Spanish Court Indicts Top Chinese Communist Party Officials for Torture, Genocide of Falun Gong

News Courtesy: Falun Dafa Information Centre (faluninfo.net), 18th of November 2009


NEW YORK – In an unprecedented decision, a Spanish judge has indicted five high-ranking Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials for their role in crimes of torture and genocide committed against Falun Gong practitioners. Among the defendants is former CCP head Jiang Zemin, widely acknowledged as the chief instigator of the campaign to “eradicate” the spiritual practice.

Following a two-year investigation, Spanish National Court Judge Ismael Moreno last week notified attorney Carlos Iglesias of the Human Rights Law Foundation (HRLF) that the court had granted a petition to indict the defendants on charges of torture and genocide. According to the notice, for committing the crime of genocide, the defendants face imprisonment for up to 20 years and may be economically liable to the victims for damages.

The Judge’s notification also stated that the court had granted a petition to send rogatory letters (letter of request) to the five defendants in China with questions relating to each individual's involvement in the persecution of Falun Gong. The decisions followed a series of submissions to the court by Iglesias and other HRLF staff.

The defendants have 4-6 weeks to reply and could subsequently face extradition if they travel to a country that has an extradition treaty with Spain. The decision was taken under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows domestic courts to hear cases of genocide and crimes against humanity regardless of where they occur.

“This historic decision by a Spanish judge means that Chinese Communist Party leaders responsible for brutal crimes are now one step closer to being brought to justice,” said Iglesias. “When one carries out the crime of genocide or torture, it is a crime against the international community as a whole and not only against Chinese citizens. Spain is emerging as a defender of human rights and universal justice.”

Among the accused are former CCP leader Jiang Zemin, widely acknowledged as the primary instigator of the campaign launched in 1999 to “eradicate” Falun Gong. Also facing charges is Luo Gan, who oversaw the 610 Office, a nationwide secret police task force that has led the violent campaign. Chinese lawyers have compared the 6-10 Office to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo in its brutality and extra-legal authority.

The other three accused are Bo Xilai, current Party Secretary for Chongqing and former Minister of Commerce; Jia Qinglin, the fourth-highest member of the Party hierarchy; and Wu Guanzheng, head of an internal Party disciplinary committee. The charges against them are based on their proactive advancement of the persecution against Falun Gong when they served as top officials in Liaoning, Beijing, and Shandong respectively. In a Pulitzer prize-winning article, The Wall Street Journal’s Ian Johnson describes how Wu imposed fines on his subordinates if they did not sufficiently crackdown on Falun Gong, leading officials to torture local residents, in some cases, to death. (news)

Other evidence considered by the judge during his investigation included written testimonies from fifteen Falun Gong practitioners and oral testimonies from seven practitioners, including torture victims and relatives of individuals who had been killed in Chinese custody. The judge also relied on reports by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the U.N. Human Rights Commission to reach his decision, HRLF attorney Iglesias said.


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Dalai Lama says he looks forward to meet Obama, leaves for Australia, New Zeaalnd

News Courtesy: phayul.com

Dharamsala November 29 – His Holiness the Dalai Lama said he hope to meet US President Barack Obama early next year. The Tibetan leader said he did not "insist" on meeting Obama earlier as the US was "slightly hesitant" to meet him before Obama's visit to Beijing.

His Holiness was speaking to some 142 Indian journalists who yesterday concluded a two-day seminar organized by the Indian Federation of Working Journalists at the TCV School.

“They (US authorities) were perhaps of the view that President Obama could take up the Tibet issue with the Chinese government in a more conducive environment if he did not meet me before his visit (to China),” His Holiness said.

The 1989 Nobel peace laureate said he was not a "separatist" as accused by Beijing. He said that his side is only seeking genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people within the framework of the People's Republic of China as enshrined in the Chinese constitution.

His Holiness left here yesterday for New Delhi. He is scheduled to begin his ten-day tour of Australia and New Zealand on December 1, 2009 during which he will confer a series of teachings and public talks including a lecture at the Closing Plenary of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

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Min Ko Naing Needs Urgent Medical Attention, NLD Says

News Courtesy: The Irrawaddy, 26th November 2009.

The imprisoned activist Min Ko Naing is in urgent need of medical attention, according to the National League for Democracy (NLD).

NLD spokesman Khin Maung Swe said Min Ko Naing, a leader of the 88 Generation Students group—most of whom are now in prison—was suffering from hypertension (abnormally high blood pressure). Khin Maung Swe said he had been told by the activist's sister that he urgently needed proper medical attention.


Min Ko Naing was arrested in August 2007, along with more than a dozen other members of the 88 Generation Students group, after leading demonstrations against steeply rising prices. The demonstrations preceded massive protests the following month, which were brutally suppressed by the regime.


Min Ko Naing was sentenced to 65 years imprisonment and was sent to a remote prison in Kengtung, Shan State, one of the coldest areas in the country. The prison has no resident medical staff. Min Ko Naing is one of 128 political prisoners in poor health, the AAPP said. More than 2,100 political prisoners are detained in prisons scattered throughout Burma.


