaints about government confiscation of their land.

The three face jail sentences of five to 15 years if convicted.

Authorities in Vietnam have jailed dozens of democracy activists and independent bloggers over the past year.

Source

http://www.vietnamhumanrights.net/website/DPA_101810.htm

Forced Eviction Victims in China: We Want a Home

2010-10-15

by Sophia Fang
Epoch Times Staff

Victims of forced eviction in Beijing, Shanghai, and other areas in China expressed their grievances on World Habitat Day. They went on protest walks and talked about their experiences of forced government demolition and eviction.

Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was crowded with people during the weeklong Chinese National Day holiday. But some came instead to observe World Habitat Day designated by the United Nations for the first Monday of October every year.

Former Beijing human rights attorney, Ni Yulan, told Voice of America (VOA) that she and many other people went to Tiananmen Square to stage a protest walk, and that they were closely followed by police.

“The purpose of our walk was to protest the illegal demolition and illegal confiscation of personal property. As ordinary Chinese citizens, all we are asking for is a shelter, so we can live a normal, simple, and undisturbed life,” Ni said.

Ni was forced by authorities to vacate her home during the lead-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Ni said when she protested the eviction, she was arrested and sexually molested by police and other officials. Later she was sentenced to two years in prison on grounds of “interfering with public order.” While in prison, she was severely tortured, making her permanently disabled. In addition, her license to practice law was revoked. Ni is now a homeless petitioner, confined to a wheel chair.

Ni was released from prison on April 14. In June, when the Southern People Weekly published an exclusive interview with her, authorities immediately had the article deleted from the website, and the Central Propaganda Department threatened the magazine with an investigation. By that time the news had already been widely circulated by bloggers and aroused public sentiment.

Ni’s husband, Dong Jiqin told Sound of Hope Radio: “World Habitat Day advocates a home for everybody. The government, and corrupt government officials, have no right to take our homes away from us. Didn’t the government say that the right to live is the primary right? We do not have a home to live in. Therefore, we have been deprived of our right to live.”

Dong has initiated an arts event called, “I Want a Home” which consists of a photo collection from forced demolition victims.

Dong said in another interview with VOA: “There are many people whose homes were forcefully demolished. Many protested by setting themselves on fire, throwing Molotov cocktails, or lying under the bulldozers. People have been using all sorts of ways to protest the illegal, forced demolition. That is why I started the ‘I Want a Home’ photo collection.”

Some people sent photos showing themselves in front of the ruins of their former homes, holding a piece of broken tile in their hands, a symbol of their defeat and painful loss.

Among the protest walkers was a woman named Wang Yuqin. Her husband had recently been released from prison after a two-year term for splashing sulfuric acid on the demolition team.

Someone Cares

In Shanghai, people walked outside the Municipal Bureau of Housing Support. Police dispatched vehicles and blocked the public from getting close to the building.

In Zhejiang Province a group of about two dozen victims of forced demolition went to the provincial government building to appeal. They were stopped by police, and one person was arrested.

A woman by the last name of Zhu, who used to live in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, told Radio Free Asia that several dozen families in her district were evicted during one week in September. She said that everyone who participated in the walk is homeless.

“Now those corrupt officials are celebrating National Day, but we are homeless. What can we do about it? Today’s protest made us feel that at least some people care about us,” Zhu said.

The United Nations has designated the first Monday of October every year as World Habitat Day. It is meant for people to reflect on the state of their towns and cities, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter.

Source

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/43981/

After Eight Years of Torture, Falun Gong Practitioner Dies under Mysterious Circumstances

2010-10-15

Falun Gong practitioner Cai Fuchen, a government employee from Jilin province, died in police custody in mid-September after spending eight of the last ten years as a prisoner of conscience.

Mr. Cai last spoke with family members on September 5th, 2010, and reported that his condition was deteriorating. Prolonged torture and abuse had left Mr. Cai weak and emaciated, and he was under constant surveillance. Approximately ten days later, the family was told that Mr. Cai was dead. Prison authorities claimed he had jumped from a third-storey window—an assertion commonly associated with attempts to cover up deaths caused by torture or ill-treatment.

Mr. Cai, a father in his 40s, was abducted by security forces on May 26, 2004, while he and five others were working to create literature about the persecution of Falun Gong. Upon taking him into custody, police beat Mr. Cai, badly injuring his legs. In August, 2005, he was "sentenced" to ten years at the Gongzhuling Prison in Jilin province. Because he practiced Falun Gong meditation in public, Mr. Cai previously spend two years in a labor camp from 2000 - 2002.

Over the course of the eight years he spent imprisoned, Mr. Cai reportedly suffered from repeated torture as authorities attempted to force him to denounce his faith in Falun Gong. According to the accounts of witnesses and family members, during his time at Gongzhuling Prison Mr. Cai had been hung up by his wrists, deprived of sleep, held in solitary confinement, and shocked with electric batons. Criminal inmates were directed to keep constant watch over Mr. Cai, and prevented him from having contact with others.

A Family Torn Apart

After Mr. Cai's abduction in 2004, his elderly father went to a local government appeals office to request the release of his son. Instead, the father was taken into police custody himself. He never saw his son again, and died in 2005.

Due to repeated harassment and a suspension of the family’s pay, Mr. Cai’s wife, Zhang Yanhong, has been forced into hiding to avoid being persecuted herself. Their teenage son was also subject to harassment by authorities, who followed him to and from school. He is now in the care of extended family, but has dropped out of school, unable to cope with the harassment.

"Cai Fuchen spent most of a decade as a prisoner of conscience during the prime of his life, and his family was torn apart," says Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center. "Considering there are tens of millions of Chinese citizens practicing Falun Gong and the stories of their families are similar to Mr. Cai's, it becomes clear just how devastating the Communist Party's campaign against Falun Gong has been for the Chinese people."

Source

http://www.faluninfo.net/article/1089/?cid=84

Chinese activists urge Beijing to release Liu Xiaobo

2010-10-15

By Tania Branigan

BEIJING - More than 100 Chinese writers, lawyers and activists have released a letter urging the government to release the Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo and other political prisoners.

The letter, issued late last night, comes amid the detention and monitoring of dissidents, which they believe reflects the government's anxieties about the award as well as a major political meeting that begins today.

It calls for the government to approach the award with "realism and reason" and follows a spate of angry denunciations of the prize. Yesterday a foreign ministry spokesman said the Nobel committee was "encouraging crime" in China by giving the award to Liu, who is serving 11 years for incitement to subvert state power.

A series of furious editorials and opinion pieces have also attacked Norway and the prize committee.

The letter describes Liu as "a splendid choice", adding: "We call upon the authorities to release all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience who are in detention for reasons such as their speech, their political views, or their religious beliefs. We ask that legal procedures aimed at freeing Liu Xiaobo be undertaken without delay, and that Liu and his wife be permitted to travel to Oslo to accept the Nobel peace prize."

The writers also call for China to embrace universal values and say they are ready to engage actively in the promotion of political reform after the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, raised the issue.

Some signatories to the letter received threatening calls from the police even before it was published it, said Xu Youyu, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"We thought we had to say something," he told Associated Press. "The government is still doing the same things."

Other signatories include the well-known lawyers Teng Biao and Pu Zhiqiang, academic Cui Weiping, Tibetan poet Woeser and journalist Li Datong.

Li said: "He has already won the Nobel peace prize and you [the government] are still keeping him in prison … If something is right, we have to support it."

Others unconnected to the letter have also been affected. Yu Jie, author of the book China's Best Actor: Wen Jiabao , said police had met him off a flight from America.

"There are three domestic security cops who are watching me. When I am home, they are downstairs; when I go out, I have to go in their car. Now I am in the supermarket buying stuff and they are here as well," he said.

"I think it is because of Liu Xiaobo winning the prize – I am a good friend of his and they are afraid that I might participate in some related 'activities.'"

Liu's wife Liu Xia, who has been placed under house arrest , tweeted yesterday that Ding Zilin, the head of the Tiananmen Mothers, and her husband, Jiang Peikun, had disappeared. She had earlier said that Liu Xiaobo had dedicated his Nobel award to "the dead spirits of Tiananmen".

Ding and Jiang's number was unobtainable and other members of the group – made up of those bereaved by the bloody crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 – said they had been unable to reach Ding for several days.

"We are increasingly concerned about the escalation of measures taken against dissidents and activists at the moment," said Nicholas Bequelin, Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.

He added: "There is a flagrant contradiction. On the one hand they argue the Nobel should not be awarded to a criminal. At the same time they are implementing unlawful measures against dozens of people, including Liu Xia."

Dissidents often face greater pressure in the run-up to major political meetings.

The party plenum, a meeting of top leaders, may be used to give Xi Jinping, heir apparent to president Hu Jintao, a promotion. But observers believe that Wen and others are pushing to at least discuss political restructuring. Wen has repeatedly raised the need for political reform in recent speeches and interviews. Most Chinese media outlets have not included those remarks in their reports although the boundary-pushing Southern Weekend ran them yesterday.

"Even the premier of our country does not have freedom of speech or of the press," a group of party elders complained in another open letter this week. It called for an end to censorship – a step seen by many as the first move towards broader changes.

Source

www.guardian.co.uk

Dead Cuban Hunger Striker's family Can Emigrate

2010-10-14

Cuba has authorized the family of dissident Orlando Zapata, who
died in February after an 85-day hunger strike, to emigrate directly to
the United States, Zapata's mother told AFP Thursday.

"They told me that the government had authorized the departure of the
whole family and that we are going directly to the United States, but
I'm not going until they give me my son's ashes," said Reina Tamayo, the
dissident's mother.

In a related development Thursday, opposition leaders said five other
dissidents had been granted approval to go the United States.

Tamayo said the government's offer was communicated to her October 11 by
Roman Catholic Bishop Emilio Aranguren of the eastern province of
Holguin, where she lives.

Aranguren was traveling and unavailable for comment, while officials at
the U.S. Interest Section in Havana had no immediate comment. Tamayo
said she had received no information from the U.S. Interest Section.

Tamayo, 62, was in Havana Thursday to meet with officials in the office
of Cardinal Jaime Ortega to learn of the details of the offer.

Ortega held a high-level meeting with President Raul Castro in May that
resulted in the government agreeing to release 52 of the 75 political
prisoners it jailed in a widespread 2003 crackdown.

Tamayo's four adult children -- three sons and a daughter -- along with
their families were also authorized to travel to the United States.
Church officials agree that they should leave "because we are being
harassed, we cannot live here," Tamayo said.

The slow process of releasing Cuba's political prisoners is supported by
Spain, which has welcomed 38 prisoners of the released prisoners and
their families. One ex-prisoner traveled to Chile, and another traveled
to the United States.

Orlando Zapata, a 42 year-old laborer who was single and had no
children, died on February 23 after an 85 day-long hunger strike. His
death unleashed a wave of criticism in the United States and European Union.

Cuba denies it holds any political prisoners and calls dissidents
"mercenaries" funded by the United States and a conservative
Cuban-American "mafia."

Meanwhile, Elizardo Sanchez, a key leader of the Cuban opposition, said
five other dissidents who had been released from prison in recent years
from the same group had been granted permission to go to the United States.

He said Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Jorge Olivera, Carmelo Diaz, Roberto de
Miranda and Margarito Broche, who were released from prison for health
reasons, were contacted because "apparently there is a tendency by the
authorities to permit the emigration of those released."

Espinosa and Olivera reportedly rejected the offer, while Diaz, Miranda
and Broche accepted.

Source

http://cubadata.blogspot.com/2010/10/dead-cuban-hunger-strikers-kin-can.html

Tibetian Nun mentally unsound after prison torture, discharged to family: rights group

2010-10-14

Dharamsala, October 13: A Tibetan nun jailed in May 2008 had become “mentally unsound” after being reportedly tortured in prison and was handed over to her family in September 2008, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) based here said in a statement to the press.

The Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSP) and People's Armed Police(PAP) arrested 36 year old Sonam Choedon, a nun of Puruna Nunnery in Lhoba Township, Kardze County, Kardze “Tibet Autonomous Prefecture” on May 14, 2008.

“Confirmed information” received from sources indicate that Sonam suffered severe head injury on being knocked on the head several times with rifle butt during her detention. “Her head injury seems to have rendered her mentally unstable and she is said to be crying constantly at her home and requires 24 hours care.”

Around 200 nuns of Puruna Nunnery and Yangteng Nunnery carried out protests against the Chinese Government in Kardze County in 2008 during the nationwide uprising that sparked off from the Tibetan capital Lhasa. Several nuns were arrested in the aftermath of the protests. Trulku Phurbu Tsering Rinpoche, an influential Lama who heads the 2 nunneries, was also arrested on May 18, 2008 and sentenced to 8 years in prison in December 2009.

Sonam Lhatso was sentenced to 10 years in prison, Bhumo to 9 years, Sokha and Yangchen Khando to 3 years and Tashi Lhamo to 2 years, according to the TCHRD. All were nuns of Puruna nunnery.

Source

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28323&article=Nun+mentally+unsound+after+prison+torture%2c+discharged+to+family%3a+rights+group

Chinese elders call for more freedom

2010-10-14

BEIJING — Twenty-three retired Chinese Communist Party officials, led by Mao Zedong’s former secretary, have challenged the government to improve press freedom, just days before meeting to discuss the nation’s new leadership.

The group, drawn from the military, state media, and academia, accused “invisible black hands’’ of suppressing a speech last month in which Premier Wen Jiabao called for greater political openness to match the country’s economic gains. The open letter by party elders including Li Rui, Mao’s secretary, was published on the Internet.

“What right does the Central Propaganda Department have to muzzle the speech of the premier?’’ the letter said, referring to a branch of the party that focuses on ideology. “What right does it have to rob the people of our nation of their right to know what the premier said?’’

The letter’s release two days before the party’s central committee meeting reflects an internal debate over the future of political reform, said Huang Jing, a visiting professor at National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The move may also be a sign that the reformist camp is in retreat following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to imprisoned Chinese democracy activist Liu Xiaobo, he said.

The Nobel award was widely viewed in the party as “a deliberate move to make the Chinese government look bad’’ and this mentality has emboldened opponents of political change, Huang said. Publicly releasing the letter was a “desperate last effort’’ on the part of the reformists.

Liu was given the Peace Prize for his struggle to promote human rights and democracy, the Nobel committee said Oct. 8. The 54-year-old writer was ordered jailed last year for 11 years for subversion for his role in organizing Charter 08, an open letter calling for direct elections and freedom of assembly as guaranteed by China’s constitution.

Of the 303 Chinese academics, lawyers, and retired party officials who signed the letter in 2008, five were also signatories in the latest petition, based on a list published by Human Rights in China, a pressure group. These include Hu Jiwei, former editor of the party’s mouthpiece, People’s Daily, and Du Guang, a retired professor of the Central Party School.

Du was questioned by security officers in January after he described Liu’s sentence as “stupid and shameful,’’ according to a report on the website of Radio Free Asia.

A link to the Chinese-language version of the letter could not be opened inside China, with screens showing “network error.’’ A search in Chinese for Li Rui’s name on Google.com in China generated the following message on Microsoft Corp.’s web browser: “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage.’’

The Communist Party Central Committee plenum is to begin tomorrow in Beijing.

Source

Bloomberg News

International Parliamentarians (INPaT) Join Call for Liu Xiaobo's Release

2010-10-13

A network of parliamentarians in more than 30 countries applauded the Norwegian Nobel Committee for making the right choice of awarding the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo today, and joined the international call for his immediate release from prison.

"The peace prize award to Liu Xiaobo represents a recognition of human rights defenders and advocates of free speech and democratic rights who work under a very difficult political environment in the People's Republic of China, including Tibetans, Uyghurs and Inner Mongolians," said Co-Chair of the International Network of Parliamentarians on Tibet (INPaT) Mr. Matteo Mecacci from Rome. "As we congratulate Liu Xiaobo, we add our voice for his release from incarceration."

INPaT acknowledges that with regard to the grave human rights situation prevailing in Tibet, Liu Xiaobo supports His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Middle Path Approach policy that strives to realise a genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people within the framework of the Constitution of China.

Following the 2008 Tibetan Uprising, Liu Xiaobo joined Chinese scholars to sign a document called, ""Twelve Suggestions on Dealing with the Tibetan Situation" which appealed: "We hold that we must eliminate animosity and bring about national reconciliation, not continue to increase divisions between nationalities. A country that wishes to avoid the partition of its territory must first avoid divisions among its nationalities. Therefore, we appeal to the leaders of our country to hold direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama. We hope that the Chinese and Tibetan people will do away with the misunderstandings between them, develop their interactions with each other, and achieve unity. Government departments as much as popular organizations and religious figures should make great efforts toward this goal."

INPaT believes that today's award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo is not only a sign of hope for human rights defenders around the world but also a clear message that the international community must hold the Chinese authorities accountable on obligation to international human rights standards.

We fully support the Nobel Committee's view that "China's new status must entail increased responsibility" when it is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights. The Committee recalled that: Article 35 of China's constitution lays down that "Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration".

Matteo Mecacci, Co-Chair, INPaT
Thomas Mann, Co-Chair, INPaT
8 October, 2010
Amsterdam

Source

http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/tibet-news/international-parliamentarians-inpat-join-call-liu-xiaobos-release

Open letter from ex party officials calls for end to media censorship in China

2010-10-13

A group of former high-ranking political and cultural officials published a rare, strongly worded open letter to the top legislature calling mainland media censorship unconstitutional and saying it should be abolished.

They also demanded that media products and books from Hong Kong and Macau - popular among mainland readers - be made openly available on mainland newsstands and in bookstores.

The letter, published online, calls the lack of free speech, which is enshrined in the 1982 constitution, a "scandal of the world history of democracy". It even cites Hong Kong in the colonial era as an example of somewhere that enjoyed freedom of speech and publication.

In particular, the group of 23 well-known individuals condemned the Communist Party's central propaganda department as the "black hand" with a clandestine power to censor even Premier Wen Jiabao's repeated calls for political reform and to deprive the people their right to learn about it.

For the last few weeks, well-connected professionals in Beijing have been talking about the party propaganda authorities' almost open insult to the premier by deleting his points on political reform the day after he made his speech in Shenzhen.

Open letters of this kind rarely lead to any reform, but can land the authors in trouble with the authorities. However, in this case, the high profile of the signatories means they are unlikely to be punished.

The open letter coincided with the imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. But several initiators of it said the two events were unrelated; rather, the open letter had been initiated earlier than the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize and was directly triggered by the injustice to Xie Chaoping , an investigative reporter.

In mid-August, Xie was taken from his home in Beijing by police from Shaanxi province, 1,000 kilometres away, under the charge of "illegal business operation". But Xie and his supporters believe the actual reason was the book that he had published about forced migration to make way for a water project and related official corruption. Xie was released after 30 days' detention for lack of evidence but still has to spend the next year "waiting for trial".

Among the leading sponsors are Li Rui , former secretary of Mao Zedong who was sacked after disagreeing with Mao's disastrous economic programme; and Hu Jiwei, former publisher of the party's mouthpiece the People's Daily, who was removed for trying to reflect the people's voices. Both men are in their 90s. Li confirmed that he had put his name on the open letter.

Zhong Peizhang , former news bureau chief of the Central Propaganda Department and another sponsor of the letter, said the petition was to fight for the rights of expression. He said the current press environment was unsatisfactory.

Author Tie Liu , another sponsor, said Xie Chaoping's case was a brilliant opportunity that the sponsors should grab. "These veteran media professionals have not been able to speak their minds for so long that they all felt bottled up and frustrated," Tie said. "The situation the press is in must change."

"The press environment has deteriorated in recent decades," said Tie, citing in the letter the example of Li Rui's article, which could be published in 1981 but was just recently censored from a book. "As the radio, TV, print media and the internet are all tightly controlled, people nowadays have no channels to file their petitions but sometimes have to turn to foreigners. This could lead to chaos and public disturbance."

He said he had received more than 500 signatures from people aged from their early 20s to 97. "All petition signatories used their real names, and 90 per cent of them are party members," Tie said.

Sha Yexin , author and former president of Shanghai People's Art Theatre, said freedoms of the press and expression were better for the party's governing in the long run if they were ensured. "Freedom of the press actually serves as a decompressor," Sha said, adding that the suppression of information and a totalitarian society were behind disasters such as the Cultural Revolution and the anti-rightist campaign.

Dai Qing , an author and activist, said even if there was a 0.001 percent chance the petition would lead to change then it must be done.

The open letter begins by citing article 35 of the Chinese Constitution (the 1982 edition) that all citizens have freedoms of speech, of publication, of assembly, of association and of demonstration. But it points out that for 28 years these constitutional rights have existed only in words but never really in practice.

Citing words by President Hu Jintao and Wen in support of freedom of speech, the open letter says the reality in today's China is worse than that of the former British colony of Hong Kong, where mainlanders can find many books on Chinese politics they can't find at home.

Sponsors of the open letter seemed most outraged by the fact that even Wen had been censored. They cited examples of his speech in Shenzhen on August 21, a talk with journalists in the US on September 22 and his speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 23.

Wen talked about political reform on all those occasions, but it was not mentioned in reports by Xinhua.

"What right does the Central Propaganda Department have," the open letter asked, "to place itself even above the Communist Party Central Committee, and above the State Council?" Wen, as premier, heads the State Council - the executive branch of the state elected by the National People's Congress.

The letter calls on the NPC to enact a new law of news and publication to replace "the countless rules and regulations" that hamper freedoms of speech and publication.

