June 20, 2004
I REFER to Magnus Linklater's article (June 6), and Free Tibet's response
last week regarding the invitation of the Chinese army to this year's Edinburgh
Military Tattoo.
The original article gives the misleading impression, and one the Chinese
authorities would like people to believe, that human rights have improved
considerably in China since the 1989 massacre. The article suggests that
"the onus (is) on a new generation of Chinese to ensure that no such
atrocity ever occurs again".
Yes, the onus is definitely on them to do this. Tragically, however, such
atrocities are occurring at this very moment. They have just been better
concealed by the regime. The brutal persecution of the peaceful meditation
practice of Falun Gong has seen almost 1,000 documented cases of death from
torture since 1999. More than 100,000 are incarcerated in labour camps without
trial. Jiang Zemin, the current leader of the Chinese army, faces charges of
genocide in lawsuits around the world for his role in orchestrating this
persecution.
The current debate around the Tattoo invitation centres on the idea of
'engagement' with China. Engagement is a fine thing if it involves a reciprocal
dialogue facilitating progress. Falun Gong practitioners have been seeking such
dialogue for the past five years. Such requests have been completely denied and
individuals terrorised for merely voicing them.
'Carrots', such as the respectability conferred by invitations to prestigious
international events, should be balanced by 'sticks' of persuasive diplomacy
requiring genuine and measurable steps towards adopting acceptable Human Rights
standards.
Sadly, the current engagement seems too one-sided and the human rights dialogue
so low key that China can simply choose to ignore it, pretend the violations
don't exist (just as it did with the Sars outbreak), and continue its abuses
with impunity.
Simon Miller, Edinburgh
http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=700582004
Category: Falun Dafa in the Media