Bo Kyi, joint-secretary of the AAPP, said the Burmese authorities were deliberately torturing prisoners in cold areas of the country by denying them the possibility of keeping warm. Remote prisons also lacked proper medical care, he said.


Two political prisoners, Hla Myo Naung and Than Lwin, needed treatment for eye injuries, Bo Kyi said. The mother of one prisoner, Pyone Cho, said she was worried about his health after not hearing from him for some time. Pyone Cho, a member of the 88 Generation Students group, is imprisoned in Kawthaung, southern Burma.

In October, Ni Mo Hlaing, an NLD member imprisoned in Thayet, Magwe Division, fell ill with typhoid fever. Her condition has steadily deteriorated, according to the AAPP.


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Taiwan’s DPP unhappy with Obama comment

News Courtesy: taiwandc.org and also published on Taipei Times, on 18th November 2009

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen yesterday expressed regret over US President Barack Obama’s remarks that the US respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China.


The remarks did not clarify the fact that Taiwan does not belong to China and disregarded the fact that the 23 million Taiwanese are under threat from the 1,400-odd missiles [deployed] by China. The result is regrettable Tsai said in a statement. Tsai’s remarks came after the US and China issued a joint statement in which Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao underscored the importance of the Taiwan issue in US-China relations.



Beijing emphasized that the Taiwan issue concerns China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. It said it hoped the US would honor its commitments and appreciate and support the Chinese side position on the matter.


The US said that it follows a one China policy and abides by the principles of the three US-China joint communiques. The US said it welcomes the peaceful development of relations across the Taiwan Strait and looks forward to efforts by both sides to increase dialogue and interactions in economic, political and other fields, as well as develop more positive and stable cross-strait relations.


The two countries reiterated that the fundamental principle of respect for each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity were at the core of the three US-China communiques that guide US-China relations. Neither side supports any attempts by any force to undermine this principle. The two sides also agreed that respecting each other’s core interests was important to ensure steady progress in US-China relations.


While the statement did not mention the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), Obama mentioned it in his statement to a press conference.

Saying that Obama’s mention of the TRA would help improve cross-strait relations and stability in the region, Tsai called on the US government to continue to provide Taiwan with the defensive weapons it needs to ensure its national security in accordance with the spirit of the TRA.

Taiwan is a sovereign and independent country. This is an undeniable fact¨ Tsai said.

Tsai said the DPP was happy to see the US and China establish healthy and cooperative relations and make efforts to ensure prosperity and stability in the region, especially in terms of the economy and trade, climate change, energy, human rights and religious freedom.

The DPP hopes that China’s human rights record and position on religious freedom will improve and that China will renounce the use of force against Taiwan to bring real peace and stability in the region, she said. President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday downplayed the omission of the TRA in the written statement and praised Obama for mentioning it during his conference with Hu.


Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Lee Chien-jung said that although the TRA was not mentioned in the joint statement, Obama brought it up right in Hu's face.


This was the first time a US president mentioned the TRA over the past six years, Lee quoted Ma as saying. As the US and Chinese mainland develop their relationship, we don’t want to be a stumbling block, nor do we worry the US will sell us out because the triangle relationship between the mainland, Taiwan and the US is at its optimum stage in the past 60 years.


In fact, mutual trust between senior officials in Taipei and Washington has been fully restored, Lee quoted Ma as saying. Ma made the remarks during the KMT’s weekly meeting, which he chairs as KMT chairman.


Lee said that Ma hinted during the meeting that the administration had kept abreast of the US position¡¨ before the joint statement was made public. Last night, the DPP said it would have to double check to determine whether a US president had mentioned the TRA since 2003, adding that Ma had nevertheless missed the point.



Ma should worry about the omission of the TRA in the joint statement rather than being satisfied with Obama’s verbal reference at the press conference. The DPP urged the government to ask the US to clarify the omission because the US always mentions the three communiques and the TRA when it speaks about the Taiwan issue.


Meanwhile, former vice president Lien Chan said yesterday that despite the absence of references to the TRA in the joint statement, he did not think Washington would harm cross-strait interests simply over a single visit by Obama to China. Obama is in Beijing for a four-day state visit to China that started in Shanghai on Sunday night.


He did not mention the TRA during talks with Chinese youth in Shanghai on Monday, but mentioned it at his conference with Hu. Saying the relationship between the US and China would become closer, Lien yesterday added that Washington had on many occasions emphasized that its Republic of China [ROC] policy¨ would not change.


Such a framework began in 1979 and is clearly stated in the TRA and the three communiques signed with Beijing, he said. Lien made the remarks at Taipei Guest House yesterday morning after returning from the APEC forum in Singapore, where he served as Ma’s representative.


His comment came in response to a question by the Taipei Times on whether Taiwan’s interests would be compromised as Washington and Beijing develop a closer relationship.
Lien said that as US-China relations are complex and unique, many analysts suggested that Washington’s best strategy was to weigh [things] interest by interest.