Most importantly, it says the media should gain its "relative independence" from direct control by the party or state apparatus. It notes that the mainland's censorship system lags behind Britain by 315
years and France by 129 years.

The signatories to the letter include

1. Li Rui, former deputy head of the CCP Organisation Department/former
secretary for Mao Zedong

2. Hu Jiwei, former editor-in-chief of People's Daily

3. Yu You, former deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily

Li Pu, former vice-president of Xinhua News Agency

4. Zhong Peizhang, former chief of News Bureau of the CCP Central
Propaganda Department

5. Jiang Ping, former President of China University of Political Science and Law

6. Zhou Shaoming, former deputy director of political dept of Guangzhou
Military Command

7. Zhang Zhongpei, former head of Palace Museum; head of council of
Archaeological Society of China

8. Du Guang, professor of the Central Party School

9. Guo Daohui, former editor-in-chief, China Legal Science Magazine

10. Xiao Mo, former head of the Institute of Architectural Art of China Art Academy

11. Zhuang Puming, former vice-president, People's Publishing House

12. Hu Fuchen, former editor-in-chief, China Worker Publishing House

13. Zhang Ding, former president of Social Sciences Academic Press of
China Academy of Social Sciences

14. Ouyang Jin, editor-in-chief of Pacific Magazine in Hong Kong

15. Yu Haocheng, former president of Qunzhong Press

16. Zhang Qing, former president of China Film Publishing House

17. Yu Yueting, former president of Fujian TV station

18. Sha Yexin , former president, Shanghai People's Art Theatre, author

19. Sun Xupei, former president of Journalism Institute of China Academy
of Social Sciences

20. Xin Ziling, former director of Contemporary China Editorial Bureau
under the National Defence University

21. Tie Liu, editor of private publication The Past with Traces, author

22. Wang Yongcheng, professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University

Eight proposals for change that the letter seek are

1. Dismantle the system where media organisations are all tied to certain higher authorities.

2. Respect journalists and their due social status. Protection and support should be rendered to them when they are covering mass actions and exposing official corruption.

3. Revoke the ban on cross-provincial supervision by public opinion.

4. No Web administrator should be allowed to delete any items or post any of their own items at will, except for cases where the state information or citizens' privacy is truly affected. Abolish cyber-police and the "50-cent army" [paid favourable commentators].

5. Guarantee to all citizens the right to know the crimes and mistakes committed by the political party in power; there should be no areas in the Communist Party's history where recording and debate are forbidden.

6. Launch pilot projects, preferably in the magazines Southern Weekend and Yan Huang Chun Qiu, in the reform of developing media organisations owned by citizens. A democratic political system should not tolerate the party in power and the government squandering taxpayers' money on self-congratulation.

7. Allow media and publications from Hong Kong and Macau to be openly distributed.

8. Change the mission of propaganda authorities at all levels, from preventing the leak of information, to facilitating its accurate, timely and smooth spread; from assisting corrupt officials to censor investigative and critical articles, to supporting the media's supervision of the Communist Party and the government; from closing down publications, sacking editors-in-chief, and arresting journalists, to resisting political privilege and protecting media and journalists.

Source

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28330&article=Open+letter+from+ex+party+officials+calls+for+end+to+media+censorship+in+China

The Reduction of State-Sector in Cuba

2010-10-13

After more than five decades of centralized planning, Cuba’s labor force has been characterized by relatively low worker productivity, morale, and discipline; the predominance of the state sector as the country’s principal employer; lack of adequate inputs; access to obsolete technologies and production techniques; the absence of modern managerial systems and practices; and the traditional rigidities commonly associated with centrally-planned economies (CPEs).

To confront these deficiencies, and as part of a concerted effort to transform the Cuban economy, on September 13, 2010 the state-controlled national labor federation (Central de Trabajadores de Cuba, CTC) announced a plan to reduce the number of workers employed by the state by 500,000 from October 4, 2010 to March, 2011. The displacement of these half-million workers represents the first stage in a multi-tiered strategy to reduce the number of workers employed by the state sector by 1,000,000 (or 19.4%).

Displaced state workers will be relocated to sectors with deficits (i.e. insufficient workers) such as agriculture, construction, law enforcement, education, and industry (Ravsberg, 2010). Most of the reductions will apply to “bureaucratic functions” such as management and administration, to increase the share of “productive workers” (or “blue collar” workers) to 80% of the workforce in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and ministries (Ravsberg, 2010). The state will issue 460,000 new licenses for self-employed workers in areas in which it can supply essential inputs (Ravsberg, 2010).

Self-employed workers will be able to directly negotiate the provision of their services to the state-owned producers, thereby creating new contracting opportunities between the state and the emerging private sector (i.e. self-employed workers). In addition, self-employed workers will be able to make contributions to the state-run social security fund, open bank accounts, obtain loans to expand their operations, and will pay taxes on their income or earnings (Ravsberg, 2010).

These measures, along with previously announced increases in the retirement age by five years to 65 years for men and 60 years for women, are part of a series of economic policy transformations implemented by the Cuban government in response to the severe economic crisis confronted by the island since 2008. As a response to this crisis, Cuba has implemented a series of economic changes including austerity measures focused on energy conservation, fiscal transformations to reduce the ratio of the fiscal deficit to gross domestic product (GDP), transfers of non-productive state-owned lands to cooperatives and private producers, and the liberalization of consumption.

The principal reasons given for the reduction of workers in Cuba’s state sector were the un-sustainability of the current system, under which the majority of the economically active population (83%) works in the state sector, the need to improve worker productivity, the heavy fiscal burden that unproductive workers represent for the state, and the need to reactivate the economy by increasing output and improving efficiency.

Approximately 83% of Cuba’s economically active population is employed by the state sector; the rest work cooperatives (4.8%) and the private sector (12.2%). There are an estimated 141,600 legally-registered self-employed workers (cuentapropistas) in Cuba, representing just fewer than 3% of the economically active population, but close to 17% of all non-state workers (ONE, 2010b). The agricultural sector is the country’s principal employer with 902,000, or 17.5% of the economically active population; other important sectors include education (695,600 workers), health care (671,200 workers), and industry (667,800 workers) (ONE, 2010b).

In 2009, the median monthly salary in Cuba reached 429 pesos (CUP), representing an increase of 3.4% with respect to 2008. At the prevailing exchange rate of 25 Cuban pesos (CUP) per convertible peso (CUC), this was the equivalent of 17.16 CUC or 18.53 USD per month.

Labor force participation has been relatively stable over the last decade. While nominal salaries and pensions were increased in 2005, their real purchasing power (adjusted for inflation) has declined due to repressed inflation (i.e. higher prices) in parallel markets. Liquidity has accumulated due to limited supplies in peso markets and limited opportunities for small entrepreneurs (both legal and illegal) to invest surplus earnings or income in their businesses or real property.

From a fiscal perspective, Cuba’s mostly state-employed work force has turned into an increasingly unsustainable burden for the state. Official statistics reveal that generous subsidies mostly in the form of free social services (e.g., health care and education), subsidized workplace meals, paid vacations, workplace-sponsored distributions of consumer goods packages, along with other direct and indirect transfers, including goods provided through the rationing system, have resulted in the explosion of fiscal expenditures, forcing the transformation of the labor market.

The experiences of other former communist countries that have transitioned to the “reformed” or “market socialist” model (e.g. China and Vietnam) suggests that once the forces of a more autonomous labor force are unleashed it is difficult to contain or reverse the economic reform process. The creation of new, alternative, economic spaces to allow an emerging (and increasingly autonomous) private sector to perform essential economic functions, which the state is unable to provide or cannot provide efficiently, has contributed to increased household incomes, better living standards, and economic growth.

However, despite the potential benefits provided by this type of economic transformation, due to existing levels of differentiation among the Cuban labor force, particularly in terms of age, transferable skills, and educational attainment, it is reasonable to expect that the recently announced measures will negatively affect some segments of the labor market disproportionately. Some of the most vulnerable groups include low skilled workers, workers with limited amounts or quantities of accumulated human and financial capital, workers with little or no knowledge of how markets work, workers without any desire, energy (or physical vigor), or attitude and aptitude to work as entrepreneurs or to become self-employed, and older workers near the end of their productive economic lives.

As Cuba’s experience with self-employment during the 1990s indicates, the transfer of state workers to the emerging private sector will contribute to increased income and social inequality. This phenomenon, however, even though it is likely to become more pronounced, is not new to most Cubans on the island: one of the lasting legacies of the market-oriented reforms of the 1990s has been increased inequality, and its acceptance by the majority of the population, particularly among those who were young or were born after the “Special Period.”

Another unintended consequence of the transfer of workers from the state sector is likely to be an increase in poverty. As some unprepared workers are (involuntarily) transferred to the non-government sector, and given no option but to fend for themselves by setting up small-scale businesses, many will fail, pushing them into poverty, leaving them emotionally stressed, and uncertain about their futures.

Source: http://cubacenter.org/english/the-reduction-of-state-sector

Arrests, censorship and propaganda in reaction to Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel

2010-10-13

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has said, “freedom of expression is essential in all countries.” Except in China, apparently. There have been many acts of censorship, intimidation and propaganda since the 8 October announcement that jailed dissident intellectual Liu Xiaobo is the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. According to the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, at least 40 human rights activists and journalists have been held or questioned for trying to celebrate Liu’s award.

In one of the latest developments, 1984BBS, a chat forum used by many journalists, has been closed under pressure from the police.

Reporters Without Borders urges the Chinese government to release all of Liu supporters who are being held just for expressing their joy about the award. It is regrettable that the authorities are stepping up harassment of writers and journalists, including members of Independent Chinese PEN Centre, the writers’ association of which Liu was for many years the president. Reporters Without Borders also calls for the restrictions on the freedom of movement of Liu’s wife to be lifted.

The government’s credibility will be badly damaged if it denies the Chinese people access to any information about Liu’s Nobel Peace Prize except its own hostile reactions. Why do the Communist Party’s leaders not let Chinese citizens judge the award’s historic significance for themselves?

Chinese media coverage of Liu’s Nobel is still limited to Beijing’s angry reaction. The national television service and most newspapers, even the most liberal ones, are saying nothing. Newsrooms received a clear order from the Propaganda Department on 8 October: “It is forbidden to relay information” about the award.

Some Chinese foreign-language media including the English-language version of the nationalist newspaper Global Times and the French and English versions of People’s Daily reported the government’s reaction. Youth Daily ran a story headlined: “Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo named – an insult to the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Foreign TV stations continue to be jammed whenever they carry a report referring to Liu. Online censorship is still intense. Some bloggers, such as the writer Han Han, have protested by posting empty messages to symbolise the impossibility of referring to Liu.

An open letter has meanwhile been released by 23 retired Communist Party officials and intellectuals urging the country’s highest authorities to carry out political reforms and to respect the guarantees of free speech and media freedom in article 35 of the Chinese constitution. The appeal has been systematically removed from the Chinese blogs and websites where it had been posted.

The Open letter from Party elders calls for free speech: http://cmp.hku.hk/2010/10/13/8035/

Wave of arrests

The arrests began on the evening of 8 October. Supporters of Liu have been arrested in Beijing, Shanghai, Jinan and even in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Initial eight-day detention orders were issued for three of them – Wang Lihong, Wu Gan and Zhao Changqing.

A former journalist who served a jail sentence, Liu Jingsheng, said police had been posted outside his home. Liu Xiaobo supporters without Beijing residence permits have been sent back to their province of origin. Gao Jian, for example, was sent back to Shanxi, where the local authorities are now interrogating him.

Three students attending the People’s University (Renmin Daxue) in Beijing were arrested after unfurling banners supporting Liu in Tiananmen Square at 6 p.m. on 8 October. There has so far been no word about what has happened to them since their arrest.

Wei Qiang, a 21-year-old student from Shaanxi who is attending Beijing’s Central School of Fine Arts (Zhongyang Meishu Xueyuan), was interrogated at a Beijing police station after trying to disseminate information about Liu’s Nobel within the school.

Dozens of university academics, students and lawyers have also been placed under house arrest. From time to time, Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, manages to post messages on Twitter. But the Beijing police have forbidden her to leave her home.

Liu Xia was able to tell her husband on 10 October that he has been awarded the Nobel. Although he had already been told by prison guards, he burst into tears and said he dedicated it to the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Since then, the conditions in which he is being held have improved. Liu Xia said he now has better food and has been allowed a small stove so that he can cook in his cell, which he shares with five other inmates.

Source

http://en.rsf.org/chine-arrests-censorship-and-propaganda-13-10-2010,38536.html

Investigative Journalists Dissect KGB’s Enduring Legacy

2010-10-12

Few Russian journalists have followed the country's security services as closely as Moscow-based investigative reporters Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan. In their new book, "The New Nobility: The Restoration Of Russia's Security State And The Enduring Legacy Of The KGB," Soldatov and Borogan chronicle the resurgence of the Federal Security Service (FSB) during the presidency of Vladimir Putin. RFE/RL correspondent Nikola Krastev caught up with Soldatov and Borogan in New York, where they discussed their book.

RFE/RL: What main conclusions are drawn in the book?

Irina Borogan : A lot of attention has been paid to the fact that Putin was raised within the ranks of the KGB, and many people thought that he was a part of a KGB conspiracy to seize power in the new Russia. But after analyzing the FSB's activities, we concluded that this was not the case. The FSB has, however, become the pillar of the new power structure and extended its methods of secrecy and suspicion and its determination to suppress any form of discussion or criticism of the state. And the application of these methods have had a very negative effect on society. We don’t have open discussions, political contests, or free exchanges of opinions.

RFE/RL: What are the lines of comparison between KGB and FSB?

Andrei Soldatov : If we are talking about numbers, the Soviet KGB, of course, was a mightier structure, because the Soviet Union was bigger than Russia. But if we look at it in relative terms, we have to say that the modern FSB is a stronger organization in some respects than the KGB. This is one of the major conclusions of our study. There is little comparison with the KGB in this regard because the KGB was fully under the control of the Communist Party. There were party cells within each department and section of the KGB, and KGB officers were quite fearful of displeasing the party apparatus. A 1959 regulation clearly stated that the party cells within the KGB were authorized to report all KGB shortcomings to the higher levels of the party apparatus. There is no such thing today.

RFE/RL: A lot has been said about the economic interests of the FSB. What is the real situation?

Borogan : The FSB is as corrupt as, or even more corrupt than, many other Russian institutions. They are more powerful than the civil institutions, because they can initiate criminal prosecutions against businesses and use [such criminal cases] to their own advantage, including for material gain. FSB officers have been appointed to important positions in various companies. When they are appointed, for example, to the board of directors of large companies such as Gazprom, they receive excellent compensation, and in that regard, they are acting more as company employees than FSB officers.

RFE/RL: What can we expect from the FSB during the 2012 presidential campaign?

Soldatov : First of all, I would like to say that for [President] Dmitry Medvedev, the FSB is playing a very important role. He does not intend to relinquish what has been achieved by the security apparatus during Putin’s reign. He is quite satisfied with the results and with the political stability. It is unthinkable at this point to even conceive of the idea of some real political opposition to the Kremlin. At the same time, because Medvedev did not have personal experience within the security apparatus, he is not exclusively focused on the FSB. He is, for example, relatively flexible and is using the Interior Ministry [MVD] for the same purposes. Don’t forget that one of his first decrees was to give the MVD broader powers in the fight against the extremism. In Russia, "extremism" is often associated with public discontent, with people who may pose a threat to political stability. So, I don’t think the FSB will be the main tool used by Medvedev or Putin in the [2012] political campaign.

There’s one more argument that we tried to analyze in our book -- that the FSB has become so difficult to manage that neither Russian society nor Kremlin can now control it. It is not clear to what extent even Putin or Medvedev can count on the support of the people who are within FSB now. Who within its vast apparatus will stand by them and actively support them? All this is a big question.

Source

http://www.rferl.org/content/Investigative_Journalists_Dissect_KGB_Legacy/2188408.html

Furious China blocks visit to Nobel winner’s wife – APFurious China blocks visit to Nobel winner’s wife

2010-10-12

By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – China on Monday blocked European officials from meeting with the wife of the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner, cut off her phone communication and canceled meetings with Norwegian officials — acting on its fury over the award.

As China retaliated, U.N. human rights experts called on Beijing to free imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo, who was permitted a brief, tearful meeting with his wife Sunday. Liu dedicated the award to the “lost souls” of the 1989 military crackdown on student demonstrators.

Liu, a slight, 54-year-old literary critic, is in the second year of an 11-year prison term for inciting subversion.

In naming him, the Norwegian-based Nobel committee honored Liu’s more than two decades of advocacy of human rights and peaceful democratic change — from demonstrations for democracy at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989 to a manifesto for political reform that he co-authored in 2008 and which led to his latest jail term.

Beijing had reacted angrily to Friday’s announcement honoring Liu, calling him a criminal and warning Norway’s government that relations would suffer, even though the Nobel committee is an independent organization.

On Monday, it abruptly canceled a meeting that had been scheduled for Wednesday between visiting Norwegian Fisheries Minister Lisbeth Berg-Hansen and her Chinese counterpart. Berg-Hansen was in China for a weeklong visit to the World Expo in Shanghai.

“If the meeting has been cancelled due to the Peace Prize, we find that to be an unnecessary reaction from China,” said Norway’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund. “We have not received any reason for cancelling the meeting.”

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama criticized China for its response to the Nobel Peace Prize award, saying the government “must change,” the Kyodo News agency reported. The Tibetan spiritual leader, who won the Peace Prize himself in 1989, said Beijing must recognize that fostering an open society is “the only way to save all people of China.”

Also Monday, four U.N. human rights experts released a statement calling for China to immediately release Liu. The independent U.N.-appointed investigators, who examine issues ranging from breaches of the right to free speech to arbitrary detention, called on China to release Liu and “all persons detained for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression.”

European diplomats, meanwhile, were prevented from visiting his wife, Liu Xia, who has been living under house arrest since Friday. Liu Xia has been told that if she wants to leave her home she must be escorted in a police car, the New York-based group Human Rights in China said.

She reported that her phone communications, along with her Internet, has been cut off; both her and her brother’s mobile phones have been interfered with, HRIC said. She is not being allowed to contact the media or her friends, the group said.

Simon Sharpe, the first secretary of political affairs of the EU delegation in China, said he went to see Liu Xia at her home in Beijing to personally deliver a letter of congratulations from the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso.

Sharpe was accompanied by diplomats from 10 other countries, including Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Italy and Australia.

But three uniformed guards at the main gate of Liu’s apartment complex prevented the group from entering, saying someone from inside the building had to come out and fetch them.

“We were told that we could only go in if we called somebody from the inside and if they came out to meet us. But of course, we can’t call Liu Xia, because it’s impossible to get through to her phone,” Sharpe told reporters at the entrance to the compound.

Sharpe read out a message from Barroso that said the decision to award Liu was “a strong message of support to all those around the world who sometimes with great personal sacrifice are struggling for freedom and human rights.”

The Beijing public security bureau and the foreign ministry had no immediate comment on why authorities were apparently restricting the movements of Liu Xia, who has not been charged with anything. But “soft detention” is a common tactic used by the Chinese government to intimidate and muffle activists and critics.

In recent days, Beijing has also stepped up its harassment of other activists, detaining several when they tried to organize a dinner to celebrate Liu’s Nobel.

Zhang Jiannan, who runs an Internet forum on political matters, told The Associated Press that he and other activists had gone out Friday to celebrate Liu’s victory. He was placed under house arrest Saturday and warned by police not to participate in political activities.

“Our (bulletin board system) had been warmly discussing Liu Xiaobo winning the award and passing the news to more people. I think police feel the pressure. They want to crack down on this circle of dissidents, and I and my site became a good target to set an example for others,” he said.

Zhang said he has agreed to shut down his website because he is fearful of police retaliation against his family.

On Monday, lawyer Pu Zhiqiang was the latest to be detained by police, according to his assistant, who did not want to be identified. Pu had sent out a message via Twitter Sunday that said security officials had showed up telling him not to accept interviews with foreign media.

In Australia, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said Monday he would raise to Chinese authorities Canberra’s objections to the 11-year prison sentence imposed on Liu and to restrictions placed on the movements of the dissident’s wife.

Source

http://www.asiaworks.com/news/2010/10/11/furious-china-blocks-visit-to-nobel-winners-wife-ap/#more-1675

Window on Eurasia:Russian Officials Preparing for More and Larger Street Clashes Ahead

2010-10-12

by Paul Goble

Until recently, Russian officials and most systemic politicians have played down the risk of massive street clashes and the need to prepare for them, but in the course of the last week, a “Novaya Versiya” commentator notes, members of both groups have expressed concern about this possibility and outlined steps to counter it.
In recent months, Mikhail Sukhodolsky, the first deputy minister of internal affairs, said last week, the number of crimes connected with popular clashes and disorders “has markedly increased, and for objective reasons, [such crimes and the milieu from which they spring] are generating a serious social response (versia.ru/articles/2010/oct/11/massovie_besporyadki)
In the past, “Novaya Versiya” analyst Ruslan Gorevoy says, officials had been restrained in making any such assessment, but “now they are speaking about [this problem] openly,” apparently because “it is becoming ever more complicated to rein in protest attitudes by bloodless means” and law enforcement bodies want to justify in advance the use of force
The powers that be, Gorevoy says, have been preparing for just such a possibility. On the one hand, both the central and regional offices of the MVD have set up special “rapid reaction” forces to disperse street demonstrations, and perhaps more important, the Duma has passed a law denying those charged in such cases of the right to a jury trial
Moreover, he continues, the belief that “in the near future mass disorders are inevitable” appears to be shared “not only by representatives of ‘the extra systemic opposition [who may have a vested interest in making such predictions] … but also by those whose responsibilities include not allowing such excesses to occur and in the worst case to suppress them.”
“Militia officers, court officials, and legislators as one firmly declare about the inevitability of force actions,” Gorevoy notes, although their explanations for this possibility vary. Militia officers blame the failure of the courts to punish those who have taken part, judges blame shortcomings in legislation and politicians blame “irresponsible opposition figures.”
For example, Sergey Markov, a political scientist and Duma member, says that “disorders like those which we observed not long ago in Riga and Sofia today can occur in all countries of the world except those where there is a socially oriented economy. They can even break out in Russia.”
Indeed, Markov said, “there are already elements of a pre-revolutionary situation in Russia” but “there are only elements” and they are more social-economic than political because of the resources of the existing regime and the absence of credible alternative political leaders who could exploit such “elements.”
One measure of the spread of such concerns is the increasing popularity of insurance policies against the consequences of mass violence, Gorevoy says. When such policies were offered two years ago, only five firms bought them. Now, they are far more popular, with one in every four firms insuring itself against such problems
More significant, however, the “Novaya versiya” analyst continues, is that the formation of the MVD special units was completed in August, a development that prompted the deputy minister of internal affairs to talk about the ability of his institution to cope with anything that might happen.
Sukhodolsky said that “the crime-generating situation can deepen with the growth of protest attitudes called forth by dissatisfaction of the labor capable population of the country as a result of the non-payment of wages, threats of firings, and also unpopular measures taken in the framework of the anti-crisis program.”
Because of that risk, he continued, MVD units must give “heightened attention” to the risks of street violence and be ready to counter it before it spreads.
More junior MVD officials speaking on condition of anonymity told Gorevoy that the organs knew how to disperse street actions even in Soviet times, “and after the Moscow events of 2002 … our people developed detailed instructions literally minute by minute on how to effectively and quickly disperse any group, even one numbering in the thousands.”
Not long ago, these officials said, they had received from MVD officers in Moscow and Moscow oblast a special “circular” in which “were enumerated ‘the structures destabilizing the social structure’ which could be involved in the initiation of massive street clashes” – including nationalists and extreme right groups especially in certain regions.
That document and other officials and analysts stressed that all these clashes are local and have not yet come together in any country-wide fashion. Consequently, they believe, Gorevoy continues, that there is no basis for particular concern. But he asks rhetorically, is that in fact the case?
If it is, then why did Sukhodolsky feel compelled to talk about “the heightened aggression of certain citizens of Russia toward the militia” and take note of “the growing aggression and wildness in behavior of certain groups of citizens”? Perhaps he wants a change in the rules of engagement or to prepare the leadership for harsher actions.
But if that is the case, then the increasing frequency and size of such clashes does represent a real threat, perhaps not of a revolution but certainly of a problem that the powers that be are now far more worried about than they were only a few months ago and are thus getting ready to defend themselves.

Source

http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/10/window-on-eurasia-russian-officials.html

North Korea's heir debuts at giant military parade

2010-10-11

see photos http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/features/article_1590524.php/North-Korea-Parade-Pictures?page=2

By Benjamin Kang Lim

North Korea's leader-in-waiting, the youngest son of ailing ruler Kim Jong-il, took center stage during a big military parade on Sunday, making his first national appearance in the secretive state.

Kim Jong-un stood near his father on the dais, clapping and saluting thousands of goose-stepping soldiers, and reviewing missiles, tanks and artillery rockets.

The young Kim's prominent role at the parade in Pyongyang's Kim Il-sung Square marked his military debut and showed his standing in one of the world's largest armies.

Until his appointment as a general last month -- along with his naming to a key political post -- little was known about the young Kim other than that he was educated in Switzerland.

"The future of our country is rosy and bright because Kim Jong-un was elected vice chairman of the military commission of the Workers' Party," said a government official, who asked not to be identified.

"We have a proverb in Korean that great teachers produce great students and great parents produce great children.

"Kim Jong-il is healthy enough to lead our country and to give spot guidance in every field including economic, agricultural, industrial, military and arts."

Kim Jong-il, 68, is believed to have suffered a stroke in 2008 but he has shown no sign of losing his grip on power and was reappointed last month as secretary-general of the ruling Workers' Party.

He stood for over an hour during the parade and waved to the crowds, but limped noticeably and reached to the balcony for support.

State television broadcast the parade live, giving North Koreans their first real look at their next leader, known only to be in his mid- to late-20s.

A stable succession would be a relief to North Korea's economically powerful neighbors -- China, South Korea and Japan -- which worry that a regime collapse could result in massive refugee flows and domestic unrest.

The young Kim, the third son of the ailing leader, is poised to continue dynastic rule in the isolated state which also has ambitions to develop nuclear weapons.

SHOW OF STRENGTH

Among the guests at the parade, the biggest in the North in years, were foreign diplomats and Communist Party officials from China -- the destitute North's only major ally on which it relies for food and fuel aid.

Foreign media were also invited to watch the parade which marked the 65th anniversary of the founding of the Workers' Party and gave the world its first independent look at the protege.

Kim Jong-il, who now has a large, unexplained mark on the right side of his face, was greeted with thunderous applause and chants of "Long Live Kim Jong-il."

Thousands of soldiers marched to the tune of brass bands in the square, dominated by a giant portrait of the state's founder, Kim Il-sung.

A sea of red and pink flowers, waved by spectators, served as a backdrop to the show of power.

"This military parade shows that we are certain of success if the United States dares to attack us," said Kim Yoon-jong 21, a factory worker at the parade wearing traditional red, white and pink dress.

"We have a single mind, which is stronger than nuclear weapons," she said through a translator.

Later on Sunday, father and son returned to a brightly lit Kim Il-sung square for a fireworks display and a spectacular pageant of dancing and music.

The military parade was the climax of celebrations which started at the end of last month with the staging of a rare party conference to pick a new leadership.

After months of speculation, the untested Jong-un was made second-in-command to his father on the ruling party's powerful Central Military Commission, as well as being appointed a party Central Committee member.

Rising with him were the leader's sister Kyong-hui and her husband, creating a powerful triumvirate ready to take over the family dynasty that has ruled North Korea since its founding after World War Two.

Source

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6981MS20101010

More lists of Cuban prisoners are drawn, given to Madrid in hopes of intercession

2010-10-11

Three Cuban émigré groups in Spain have asked the Spanish government to accept their list of dissidents now in Cuban prisons and work toward their release.
According to the news agency EFE, the groups are Cuba Democracy Now, the National Front of Cuban Political Prisoners, and the Demobilized Army of National Liberation.
Their request came at the end of a three-day meeting in Madrid in which they discussed the status of the opposition movement on the island and the outlook for a post-Castro Cuba.
Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos recently said he would welcome a new list of political prisoners so the Spanish government could review it and intercede for them in Havana. Spain's opposition Popular Party already has given him a list of 28 names.

Source

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/

Cuba to free 3 prisoners not in church deal of 52

2010-10-11

by WILL WEISSERT (Associated Press)

Cuba will release into exile in Spain a lawyer jailed for allegedly revealing state security secrets and two hijackers, none of whom were on a list of 52 political prisoners the government has agreed to free in a deal with the Roman Catholic Church.

The church said Saturday that Rolando Jimenez Posada, an attorney considered by Amnesty International to be a "prisoner of conscience," has agreed to accept early release from prison in exchange for leaving Cuba with his family.

Two other inmates, Ciro Perez Santana and Arturo Suarez Ramos, will also be freed and sent to Spain with their relatives. Both were held for "piracy," which translates to hijacking an airliner or a ferry in an attempt to flee to the U.S.

Perez Santana was arrested in 1994 and had been serving a 20-year sentence, while Suarez Ramos was arrested in 1987 and got a 30-year sentence.

The three weren't among the 75 opposition activists, community organizers, dissidents and independent journalists defying state controls on media who were arrested in a 2003 crackdown on political dissent. Twenty-three of that group were released before July, when Raul Castro's government promised church leaders it would free the remaining 52.

The release of inmates not in the group of dissidents indicates Cuba is expanding its moves to liberate other prisoners considered by international human rights organizations as jailed for their political beliefs.

Cuba had previously maintained it held no political prisoners, saying the 75 were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on charges that included treason and taking money from the U.S. to destabilize the island's communist government.

Jimenez Posada, the lawyer, was arrested in April 2003 and was serving a 12-year sentence for disrespecting authority and "revealing secrets about state security police" after he publicly pledged support for the political prisoners captured the previous month.

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega "called Rolando this morning at around 11 and told him we should be ready to go" to Madrid, Jimenez Posada's wife, Lamasiel Gutierrez, said Saturday night, when reached at her home on Isla de la Juventud, south of mainland Cuba.

London-based Amnesty International had listed Jimenez Posada as the only "prisoner of conscience" who would have been left in Cuban jails if the government made good on its pledge with the church to free the 52 dissidents.

But Elizardo Sanchez, head of the Havana-based Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, says there are about 105 more inmates she considers political prisoners. Some of those have been convicted of violent crimes, however, and Sanchez says only about 40 would fit into the classic definition of nonviolent political prisoners.

All but 13 of the dissidents covered in the deal with the church have been freed. At least seven of those still jailed have rejected freedom because they don't want to leave Cuba.

Why Cuban authorities are pushing to reduce the number of political prisoners is not known, though some people have speculated it may be part of an effort to promote reconciliation with the United States.

The administration of President Barack Obama has long suggested it may be time for a new beginning with Cuba, but it has also said Cuba's government needs to embrace small economic and social reforms before a true thaw can take place.

In addition to freeing political prisoners, Castro's government announced last month that it will lay off a half-million state employees and reduce restrictions on self-employment, small businesses and pockets of free enterprise as a way of modernizing and overhauling its state-dominated economy.

Source

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iUXtrV2QU_hugo-6AVuxgVM2n5JQD9IOH7600?docId=D9IOH7600

China tightens control of Tibetan monasteries, blames "separatists"

2010-10-11

The State Administration of Religious Affairs issued the 'Management measure for Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples' to be applied from November 1, saying it was devised in response to a growing foreign influence and 'separatist activities.'

Monks at some monasteries had been influenced by 'internal and external separatist forces' and engaged in 'disrupting national unity and splitting the nation,' the administration said in a notice on the new rules posted on its website.

'The existence of these problems has seriously influenced the normal order of Tibetan Buddhism ... and even given the Dalai clique an opportunity to plot and spread confusion in Tibetan areas, and to engage in destructive separatist activities,' it said, referring to the exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.

The stricter management of monasteries was designed to help 'maintain the normal order of Tibetan Buddhism and build a socialist harmonious society,' the notice said.

The notice followed the reported sentencing of two monks accused of leading anti-Chinese protests in 2008 in Lhasa, the capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court sentenced Jampel Wangchuk and Kunchok Nyima to life imprisonment and 20 years in prison, respectively, in June, the Indian-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reported on Friday.

The two men were monks at Dreprung, one of the largest and most important Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, and were in a group of about 350 monks who marched into Lhasa from the monastery on March 10, 2008, TCHRD said.

Police arrested the two monks and some 40 others in April 2008, but there was no confirmation of what happened to them until last week, the group said.

Courts have already sentenced dozens of other monks and lay Tibetans who joined the 2008 protests, according to state media and exile groups.

The protests began in Lhasa on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule and escalated into ethnic violence and rioting that left at least 21 people dead, according to the government.

The protests grew into widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule in many Tibetan areas of China.

Exiles said they had evidence that dozens more died in the violence, many of them Tibetan protestors attacked by Chinese security forces.

In July, US-based Human Rights Watch called for an investigation of China's abuses in its Tibetan regions, saying witness accounts had confirmed the use of 'disproportionate force and deliberate brutality' during and since the 2008 protests.

The State Administration of Religious Affairs said it began drafting the new management measure for monasteries in late 2008.

It said the measure would protect all 'lawful activities' at monasteries, including training on Tibetan Buddhist texts, publishing, and receiving donations from domestic and overseas organizations and individuals.

After the 2008 protests, the government increased security, turned away journalists from Tibetan areas, limited access by foreign tourists and temporarily suspended communications in some places.

Source

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28311&article=China+tightens+control+of+Tibetan+monasteries%2c+blames+%22separatists%22

Nobel euphoria fails to mask tough reality in China

2010-10-11

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – The euphoria overseas and in some domestic circles at dissident Liu Xiaobo’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize has failed to mask deeper unease that his victory will likely bring little change in Communist Party-ruled China.

Liu, 54, has been a thorn in the government’s side since 1989 when he joined student protesters on a hunger strike days before the army crushed the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement and has been in and out of jail ever since.

Yet in today’s booming and bustling Beijing — with its luxury boutiques, well-dressed residents and sleek new subway lines — the heady days of 1989 are a distant memory and public discussion is taboo. Few people know who Liu is.

“I’ve never heard of him,” said one Beijing businessman waving his hand dismissively, who gave his family name as Han, in comments typical of those heard on the street when Liu’s name is mentioned. “I’m too busy to watch television.”

The award was largely ignored by Chinese media, apart from a few brief newspaper articles carrying the Foreign Ministry’s condemnation of the decision as an “obscenity.”

The popular tabloid the Global Times, however, published an angry commentary saying the Nobel Peace Prize was in danger of becoming “a political tool of the West.”

“It is disrespectful to the majority of Chinese and another arrogant display of Western ideology,” it wrote of the award.

The government’s grip on power is as tight as ever, and it has shown no signs of relaxing its stance toward the small band of Chinese “rights defenders” who continue to mount seemingly futile legal challenges against the Party.

Many signers of the “Charter 08″ petition which called for sweeping political reforms have either been locked away, put under house arrest or otherwise harassed. Perhaps the most famous of whom is Liu, jailed last Christmas Day for 11 years.

“Is China going to bow to international opprobrium? I think it very unlikely,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher on China with Human Rights Watch, a New York-based advocacy group.

“But the prize will add fuel to continued pressure on the Party to adapt further to respond to social demands, which now include a functioning legal system, rule of law, greater freedom of expression and freer media.”

Where once human rights were a hot topic of discussion during meetings between Chinese leaders and their counterparts in the West, these days the lure of China’s red hot economy amid a global downturn has muted criticism.

“Liu’s winning will put more of an international spotlight on the situation in China which has been lacking and that’s good,” Xinna, the wife of imprisoned ethnic Mongolian rights activist Hada, told Reuters from the northwestern city of Hohhot.

“But controls on us are tougher than even a few years ago. Things I could once read on the Internet are no longer accessible,” she added, speaking by telephone.

“The restriction on the flow of information means that some activists I know had never heard of Liu until yesterday. This does not give me much hope going forward,” said Xinna, whose husband is one of China’s longest-serving political prisoners.

The mobile telephone of Liu’s wife, Liu Xia, was turned off on Saturday. She told Reuters on Friday that the police were forcing her out of town to prevent her from talking to reporters, and that she was being taken to see her husband in jail.

There was a heavy security presence outside Liu’s jail in the northeastern city of Jinzhou, some 350 km (220 miles) from Beijing, with police searching passing cars and preventing people getting close to the drab detention buildings.

Still, some long-time activists see a glimmer of hope, pointing to comments by Premier Wen Jiabao in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen in August calling for political reform to safeguard the country’s economic health.

“If Wen is clever, he should use Liu’s winning of the peace prize to exert pressure on the conservative faction in the Party,” human rights lawyer Mo Shaoping told Reuters.

“There are those who think that the leadership does not speak with one voice on this issue. Liu’s prize could act as a starting point for reform.”

Source

http://www.asiaworks.com/news/2010/10/09/nobel-euphoria-fails-to-mask-tough-reality-in-china-reuters/

Obama joins Dalai Lama in calling for release of jailed Nobel peace laureate

2010-10-08

http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28299&article=Obama+joins+Dalai+Lama+in+calling+for+release+of+jailed+Nobel+peace+laureate

Imprisoned Liu follows in footsteps of Suu Kyi, Sakharov

2010-10-08

By Simon Hooper

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize while serving jail term in China
Former dissidents to win prize include Aung San Suu Kyi, Andrei Sakharov
Iranian laureate Shirin Ebadi says she has been subjected to harassment
First laureate to win prize while in detention was anti-Nazi campaigner Carl von Ossietzky

The award of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo follows an occasional precedent of recognizing human rights campaigners who are either imprisoned or subjected to state restrictions or harassment.

In announcing the prestigious award, Norwegian Nobel Committee President Thorbjoern Jagland cited Liu for his "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China." Liu is currently serving an 11-year jail sentence in China for inciting subversion of state power.

Reacting to the award, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Mao Zhaoxu said Liu was a "convicted criminal" whose actions had been "in complete contradiction to the purpose of the Nobel Peace Prize."

Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo wins Nobel Peace Prize

But Geir Lundestad, director of the Nobel Institute, said the Nobel Committee had a "very strong tradition of awarding the prize to human rights activists of many different kinds.

"This is a tradition we are very proud of, and this is a tradition for which the Norwegian Nobel Committee has received much applause," Lundestad said.

"We felt that if we were serious about this tradition, we did have to come to terms with the question of China in this perspective, and this is what we then did this year."

Unless Liu is released to collect his prize in Oslo in December, he will join a short list of laureates including Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov and Polish trade union leader Lech Walesa who have been unable to receive their medal in person.

Suu Kyi was awarded the prize in 1991 for her "non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights" one year after her pro-democracy party won a landslide win in national elections. But the result was suppressed by the country's military rulers. Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest and has remained in detention for most of the time since then.

Her acceptance speech was delivered by her son, Alexander Aris, who said: "It is my deepest hope that... the ruling junta may yet heed such appeals to basic humanity as that which the Nobel Committee has expressed in its award of this year's prize."

Myanmar's leaders said earlier this month that Suu Kyi would be released in November days after the country's first elections in two decades. But Suu Kyi's lawyers have expressed skepticism about the junta's pledge.

Sakharov, a Soviet nuclear physicist turned human rights campaigner, won the award in 1975 but wasn't allowed to leave the Soviet Union to collect his prize. Instead, his acceptance speech was read by his wife, Elena Bonner Sakharova.

"I beg you to remember that the honor which was thus granted to me is shared by all prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union and in other Eastern European countries as well as by all those who fight for their liberation," Sakharova said, on behalf of her husband.

In 1979 Sakharov was exiled to the closed city of Gorky, now Nizhny Novgorod, and lived under constant state surveillance until his return to Moscow in 1986 as Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika saw many dissidents freed.

Polish trade union leader Walesa, recognized for his work as leader of the anti-communist Solidarity movement, was also unable to collect his peace prize in 1983, fearing he would not be allowed to freely return to Poland if he did so, according to the Lech Walesa Institute website. Instead, he sent his wife, Danuta, and son, Bogdan, to Oslo on his behalf.

Walesa had been frequently detained and kept under state surveillance since the mid-1970s and when martial law was imposed in Poland in 1981, Walesa has been arrested and interned for almost a year in a remote country house.

"With deep sorrow I think of those who paid with their lives for the loyalty to Solidarity; of those who are behind prison bars and who are victims of repressions," Walesa said in an acceptance speech read out by his wife.

In 2009, Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store raised concerns about the treatment of Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, claiming that the 2003 winner's medal had been confiscated by the Tehran regime. Norway also claimed Ebadi's husband had been arrested and severely beaten.

But Iran denied confiscating the medal, and said Ebadi was the subject of a tax evasion probe.

Ebadi received the prize for her focus on human rights, especially on the struggle to improve the status of women and children. Following the arrest of her sister, she told CNN earlier this year that she said she had been warned to stop her human rights activities.

"In the past six months they have put significant pressure on me as well as on members of my family; my husband, my brother and my sister, who were summoned on several occasions to the intelligence ministry and told that if I did not cease my human rights activities they would be arrested."

Argentinean human rights campaigner Adolfo Esquivel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 after spending more than a year in prison without trial between 1977 and 1978. He was cited for raising awareness about the "dirty war" carried out by Argentina's military rulers which saw thousands of political opponents "vanish without trace," according to the Nobel Prize website.

In 1960, the Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to the then-president of the African National Congress, Albert Lutuli, for his work opposing South Africa's apartheid regime.

Lutuli spent almost a year in detention between 1956 and 1957 on treason charges which were later dropped. A series of travel bans confined Lutuli to a 15-mile radius around his home and in 1960 he was arrested and given a suspended jail sentence for publicly burning his identity papers in a gesture of solidarity with demonstrators killed in the Sharpeville massacre.

Lutuli's ANC comrade, Nelson Mandela, imprisoned from 1964 until 1990, had to wait until after his release to win the Nobel Peace Prize, sharing the honor with apartheid South Africa's last president F.W. de Klerk, for the pair's work in ending racial segregation.

Anti-Nazi campaigner and journalist Carl von Ossietzky was the first Nobel Peace laureate to be awarded the prize while in prison in Germany in the mid-1930s. Von Ossietzky had already served a seven-month jail term between 1931 and 1932 for betraying military secrets after publishing an article revealing details of Germany's secret rearmament.

In February 1933, with Hitler consolidating his grip on power, von Ossietzky was arrested by secret police and imprisoned, first in Berlin and then in concentration camps at Sonnenburg and Esterwegen-Papenburg where fellow prisoners said he was forced to perform heavy labor despite suffering a heart attack.

Having been cited for the peace prize for 1935, Berlin refused to release him to collect the award in 1936 and demanded that he decline the honor, which Von Ossietzky refused to do. Suffering from tuberculosis he remained in captivity and then in hospital under surveillance until his death in 1938.