They have common interests, but also have different ones, he said. The question is how to make the selection. Lien said the Ma administration must make it clear that the diplomatic interests of the ROC are best served not as a troublemaker, but rather as a promoter of common interests that will no longer make recourse to belligerent diplomacy or irresponsible and provocative acts.


What I say is not targeted at any particular party, he said. It is the national interest we are talking about. Since Ma took office in May last year, Lien said, Taiwan and China have inked nine agreements and reached one consensus, with the fourth round of high-level cross-strait talks scheduled to take place in Taichung next month.

It would be wrong to continue seeing Taiwan as a troublemaker, he said. We all have peaceful development at heart and nothing will change that.


On a cross-strait peace agreement, Lien said it would be a positive development to establish a framework to protect peace in the Taiwan Strait.

However, he conceded that the goal could not be attained overnight. It would be better if it materialized in decades, he said.

While the administration has insisted on tackling economic issues before moving to political ones, Lien said that some matters are not purely economics, such as the country’s participation in the World Health Assembly as an observer this year and accession to the Government Procurement Agreement.

On the possibility of a meeting between Ma and Hu, Lien said the timing was not ripe.

At the Presidential Office yesterday, Ma praised Lien for his excellent intelligence-gathering before the APEC summit and expressed his surprise at Lien’s relationship with Obama.

Lien and Obama’s great uncle, Charles Payne, attended the University of Chicago together and have been good friends since.

Obama’s first words to Lien when they met at the summit were:I know you.

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Burma Review welcomes statement of US Under Secretary for Political Affairs - William J. Burns on US-India Partnership

Burma Review welcomes the speech of US Under Secretary for Political Affairs – William J. Burns on the theme of heralding new era of partnership between United States and India delivered at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Event Washington, DC, on November 18, 2009. The statement of William J. Burns & Robert Blake appearing in media that, “US relationship with China would not be at India's expense,” is also a positive approach in building a trustworthy partnership between world’s two important democratic nations.

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Obama’s Communist Mentor

News Update – 17 November 2009, from People’s Daily - China-US Issue Joint Statement.

News Update – 16th of November 2009 from gawker.com – “Communist China Tries to Protect Obama from Being Called a Communist”.


By: Cliff Kincaid


In his biography of Barack Obama, David Mendell writes about Obama's life as a "secret smoker" and how he "went to great lengths to conceal the habit." But what about Obama's secret political life? It turns out that Obama's childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist.


In his books, Obama admits attending "socialist conferences" and coming into contact with Marxist literature. But he ridicules the charge of being a "hard-core academic Marxist," which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes.


However, through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his "poetry" and getting advice on his career path. But Obama, in his book, Dreams From My Father, refers to him repeatedly as just "Frank."


The reason is apparent: Davis was a known communist who belonged to a party subservient to the Soviet Union. In fact, the 1951 report of the Commission on Subversive Activities to the Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii identified him as a CPUSA member. What's more, anti-communist congressional committees, including the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), accused Davis of involvement in several communist-front organizations.

Trevor Loudon, a New Zealand-based libertarian activist, researcher and blogger, noted evidence that "Frank" was Frank Marshall Davis in a posting in March of 2007.

Obama's communist connection adds to mounting public concern about a candidate who has come out of virtually nowhere, with a brief U.S. Senate legislative record, to become the Democratic Party frontrunner for the U.S. presidency. In the latest Real Clear Politics poll average, Obama beats Republican John McCain by almost four percentage points.

AIM recently disclosed that Obama has well-documented socialist connections, which help explain why he sponsored a "Global Poverty Act" designed to send hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. foreign aid to the rest of the world, in order to meet U.N. demands. The bill has passed the House and a Senate committee, and awaits full Senate action.


But the Communist Party connection through Davis is even more ominous. Decades ago, the CPUSA had tens of thousands of members, some of them covert agents who had penetrated the U.S. Government. It received secret subsidies from the old Soviet Union.

You won't find any of this discussed in the David Mendell book, Obama: From Promise to Power. It is typical of the superficial biographies of Obama now on the market. Secret smoking seems to be Obama's most controversial activity. At best, Mendell and the liberal media describe Obama as "left-leaning."


But you will find it briefly discussed, sort of, in Obama's own book, Dreams From My Father. He writes about "a poet named Frank," who visited them in Hawaii, read poetry, and was full of "hard-earned knowledge" and advice. Who was Frank? Obama only says that he had "some modest notoriety once," was "a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes during his years in Chicago..." but was now "pushing eighty." He writes about "Frank and his old Black Power dashiki self" giving him advice before he left for Occidental College in 1979 at the age of 18.


This "Frank" is none other than Frank Marshall Davis, the black communist writer now considered by some to be in the same category of prominence as Maya Angelou and Alice Walker. In the summer/fall 2003 issue of African American Review, James A. Miller of George Washington University reviews a book by John Edgar Tidwell, a professor at the University of Kansas, about Davis's career, and notes, "In Davis's case, his political commitments led him to join the American Communist Party during the middle of World War II-even though he never publicly admitted his Party membership." Tidwell is an expert on the life and writings of Davis.


Is it possible that Obama did not know who Davis was when he wrote his book, Dreams From My Father, first published in 1995? That's not plausible since Obama refers to him as a contemporary of Richard Wright and Langston Hughes and says he saw a book of his black poetry.

The communists knew who "Frank" was, and they know who Obama is. In fact, one academic who travels in communist circles understands the significance of the Davis-Obama relationship.


Professor Gerald Horne, a contributing editor of the Communist Party journal Political Affairs, talked about it during a speech last March at the reception of the Communist Party USA archives at the Tamiment Library at New York University. The remarks are posted online under the headline, "Rethinking the History and Future of the Communist Party."


Horne, a history professor at the University of Houston, noted that Davis, who moved to Honolulu from Kansas in 1948 "at the suggestion of his good friend Paul Robeson," came into contact with Barack Obama and his family and became the young man's mentor, influencing Obama's sense of identity and career moves. Robeson, of course, was the well-known black actor and singer who served as a member of the CPUSA and apologist for the old Soviet Union. Davis had known Robeson from his time in Chicago.


As Horne describes it, Davis "befriended" a "Euro-American family" that had "migrated to Honolulu from Kansas and a young woman from this family eventually had a child with a young student from Kenya East Africa who goes by the name of Barack Obama, who retracing the steps of Davis eventually decamped to Chicago."

It was in Chicago that Obama became a "community organizer" and came into contact with more far-left political forces, including the Democratic Socialists of America, which maintains close ties to European socialist groups and parties through the Socialist International (SI), and two former members of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), William Ayers and Carl Davidson.

The SDS laid siege to college campuses across America in the 1960s, mostly in order to protest the Vietnam War, and spawned the terrorist Weather Underground organization. Ayers was a member of the terrorist group and turned himself in to authorities in 1981. He is now a college professor and served with Obama on the board of the Woods Fund of Chicago. Davidson is now a figure in the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, an offshoot of the old Moscow-controlled CPUSA, and helped organize the 2002 rally where Obama came out against the Iraq War.


Both communism and socialism trace their roots to Karl Marx, co-author of the Communist Manifesto, who endorsed the first meeting of the Socialist International, then called the "First International." According to Pierre Mauroy, president of the SI from 1992-1996, "It was he [Marx] who formally launched it, gave the inaugural address and devised its structure..."

Apparently unaware that Davis had been publicly named as a CPUSA member, Horne said only that Davis "was certainly in the orbit of the CP [Communist Party]-if not a member..."


In addition to Tidwell's book, Black Moods: Collected Poems of Frank Marshall Davis, confirming Davis's Communist Party membership, another book, The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946, names Davis as one of several black poets who continued to publish in CPUSA-supported publications after the 1939 Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact. The author, James Edward Smethurst, associate professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, says that Davis, however, would later claim that he was "deeply troubled" by the pact.

While blacks such as Richard Wright left the CPUSA, it is not clear if or when Davis ever left the party.


However, Obama writes in Dreams From My Father that he saw "Frank" only a few days before he left Hawaii for college, and that Davis seemed just as radical as ever. Davis called college "An advanced degree in compromise" and warned Obama not to forget his "people" and not to "start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that." Davis also complained about foot problems, the result of "trying to force African feet into European shoes," Obama wrote.

For his part, Horne says that Obama's giving of credit to Davis will be important in history. "At some point in the future, a teacher will add to her syllabus Barack's memoir and instruct her students to read it alongside Frank Marshall Davis' equally affecting memoir, Living the Blues and when that day comes, I'm sure a future student will not only examine critically the Frankenstein monsters that US imperialism created in order to subdue Communist parties but will also be moved to come to this historic and wonderful archive in order to gain insight on what has befallen this complex and intriguing planet on which we reside," he said.

Dr. Kathryn Takara, a professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who also confirms that Davis is the "Frank" in Obama's book, did her dissertation on Davis and spent much time with him between 1972 until he passed away in 1987.

In an analysis posted online, she notes that Davis, who was a columnist for the Honolulu Record, brought "an acute sense of race relations and class struggle throughout America and the world" and that he openly discussed subjects such as American imperialism, colonialism and exploitation. She described him as a "socialist realist" who attacked the work of the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Davis, in his own writings, had said that Robeson and Harry Bridges, the head of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and a secret member of the CPUSA, had suggested that he take a job as a columnist with the Honolulu Record "and see if I could do something for them." The ILWU was organizing workers there and Robeson's contacts were "passed on" to Davis, Takara writes.

Takara says that Davis "espoused freedom, radicalism, solidarity, labor unions, due process, peace, affirmative action, civil rights, Negro History week, and true Democracy to fight imperialism, colonialism, and white supremacy. He urged coalition politics."

Is "coalition politics" at work in Obama's rise to power?

Trevor Loudon, the New Zealand-based blogger who has been analyzing the political forces behind Obama and specializes in studying the impact of Marxist and leftist political organizations, notes that Frank Chapman, a CPUSA supporter, has written a letter to the party newspaper hailing the Illinois senator's victory in the Iowa caucuses.