According to the Nobel Prize website, Von Ossietzky's last public appearance was at a court hearing at which his lawyer was sentenced to two years hard labor for embezzling most of his prize money.

Source

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/10/08/nobel.prize.detainees/index.html?hpt=C1

Window on Eurasia: ‘In Uzbekistan, It’s 1937 Again’ with Show Trial of VOA Correspondent

2010-10-08

The ongoing Tashkent trial of a VOA stringer, Ferghana.ru says, shows that “in Uzbekistan, it’s 1937 again,” with the major difference being that the regime does not feel it has to use torture to gain confessions to crimes those charged did not commit but rather can count on elastic laws and equally flexible “expert conclusions” for the same ends.
Yesterday, the trial of Abdumalik Boboyev (the pseudonym for Malik Mansur, 41) began in the Uzbek capital. The Voice of America Uzbek Service correspondent is charged with slander, libel, illegal border crossing, and “the preparation of materials containing a threat to public security and public order” (www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6754).
Under Uzbekistan law, the severity of the fourth charge is increased because “the crime was committed ‘with the use of financial or other material support received from religious organizations and also from foreign governments, organizations and citizens” – in this case from the US government’s Voice of America. If convicted, Boboyev could face eight years in jail.
The way this case has been handled highlights just how political it is and how little the facts have to do with either the charges being brought or the verdict reached. According to Ferghana.ru, internal evidence from the experts’ conclusion suggests that the case was prepared almost a year ago.
Boboyev, however, was not shown these documents until the end of September and his lawyer withdrew ostensibly because of a crowded schedule. This conjunction of events highlights the political rather than legal nature of the case. But the real evidence for such a conclusion is to be found in the statement of the experts.
Prepared by Rustam Mukhamedov of the Center for Monitoring Mass Communications of the Uzbek Agency for Media and Information – an institution that has acquired notoriety in the past (see www.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=6472), this document is, in the words of the Ferghana.ru translator, the most “stupid and illiterate” text he had ever encountered.
That 6700-word document, available online as of yesterday in Russian, is Kafkaesque both in the language it uses and in the logic it employs, qualities that are most clearly demonstrated by extensive quotations as the expert who prepared this is nothing if not long-winded.
For example, the expert concludes that Boboyev used materials from the media of Uzbekistan itself without checking whether the facts were correct and moreover took money “from abroad” in order to “distract the population of Uzbekistan, violate good neighborly relations among citizens and awaken in them distrust to the powers that be and judicial system … sow panic among the population, detract from the dignity and image of Uzbekistan among society, create conditions for the commission of crimes” by disseminating “unchecked one-sided information about Uzbekistan, about [its] existing customs and traditions and cultural wealth.”
In support of such sweeping and obviously political conclusions, the expert offers quotations from the broadcasts and web posting that Boboyev made. One of these that the expert argues violates Uzbekistan’s law reported that “Uzbekistan is one of the countries where freedom of speech is severely limited and where officials exert pressure on journalists, In the country has been established full control over television, radio and the press. Independent internet sites are blocked.”
According to the Uzbek expert, Boboyev’s crime in this case reflected his failure to indicate “from what source” he got this information,” which the expert continues both “baselessly shows “the unjust actions of the judicial system of the country” and “openly defiles the employees of the judicial organs and the law enforcement structures of Uzbekistan.”
Such quotations could be multiplied at will to show that the accusations against Boboyev in fact serve as an indictment of the Uzbek officials and the Uzbekistan government who brought them in the first place. But they also call attention to two other realities that deserve more attention than they often receive.
On the one hand, governments like the one in Uzbekistan have learned that they can write and use laws in ways that subvert the very meaning of law with the additional benefit for themselves that many outside observers will limit their criticism of these regimes because it appears that they are law-based. In fact, as this case shows, they are only “law-like.”
And on the other, the attack on Boboyev, for that is what it is, highlights the continuing importance of international broadcasting and the increasing role of the Internet – throughout the Uzbek expert’s document, the web is referred to almost as many times as broadcasts – in limiting government assaults on freedom of information and promoting freedom more generally.
For all those reasons and so that justice will be done in what is clearly an unjust political system, people of good will there and around the world need to support Boboyev in what will otherwise be his unequal struggle against a regime that by its actions shows why courageous people like himself remain so important.

Source

http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/10/window-on-eurasia-in-uzbekistan-its.html

STATEMENT FROM LIU XIAOBO’S WIFE, LIU XIA

2010-10-08

STATEMENT FROM LIU XIAOBO’S WIFE, LIU XIA

October 8, 2010

I am grateful to the Nobel Committee for selecting my husband, Liu Xiaobo, to be the recipient of the

2010 Nobel Peace Prize. It is a true honor for him and one for which I know he would say he is not

worthy. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to former Czech Republic President Václav Havel,

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, and so many others who courageously

nominated him for the Prize.

I hope that the international community will take this opportunity to call on the Chinese government to

press for my husband’s release. As the Committee recognized, China’s new status in the world comes

with increased responsibility. China should embrace this responsibility, have pride in his selection, and

release him from prison.

BACKGROUND

Liu Xiaobo is a Chinese scholar and democracy activist who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for

“inciting subversion of state power” on December 25, 2009, for his role in drafting Charter 08. The

Chinese government previously detained Dr. Liu for his peaceful democracy advocacy on four occasions,

including his participation in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Dr. Liu was one of four intellectuals

who negotiated with the army for the safe passage of students out of the Square. Under China’s

Constitution, both the President and the Standing Committee on the National People’s Congress have the

power to grant special pardons (Articles 80 and 67 (17) respectively).

Freedom Now serves as international counsel to Liu Xiaobo, as retained by his wife Liu Xia.

1750 K Street NW, Suite 350 • Washington, DC 20006 • +1 (202) 223-3733 • www.freedom-now.org

Our mission is to free prisoners of conscience through focused legal, political and public relations advocacy efforts.

Source

http://www.freedom-now.org/

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to China dissident Liu Xiaobo

2010-10-08

Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has been named the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Making the announcement in Oslo, Nobel Committee president Thorbjoern Jagland said Mr Liu was "the foremost symbol of the wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China".

Mr Liu's wife and some Western nations have called for his immediate release.

China said the award was a violation of Nobel principles and could damage relations with Norway.

Mr Jagland admitted he knew the choice would be controversial. He told local television before the announcement: "You'll understand when you hear the name."

'Curtailed freedom'

Mr Jagland, reading the citation, said China's new status in the world "must entail increased responsibility".

In the weeks leading up to this announcement, Beijing was very strong on its statements. It said that Liu Xiaobo was not a suitable candidate. Beijing regards him as a criminal and said the award could damage relations between China and Norway.

Many Chinese people will see this as an attack by the West on what they stand for and certainly many nationalists will see this as an example of the West trying to demonise China.

The statement of the Nobel Peace Prize committee will not get a lot of traction with ordinary people. The authorities have very effectively given him no publicity whatsoever.

"China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights."

Mr Jagland said that, in practice, freedoms enshrined in China's constitution had "proved to be distinctly curtailed for China's citizens".

Mr Jagland said the choice of Mr Liu had become clear early in the selection process.

Mr Liu, 54, who was a key leader in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, was jailed for 11 years on Christmas Day last year for drafting Charter 08, which called for multiparty democracy and respect for human rights in China.

The Nobel Foundation citation read: "Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China's own constitution and fundamental human rights."

Ending the citation, Mr Jagland said: "The campaign to establish universal human rights in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad.

Liu Xiaobo's wife talks to the BBC about visiting her husband.

"Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China."

Beijing quickly condemned the award, saying it could damage China-Norway relations.

Foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said: "Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who violated Chinese law. It's a complete violation of the principles of the prize and an insult to the Peace Prize itself for the Nobel committee to award the prize to such a person."

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said it would be "negative for China's reputation in the world" if it chose to punish Norway over the award.

10 Years of Peace Prize Winners

2010: Liu Xiaobo
2009: Barack Obama
2008: Martti Ahtisaari
2007: Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
2006: Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank
2005: IAEA and Mohamed ElBaradei
2004: Wangari Maathai
2003: Shirin Ebadi
2002: Jimmy Carter
2001: Kofi Annan and the United Nations

Mr Liu's wife, Liu Xia, said she was "so excited" by the award.

She told AFP news agency: "I want to thank everyone for supporting Liu Xiaobo. I strongly ask that the Chinese government release Liu."

Mrs Liu said police had informed her they would take her to Mr Liu's prison in the north-eastern province of Liaoning on Saturday so she could give him the news.

The prize is worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.5m; £944,000) and will be awarded in Oslo on 10 December.

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said China should free Mr Liu so he could attend the ceremony.

France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also welcomed the award and called on China to release Mr Liu.

Thorbjoern Jagland with the citation

Rights group Amnesty International said Mr Liu was a "worthy winner".

But Catherine Baber, deputy Asia-Pacific director, said: "This award can only make a real difference if it prompts more international pressure on China to release Liu, along with the numerous other prisoners of conscience languishing in Chinese jails."

No candidates are announced ahead of the Peace Prize but others mentioned in the media included Afghan women's rights activist Sima Samar, Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina, former German chancellor Helmut Kohl and Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Nobel committee had to defend last year's controversial Peace Prize choice of US President Barack Obama.

see video on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11499098

In China when Parents Lose Children they Lose the Right to Look for Them

2010-10-07

An often overlooked group among the swelling ranks of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) least-wanted, and the nation’s most disenfranchised, are the parents of missing children.

Groups of parents take to the streets of Beijing with a long banner displaying photos of their missing children. On Sept. 29, The Epoch Times interviewed several of them. “Nowadays, there is only one child in every household. Losing a child is like the end of the world,” said one parent. “We show these photos in Beijing to raise awareness so this will not happen to other families.”

One parent said that when they were searching for their children in Beijing, the police chased them every day. “A friend of mine in Beijing called me yesterday and told me that Beijing CCP officials and police arrived at the place where we had held our activity right after we had left. They were looking for us, wanting to arrest us and send us home.”

According to one of the parents, security officials want them to simply hush up, because “The CCP believes that it is a shame for the CCP that there are so many missing children.”

They did not mean to embarrass the regime, this parent said, but instead want stricter laws on human trafficking. “The CCP needs to take this seriously. Tragically, there are more and more cases of broken families happening now in China.”

One of the parents, Zheng, said: “I am from a village in Hebei [a northern Chinese province]. I lost my son when he was 15. It’s been four years and I can't find him.” In the summer of 2006, Zheng sent his son to Beijing to see the world and to help his uncle sell kebabs. One morning, the uncle woke up and Mr. Zheng’s son, who had been sleeping alongside him, was gone. No one could find him.

Over 30 parents from various places in China holding a large banner with photos of their children in Beijing. (Epoch Times Archive)

“I have looked many places for my son over the past four years. In our village, there is no benefit of any kind and we were totally dependent on our son taking care of us in our old age. My wife has mentally collapsed. She cries every day and stays next to the telephone, waiting for a phone call. I can't stand being at home,” Zheng said.

“After I lost my child, I especially paid attention to news and information regarding missing children. The communist regime lies and tries to cover up for these crimes. For example, when there are two children missing, the state-run media reports that there is only one child missing; when two missing children are found, they report that ten were found,” he said.

While searching for his son, Zheng met other parents whose children are also missing. “My car is covered with pictures of missing children from Shenzhen, Guangdong, and Shanxi. There are more and more children missing in China now.”

Zheng says that parents have gained support from the media in countries such as the U.S. and New Zealand. “They left messages in our QQ [Chinese Internet chat tool] and told us to ask if we need any help.”

When he and ten parents recently went to Shenzhen and to put up posters of their missing children, the local police arrested them and confiscated their car—they were accused of shaming the communist regime. “These parents called me and I quickly placed a call to a media outlet in the U.S.,” Zheng said. Phone calls were made to the police by both domestic and international media, and the police released the parents the next day.

Another parent, Li Jiancheng, also lost his son. “In early September this year, my wife woke up one morning to find that our four month old son who was sleeping right next to her was gone. Nothing else in the house was missing. We called the police and they came but they didn't find any clues. We have been looking for our son ever since,” Li said.

Li’s friend in Beijing said that in the process of helping Li look for his missing son, he has helped others find over 80 missing children of a similar age. Li’s son is still missing.

Source

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/43793/

Anniversary Of Russian Journalist Politkovskaya's Slaying

2010-10-07

Rights activists and acquaintances of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya are marking four years since her murder in the Russian capital.

Politkovskaya, a critic of then-President Vladimir Putin and his policies in Chechnya, was shot outside her Moscow apartment in what supporters claim was a contract killing.

Criticized for its handling of the case, Russia's chief investigator's office say they have launched a worldwide search -- with the help of Interpol, among others -- for the suspected killer, Rustam Makhmudov.

Russia also says it is extending its probe until February.

Russian rights activists say the lack of progress in the probe proves such murders can be committed with impunity in Russia, where a number of high-profile murders of rights activists and journalists have gone unsolved.

Source

http://www.rferl.org/content/Anniversary_Of_Russian_Journalist_Politkovskayas_Slaying/2183183.html

China's 'wild swan' on Mao and memoir

2010-10-07

by Grace Wong and Susannah Palk for CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Jung Chang came to fame in 1991 for her account of life in Communist China
Her books "Wild Swans" and "Mao: The Unknown Story" are banned in mainland China
She says she feels frustrated by China's repression of expression
She hopes the country will find a way to debate the past without inhibition

China is one of the countries we're featuring on Global Connections, a segment on CNN's Connect the World that takes two very different countries and asks you to find the connections. We asked author Jung Chang to give us her view on China and how it's changing.

London, England (CNN) -- Whether in the form of personal history or political biography, Jung Chang has spent her writerly life telling the story of China's tumultuous recent past.

The best-selling author of "Wild Swans," an account of three generations of women in her family, Chang gained a following for her frank portrait of life in China in the 20th century.

More recently, she's made waves with "Mao: The Unknown Story" -- the scathing, 800-plus page biography of the Chinese leader that she wrote with her husband, historian Jon Halliday.

Born in 1952 in Sichuan, a province in China's southwest, Chang came of age during the height of the Cultural Revolution. She served briefly as a Red Guard and worked a variety of odd jobs in the countryside before turning to studying English.

She left China for Britain in 1978 to further her studies and earned a doctorate in linguistics. She rose to literary fame after "Wild Swans" was published in 1991. "Mao: The Unknown Story," which took a decade to research, was released in 2005.

CNN caught up with Chang, who currently lives in London, and asked her about China and why it's so important to remember the past.

CNN: Your memoir and biography of Mao use different means to tell a story about China's recent history. Why is it so important to tell this story?

Jung Chang: Well, it's very important to me. "Wild Swans" is the story of my family -- my grandmother, my mother and myself. I started writing the book after my mother told me the stories of her life and my grandmother's life. So those things are written primarily for myself.

And then with Mao, there is still a lot of myth about him perpetuated in China today. I feel the Chinese don't know about the real man and the world still knows relatively little about him. I, myself, when I started writing the book in the early 1990s felt I didn't know all that much. I wanted to find out more, then tell the story to the world.

CNN: Your books are banned in China. How does that make you feel?

JC: I feel frustrated and very unhappy of course. The Chinese should be allowed to remember. What happened under Mao affected so many people's lives, and that sort of agony and that terrifying past has not been properly processed in people's memories. I think that's not healthy.

But my books are published in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is still largely separate from mainland China, which is wonderful from my point of view as a writer. It means many copies have gone into mainland China from Hong Kong.

CNN: China is such a rapidly changing country. What changes stand out most to you?

JC: I think particularly in the initial years what stuck me most was the dramatic diminishment of fear. When I was growing up, we lived in fear all the time. People aren't living like that any longer.

People are under the impression that China is what it is today because Mao had laid the foundation. Far from it. Mao held the country back. The dramatic change that happened after Mao died was because he had died. The force and the terror that held the Chinese back, was suddenly removed.

Of course now there is a dramatic improvement in people's lives, in all aspects, not only material but in terms of personal freedom, the freedom of travel and lots of other personal freedoms.

Of course, having said all that, there are still many things that frustrate me. There is still no freedom of expression in the public arena. Books are banned, including my books, which is intensely frustrating.

CNN: What future do you see for the country and what do you hope for?

JC: If there isn't anything dramatic happening, I think the country will probably go on as it is for a very long time. People's lives will probably continue to improve slowly but there will still be repression in many ways.

I hope, of course, for the obvious and the best -- I want people to enjoy the kind of freedom they do in Britain for example. From my point of view as a writer, I hope the country will find a way to talk about the past in an honest way -- to debate about the past without inhibition.

CNN: What do you miss most about China?

JC: I sometimes ask myself this question, but I realize I don't miss any particular thing. What I miss is something intangible. China -- as a culture, as a people -- is something that I care about. It is under my skin.

But exactly what it is that makes me feel restless, I'm not sure. I guess I miss the whole place, the people who have been through so much and the country, which is so old and yet so young and energetic. It has experienced so much tragedy and yet remains so optimistic and upbeat. All these things make tears come to my eyes.

Source

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/07/china.jung.chang/index.html?hpt=C2

Window on Eurasia : Those Who Say Authoritarianism Inevitable in Russia Share Blame for Putin’s Suppression of Freedom, Ryzhkov Says.

2010-10-06

by Paul Goble

People in Russia and the West who provide support for “the myth of Russia’s historically predetermined path toward enslavement and authoritarianism” are contributing “to the continued suppression of human rights” there and thus providing “a valuable service to Vladimir Putin,” according to a former Duma deputy and now Ekho Moskvy host
But such people should remember, Vladimir Ryzhkov continues, that “each new article or book promoting these shame theories leads directly to … Russia’s continued backwardness, poverty and enslavement and [also to] an increase in Russians who emigrate to the West seeking freedom and prosperity” (www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/historically-determined-to-be-an-autocrat/418431.html and www.echo.msk.ru/blog/rizhkov/715893-echo/ ).
Putin and those around him such as Kremlin first deputy chief of staff Vladislav Surkov “don’t believe Russians can be trusted to vote,” Ryzhkov says, because the Russian prime minister and his supporters do not believe that the Russian people are “smart or civilized enough to vote responsibly.”
But that “condescending” view, the Ekho Moskvy journalist says, “is by no means limited to voting.” Putin and his entourage also “believe that the masses are not able to do anything,” that “Russia needs ‘a benevolent tsar’ with an iron-like power vertical to explain to the ignorant masses what is best for the country.”
When Putin eliminated the election of governors in 2004, he argued that this “would somehow help defend the country against terrorism,” but he also said that “if the people were allowed to vote, they might elect the ‘wrong’ candidates.” And since that time, he has repeated that argument “as a justification for squashing [all] political competition.”
Given that in Putin’s view, Russia’s “liberal and leftist opposition” parties are “a radical and revolutionary force,” he is fully justified in blocking them from being “elected by naïve and misguided” citizens. Only “the ‘systemic opposition’” can be permitted because those parties “obey his orders and help the Kremlin create the impression” that democracy exists.
Further, Ryzhkov continues, “to help ‘the kind tsar’ carry out his duties,” Putin placed “the major television channels under government control” and ensured that his pocket party, United Russia “dominated” those places where elections did take place or was in a position to “falsify” the outcomes, a classic example of “the end justifying the means.”
“The only exception” to Putin’s belief that “the people are ignorant and can’t be trusted with electing officials,” of course, was the elections of 2000 and 2004 when “by some miraculous stroke of fate,” Russians showed “unprecedented wisdom and responsibility” and voted for him.
In order to buttress his claims, Ryzhkov says, “Putin and his ideologues” – liked Surkov – “try to package their disdain in pseudo-historical terms,” arguing that “Russia has a unique ‘historical tradition’” and has “always been dominated by a strong autocrat in the Kremlin,” something no one is in a position to change at least for the present.
And while “Putin allows for the possibility that one day Russians might be able to overcome this 1000-year-old legacy” and become “mature and responsible enough” to take charge of their own affairs,” he makes it clear that that will occur only “sometime in the future, presumably long after Putin retires.”
This view, Ryzhkov says, allows Putin and his supporters to argue that “the systematic destruction of [Russia’s] democratic institution” that they have carried out was “not the result of manipulation, usurpation and the abuse of power but rather a natural and unavoidable manifestation of [the country’s] ‘predetermined historical path.’”
Such an argument “completely ignores” the history of liberal reform movements in Russia’s past, “including those pursued by Alexander II, Nicholas II, and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev,” Ryzhkov says, and thus should be dismissed as “cynical” and “cheap” political propaganda.
But at least, Putin is pushing this line to advance his own power. What is worse, Ryzhkov suggests, is when others in Russia and even more abroad “reinforce the myth of Russia’s historically pre-determined path toward enslavement and authoritarianism” by their writings.
They are whether they know it or not “providing a valuable service to Putin” and other opponents of democracy and freedom in Russia and thus making “their own contribution to the continued suppression of human rights in Russia now” whose people deserve the chance to take control of their own fate.

Source

http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/10/window-on-eurasia-those-who-say.html

Trade groups want the Cuba-travel vote in upcoming lame-duck session of Congress

2010-10-06

A number of business associations are planning a lobbying blitz during the lame-duck session to repeal the U.S. travel ban to Cuba.
The bill ran into trouble last week when Rep. Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, postponed a markup of the legislation.
Despite the setback, lobbyists for business and farm groups say that this Congress may be their best opportunity to see the bill passed and signed into law. Republicans are expected to make big gains in the midterm elections and are seen as less likely to vote for a bill that loosens restrictions on Cuba.
The National Farmers Union, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), the National Pork Producers Council, and other groups plan to lobby lawmakers to take up the bill again during the lame-duck session.
“A vote by the committee that has jurisdiction over the travel provision of the bill would send a strong signal,” said Jake Colvin, a vice president at NFTC. “We have always thought the committee vote would be tougher than the floor vote. If you can get it out of committee, you can win on the floor.”