"Obama's victory was more than a progressive move; it was a dialectical leap ushering in a qualitatively new era of struggle," Chapman wrote. "Marx once compared revolutionary struggle with the work of the mole, who sometimes burrows so far beneath the ground that he leaves no trace of his movement on the surface. This is the old revolutionary ‘mole,' not only showing his traces on the surface but also breaking through."

Let's challenge the liberal media to report on this. Will they have the honesty and integrity to do so?

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A response to China's Lincoln comparisons

Article Courtesy: phayul.com

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”

– Abraham Lincoln

By: Josh Schrei

The Chinese Government’s most recent abomination — comparing Abraham Lincoln’s war on slavery to the PRC’s brutal invasion and occupation of Tibet (and wrapping it all up with a ‘you-should-understand-slavery-because-you’re-black’ message to President Obama) — is only worth commenting on because there may be those uninformed unfortunates that actually give pause to the PRC’s stance.

Fundamentally, there is no comparison. Yes, President Lincoln declared war on secessionists. He also strongly championed the values of individual liberty and freedom and took considerable political risks to ensure that all people were entitled to these freedoms. None of the freedoms that Lincoln championed are on display in Tibet or China. And drawing reference to one of the great champions of individual liberty from a government that has no interest in such liberty is — to any student of American history — insulting. Lincoln’s name should not even be mentioned in the same sentence as Beijing’s current cronies. Luckily, most thinking people know this.

President Obama, we will not insult your intelligence — as your current hosts have – by explaining to you why it is racist, colonialist, and utterly unfounded to make comparisons between the Confederate South and Tibet. I’m sure you are as shocked and outraged as we are, as is the entire world community.

What we do question is why the world community continues to legitimize, fund, and coddle a dictatorship that is so dangerously out of touch with the norms of modern society. The Chinese government is positioning itself as — and quickly becoming — the next great world superpower, and we are busily helping them. It is high time this stopped. You did not meet with the Dalai Lama before you left for China. But you can make a difference now. We urge you to publicly distance yourself from the Chinese Government’s recent statements and to push for immediate improvements in Tibet, where the people enjoy no freedom of speech and are still suffering the results of a brutal crackdown after last year’s March protests. As someone who respects Lincoln’s name and has an understanding of his politics, this is the least you can do.

The simple truth is that the people of China and Tibet have no freedom, and the fundamental issue is the right of people to determine their own future, which our President Lincoln was a champion of to the end. In the absence of that right — and in defense of the repression of it — mad minds make ludicrous claims. Comparing Lincoln to the current leadership in Beijing is a violation of all that we as Americans value. We trust that — as our President — you will respond accordingly.

Josh Schrei may be contacted at josh.schrei@gmail.com


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Dalai Lama As A Slave Owner

Article Courtesy: phayul.com

By: Bhuchung D. Sonam

It is basic human nature to accuse, name-call and to use strange analogies when you have an internal crisis that cannot be solved. Beijing has been under the spell of this abnormal behaviour for a long time. The problem is that it does not want to look for a permanent cure. Instead it wants to remain in this irksome state.

First it was Zhang Qingli, the Party Secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region, who called the Dalai Lama "a wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face." Zhang was, perhaps, seeing the world's revered icon through skewed glasses issued by Beijing. In May 2009, while speaking to a large crowd at MIT in Boston, the Tibetan leader formed two horns with his fingers and said, "A demon with compassion is not bad after all." Laughter boomed across the hall.

On November 12, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, described the Nobel Laureate as "the former head of a slave state." "In 1959, China abolished the feudal serf system just as President Lincoln freed the black slaves,” he said.

Let's get what Qin is saying − the PRC is analogous to Abraham Lincoln; and Old Tibet comparable to the slavery of black Americans.

Before China's occupation in 1959, Tibet was neither the 'Nectar-filled Shangri-la' of foreign fantasy nor a total serfdom as Beijing claims. It was a viable independent nation with its own army, legal and taxation systems. Like any other nation, it had problems too − such as lack of modern education and economic infrastructure.

It is also true that many Tibetan peasants worked on estates of the rich land-owning families and monasteries, for which they were paid, and they enjoyed freedom and had comfortable rapport with their employers. It was a relationship quite similar to today's workers at large factories. If such a system is called serfdom, as Beijing does, and compared with black slavery in America before 1865, then pretty much the whole world practiced a kind of slavery.

President Abraham Lincoln's War of Independence and eventual abolishment of slavery in the US was based on the principle of basic human equality and the urgent need to assert such rights. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and later made the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which "officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime." It was adopted on December 6, 1865.

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong," Lincoln said.
China's coming into Tibet was neither a war of independence nor 'liberation' from the onset. It was an illegal annexation of an independent country. Beijing's gifts were the death of over a million Tibetans, destruction of thousands of monasteries and making the Tibetans sign the 17-Point Agreement under duress.