Source

http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/

Democrats Delay Hearing on Travel Ban to Cuba, As Its Envoy Hews Hard Line at United Nations

2010-10-06

by Benny Avni

On the eve of hearings that had been set to open in the United States Congress on whether to ease the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba, Havana’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, has been taking a hard, even strident line here at the United Nations, very much at odds with the way Fidel Castro is trying to portray Cuba in the American press these days.

It has prompted old hands here at the United Nations to quote another, albeit different kind of, Marxist — Groucho, who famously asked: Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?

The House Foreign Affairs Committee had been scheduled to hold tomorrow hearings that liberals had hoped would lead to a vote to lift the travel ban. But late today, the Democrats appear to have pulled back, not wanting to take up the matter before the congressional elections in November. Advocates of ending the ban were reported yesterday by Reuters to be disappointed, having sensed momentum in recent weeks.

The Atlantic Magazine, the Council on Foreign Relations, the New York Times and others have recently reported that Cuba and the Castro brothers are mending their ways, decentralizing the economy, distancing themselves from world tyrants, and even finding kind words for Israel and the Jews.

Mr. Parrilla, however, was, in his address at the annual General Assembly debate, as rigid as ever, blaming America’s aggression for all the isle’s troubles, saying Israel is behind all that’s wrong in the Middle East, and expressing solidarity with Venezuela’s caudillo, Hugo Chavez.

“The Cuban revolution will unyieldingly and tenaciously continue down the path that has been sovereignly chosen by our people, and shall not cease in its endeavors, befitting the ideas of Marti and Fidel,” the Cuban foreign minister told delegates at the opening debate of the U.N. General Assembly Monday.

And no, for Cuba the holocaust-denying Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is not the aggressor. “As Comrade Fidel has pointed out, powerful and influential forces in the United States and Israel are paving the way to launch a military attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mr. Parrilla warned, adding that the General Assembly must stop such a plot to commit a “crime against the Iranian people” and such “an assault against international law” in order to prevent a nuclear war.

Mr. Parrilla’s entire speech was an old-style Cuban assault on America and Israel, harking back to the glorious days of the Cold War when the Castros drew as much attention at international fora like the U.N. as is now reserved for Mr. Ahmadinejad or Mr. Chavez.

But wait a minute. Hasn’t Fidel Castro mellowed with age? Isn’t Cuba’s new powerhouse, Raul Castro, turning the country and its sclerotic system around?

Didn’t the older Castro tell the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg and the Council’s Julia Sweig that the Cuban model no longer works (although he later recanted, saying that, though he’d been accurately quoted by Mr. Goldberg, he meant to say that the capitalist system isn’t working)?

Also in that Atlantic interview, Mr. Castro – who has championed Palestinian terrorists since the 1970s, when he also severed his country’s relations with Israel – talked about the suffering of the Jewish people and stressed the uniqueness of anti-Semitism. He even berated Mr. Ahmadinejad about his holocaust denial.

President Peres was so impressed that, while in New York late last week, he wrote a thank-you letter to Castro, which was hand delivered to Cuba’s ambassador to Turtle Bay. In it Mr. Peres congratulated Mr. Castro for the “intellectual depth” he displayed in Mr. Goldberg’s interview.

Meanwhile, the New York Times issued on its front page a dispatch of Elisabeth Malkin detailing the younger Castro’s plan to fire “more than half million” public sector employees – a step representing the “clearest sign yet that economic change is gathering pace” in Cuba.

Trouble is, the Times story, filed from Mexico City, showed scant evidence that any of the changes described in it were actually taking place beyond reports in Granma and other state-owned press outlets or official statements from state-sanctioned workers unions.

“These are things that they’re constantly announcing that they’re going to do,” said the former Mexican foreign minister, Jorge Castaneda. But the record in the last four years – since Fidel’s ailment forced Raul to take over as president – shows that “none of it ever really happens,” said Mr. Castaneda, a long-time Cuba watcher whom I have known for years because he is my cousin and who, in any event, has clashed with the Castro brothers on many occasions.

The elder Mr. Castro’s interviews may seem like a repudication of much of his 50 years in power, but, as Mr. Parrilla’s speech shows, they – and reports disseminated by the government’s own propaganda organs – do not indicate any real change in Havana’s ideology or policies.

They’re mostly designed to end a situation in which, in Mr. Parrilla’s words, “for all American citizens or foreigners residing in that country, traveling to Cuba continues to be illegal.” Cuba is starved for an American cash infusion, which it hopes would save its economy from collapse. Mr. Parrilla said here that Washington hasn’t revolutionized its policies under President Obama despite Havana’s hopes.

Source

http://www.nysun.com/foreign/cuban-minister-hews-hard-line-at-united-nations/87097/

Dissidents Proclaim Communist Rule in China ‘An Arrow at the End of Its Flight’

2010-10-06

By Matthew Robertson

WASHINGTON, DC—Regime collapse in China may not be on the tips of the lips of the many Western observers, but the Chinese dissident community has something else to say.

Gathered on Sept. 27 in the U.S. Capitol to mark the anniversary of the 61st year of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) successful insurgency and seizure of political power, the themes were multiple: a discussion of all things evil the CCP has done; the announcement of the publishing of the book “Lessons in Democracy” in Chinese; a discussion of why the CCP’s monopoly on power is now in jeopardy, or as Wei Jingsheng put it: why “the CCP is like an arrow at the end of its flight”; and a discussion of why the mass of renunciations of the CCP by Chinese people (called “tuidang”) has become more than a headache for the regime.

Organized by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation and the Asia Democracy Alliance, the event featured half a dozen speakers, including: Kama Namgyal, chair of Dokham Chushigandruk, a Tibetan human rights group; Ge Defang, U.S. Director of the League of Chinese Victims; Ni Yuxian, chair of the Chinese Freedom and Democracy Party; and executive director of the Global Service Center for Quitting CCP Dr. Li Dayong, who spoke about the implications of the renunciation campaign he helps coordinate.

Wei Jingsheng began the forum by dismissing Deng Xiaoping’s much vaunted nostrum of “reform and opening up,” which has not actually made the masses of Chinese much richer. “We know that China has two hundred to three hundred million in abject poverty,” he said.

He argued that China’s apparent wealth is concentrated among a small elite, and was obtained through exploiting both the West and the Chinese masses. “Everyone knows that workers’ wages are extremely low in China—and they use cheap products sent to the West to cause trouble with the markets here.”

In sum, Wei said, when the CCP was under Mao, it was a disaster for the Chinese people, but in the thirty years under and since Deng, “they not only bring disaster to the Chinese people, but to the whole world.”

“So here we’re looking at the 61 years of the CCP’s rule from every aspect.”

One such aspect was Mao’s “Little Red Book,” and how everyone used to carry one around; Roland Watson, author of the newly translated “Lessons in Democracy,” suggested this idea be subverted by a sort of “little blue book of democracy.”

“It would be much better in China if everyone had a little book about democracy that they read, that they could study,” Watson said with a wry smile. “It doesn’t have to be mine, it can be any other book about democracy,” sitting at home or in the car.

‘Tuidang’

The last speaker, Li Dayong, thought he had something close to such a book. Called the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” and published by The Epoch Times, it is a volume that has spread similar to how “samizdat” used to spread in the Soviet Union, in unconventional ways that confound the CCP’s strict censorship regime.

The book is a global indictment of communism, and especially the Chinese kind. The campaign to renounce the CCP began in December 2004, soon after the publication of the editorial series. “Nine Commentaries” provides an unvarnished examination of the nature and history of the CCP.

The result of the publication was an open call to the Chinese public and those concerned with China’s future to “renounce” the CCP, a peaceful campaign that has been led by Falun Gong practitioners, one of the most severely persecuted groups in modern China.

The grassroots movement that resulted soon formed the Global Service Center, which collects (and encourages) renunciations via phone, fax, or Internet. The total number of renunciations are tallied online, and now number over 81 million.

Renunciations are counted for any individual who has ever been a member of the Young Pioneers of China, the Communist Youth League of China, or the Chinese Communist Party proper; the former two mass organizations are used by the CCP to indoctrinate China’s young people, and cover the ages 6-14 and 14-28 respectively.

Though formal membership may have expired, renunciations are still collected from former members of these organizations—which includes a large proportion of China’s population.

On the surface the CCP appears not to have responded to the tuidang movement, Li Dayong says, but the response inside Party has been a frenzy of activity: those who distribute the book in China are punished severely, and political cleansing movements the likes of which had not been seen since the 1950s—complete with forced confessions, focused lessons in groupthink, renewal of the oath to join the CCP, and re-education meant to maintain the “advanced nature” of the Party cadres at all levels—sprang up.

“Tuidang” statements are related partly to disaffection with the cross-strata strife of Chinese society—such as entrenched corruption, environmental damage, the decay of behavioral standards, the absence of basic social trust, the capricious violence of the Party elite, their expropriations of land and property, the deprival of basic human rights, etc.—but overall, according to Li, are about the Chinese people’s repugnance at the CCP’s immorality.

“I wish to point out that instead of being a political movement aimed at bringing down the CCP, the essence of renouncing the CCP lies in the spiritual revolution in each individual,” Li stated.

Nevertheless, the impact of the tuidang campaign may bring that about anyway. Li concluded with a Chinese saying: “Not only can water float a boat, but also sink it”—meaning that while the CCP has thus far ridden successfully on the backs of the masses, the renunciation campaign may mean things turn out differently.

Dissidents are hopeful. “I hope that the great mass of Chinese who have suffered injustice will take tuidang further; I hope it catches on like a prairie fire,” said Ge Defang, director of the League of Chinese Victims.

source

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/43755/99999999/1/1/

The fatal fact of the Nazi-Soviet pact

2010-10-06

I'm honoured that Efraim Zuroff and Dovid Katz chose to respond to my article about the 28 September 1939 treaty on borders and friendship between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. I agree with them that the Holocaust must be regarded as central to the war and the century; I have just published a book, Bloodlands, that seeks to anchor the Holocaust, along with the other mass killing campaigns of the time and place, in European history. Though we share this concern, I find myself troubled by the form that their central argument takes.

Zuroff more stridently, and Katz more gently, reason thus: first, it is right to resist Baltic supernationalists and Holocaust obfuscators who equate Stalin and Hitler; second, when Snyder writes an essay about the Soviet-German alliance of 1939-41, he gives comfort to such people; third, it is therefore legitimate to (falsely) claim that Snyder equates Stalin with Hitler, take a strong stand against that proposition, and associate him along the way with the Baltic supernationalists and the Holocaust obfuscators.

I didn't and don't equate Hitler and Stalin. Katz puts "somewhat equal" in quotations, but I never use any such phrase. Zuroff says that I "posit" that the Soviet Union was Nazi Germany; I most certainly do no such thing.

What I try to do, in the 28 September article and generally, is understand what it means for a vast east European territory and several east European peoples to have been touched by both Nazi and Soviet power. Despite some critical remarks of Bloodlands in an otherwise perceptive and generous (London) Times review of 26 September, which perhaps Zuroff and Katz read, I don't equate Stalin with Hitler in that book either. Instead, I try to reckon with the crimes that both regimes committed in the lands between Berlin and Moscow, where 14 million people, including more than 5 million Jews, were killed in the 12 years that both Hitler and Stalin were in power.

I quite agree with Katz that the current political climate in the Baltics (and not only there) obfuscates the role that local populations played in the Holocaust. Where I would beg to disagree is with the legitimacy of associating my argument about the importance of the treaty on borders and friendship with current politics – not least since, as Katz very likely knows, I write about the participation of Balts and other locals in the Holocaust, and my work has not had an easy reception in Lithuania. I worry that arguing in the way that Zuroff and Katz do confirms the pattern of polemic that has persisted in discussions of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union for decades: scholarship is ultimately politics, and politics is ultimately a matter of being on one side or the other. What matters then, unfortunately, is not what we actually say, but our imputed ideological commitments or perceived political agendas.

Katz and Zuroff claim that there was only one genocide in eastern Europe, the Holocaust. The mass murder of the Jews was, indeed, unprecedented in its horror; no other campaign involved such rapid, targeted and deliberate killing, or was so tightly bound to the idea that a whole people ought to be exterminated. The Holocaust was, of course, a genocide, but calling it such is not the best way to stress its special character. Genocide – by the UN definition – involves "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such". Genocide is committed by "killing members of the group", "causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group", "deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part", "imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group" and "forcibly transferring children of this group to another group".

So, the Germans committed genocide not only when they sought to murder all of the Jews, but when they gassed and shot the Roma. When Germans shot Belarusian women and children to take men as workers, that was genocide; in part, because their war plans assumed the violent depopulation of that country.

Zuroff mentions Hitler's dream of Lebensraum: German colonial planning to create living space in the east explicitly foresaw the starvation, shooting, physical removal or assimilation of tens of millions of Slavs. So, when the Germans starved 4 million of so Soviet citizens to death, most of them prisoners of war held in starvation camps, that too was probably genocide. When the Germans, like the Soviets, specifically targeted educated Poles in 1939-41, that was genocide. When the Germans shot tens of thousands of Poles in 1944, with the intention of making sure that Warsaw would never rise again, that was genocide, too. Far less dramatic measures, such as the kidnapping and Germanisation of Polish children, were also, by the legal definition, genocide.

As for the Soviets, Rafal Lemkin, who gave us the term "genocide", saw Stalin's application of famine and terror to Soviet Ukraine in the 1930s as a "classic case" of genocide. During the campaign to collectivise Soviet agriculture, Stalin spoke of "liquidating the kulaks as a class". Soviet agitators send to enforce collectivisation spoke of beating prosperous peasants "into soap".

It is hard not to see the Soviet "Polish Operation" of 1937-38 as genocidal: Polish fathers were shot, Polish mothers sent to Kazakhstan, and Polish children left in orphanages where they would lose their Polish identity. As more than 100,000 innocent people were killed on the spurious grounds that theirs was a disloyal ethnicity, Stalin spoke of "Polish filth". During the second world war, the Soviets deported entire peoples from the Caucasus and Crimea, in some cases burning down villages and shooting people who were difficult to move.

To be clear: I am not saying that these events were equivalent to the Holocaust. I am saying that a number of German and Soviet policies meet the standard of genocide.

I am awed by Zuroff's work seeking surviving Nazi criminals. Katz's choice to teach Yiddish and rebuild Jewish studies in Vilnius, which, before the Holocaust, was a world centre of Jewish life and scholarship, deserves a world of praise. I agree with both of them that the Holocaust is more important than the treaty on borders and friendship. My article, however, enquired about the relationship between the two, and that found little echo in their responses.

We all agree that Hitler had the horrible aspiration to eliminate the Jews from Europe. But how exactly was Hitler to do so in summer 1939, with fewer than 3% of European Jews under his control? Hitler needed war to eliminate the Jews, and it was Stalin who helped him to begin that war. As I said in my original article, we don't know how the war would have proceeded without the treaty on borders and friendship; what we do know is that the war as it actually happened, with all of its atrocities, began with a German-Soviet alliance.

What if the Soviets had simply opted for neutrality in 1939? How exactly would the Germans have overcome the British blockade without Soviet grain? Or bombed London without Soviet oil? Or won their lightening victory in France without security in the rear?

How well would the Gestapo have dealt with Polish and Jewish opposition without the de facto help of the more experienced and effective Soviet NKVD? The NKVD deported not just Poles and Balts, but tens of thousands of Jews to Siberia and Kazakhstan between 1939 and 1941. Had these Jews remained in Poland rather than suffering and dying on the steppe or in the gulag, would Jewish resistance to the Germans have been more significant? Anyone who believes that Stalin's alliance with Hitler is irrelevant to the Holocaust must have answers to such questions; Katz and Zuroff don't provide any.

As I wrote, and as Zuroff stresses, Stalin had strategic reasons for choosing an alliance with Germany in 1939. My respondents have chosen a moral tone, and in moral discussions of the war, strategic justifications are not usually admitted as legitimate excuses for collaboration with the Nazis. Between 1939 and 1941, Stalin was Nazi collaborator number one. If we examine the war in terms of the Holocaust, why should Stalin's strategic actions be exempt from moral interrogation?

To recall the treaty on borders and friendship is not to minimise Hitler's atrocious intentions, but rather to enquire into Stalin's role in helping or hindering their realisation. Though I do not see an equivalence between the Nazi and the Soviet regimes, I do see an interaction between German and Soviet power, one which is crucial to the history of all the east European peoples, including and, indeed, perhaps especially, the Jews.

In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and Moscow reversed its alliances. Katz is quite right to recall that the Red Army, three and a half years later, liberated Auschwitz. But we ought not to romanticise. The Red Army paused on the Vistula river for months in 1944, while a few days' march to the west, the Germans transported the last significant population of Polish Jews from the Lodz ghetto to Auschwitz and gassed them.

And how did Auschwitz, previously the Polish town Oswiecim, come to bear that infamous name? After the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, it had been assigned to Germany in the treaty on borders and friendship in September 1939.

Source

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/05/holocaust-secondworldwar/print

Window on Eurasia: Moscow Institute Pushes Recognition of ‘Newest States’ in ‘Near Abroad’

2010-10-05

by Paul Goble

Staunton, October 5 – The director of an independent Moscow institute established just before the August 2008 Russian-Georgian war and which has promoted the diplomatic recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia since that time now says that international recognition of the independence of Transdniestria and Nagorno-Karabakh is “inevitable.”
In a comment to the Regnum news agency yesterday, Aleksey Martynov not only made this declaration but elaborated an original legal theory on post-Soviet state construction, one that is clearly at odds with Moscow’s declared position but one that likely has supporters in the Russian capital (www.regnum.ru/news/1332158.html).
The director of the Institute of the Newest States, as his organization styles itself, argues that “the recognition by Russia of the statehood of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in June 2008 and the upcoming recognition of the Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic and Nagorno-Karabakh put the final period in the history of the USSR.”
That is because, Martynov said, “Transdniestria and Nagorno-Karabakh like Abkhazia and South Ossetia politically and legally need only recognition by Russia as the legal successor of the USSR. Subsequently, the entire world will simply be obligated to recognize these countries just as it recognizes the Russian Federation.”
If the members of the international community do not follow Russia’s lead in this, he continued, the director of this institute which has offices in Moscow and many other cities and maintains its own website in Russian and English (www.iines.org/), that would mean their “non-recognition of Russia itself with all the consequences that would flow from that.”
The reason for that, he argued, is that “not one of these newest recognized countries [the former union republics of the USSR] has taken upon itself responsibility for the common Soviet past” preferring instead “to condemn and curse it. Only Russia [which has done so] can as the metropolitan country decide the fate of the newest states in the zone of its strategic interests.”
“After the establishment of the Kosovo precedent” by the Western powers, Martynov continued, “any references to the priority of territorial integrity” need not be recognized. “Borders of states in the contemporary world” are defined by their capacity to prevent their further change, something that can of course be tested at any time.
Elsewhere in his interview, the director pointed to what he clearly viewed as his institute’s latest success, and he did so in a way that highlighted its connections with the Russian powers that be. Martynov noted that last week, a representative of South Ossetia had visited Algeria at the same time as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev,
“Such coincidences in the time of the visits,” he argued, “are far from being accidental.” But to the extent that is the case, his institute might appear to fall into the category of a GONGO, that is “a government organized non-governmental organization,” one capable of promoting the government’s goals without the government having to take responsibility.
And if that is true, then the argument Martynov put forth yesterday may represent something more than the views of a single independent activist. Instead, it perhaps should be read as one part of a debate behind the scenes in Moscow as to how the Russian Federation should proceed in the future in its “near abroad.”
According to its website, “the International Institute of the Newest States is an international non-governmental organization that was created in June 2008 by a group of scholars, political scientists and international experts in the areas of conflict studies and international law” (www.iines.org/node/1).
The institute’s headquarters is in Moscow, but it has representational offices in “Kyiv, Warsaw, Simferopol, Tskhinval, Sukhum, Yerevan, Tiraspol, Western Sahara, Bucharest, Belgrad, Stepanakert and other places.” And it styles itself as “the largest expert discussion space for consideration and study of the phenomenon of the appearance of the newest states.”
The institute, the site continues, organizes “scientific conferences, symposia, and roundtables, the monitoring of social-political development of the newest states and monitoring of the media.” And it supports “the publication of materials and books of [Institute] experts” on these states and “the formation of democratic institutions and civil societies” in them.

Source

http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/10/window-on-eurasia-moscow-institute.html

Released Cuban prisoners in Spain can come to U.S.

2010-10-05

by JUAN O. TAMAYO

Former Cuban political prisoners and relatives living in Spain will be allowed to come to the United States swiftly under a special parole program, a senior State Department official announced Monday.

The ex-prisoners' applications for U.S. entry will be processed on a case-by-case basis but are expected to take an average of about one month, the official added.

Most of the 36 recently released prisoners and scores of relatives in Spain want to move to the United States, but normal U.S. migration procedures bar that because they already have safe haven in Spain.

The Homeland Security and State Departments therefore agreed to allow them entry under the Significant Public Benefit Parole (SPBP) Program, said the official, who under State Department rules could not be identified or quoted directly.

SPBP has been used in the past to allow U.S. entry to people such as Colombian labor activists and Iraqis who fear for their lives, the official told El Nuevo Herald in a telephone briefing from Washington.