Beijing's record in China is not much brighter. In Mao: The Unknown Story, Jung Chang and Jon Halliday estimate that over 70 million people died in China by 1976. To add onto this are mauling of its students in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the countless crackdowns on poor rural people, and the execution of political prisoners in Tibet and East Turkestan (Chinese: Xinjiang).

Despite its economic growth, today's China is no fairer than serfdom, Beijing is loudly shouting about. In The Dark Side of China's Rise, Minxin Pei writes that Beijing oversees a vast patronage system that secures the loyalty of supporters and allocates privileges to favored groups. "The party appoints 81 percent of the chief executives of state-owned enterprises and 56 percent of all senior corporate executives."

In recent times there were cases of ugly racism in China, where individuals were targeted because of their skin colour. The Wall Street Journal reports Hung Huang, a publisher, writer and one of China's most popular media personalities as saying, "It pains me to see that a people who themselves were discriminated against by the West and called 'the sick man of Asia,' would have such short memories, and start discriminating against groups that are in a disadvantaged position."

Lincoln said that blacks had the rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and his legacy is putting an end to slavery and giving the blacks a permanent freedom in the US.

The opposite can be said about China's record in Tibet which includes the denial of basic rights resulting in the 2008 peaceful protests in Tibet; arbitrary arrests and the disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama Gendun Choekyi Nyima and writer-blogger Kunga Tsangyang among many others.

Qin Gang's analogy about slavery and Lincoln is a new addition to China's long list of propaganda designed to hide the fact that "beyond the new high-rises and churning factories lie rampant corruption, vast waste, and an elite with little interest in making things better."

For a "former slave owner" Dalai Lama is doing very well. Apart from being a Nobel Laureate, the Tibetan leader is a respected spiritual teacher and tirelessly works to promote non-violence and equal rights based on respect and genuine compassion.

Qin said, “So we hope President Obama more than any other foreign state leader can have a better understanding on China's position on opposing the Dalai's splitting activities."

Obama, being a man of conscience and a new Nobel Laureate, has the power to stop Beijing's meaningless lectures.

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Does India Need to Accept Philosophy of Making 21st Century as an ‘Asian Century’?

Since last few years there has been well crafted strategic attempt to create the concept of ‘Asian Century’ by the political leadership of Communist China. The recent one is the meeting between Indian Prime Minister – Mr. Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao’s meeting held in the last week of October 2009 at Cha-Am Hua Hin in Thaliland. However, the fact is that, Indian people culturally & philosophically don’t believe in the concept of making 21st century as an Asian century’ but believes in the philosophy of ‘one democratic world’, which has it semblance with the United Nations resolutions on ‘Dialogue among civilizations’ and Indian philosophy of ‘Vasudaiva kutumbakam’ (the whole world is one single family). The very concept of espousing cause of continental century (Asian Century) like earlier ‘European Century’ creates rivalry among continents and makes another worse political tool to exploit resources of developing and under-developed nations of Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia like colonial period of ‘European Century’.


The United Nations resolution on ‘dialogue among civilization’ was first floated by Republic of Iran’s letter dated 6th January 1999 in UN General Assembly fifty-fourth session. And the concept had its roots in the ‘Declaration of Athens’, entitled “The heritage of ancient civilizations: Implications for the modern world”, signed by representatives of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Egypt, Italy and Greece at the European Cultural Centre at Delphi, Greece, on 11 November 1998, which also contradicts with the very philosophy of ‘continental century’ like – ‘Asian Century’ of ‘Communist China’ or colonial theory of ‘European Century’. Later on after many meetings since 6th of January 1999, the United Nations decided to observe year 2001 as the Year of ‘Dialogue among Civilizations’. So it is for the Indian leadership to re-think, whether India’s cultural heritage & philosophy believes in ‘Vasudaiva kutumbakam’ (the whole world is one single family) / the UN concept of ‘dialogue among civilization’ or in the philosophy & political theory of making 21st century as an ‘Asian Century’?

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A Lost Message And A Lost Opportunity

Article Courtesy: gopusa.com


“How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin”


“Freedom is one of the deepest and noblest aspirations of the human spirit”


“The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas-a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated” -----

By ---- Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), 40th President of United States.


By: Michael Reagan

This past week I have been in Europe to help commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I went into this trip with a great deal of enthusiasm and an expectation that the heroes responsible for that momentous event be justly recognized. Sadly, I was instead reminded of how much we have willingly forgotten.


Over the past several months, the Reagan Legacy Foundation has been working hard to ensure that Berliners remember the vital role my father played in bringing down the wall and defeating communism. Amazingly, there are no major statues, memorials or tributes to Ronald Reagan -- the president, the man who sided with freedom over tyranny. Thankfully, in partnering with the "Checkpoint Charlie" museum, we have now unveiled a Ronald Reagan permanent exhibit to help educate Berliners and their international guests of what would have been an unpardonable omission in modern historical analysis of that period.


During these ceremonies I fully expected the legends of this period to be honored...to at least be mentioned. But over the course of this celebration that included fireworks and a re-enactment of the fall of the wall, I heard nary a mention of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher. This was both frustrating and alarming.