Consular officials at the U.S. embassy in Madrid have reached out to many of the the former political prisoners to inform them of the program's eligibility and other requirements, the official said.

At least one application already is being processed and several other former political prisoners will be interviewed this week, he added. SPBP allows the new arrivals to quickly receive work permits and eventually residency.

Former political prisoner Normando Hernández confirmed from Madrid that U.S. consular officials have requested information from the ex-prisoners and relatives, but seemed unclear on the details.

``We don't know under what conditions'' they would be granted U.S. entry,'' he told El Nuevo by telephone, ``What we want is that all the families be able to go as political refugees.''

``You are making very happy and sad, because we know we will be a burden to our families'' in the United States, Hernandez added when told some of information from the State Department official.

Cuban ruler Raúl Castro promised on July 7 to release 52 political prisoners, the last still in jail from a 2003 crackdown that sentenced 75 peaceful dissidents to prison terms of up to 28 years.

Thirty-six were already freed in several small groups after they agreed to leave directly from prison to the Havana airport and a flight to Spain, along with several relatives each. Another three have agreed to leave but are waiting for space on Madrid-bound jetliners.

Many of newly arrived Cubans in Spain have complained of their poor housing conditions, uncertainties about their legal status in Spain and the stipends they receive to cover their expenses.

Twelve other jailed dissidents have said they will refuse to leave Cuba, but are expected to be freed in the next month as part of Castro's July 7 agreement with the Cuban Catholic church and the Spanish government.

Former political prisoners still in Cuba can apply for U.S. entry at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, although that process usually takes several months.

The State Department official said the decision to allow in the Cubans from Spain was a recognition that the freed dissidents should have a choice on where they live, and is in keeping with the Obama administration's goal of helping Cuban family reunifications.

Parole is a special immigration category under which foreign nationals who otherwise would not be immediately eligible for U.S. entry can be admitted into the country.

In 2006, the Bush administration established the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) program to allow in Cuban medical personnel who defect while assigned to work in third countries.

The CMPP program requires the applicants to be Cuban citizens, ``conscripted'' by the Havana government to work or study in a third country and have no ineligibilities that would prevent admission into the United States, according to a State Department Web page.

Julio Cesar Alfonso, president of Solidaridad sin Fronteras, a Miami organization of Cuban doctors, estimated in 2008 that 6,000 doctors had defected in the previous five years.

About 5,000 were already in the United States, Alfonso added but it was not clear how many of those had arrived under the Cuban Medical Parole Program.

Source
www.miamiherald.com

Vietnam Putting Professor on Trial for Online Dissent

2010-10-05

by Patrick Goodenough

Less than a week after Vietnam’s president met with President Obama to discuss issues including human rights, the communist government in Hanoi has announced it try a dissident math professor on political charges that can carry the death penalty.

Pham Minh Hoang, 55, has been indicted under an article in Vietnam’s penal code outlawing “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration.” He was arrested on August 13.

State-run media Wednesday quoted a Public Security Ministry official, Col. Nguyen Xuan Mung, as saying that Hoang, since returning to Vietnam in 2000 after studying in France, had carried out activities on behalf of a “terrorist organization,” Viet Tan.

The activities included writing 29 articles over the past eight years and sending them to Viet Tan for posting online. Mung said the articles contained “distorted information” on the policies of the Vietnamese state.

He also attended a course in Malaysia last year, along with his wife and another man, to discuss issues including non-violent activism aimed at changing the country’s political system.

And in the early part of this year, Hoang held small-group courses on recruiting members for Viet Tan, Mung stated.

He said Hoang, while in custody, had expressed remorse for violating the law and had written an appeal for clemency.

Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party), which is banned in Vietnam, says it promotes peaceful change to a multiparty democracy. The organization has members in the United States, France, Australia and other countries with sizeable Vietnamese-origin communities.

U.S.-based Viet Tan representatives accused the government of convicting Hoang through state media despite his political activities being “entirely peaceful.”

“Every person has the right to publish articles, attend political meetings and discuss issues that affect their country,” said spokesman Duy Hoang.

“Once again, the Vietnamese Communist Party has demonstrated that its more interested in maintaining dictatorial power than permitting an open debate on the serious issues facing the country,” Duy Hoang added.

Viet Tan said its materials on “non-violent tactics used in advocating for peaceful change” had long been available on its Web site. “Everyone can freely access these documents and see for themselves Hanoi’s falsehoods.”

(Civil disobedience tactics the group has promoted include reducing productivity at work, writing appeals and petitions, and distributing news via the Internet or mobile phone.)

Viet Tan also challenged the government to publish Hoang’s writings in state newspapers, to enable people to judge for themselves “whether he’s a criminal or a patriot.”

According to the free-speech advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, Hoang’s online articles have focused on education, the environment and defense of Vietnam’s sovereignty in its relations with China. (The two countries are embroiled in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.)

Reporters Without Borders says at least 19 journalists, bloggers and cyberactivists are being detained in Vietnam. It recently wrote to the country’s prime minister, urging him to include them in a group of prisoners to receive amnesty in honor of a national holiday on September 2, but to no avail.

People convicted under article 79 of Vietnam’s penal code – the article cited by Mung – may be sentenced to lengthy prison terms or even to death.

Earlier this year the International Federation for Human Rights, a coalition of more than 150 rights groups, urged Vietnam to declare a moratorium on the death penalty, calling capital punishment “particularly dangerous in a one-party state such as Vietnam, where the judiciary is totally subservient to the Communist Party.”

Official statistics are not available, but some 83 death sentences were handed down last year and nine executions carried out, according to media reports.

Critics of the Hanoi government have long accused it of trying to have it both ways – reaping the benefits of significantly improved diplomatic, trade and military relations with the U.S. while restricting freedom of expression and religion and clamping down on peaceful opposition to the one-party state at home.

In late 2006, the U.S. awarded permanent normal trade relations to Vietnam, paving the way for it to join the World Trade Organization the following year.

The Bush administration also removed Vietnam from the list of “countries of particular concern” drawn up under the International Religious Freedom Act.

In doing so it cited improvements in the religious freedom area, but the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent panel set up under the IRFA, called the move premature and has been urging its reversal ever since.

This year, Vietnam chairs the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), at a time when the Obama administration is seeking to strengthen ties with the 10-member grouping as a counterweight against China’s regional ambitions.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Hanoi over the summer and will be returning next month, as will Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Last week, Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet joined other ASEAN leaders in a summit with Obama in New York. The Asians pledged to “strengthen cooperation with the United States in addressing issues related to human rights,” according to a statement released by the White House.

Source

www.vietnamhumanrights.net

Photos Smuggled from China Show Bloated Falun Gong Practitioner Shortly Before Death

2010-10-05

NEW YORK—A retired steel worker from Hebei province died on September 6, 2010, just over six months after being released from a prison camp where he had been tortured and forced to do hard labor for practicing Falun Gong, the Falun Dafa Information Center recently learned.

Photos of Mr. Zhang Yunping (张云平) taken days before his death and smuggled out of China show the 58-year-old’s emaciated chest and bloated stomach.

"Yunping's death demonstrates the terrible reality facing businesses across China today," says Falun Dafa Information Center executive director Levi Browde. "They either have to identify Falun Gong practitioners to be sent off for brainwashing or forced labor and in many cases actively participate in the persecution of employees, or face severe reprecusions themselves from the ruling communist party."

A significant majority of Falun Gong adherents report that the practice has brought relief from health problems. Denied the right to practice in custody and subject to physical abuse, some practitioners experience a recurrence of old diseases or contraction of new ones. They are then routinely denied the necessary medical attention, often until they are so close to death that treatment would be ineffective. Nearly 1 out of 5 Falun Gong deaths documented in 2009 were the result of, in addition to torture, such denial of the right to health. (report)

Zhang was a former employee of the Tangshan Steel Group Service Company. Following the launch of the Communist Party’s campaign against Falun Gong, the firm’s management and security personnel actively participated in persecuting him. At the end of 2000, the company suspended him from his position and turned him over to a “brainwashing” center located at the Tangshan Textile and Garment School. During the two months that Zhang was held at the center, he was subjected to endless doses of anti-Falun Gong propaganda, relentless efforts to force him to renounce his faith, and his company deducted 2,500 yuan from his annual salary.

After retiring in 2001, Zhang fled home to escape consistent harassment from the firm’s management. In 2002, an agent from the company’s police unit abducted and threatened Zhang’s wife in a bid to discover his whereabouts. The following year, his pension was suspended, leaving the entire family in a difficult economic situation.

It is common across China for businesses and schools to, under direct pressure from Party officials, send employees who do now renounce their Falun Gong practice to brainwashing centers to be forcibly “transformed.” When that proves ineffective, many fire employees or cut of pensions to retirees.

After searching for nearly two years, the Hebei authorities captured Zhang on March 30, 2003. Shortly afterwards, a judge at Lubei District Court “sentenced” him in a sham trial to eight years in a prison camp. In April 2004, Zhang was taken to Jidong Prison.

Due to the harsh conditions at the prison camp, his health deteriorated and he became increasingly weak, but was forced to continue to perform hard labor as late as August 2009. A wound on his finger from a nail became infected, but prison officials delayed hospital treatment until late September, at which point Mr. Zhang was also diagnosed with diabetes and tuberculosis.

Following repeated pleas from his family, prison officials released Zhang on medical parole in February 2010. He never recovered from the injuries and diseases incurred in custody and died on September 6, 2010. A series of photos taken by acquaintances less than a week before his death and smuggled out of China show Zhang both emaciated and bloated. (photos)

Source

http://www.faluninfo.net/article/1088/?cid=84

Cuba talks of releasing terror prisoners

2010-10-04

by JUAN O. TAMAYO

Cuba is offering to free a new group of nine prisoners -- including six convicted of terrorism -- in a possible sign that it's willing to release up to 80 more, a human rights activist said Monday.

The nine, all but one not generally considered to be political prisoners, must go into exile if freed, said Elizardo Sánchez, head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

About 80 other prisoners fall into the same category as the eight -- cases tried in courts that handle state security cases and did not involve bloodshed -- and could also be freed, Sánchez added by phone from Havana.

The offer marks the first confirmation that Cuban ruler Raúl Castro plans to go beyond the 52 dissidents he promised to free in July, the last still jailed from a group rounded up in 2003. Thirty-six already have been freed and sent into exile in Spain.

``It seems he wants to erase this stain on his political image,'' Sánchez said. ``He wants to get rid of all these kinds of prisoners to reduce the international criticism and . . . obtain political and economic concessions.''

Three of the nine -- Leudis Arce Romero, Lazaro Avila Sierra and Francisco Reyes Rodríguez -- received life sentences on terrorism charges for plotting to hijack a plane to the United States in 2003 though the attempt was never carried out, Sánchez said.

Three others were convicted of terrorism and sentenced to eight to 10 years for hijacking a boat to leave the island, he added. They are Reinier Concepción García, Juan Marimón Gómez and Marcos Zayas Acanda.

Pavel Hernández Manfarrol was sentenced to six years for trying to leave illegally through the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo, Sánchez added, and Domingo Osuna Mederos was convicted of piracy for plotting to hijack a boat.

The ninth, Orestes Paino Viera, is an opposition activist convicted in 2008 of disrespect for government authorities and resisting arrest, according to the human rights activist.

Sánchez said he confirmed the Cuban offer in talks with six of the prisoners and relatives of the other three. He could not confirm that one or two additional prisoners received the same offer.

The offer to the nine again raised the question of just who is a political prisoner in a country where the government considers many actions as crimes against the security of the state.

Sanchez's commission lists as ``political prisoners'' nearly 100 Cubans convicted in courts that consider crimes against the security of the state, even if their crimes involved bloodshed. Amnesty International counts as ``prisoners of conscience'' only those convicted on nonviolent opposition to the government.

Ladies in White spokeswoman Berta Soler said that the women's group will soon hand Catholic Church officials its own list of who it considers to be jailed for political reasons.

Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega told journalists that the government will free ``others'' beyond the 52 but said there were several lists of ``political prisoners.''

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos last week asked members of Spain's legislature to provide him with lists of Cubans they consider to be political prisoners.

Ortega and Moratinos were at the July 7 meeting with Castro in which the Cuban ruler promised to release the 52 dissidents within the next four months.

Moratinos has said that Castro was willing to release ``all'' the political prisoners, while the president of Cuba's legislative National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcón, said the country would free those who did not bear responsibility for the loss of lives.

Source
www.miamiherald.com

D-DAY FOUNDATION ERRS AGAIN--REMOVES STALIN BUST BUT PROMISES TO REINSTALL IT

2010-10-04

Statement by Dr. Lee Edwards, Chairman
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

The National D-Day Memorial Foundation has erred again, and badly. Its decision to remove the Stalin bust but to reinstall it in the future is a grave insult to the brave Americans and others who stormed the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944-no Soviet troops participated in D-Day operations. It is also a serious misreading of the history of World War II, which was launched following the Stalin-Hitler pact of August 1939. There would have been no need for the D-Day invasion if there had been no cynical "non-aggression" agreement between the Soviet and German dictators.

The D-Day Memorial Foundation attempted to cover up its retreat on the June installation of the Stalin bust by stating it would remove not only the Stalin bust but all the busts of World War II leaders, including FDR and Churchill. It would then "reintroduce" all of the busts, including the Stalin bust, and "congregate them" somewhere in the memorial. This plan is even worse than the original placement of the Stalin statue because grouping Stalin with FDR, Churchill and other allied leaders would give the Soviet dictator a moral as well as a political equivalence he does not deserve.

The D-Day Memorial Foundation insisted that its decision was not "a reaction to special interests" that had expressed their opposition, thereby insulting the American Legion which had urged the removal of the Stalin bust. As for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, we admit proudly that we have a special interest in educating people about the myriad crimes and victims of communism, millions of whom died as a result of Joseph Stalin's tyranny.

Stalin-who was responsible for more deaths in the 20th century than any other dictator save Mao Zedong--has no place at a National D-Day Memorial. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation pledges to continue its national campaign for the permanent removal of the Stalin bust from the D-Day Memorial.

Source

www.victimsofcommunism.org

Who said the Chinese never speak out?

2010-10-04

The electronic Great Wall around China is getting taller and more effective. The government still controls most of the print media. Communist Party and government leaders continue to order arrests of journalists, bloggers and intellectuals. Directives from the Central Propaganda Department and local officials trample on media freedom.

But, with perseverance and courage, journalists, Internet users, bloggers, artists, lawyers and intellectuals are managing to open breaches in China’s censorship. In recent weeks, Reporters Without Borders has noted a series of encouraging victories by these tireless free speech activists.

It is up to the Chinese above all to wage the fight against censorship in China, but they need the support of the international blogosphere and information sector companies. The fight for free expression in a country that is now a major international power also needs significant solidarity gestures.

That is why Reporters Without Borders is supporting Chinese intellectual Liu Xiaobo’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize. A staunch defender of free expression who was given an 11-year jail sentence for helping to draft the Charter 08 manifesto, Liu Xiaobo embodies the peaceful and selfless struggle for freedom being waged by activists in China and many other parts of the world.

Effective protests

Recent events in China suggest that a turning point is being reached in the possibilities for effective action by journalists and Internet users against repression and censorship.

“I will never regret writing this book,” Xie Chaoping claimed when he was freed on 17 September after being detained for several weeks in the central province of Shaanxi for writing about the Sanmenxia dam. He was released for lack of evidence after winning a strong show of support from the Chinese public. More information: http://en.rsf.org/china-journalist-...

“I wrote the truth,” said Economic Observer reporter Qiu Ziming at the end of July after the authorities in the eastern province of Zhejiang withdrew the libel charges they had brought against him for accusing a local battery manufacturer of improper practices. When Qiu went into hiding and protested his innocence in his blog, he won an enormous amount of support online and was transformed into an Internet hero. More information about Qiu: http://en.rsf.org/china-business-re...

“The Beijing police chief apologised to me, the magazine Caijing and all the journalists,” Caijing deputy editor Luo Changping wrote on Twitter on 21 September. Luo, who was arrested by the Beijing police for a story headlined “Security companies given special task of intercepting petitioners,” said the police finally promised not to prosecute anyone in connection with the article. To follow Luo on Twitter: http://twitter.com/lianyue

Journalists sticking together

These positive developments were the result of public support, which is having an increasing impact on the Chinese authorities. In some cases, this “agitation” was initiated by news media or informal groups of journalists in certain regions.

“The Internet’s development opens up new possibilities,” Xiao Jianfeng, the editor of Hunan Ribao (Hunan Daily), wrote after the authorities closed down an online discussion forum that was appreciated by many journalists. “If a website is closed, another is created elsewhere. The government is mistaken. Suppressing and closing websites is not a good method. It should instead try to solve the problems.”

Launched by Nanfang Dushi Bao, a newspaper based in southern China, the Dushibao Lianmeng (Association of Metropolitan Journalists) website was used by the staff of 13 local newspapers for exchanging information and discussing issues.

Some of the debates on Dushibao Lianmeng, such as the one about the residence permit system known as the “hukou,” upset some Communist Party leaders. The journalists had all called for the abolition of the system, which discriminates against rural residents working in the cities. The Propaganda Department recommended closing the forum in the conclusions of its March investigation into this “incident.”

Ye Du, a journalist based in the southern city of Guangzhou who belonged to the forum, said mutual assistance among news media is quietly growing in China despite new regulations. For example, if a newspaper cannot report a local story because it has been censored by the provincial authorities, a newspaper from another province may take on the job of covering it. While regretting the forum’s closure, most of its participants think its disappearance will have little impact on press freedom as another one will soon spring up in its place.

“The police do not have the right to arrest journalists without reason,” said the banner displayed by ten journalists in Yichun, a northeastern city near the Russian border, on 28 August. They were protesting against the detention of four fellow-journalists, who had been arrested by the local authorities while covering a plane crash in which 42 people were killed. The ten journalists staged two silent and anonymous demonstrations outside the local Propaganda Department office. The images of the protest circulated immediately online. The detained journalists were freed in the afternoon and received apologies from the local authorities.

The Chinese love plays on words. Their language lends itself to punning as it has lots of homophones.

Internet users have been attacking the online censors with humour and creativity for years. The resistance against censorship has come above all to be represented by a mythical creature called the “Cao Ni Ma” (Grass Mud Horse), a homonym for “Screw Your Mother.” Internet users mock the Party’s censorship by posting bogus animal reports and songs about the Cao Ni Ma: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKx1...

More recently, stories of an imaginary lizard called Yake (Ya Ke Xi in Mandarin) have circulated in response to a Chinese New Year show on state TV that showed Uyghurs from the troubled western province of Xinjiang singing the government’s praises and repeating that the Communist Party Central Committee’s policies were “good” (“yakexi” in Uyghur).

Shocked by the crudeness of this propaganda when the situation in Xinjiang is so problematic, humorists invented a lizard (“xi” in Mandarin) called Yake who patrols and censors the Internet and symbolises Central Committee policies. According to its creators, Yake is now dying out in Russia (after a golden era there) but is still thriving in Cuba, North Korea and China. Yake, who has a forked tongue, feeds on river crabs (“he xie” in Mandarin). “He xie” is a homonym of the word for “harmonising,” President Hu Jintao’s political leitmotiv and a government euphemism for censorship.

In all, Chinese bloggers and Internet users have invented about ten creatures to represent China’s online censors.

Cartoons are also increasingly being put into the service of media freedom. When Xie Chaoping, the author of the book about the Sanmenxia dam, was detained, lots of cartoons appeared in support of the campaign for his release.

The Meaning of the Venezuelan Election Results

2010-10-01

by Thor Halvorssen

CARACAS, Venezuela -- An avalanche of media has declared Hugo Chavez's loss of a two-thirds majority significant. It isn't. On Monday, Venezuela's electoral council announced that political opposition groups had won the majority of the votes in the election for the national assembly, Venezuela's legislature. They simultaneously announced that the Chavez party would retain most of the seats. In other words, those who received the most votes get minority representation. This is puzzling.

Already, Chavez's party is underlining that while they don't have a two-thirds majority (the proportion needed to have control) they do have a three-fifths majority and that this is sufficient to pass an "enabling law" granting Chavez the equivalent of dictatorial powers. So here is the scenario: Before the election he ruled with absolute power including the subservience of the judicial and legislative power and control over the means of production. Now, without the legislature, he will simply get them to quickly pass a law making his absolute power official.

The Chavez government manipulates rules, laws, and institutions as it sees fit. This has been the case for several years and will be its lasting legacy. Despite the outgoing national assembly being a lame duck legislature, be prepared to see them pass all sorts of laws despite having no mandate.

Too many ignore or are simply unaware of the reason why Chavez had full control of the legislature in the first place -- in 2005, all opposition parties boycotted the legislative elections because they were protesting the lack of democracy, the manipulation of the electoral system, the systematic violations of human rights, and the use of the state treasury by Chavez for his own party's benefit. Voters rejected the election en masse with only 17 percent of eligible voters turning out. The OAS and the EU released scathing reports on the entire process. The bleak turnout made that assembly legal but illegitimate. That the opposition was not able to turn all of these facts into a victory and force a redo of that election is baffling. Meanwhile, the Chavez spin machine set into action and the world was led to believe that he had such unanimous support that he ended up with the entire legislature.