One only has to review modern education textbooks to see that this omission is not limited to an important celebration on a cold Berlin night. Rather, it is a trend -- a trend that is removing the reference of the great heroes and leaders of the Cold War battle and replacing it with a softer, perhaps less controversial revision.

Last year, a German study revealed how disturbingly little German youths understand about their divided history just a generation back. Two-thirds of the schoolchildren surveyed did not believe East Germans lived under a dictatorship. Nearly as many thought the East German economic system was preferable to West German's. Communism, preferable?!


When we allow such a travesty, we disregard not only who the heroes were, but that there was ever any need for heroism at all. The Berlin Wall did not simply divide a city. The focus of Monday's celebrations should have been life and freedom, not unity.


The facts are what they are. We cannot and must not forget that the Soviet Union murdered and oppressed millions of people before, during and after World War II in an effort to conquer more territories, gain more resources and grab more power. And while the world trembled, a select few leaders of that era finally took a stand in defense of freedom-loving people who lived under separate and distinct flags.


Germans are not the only ones who have forgotten. This lazy softening of history is equally a problem in our American classrooms. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, American students test worse in history than they do in any other subject. A survey in 2007 concluded fully a third of 17-year-old American students did not know that the Bill of Rights guarantees our freedoms of religion and speech.

These are the principles our nation's veterans have fought and died for over the centuries, on our own soil and across an ocean, in places like Germany. These are the principles for which men and women like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher made such courageous stands. This is the bedrock of who are, who we have been, and who we must remain in the future.

Thomas Jefferson told us, "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

I was proud to stand there and remember the fall of that terrible Wall. But until we remember in full, we leave ourselves open and vulnerable to the seditious creep of communism and oppression.


(Michael Reagan or Mike Reagan, the elder son of the late US President Ronald Reagan, is Chairman and President of The Reagan Legacy Foundation.)


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Pitfalls and possibilities in Obama’s Taiwan line

Article Courtesy: taiwandc.org as well as Taipei Times (published on 9th November, 2009)


By: Nat Bellocchi


As US President Barack Obama prepares for his visit to Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore, it is worthwhile to consider a number of issues that affect US-Taiwan-China relations.

On two of the three sides in this triangle, we have relatively new actors at the political helm: the Obama administration in the US and the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou.

Obama has the advantage of being at the start of a new chapter in relations with both Taiwan and China. He is relatively unburdened by the inhibitions of the past, and has the freedom to do some out-of-the-box thinking.

But there is already a tendency — similar to that seen in the administration of US president George W. Bush — that the US “needs” China to resolve major issues like global warming, pollution and the financial crisis.

While it is essential to engage China on these issues, we need to ensure that this is not done at the expense of a free and democratic Taiwan. During the past weeks, Chinese spokesmen have called on the US and other international partners to respect China’s so-called “core interests.” It would be good if Obama emphasized clearly that it is a core interest of the US that the future of Taiwan be resolved peacefully and with the express consent of the Taiwanese people.

Similarly, in his first year in office, Ma opened a new chapter and started rapprochement with China. While there is broad agreement that a reduction of tension in the Taiwan Strait is desirable, Ma has been criticized for moving too far, too fast and for allowing Taiwan’s drift into China’s sphere of influence to be accompanied by erosion of justice and a decline in press freedom.

The US’ Taiwan policy has traditionally swung back and forth between realism and idealism. The policies of president Richard Nixon and secretary of state Henry Kissinger in the 1970s, president Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s, president Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s and Bush in the period 2001-2004 are all testimony to the fact that the US made significant mid-course changes that were detrimental to Taiwan and that contributed to its international isolation, despite Washington’s statements that its policies were “unchanged” and contributed to “stability.”

From an international perspective, Taiwan is an example of a successful transition to democracy. The most rational and reasonable outcome of Taiwan’s normalization of relations with China would be acceptance of this young democracy in the international family of nations. This is a process that will need cooperation from all sides; for its part, China will need to see that it is in its own interests to come to terms with a small and democratic neighbor with which it can live in peace.

Taiwan can justifiably be proud of its achievements, economically and politically, but it needs to stay the course and strengthen its democracy, sovereignty and international relations so that it can be an equal partner in the international community.

Taiwan can also strengthen the fabric of its society by implementing judicial change, improving governance, protecting human rights and finding new niches in the international economy. All of these will enhance the nation’s acceptance and respect around the world.

The US can play a constructive role if Obama is willing to apply creative thinking and steer away from the pitfalls of the mantras that were recited in the past. The fundamental values of democracy and human rights, for which the US stands, mandate that we are more supportive of the dream of many Taiwanese that their country be accepted as a full and equal member of the international community. That would be change we can believe in.


(Nat Bellocchi is a former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan and a special adviser to the Liberty Times Group.)


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ICT urges Obama to offer mediator's role for China -Tibet dialogue

News Courtesy: phayul.com

Dharamsala, November 11 – The International Campaign for Tibet has urged the US President Barack Obama to offer a third party assistance to the Chinese government and His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s representatives in “defining a common goal for their dialogue, and push for an invitation for the Tibetan leader to visit China.