After that, the opposition parties ended their boycott and got back into politics, admirably using tactics different from those of the president. Despite the government's use of violence, a politicized judiciary, the shutting down of media critical of the president, the misuse of public funds for the president's party, the cult of personality financed by the state, the use of imprisonment to go after political opponents, the presence of a fear-inducing Cuban intelligence apparatus, and the abuse of federal emergency management laws to control the airwaves for several hours a day to spread political propaganda, the democratic elements in Venezuela are to be commended. What they pulled off on Sunday is extraordinary.

I was asked why, if Chavez is such an autocrat, he didn't rig the election outright. The answer is that Chavez has not yet obtained what his government refers to as "communicational hegemony". There is still one television channel left on the air, Globovision, which provides critical news and analysis despite both of its key owners being in forced exile. The two other remaining independent channels were silenced -- one by being shut down and the other by being bribed and blackmailed. Once the government has the monopoly on media, then it will be impossible, as in Cuba, to have any critical or opposing viewpoints. Any election result is then plausible in a scenario of self censorship and fear.

Chavez's poll numbers are down considerably given that issues such as crime -- Venezuela has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the world (worse than Afghanistan or Iraq) -- and inflation -- Venezuela has the worst rate in the hemisphere -- affect everybody. In the face of these domestic failures he was not going to win outright had the elections been free and fair. That said, the game was stacked: the government used an endless supply of state oil funds to compete against political parties lacking state support, and enforced numerous restrictions on political donations to the opposition. In addition, voter intimidation is rife and loyalty oaths are required from government employees. Imagine what the results would have been had there been an equal playing field.

Given that they couldn't do a simple "we got more votes" trick, the electoral council, controlled entirely by Chavez, chose instead to do political alchemy. This means he did rig it! Consider that the opposition obtained 52% of the votes (probably much more had it been a clean fight) yet does not have a majority of the seats. It is political alchemy resulting from politicized redistricting. For instance, in Caracas the opponents of Chavez got 484,844 votes versus 484,103 of the Chavista party. And the ten seats get split: three for the winners and seven for Chavez. I strongly hope those who cried foul during Bush v. Gore will come out swinging against this injustice just four hours south of Palm Beach County.

It is clear that, even with a stacked deck, the numerical majority of Venezuelans are indicating that they want something different. International elites constantly lecture about how Venezuelan elections are a contest of poor versus rich. The truth of the matter is that the Chavez family and those in government are most of "the rich" -- starting with his brothers Adán, Argenis, and Adelis Chavez and longtime government cronies Diosdado Cabello and Jose Vicente Rangel both of whom merit inclusion in the Forbes Billionaires list. Not surprisingly, Venezuela ranks close to the bottom in Transparency International's corruption index -- tied with Angola and the Congo.

To those in the Chavez political machine, the election simply means a change of tactics. To Chavez personally, it is devastating. He has shown that he cannot stand an opposing voice. His word is final. To quote him, speaking in the third person: "He who betrays Chavez dies politically." Chavez is the revolution. He is the voice of the people. He rules, he doesn't govern. A true leadership contest is unthinkable. If you were to drive from the main airport to the city of Caracas you will see dozens of billboards with his image -- all paid for with state funds and all of them inappropriate in a democracy. It is all about him, all the time. Step out of line and you get expropriated, harassed, persecuted, or even prosecuted and thrown in prison.

A rejection of this sort is humiliating for Chavez. It is sure to cause him an existential crisis. It apparently was agonizing enough that he didn't even poke his head out on his "Balcony of the People" to say hello to his dejected supporters and admit the rout. He chose as a substitute his Twitter account from where he fantasized a "solid victory." A few hours later, he called the international press "revolting" and "liars" and was particularly graphic about CNN's coverage of the elections. During the last referendum, which was the last time the opposition won a majority of votes in a national electoral contest, Chavez went on television and called it a "shit victory" and then proceeded to merrily ignore the results of the election.

Chavez cannot declare defeat. He cannot leave power because this would lead to charges of murder, drug-trafficking on a global scale, corruption charges unlike anything seen in the hemisphere's history, and -- most problematic due to the crimes against humanity element -- charges of collaborating with Colombia's FARC terrorists. While in power he will be untouchable but out of power the line of plaintiffs, prosecutors, and critics is long and includes groups as politically diverse as Reporters Without Borders, the Inter-American Court of Justice, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the families of the victims of the April 11th massacre.

Chavez doesn't know what to do. He has two years to figure it out. It is highly unlikely that he will allow a fair electoral contest. He has disqualified Leopoldo Lopez, a candidate that has outpolled him, forced Manuel Rosales, the last candidate that challenged him, into exile, and opened judicial investigations into those on the electoral horizon. Chavez will do everything and anything in the next two years to get another term. But this should be a surprise to no one. He has already said it numerous times: he plans to stay until 2030.

Source

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thor-halvorssen/the-meaning-of-the-venezu_b_744927.html

Germany marks 20 years since reunification treaty

2010-10-01

By Matthias von Hellfeld

On the night of October 3, 1990 thousands of people celebrated German reunification in Berlin. That night was the culmination of months of difficult negotiations, months when it wasn't at all clear how it all would end.

As the night sky lit up with fireworks on October 3, 1990, many people stood below with tears in their eyes. They were witnessing a historic moment that neither the Germans nor the rest of Europe had been sure was possible.

The citizens of the German Democratic Republic had overthrown their country's communist system and chased their leaders from office with a peaceful revolution. Not one gun had been fired, no violence had been used and no one had been hurt. On that day 20 years ago, East Germany joined West Germany to become one country.

Just before the fireworks began, German President Richard von Weizsaecker put German reunification in the context of European unity. "We Germans are conscious of our responsibilities and hope to work toward peace in a united Europe," he said.

Rudolf Seiters, the then-head of the German Chancellery, had just gotten through some busy months himself. As a confidant of West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, he'd been present at several key events in the run-up to reunification. He had spent the night before the unification ceremony at the Bundeshaus, the West German government's home in Berlin during the years when the capital was in Bonn. But it was impossible to sleep with his mind full of the events that had led up to this day.

"I thought about my negotiations for the freedom of the embassy refugees, the image of Hans-Dietrich Genscher on the balcony of the German embassy in Prague, the speech I gave to parliament when the Berlin Wall came down because Helmut Kohl was in Warsaw," he said, "and then the incredibly important speech that Helmut Kohl gave in front of the Frauenkirche in Dresden.

323 busy, exciting days

Just 323 days passed from the fall of the Berlin Wall to reunification. For the political leaders of the two Germanys those days were full of complicated negotiations and far-reaching decisions. In East Germany, nothing would stay the same.

Following the first free elections in East Germany in March 1990, the newly elected officials turned their centralized communist country into a federal system that could easily be united with West Germany to form one country. The government surveillance program was dismantled and the deutschmark was introduced. All in less than a year.

The rush was not without reason. Reform movements across Eastern Europe had come to a head and the people were in uproar. They wanted the freedom to travel and they wanted a change in political systems.

The massive protests had been triggered by the Glasnost and Perestroika reforms in the Soviet Union. "It was meant to be a very carefully controlled process," said Seiters. "It wasn't just those in Moscow who were worried, but also people in Western European countries as well."

All eyes on Germany

The move to unite the two Germanys was looked upon with skepticism in a few European capitals. There was a fear of a strong, united Germany at the center of the European continent. French President Francois Mitterrand was not a fan of the idea and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was openly against reunification at first.

The developments in Europe met with resistance in the Soviet Union as the former world power lost its influence over the countries in the Warsaw Pact, the counterbalance to NATO. In the West there were concerns that a coup overthrowing Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev could put German reunification at risk.

The Germans were lucky with their timing. There wasn't any international development at the time that distracted the world from the German reunification process. A few months later and it could have all gone differently.

In early August 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait and declared its lands a new Iraqi province. In mid-1991 the world held its breath again as several generals and part of the Red Army did attempt a coup against Gorbachev. If these events had taken place a year earlier, they would have made the German reunification process more difficult and probably more drawn-out. Instead Germany took center stage in geopolitics during those 323 days.

Elections for a united Germany

Two months after reunification Germany-wide parliamentary elections were held for the first time since 1932. West Germany's ruling coalition of Christian Democrats and the economically liberal Free Democrats were the clear winners. Helmut Kohl went from being the chancellor of West Germany to being the first chancellor of a reunified Germany.

Source

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6028796,00.html

Monument to commemorate Germany’s unification opened in Berlin

2010-10-01

A monument to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachyov, former US President George Bush senior and former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has opened at the site of a what used to be a checkpoint through the Berlin Wall.

Opening the monument, former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt said that it is thanks to Gorbachyov’s courage, Bush’s circumspection and Kohl’s decisiveness that Germany was finally reunited.

Source

www. english.ruvr.ru

Award the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo

2010-10-01

Reporters Without Borders is circulating an open letter from Chinese philosopher Xu Youxu calling for imprisoned intellectual Liu Xiaobo, one of the authors of the Charter 08 pro-democracy manifesto, to be awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Reporters Without Borders supports his call. Norway’s Nobel Committee is due to announce the winner on 8 October.

I am here to urge your support of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize being bestowed upon the founder of China’s Charter 08, Liu Xiaobo.

In spite of Liu Xiaobo’s many friends and supporters, I came to know him quite late, and we first met personally only a few years ago. In the mid-1980s, when Liu Xiaobo rose to prominence within the literary world, I was a visiting research fellow at Oxford, and became familiar with his ideas through Chinese periodicals published overseas. Contrary to the view held by many, what brought Liu such attention at the time wasn’t merely the sharpness of his writing or his pointed critiques, but also how thorough he was in his thinking and how much more influential his criticisms were of mainstream ideology and dogma in China than those of other intellectuals.

Throughout the student-led democracy movement of 1989, I had the opportunity to observe Liu Xiaobo. He had been lecturing abroad for quite some time, but when signs of suppression began to appear and others began making arrangements to flee overseas, Liu Xiaobo instead chose to discontinue his academic pursuits and return to Beijing to immerse himself in the struggle for democracy. On the nights of June 3rd and 4th, I was in Tiananmen Square, not far from the Monument to the People’s Heroes. Liu Xiaobo, along with three other intellectuals, was taking part in the student hunger strike; it was they, who, on the early morning of the 4th, convinced the students to peacefully evacuate the Square and begin discussion with the soldiers suppressing them, negotiating a smooth withdrawal. I remember clearly the difficulty and pain Liu Xiaobo and his comrades-in-arms— raised as they had been with the most radical type of an education — experienced in reaching this decision, one which only later was understood to have saved the lives of several hundred students.

Liu Xiaobo’s involvement in the 1989 democracy movement illustrates his transformation from an eminent cultural critic to public intellectual concerned with social and political problems and human rights activist. His activities in 1989 can be seen as formative in the entirety of his following writings and other works, characterized by an unwavering bravery and refusal to back down in the face of danger and suppression, by the pursuit and defense of human rights, humanism, peace and other universal values and, finally, adherence to the practice of rational dialogue, compromise and non-violence.

For many years, Liu Xiaobo has been the most representative figure and foremost organizer in mainland China’s struggle for human rights and democracy. He has been at the forefront of protests made in support of writers and intellectuals imprisoned for their work, in appeals made for farmers and urban residents deprived of land and home, in advocating for protection of the religious and cultural rights of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang, and in fostering constructive dialogue toward seeing peaceful coexistence between Han and all ethnic minorities. In a series of protests aimed at upholding the fundamental rights of all Chinese citizens, Liu Xiaobo placed consistent emphasis on the fact that the rights and freedoms of all Chinese citizens are protected both by the Chinese constitution and in law, as well as a series of United Nations and international declarations and covenants signed by the Chinese government which safeguard human and civil rights. Liu placed particular emphasis on seeing the Chinese government’s obligation and responsibility to abide by its own constitution and laws as well as international covenants as commitments to both the Chinese people and the international community.

In launching and signing Charter 08 in 2008, Liu Xiaobo’s intent was to reaffirm, with the Chinese government already recognizing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and having signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, that these are the norms with regard to interaction between the Chinese people and the Chinese government: to be a qualified and responsible member of the international community would require China to adopt the universal values embodied within these two documents. For this, Liu Xiaobo was imprisoned, his third arrest as a result of striving for freedom and democracy in China. On Christmas Day, 2009, Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison. In his final statement to the court, Liu Xiaobo said that he had neither enemies nor hate; to those who kept him under surveillance and arrested him, to the police who interrogated him and to the public attorneys who prosecuted and judge who sentenced him, the message Liu Xiaobo felt it most important to convey was that despite their various roles leading to his imprisonment, he considered none of them his enemy.

As a political theorist and public intellectual also concerned with social and political problems and the defense of human rights, as well as a signatory to Charter 08, I strongly feel the need to point out that in the judgment read by the court which sentenced Liu Xiaobo, evidence cited to prove Liu’s guilt included his participation in Charter 08, that he collected signatures for it, and even the content of the Charter itself—naked provocation of the universal values held by humankind, common norms held by the international community, and especially of the Chinese people themselves.

As I see it, the Nobel Peace Prize both embodies and represents the core values of civilized society: respect for life and faith, the sanctity of the individual and the right to express one’s self. Given that Liu Xiaobo and many others signatories of Charter 08 have faced persecution and oppression merely for reaffirming these values, the blatant challenge they face behooves a response from the civilized world; to bestow the Nobel Peace Prize upon Liu Xiaobo is one of the strongest responses which could be sent. This would, clearly and unambiguously, reaffirm the values held most dearly by humankind, serve as monumental support for the struggle for the freedom and democracy which China’s 1.3 billion people lack, and would mark a major step in defense of world peace. Chinese authorities are able to destroy this country’s constitution and trample upon its laws wantonly, which is why external voices, voices from the international community, are needed to make Chinese authorities pay heed. Bestowing the Nobel Peace Prize upon Liu Xiaobo would serve as indirect opposition to the current state of affairs, as well as a both authoritative and effective signal.

Liu Xiaobo’s ideas and actions, in my view, are entirely congruous to the actions and ideas held by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu and Aung San Suu Kyi; all have endeavored to use tactics of non-violence in effecting gradual change, of persuasion and compromise in upholding human rights and in making the transition toward a peaceful society. With protest movements now taking place all across China within every community and at every level, it is imperative we remain vigilant in preventing violent trends from taking hold. Awarding Liu Xiaobo the Nobel Peace Prize would have just such an effect: people struggling for human rights in China and around the world would find hope and strength in rational, non-violent resistance, and see anew the possibility of putting violence and authoritarian rule where they both belong—in the past and behind us all.

Cordially Yours,

Xu Youyu

Philosopher and professor with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Holder of the Olof Palme Chair, Sweden, 2001-2002

Source

Reporteurs Without Borders

Search for oil won’t cure the Cuban economy

2010-10-01

BY FRANK CALZON, executive director at the Center for a Free Cuba, a human-rights and pro-democracy organization

Havana needs the embargo ended and dangles the possibility of great profits before American companies. Why the Castros would want to do a favor to American capitalists is a question cooler heads should be asking, but even some who are not Castro sympathizers have fallen for the trick.
The Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg, who was just in Havana, has fallen for it. He wrote: “Cuba is beginning to adopt the sort of economic ideas that America has long demanded it adopt, but Americans are not allowed to participate in this free-market experiment because of our government’s hypocritical and stupidly self-defeating embargo policy. We’ll regret this, of course, when Cubans partner with Europeans and Brazilians to buy up all the best hotels.”
In a recent article in The Financial Times, the Council of the Americas’ Christopher Sabatini wrote about reports suggesting “that oil exploration may soon begin off Cuba’s coast, potentially testing the current U.S. trade embargo.” Sabatini is careful in his wording, but the message, repeated elsewhere, is clear: “Let’s get in while the picking is good. This Cuban oil is a sure thing.”
On such questionable certainties fortunes have been lost. Foreign companies that have spent millions in similar pursuits, in partnership with the regime, have yet to recover their investments.
Be that as it may, it is probably true that there is oil very deep off Cuba’s shores; although the discovery and production of such crude, if it’s there, remains a matter of years. Cuba depends on Hugo Chávez’s largess, as it depended on Moscow’s. The Castros have turned the island into a beggar state; before 1959 Cuba purchased the oil it needed in the international market with the funds generated from its Cuban sugar industry and other enterprises.
Cuban sugar was to Cuba what oil is to Texas. The island was known as the sugar bowl of the world. Now, the sugar industry that made possible modern Cuba is no more, its mills abandoned, its workers idled. Cuba buys sugar for its domestic needs from the Dominican Republic.
This is not the first time that the possibility of substantial oil production has been mentioned in the context of the embargo, which denies Havana access to international financial institutions including the World Bank. Havana is broke, and because of a “liquidity crisis” has frozen the bank accounts of foreign investors operating on the island. For more than 20 years Havana has been unable to make payments to many foreign creditors.
Even if oil was to be found, it does not mean the Castro brothers will use those resources to benefit Cubans, as billions of wasted foreign aid, misused loans and squandered subsidies during half a century demonstrate.
What the Castro brothers need in a hurry is dollars. Havana is broke. Raúl Castro just announced the layoff of half a million government workers. The oil dollars are perhaps in the future, but the speculation is designed to “test” the U.S. embargo, to get U.S. companies to lobby to end it, so that the regime could be thrown a life saver in the form of international credits.
Is this the time to gamble that oil will be found and get on line before the end of the Castro dynasty? And are there any assurances that its income will not be used — as Chávez does with his petro-dollars — to subsidize anti-American regimes around the world?
The Cuban ship of state has entered troubled waters. The internal opposition continues to speak out. The regime, desperate as it is for dollars, doesn’t have the courage to allow its citizens to produce, sell and export their own products and put an end to the economic crisis. Fidel and Raúl Castro might hope that the lure of quick oil profits could end the embargo and bring millions into their coffers so that they do not have to adopt real economic reforms. For that to happen, Washington would have to ignore the situation in Cuba, as well as U.S. interests.
In the meantime, there does not seem to be enough time left, or enough oil, for Cuban oil to calm its troubled waters.

Source

www.cubacenter.org

Vote to lift Cuba travel ban is put on hold

2010-09-30

Backers of lifting the ban on travel to Cuba had been hoping for a favorable vote Wednesday out of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, but chairman Howard L. Berman called off the vote on Tuesday. "It now appears that Wednesday will be the last day that Congress is in session before an extended district work period. That makes it increasingly likely that our discussion of the bill will be disrupted or cut short by votes or other activity on the House floor," the California Democrat said in a statement.
"Accordingly, I am postponing consideration of H.R. 4645 until a time when the Committee will be able to hold the robust and uninterrupted debate this important issue deserves. I firmly believe that when we debate and vote on the merits of this legislation, and I intend for it to be soon, the right to travel will be restored to all Americans."
The National Foreign Trade Council and USA-Engage had just sent out an email in support of the bill, which would lift restrictions on travel by American citizens to Cuba and U.S. agricultural and humanitarian exports to the country.
Supporters had considered it the best chance at getting the travel ban lifted – particularly if Republicans take control of the House in November and Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen becomes committee chair.

Source
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/cuban_colada/

Yuri Luzhkov: last of Russia's rebels?

2010-09-30

By Alexey Kovalev

I saw him once on that sweltering July afternoon when I went to see a rock festival and ended up covering a terrorist attack that killed 16 people and wounded around 50. He swooshed past me and other corralled journalists with his 50-strong entourage of guards, aides and senior police officers, barking orders and generally looking tough and effective. This was the man who lent his name to an architectural style (albeit in an ironic way) and a whole era.

Yuri Luzhkov is not simply a political survivor, staying in office for 18 years, the same time as Leonid Brezhnev, his trademark round cap is now as much a historical symbol as the late secretary general of the CPSU's bushy eyebrows and senile mumblings. His political ambitions far exceeded one of the biggest cities in the world: Luzhkov is famous for his megalomaniac projects, such as diverting Siberian rivers to the south. Although officially he's the second mayor of Moscow, hardly anyone remembers the first, the humble and almost faceless Gavriil Popov from who Luzhkov inherited a grim, litter-strewn, barely illuminated city and turned it into a glowing, bustling metropolis. Future mayors of Moscow will have to try very hard to outdo his achievements, both positive and negative.

And now he's finally gone. The Cap, The Beekeper, the "sturdy manager", the bane of gay people and conservative architects, the mayor of Russia's capital who outlived two presidents and defied the third. It is this defiance – and not his blatant disregard of common sense, architectural aesthetics or public opinion – that proved to be Luzhkov's undoing and resulted in what many regard as President Medvedev's first serious political decision. Conspiracy theorists and pundits are having a field day, generating page after page in an attempt to untangle the impossibly complicated knot of opposing forces between the Moscow administration and the Kremlin.

On the ground, Moscow greeted the news with cheers in blogs and smiles on the streets, sarcastic gifts of prison biscuits laid in front of the mayoral office (hinting at countless allegations of corruption that many hope will result in a sentence) and a record-breaking traffic jam, the dramatic crimson-streaked map of which has already been dubbed "Luzhkov's Farewell". Now everybody's waiting for the new mayor to be announced – as of 2004, Muscovites, as well as all other Russians, have no say in choosing their own regional leaders. Luzhkov, with his typical militant posture, has already announced that he is not abandoning politics, and political commentators expect him to run for president in 2012 or form an opposition party (he has quit United Russia of which he was one of the founding fathers). It is worth remembering what happened to Mikhail Khodorkovsky when he had similar ambitions. One doesn't have to be a fortune-teller to predict that the ex-mayor will be reminded of each and every one of the allegations made against him while in the office.

And, by God, does he have many. Most anti-Luzhkov commentators deride his forced eviction as a half-measure: if even a fraction of the allegations voiced in petitions, books, TV features and blogs posts are to be tried in court, Rod Blagojevich will seem a beacon of moral integrity compared to Moscow's ex-mayor. For thousands of campaigners against Luzhkov's countless evils – gay-bashing, obliteration of historic Moscow and allegations of corruption, etc – it's now painfully obvious that none of their efforts have made the slightest difference and there's absolutely no guarantee that the next mayor will do any better. If there isn't a medical condition called obsessive-compulsive construction, the world health organisation should introduce one, if only for Luzhkov's sake: throughout his 18 years as mayor he spent every Saturday personally overseeing one of Moscow's epic construction sites, shaping the city to his own chaotic and kitschy taste. According to an entry in the Russian Wikipedia, the "Luzhkov style" encompasses elements of postmodernism and eclecticism, borrows the style of anything from rococo to Stalinist Empire and hi-tech and is characterised by an inefficient and unsystematic arrangement. To many Muscovites it's just goddamn ugly. We feel like strangers in our own city, we hate the infamous "infill development" ruining our parks and courtyards, these behemoths of bad taste with faux towers and balusters.

To be fair to him, he did some good things too: the reconstruction of Moscow's circular road, once a pothole-ridden, two-lane "highway of death", and the addition of another orbital route. He was responsible for a change in social funding too – although if you aren't a pensioner for who the extra 500 roubles (£11) really matters, or don't regularly ride the circular, you will have hardly noticed. Ah, yes: the streets are much cleaner than they used to be – at the expense of hundreds of thousands of semi-legal immigrant workers whose presence did cause its own problems. His almost comical obsession with apiculture (comical, that is, until the infamous story about him showing more concern for his beloved bees than Muscovites when a deadly blanket of smoke engulfed Moscow this August) has been the stock of countless jokes, and every caricature of him invariably features an angry swarm buzzing over his "helicopter pad" headgear, ready to defend their master.

Now, I have received dozens of amused and outraged comments from both Russian and foreign readers to my last Cif article where I called Luzhkov a "rebellious mayor". So what do you think now, after his angry letter to Medvedev where he blasts the president for failing to uphold democracy (although Luzhkov's own democratic record is far from clean, to say the least)? It reminds me of Andrey Kurbsky, once Ivan the Terrible's close friend and ally who later became his arch-enemy. The correspondence between him and the infamously ill-tempered monarch, where Kurbsky calls for greater accountability of the tsar and against autocracy, is a classic of political epistolary verse. Kurbsky is called by many historians the first Russian dissenter – Luzhkov may well be the last. I couldn't help but feel a tinge of sympathy towards a man so suicidally reckless and anti-authoritarian in the present atmosphere of all-encompassing lick-spittling. A few years ago, when I signed petitions and went to rallies calling for Luzhkov's resignation, I didn't pause for a second when asked whether or not I wanted to see him as the mayor of Moscow. Now I've just caught myself thinking that I'm not quite so sure.

Source

www.guardian.co.uk

Winning ugly in Russia

2010-09-29

by Aurel Braun

After weeks of political melodrama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev fired Moscow’s defiant mayor, Yury Luzhkov – “fired” is the term the President emphasized. The dismissal came after some of the most vitriolic Soviet-style attacks by state-controlled Russian television on Mr. Luzhkov. The firing tells us a good deal about the state of democracy in Russia, the democratic credentials of Mr. Medvedev, and the risks for anyone trying to have an independent power base in Russia.

Now, it is difficult to mourn the seeming political demise of Mr. Luzhkov. True, in the past 18 years, he has played a large role in making drab Moscow into a dynamic city, grand and gaudy, which produces almost a quarter of Russia’s GDP. Critics, however, rightly have long contended that Mr. Luzhkov ran the city like a private fiefdom. Corruption is indeed widespread.

However, Mr. Medvedev – who has the constitutional power to dismiss governors and Moscow’s mayor, and who officially declared that he had lost trust in the mayor – was upset by Mr. Luzhkov’s earlier criticism that suggested the President was a weak leader, and by the mayor’s defiance in the face of subsequent presidentially directed media counterattacks. For, in a country where Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Mr. Medvedev’s allies have enormously enriched themselves at the expense of the population at large, and in a city with the second largest number of billionaires in the world, singling out one individual for alleged corruption – Mr. Luzhkov – after decades of the Kremlin accepting and even praising him, is disingenuous.

First, such “selective justice” highlights the glaring gap between claims to a rule of law by the Kremlin and the reality of arbitrary rule. Second, it casts doubts on Mr. Medvedev’s carefully nurtured image as a democratic politician who has pushed whenever possible for liberalization and modernization. During the past few weeks, as he directed a Soviet-style media campaign against Mr. Luzhkov, it has been difficult to see how he has differed from Russia’s paramount political leader, Mr. Putin. Third, it has also become evident that, as Russia is moving toward parliamentary and presidential elections, the Kremlin leaders are not prepared to tolerate someone with an independent power base like Mr. Luzhkov.

Of course, we could all be surprised, and Mr. Luzhkov’s firing might be an indication that Mr. Medvedev is moving to centre stage. In that case, the firing would signal the beginning of a wide-scale campaign that would truly address the vast corrosive corruption throughout the country, and Mr. Medvedev would have to move against the numerous siloviki – political operatives from the security and military services – who have phenomenally enriched themselves. There is little sign of this. It may also be possible that Mr. Medvedev is beginning to challenge Mr. Putin, and will stand as his own man for re-election in the presidential contest in 2012. There is little credibility to this, since Mr. Medvedev does not have a substantive power base, and Mr. Putin continues to control the preponderant ruling United Russia party.

More likely, Mr. Medvedev is working closely with Mr. Putin, and the relationship is one of concentric circles, with the tough Prime Minister in the centre. The “kinder, gentler” Mr. Medvedev is then part of the same regime, where the iron fist quickly emerges whenever a challenger, even one with a record of supporting Mr. Putin, opposes a “component” of the ruling system. This perhaps should be a lesson to Mr. Medvedev, who ironically may find his current victory a Pyrrhic one.

The next moves are up to Mr. Luzhkov and Mr. Putin. In the weeks to come, we should get further clarification about the political lineup in a country where attachment to democracy looks ever more dubious.

Aurel Braun is a professor of international relations and political science at the University of Toronto.

Source

www.theglobeandmail.com

China arrests 2 monks in Lhoka after protests over teacher’s visit

2010-09-29

Two monk officials of a monastery in Tibet’s Lhoka region have been arrested, following a protest by monks of the monastery against Chinese authorities earlier this month. Gyurmey Tenzin and an unidentified monk official of Mindroling monastery had approached the local Chinese authorities to allow Dralha Rinpoche -- an heir lama to the throne of Mindroling, which is one of the six lineages within the Nyingmapa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism -- to visit the monastery.On September 19, around 50 monks of Mindroling monastery protested against the authorities and demanded that their revered teacher, Dralha Rinpoche, be allowed to visit the monastery. Chinese authorities cordoned off the monastery by deploying armed soldiers around the monastery and prepared for assault. The monks and local Tibetan populace remain apprehended by the turn of events. The monastery has been closed to outside visitors. More than 80 Chinese work team officials have arrived at the monastery where monks have been subjected to patriotic reeducation sessions. Mindroling monastery in exile, which has been rebuilt near Dehradun, has confirmed that activities of Dralha Rinpoche are being strictly monitored by Chinese authorities and his movements in Tibet are under close surveillance.

Source

www.phayul.com

Tibetan man sentenced to 4 years' jail in Tibet's Ngaba

2010-09-29

By Kalsang Rinchen

The Ngaba County Intermediate People’s Court on Saturday (September 25, 2010) sentenced a Tibetan man named Dhonko Gyakpa to 4 years in prison for concealing the whereabouts of and providing shelter to another Tibetan named Chodhar who was being looked for by the police, Kanyag Tsering, a Tibetan monk from Ngaba now living here said.

Chodhar, 34, a monk of Ngaba Kirti monastery was sentenced in April this year to 13 years’ jail for his alleged role in leading anti government protests in the area during the nationwide protests in 2008. He had gone into hiding for almost a year. The local government had announced a reward of around 300000 Chinese Yuan for information about Chodhar, who was nabbed from Dhonkho Gyakpa’s house on August 25, 2009.

Dhonkho and his wife Soelha were also arrested and detained for over a month but released alter on bail payment of 15000 Yuan. However, the Chinese authorities arrested him and his wife Soelha again. The authorities later released Dhonkho’s wife but held Dhonko in detention.

Dhonkho had earlier been jailed for five years on charges of pasting posters with anti government contents in the streets of Ngaba County during Chinese government's patriotic reeducation campaign in 1998.

Source

www.phayul.com

New images show Tibetan nomad's arrest after call for Dalai Lama to come home: Tibetan political prisoners in Mianyang

2010-09-29

New images have been obtained by ICT of the moment when a Tibetan nomad, Ronggye Adrag, was arrested after making a statement in support of the Dalai Lama in front of an audience of thousands. The photographs, taken by a foreigner who requested anonymity, capture the moments after Ronggye Adrag stepped down from the stage on August 1, 2007, and was seized by plain-clothes security. Ronggye Adrag was sentenced to eight years in prison and is being held in Mianyang prison in Sichuan.

See http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/new-images-show-tibetan-nomads-arrest-after-call-dalai-lama-come-home-tibetan-political-pr

Ten Petitioners and Rights Defenders Sentenced in Wake of Official Statistics on Decline of Petitions in China

2010-09-29

A court in Sichuan Province convicted ten petitioners and rights defenders of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order” in connection with a February 2009 protest they staged to draw attention to their previously unanswered petitions. The sentences, issued by the Shizhong District People’s Court of Leshan came just two days after the release of a government white paper on human rights stating that a 2.7 percent drop in the number of petitions in 2009 over the previous year indicated human rights progress.

The defendants are Bao Junsheng , Liu Jiwei ,Zeng Li ,Yang Jiurong,Zeng Rongkang, Xu Chongli , Huang Xiaomin, Yan Wenhan, Xing Qingxian, and Lu Dachun. Most of them are victims of forced eviction, inadequate compensation for land requisitioned by government authorities, and other injustices, and have been petitioning various authorities for several years for redress.

The sentences range from a three-year prison term to one year of surveillance by public security authorities. At trial, all but one of the defendants maintained their innocence, and asserted that the right to express their grievances through protest and the right to freedom of expression are guaranteed by Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution.

On Februrary 23, 2009, six of the defendants – Bao, Liu, Zeng, Yang, Zeng, and Xu – staged a protest outside the gate of the Chengdu Intermediate People’s Court. Several dozen other petitioners joined them. Bao, Liu, and others hung banners from the top of the 3U Department Store across from the court and made gestures to jump from the building. Other protestors carried placards and wore paper hats emblazoned with the words “defend rights” and “injustice” .The protestors used iron chains to link themselves together in front of the gate of the court. As a result, the incident has come to be known as the “Chain Gate” case.

The other four defendants – Huang, Yan, Xing, and Lu – helped spread the news of the protest by taking photos and videos and writing a report that they circulated online on overseas websites such as 64 Tianwang (64tianwang.com), Chinese Human Rights Defenders and Boxun. The photos and videos show a peaceful protest. (See below for links to the photos and videos.)

Ran Tong , the lawyer for Lu, who received a two-year sentence, said: “The only weapon that [my client] had was the constitutional right to freedom of expression and to supervise and criticize the government. Depriving him of this weapon runs contrary to the promise made by our premier Wen Jiabao that the government ‘should create opportunities for the people to supervise and criticize the government’ ”

Huang Xiaoqin, the sister of Huang Xiaomin, a rights defense activist, said that her brother intends to appeal. “They gave him such a heavy sentence [two years and six months] because he was the one who broke the story of the protest on the Internet, and that enraged the authorities.”

“Among the netizen comments we have seen in reaction to the Chinese government’s just-released Human Rights White Paper, by far the greatest number expressed dismay and disbelief at the claim that a decline in the number of petitions is an indication of human rights progress in China. This case perhaps shows us the real reason contributing to the decline,” said Sharon Hom, HRIC Executive Director. “Instead of addressing the grievances of petitioners, the authorities simply lock them away.”

EU and US should resist Russia, says Kaczyński

2010-09-29

The European Union and the US should carry out a “tough” policy against Russia, Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, wrote in a letter to dozens of ambassadors and hundreds of MEPs from different countries.

Mr Kaczyński said in the letter that the US and the EU should resist Russia's aspirations to extend its zone of influence, according to daily Gazeta Wyborcza, which gained access to the note.

“Currently we are witnessing attempts to diminish the role of our region in Europe,” Wyborcza quoted Kaczyński as saying. “They [Russia] may seem attractive business partners, but they do not respect the values and standards that prevail in the Euro-Atlantic political sphere,” the PiS leader added.

Mr Kaczyński reminded recipients of the letter that, in his opinion, Poland is one of America's closest allies in Europe.

Source

Warsaw Business Journal

141 Cuban émigrés in Spain ask for U.S. visas

2010-09-28

Twenty-one of the 36 political prisoners now in Spain have asked the U.S. Embassy in Madrid to give them visas to come to this country, the news agency EFE reported Sunday. One hundred and twenty relatives of those prisoners, who are with them in Spain, have done the same. The Cubans give "family reunification" as their reason to come to the U.S., saying they have relatives here, mostly in Miami. Besides, being in Miami is "being closer to Cuba on the day when freedom comes," ex-inmate Blas Giraldo told EFE.Spain's opposition party, the conservative Popular Party, this week told the Cubans it would assist them in their efforts. The prisoners' release and subsequent travel to Madrid was negotiated with the assistance of the ruling Socialist Workers Party of Spain.
Arturo Pérez de Alejo Rodríguez, 59, plans to leave Madrid on Monday in a plane to Miami, with his wife and daughter. Pérez, who arrived in Spain on July 21, will be the first freed prisoner to come to the United States from Spain. A resident of Manicaragua, Villa Clara province, he was in his seventh year of a 20-year prison term when released by the Cuban government.

Source

miamiherald.typepad.com

China warns Norway against peace Nobel for dissident

2010-09-28

The head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute said on Monday that a senior Chinese official told him that awarding the peace prize to a Chinese dissident would affect relations between Oslo and Beijing.

Nobel Institute Director Geir Lundestad's comments came after Czech dissident Vaclav Havel called on the Nobel Peace Committee to award the prize to jailed Chinese human rights campaigner Liu Xiaobo.

Lundestad, who organises the meetings of the secretive five-member Nobel Peace Prize Committee, said China's Deputy Foreign Minister Fu Ying met him during a visit to Oslo this summer to deliver the message.

"(Such a decision) would pull the wrong strings in relations between Norway and China, it would be seen as an unfriendly act," Lundestad told Norwegian news agency NTB, repeating Fu's comments during their meeting at the Chinese embassy in Oslo.

Lundestad added that "China has come with warnings before, but they have no influence on the committee's work."

China's embassy in Oslo was not available for comment.

"We ask the Nobel committee to honour Liu Xiaobo's more than two decades of unflinching and peaceful advocacy for reform," said a letter co-authored by Havel, which was published by the International Herald Tribune last week.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama won the Peace Prize in 1989, the year of the Tiananmen Square crackdown by Chinese authorities on protesters.

China and Norway are now engaged in talks over a bilateral trade deal -- which some say could serve as a blueprint for an agreement between the Asian superpower and the European Union.

Energy-rich Norway is also keen to export its offshore exploration knowhow to China, with Norway's national oil and gas champion Statoil announcing last month that it aimed to look for shale gas in China.

Norway's Nobel committee is set to announce the winner of this year's peace prize in Oslo on Oct. 8, capping a week of prizes given in Stockholm in the name of 19th century Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel.

Source

www.Reuters.com

North Korea Elevates Leader's Son To General

2010-09-28

North Korea's authoritarian leader Kim Jong Il, 68 years old and reported to be in poor health, has given his youngest son his first public title by promoting him to the rank of general. It marks the first time that Kim Jong Un's name has appeared in official media.

The move comes as North Korea holds what is believed to be its biggest political meeting in three decades.

A North Korean television presenter speaking on state television also announced the reinstatement of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as head of the ruling party.

"The Workers' Party meeting, which was called during a historical period with dramatic changes to build up a revolutionary and strong communist state, appointed our people and party's great leader, Kim Jong Il, as the secretary-general of the Workers' Party of Korea," the moderator said.

Regional powers are closely following the meeting, held by the ruling Workers' Party, for signs of shifts in policy by the secretive state.

The promotion of Kim Jong Un is widely seen as paving the way for an eventual succession.

Kim Jong Un is believed to have been born in 1983 or 1984. Some experts say he is too young and inexperienced to be allowed to lead the country.

State news agency KCNA reports that Kim also promoted a total of six people to the rank of general -- including his sister Kyong Hui -- in the country's army, believed to be one of the world's largest.

Source

www.rferl.org

Vietnam blocks critical human rights group from ASEAN forum

2010-09-27

Hanoi – (Sep 24, 2010)The official civil-society forum of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) opened Friday under a cloud after Vietnam blocked delegates from a group that had criticized its human rights record.

Vietnam, which is hosting the ASEAN People's Forum (APF) as the current chair of the organization, informed two representatives of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) on Tuesday that they could not attend the gathering in Hanoi.

Several delegates from non-governmental organizations at the forum criticized the move.

'Clearly here Vietnam is abusing its power as the chair of ASEAN,' said Debbie Stothard, a Malaysian who heads the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, as Myanmar is also known.

FIDH, a network of some 150 international human rights groups, attended the previous two APF gatherings last year in Thailand. On September 13, a member organization of FIDH, the Vietnam Committee for Human Rights, issued a report critical of Hanoi's human rights record.

At Vietnam's request, Thailand blocked the group's officers from travelling to Bangkok to launch the report. On Tuesday, FIDH received an email from the APF's organizers that it was 'not welcome at the Forum by Vietnamese people's organizations.'

Source

Deutsche Presse Agentur

The email said the 'so-called 'Vietnam Committee for Human Rights', has been conducting all kinds of provocative activities in order to sabotage the state of Vietnam, and it is not at all a truly human rights defender group as it claims to be.'

Tran Dac Loi, vice chairman of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations, which hosts the forum, said the FIDH delegates had been refused because of insufficient space.

'This forum was estimated to have a maximum of 500 participants, but in fact we had more than 1,200 registrants,' Loi said.

Loi said the remarks condemning the Vietnam Committee for Human Rights were solely the private viewpoint of Vietnamese civil society organizations taking part in the APF.

All Vietnamese civil society organizations taking part in the APF are linked to 'mass organizations' under the direction of the country's Communist Party.

Some delegates said concerns about being excluded from future ASEAN forums were having a chilling effect on what civil society groups felt they could say.

'People are doing a lot of kowtowing, staying in their good books, to continue to be invited and not be put on a blacklist,' said Charles Hector of the Malaysian labour group Workers' Hub for Change.

Vietnam has given scant publicity to the APF in the state-controlled media, and many independent Vietnamese civil society groups were unaware it was taking place.

The government has taken steps to ensure local coverage of the event avoids controversial issues. On Thursday, Vietnamese organizers instructed local journalists to avoid issues related to sovereignty in the South China Sea, a sensitive topic due to recent territorial conflicts with China.

The forum is scheduled to close on Sunday. Working groups will draft resolutions on issues including the environment, refugees, human rights, and labour law.

Tibet film ''When The Dragon Swallowed The Sun'' to screen at Iceland's RIF Festival despite Chinese pressure

2010-09-27

The International Reykjavik Film Festival, which opened Thursday, stood adamant over its decision to screen a documentary film on Tibetan freedom struggle despite pressure from China.

Hrönn Marinósdóttir, the director of the film festival currently underway in Iceland was summoned to the Chinese embassy in Reykjavik and asked to withdraw the film from the festival, according to a statement by the director of the film. The Chinese Embassy told her that the Chinese government disapproves the documentary, the film’s German-American director Dirk Simon said in the statement. “When she declined, the Chinese embassy complained to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Reykjavik and implied economical and political consequences for the Chinese-Icelandic relationships if my film screens.”

The festival committee, however, decided to screen the film as originally scheduled on September 27th, 28th and 29th and October 1st.

The Director of the Department for International Affairs at the Icelandic Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Emil Breki Hreggvidsson, said that “no formal request” has been made by the Chinese embassy and in any case, “Which films are shown in the cinemas is not an issue for the Ministry.”

According to Dirk, it took him 7 years to shoot 800 hours of footage in India, Beijing and Chinese occupied Tibet. He says that his film provides “an in-depth look behind the scenes of the Tibetan resistance to Chinese occupation. With the countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the Olympic Torch route fiasco as a backdrop.”

Dirk boasts of some exclusive interviews and rare archival material with a soundtrack by Philip Glass, Thom Yorke and Damien Rice. The film features Richard Gere, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the 14th Dalai Lama, some of the most prominent Chinese contemporary artists, and key figures of the exiled Tibetan movement.

Dirk says China’s opposition to this documentary is all the more surprising as the film gives both sides of the conflict a chance to speak and does not hesitate to explore the dissensions between the Dalai Lama’s nonviolent, middle-way policy and Tibetan radicals who seek complete independence from China.

Dirk admits that growing up in a divided Germany has considerably affected him in his quest for freedom, which has become one of his key topics. “More than any other film on that subject matter, my film avoids painting a ‘black and white’ picture. It highlights the complexity of the issue on both sides. There are facts and numbers you can’t ignore, like how many Tibetans have died as a direct result of China’s invasion and occupation. But the film also shows love and compassion in China and raises questions and concerns about the Tibetan freedom movement in exile. I think it is time to have an open dialogue.”

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