A letter signed by Hollywood actor Richard Gere on behalf of the board of directors for the Washington D.C based organization said, "If by not meeting [in October 2009] with His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] you intended to signal to General Secretary and President Hu Jintao that you expect an equally significant action from the Chinese government, there are a number of specific objectives that should be pursued."

In its first 10 months in office, the Obama Administration has made statements indicating a desire for meaningful results in the Tibetan-Chinese dialogue. It has also expressed its interest in new, creative approaches to resolve intractable issues, such as Tibet. Observers will be watching to see whether the President uses the opportunity of the US-China summit to rise to the challenge that his administration has set for itself.

In September, President Obama sent his Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett and Under Secretary of State and Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero to Dharamsala, India, to convey his administration’s position. Jarrett revealed that the President and the Dalai Lama would meet sometime after the summit in November, and that the Dalai Lama "would value an opportunity to hear directly from the President about what transpired during the Beijing summit with regard to Tibet," according to the Tibetan leader’s Special Envoy, Lodi Gyari.

The letter acknowledged the magnanimous approach that the Dalai Lama took to the President's proposal that they meet only after the US-China Summit but aligns itself with the concern expressed by Vaclav Havel (a member of the ICT International Council of Advisors) that what might appear to be a "minor compromise" will in fact lead to further accommodation.

"We have always believed that America is essential to progress on Tibet. At the November summit, we urge you to bring the weight of your high office, the will of the American people, and your considerable commitment to human rights, nonviolence and peace to help move ahead on this very important issue."

The letter further said that no efforts will yield positive results as long as the Chinese government continues to vilify His Holiness the Dalai Lama and propagandize against the Tibetan people who remain committed to a peaceful resolution.

The letter was sent on behalf of the board Vice Chairman Gare Smith and board members Ellen Bork, Joel McCleary, Steve Schroeder, Marco Antonio Karam, Grace Spring, Melissa Mathison, Keith Pitts, Jim Kane and John Ackerly.

Barack Obama's first Asia trip as the US President begins November 12 and includes Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Seoul, and Beijing.

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Burma Need’s Full Engagement, Not half-hearted One

By: Rajshekhar alias Vijay ‘Bidrohi’

The new US policy to engage Burma is a welcome step and a step forward to help directly Burma’s innocent citizen’s devastated in Cyclone Nargis. Moreover, the policy of engaging Burma is coherent with the Gandhian philosophy of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, which doesn’t believe in ‘permanent boycott and hate’ of opposite forces. However, the present policy of sanction as well as of engagement is against the basic ethos of Gandhian philosophy of ‘non-violence’, so Burma needs full engagement from western civilization and not a half-hearted one. The United States apprehension that, engaging Burma would give a wrong signal to the world is a prejudiced notion. It also creates a definite distance between Burma’s ruling military regime and western world, weakening the objective of release of Daw Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

In a recent visit by US Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs - Mr. Scot Marciel and Assistant Secretary of State - Mr. Kurt Campbell to Burma and Junta’s positive approach of allowing media to cover the event was positive development in the democratization process of Burma.

The struggle & demand for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners could be pursued while engaging Burma as per UN & ASEAN resolutions. Burma needs a massive international help to create job intensive industries to help unemployed poor people. Moreover, India needs to engage Burma beyond traditional trade items in the areas of critical technology like - Space Research, Joint Ocean research programme, Robotics and peaceful use of nuclear energy etc.

Few days back, I come across a poem, which made India’s father of nation – Mahatma Gandhi a firm believer in ‘non-violence’. The poem is an anonymous Gujarati one and poet had been unknown to Gandhi. He mentions the poet as 'Diwana'. The poem was published in his journal – “Indian Opinion” on 13th November 1909. It is my pleasure to share Gandhi’s favorite poem with the readers of Burma Review, which is applicable to all rulers & citizens resorting to violence to suppress ‘individual freedom of opinion’. “Burma Review” will change to “Myanmar Review”, the day Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is released.

"The lamp not burning
On what will the moth throw itself and be burnt?
Seeking to burn us,
You burn yourself first.

The union of soul and body,
The same in you as in me;
Unless you wound yourself,
Us you cannot hurt.

So soon as I owned myself your lover,
You stood declared my beloved;
A name I’ve bestowed on you,
And will cease only when I perish.

Such airs you give yourself today,
Your eyes stern and proud;
These your arrows
Will turn back upon you, myself unharmed.

You live, if I live; if I die,
Tell yourself you die too;
Can a tree exist without seed?
The fruit, whereon will it grow?

Where is the king if there are no subjects?
Would he rule over wood and stone?
Your being is wrapped up in mine,
Aiming a blow at me,
You shall only hurt yourself."

(By: A Diwana - a mad one)

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Don’t concede more on Taiwan

(Article Courtesy from taiwandc.org , also published in Taipei Times on 6th of November 2009)

By: Hisahiko Okazaki

For those who are concerned that democratic Taiwan should continue to have the freedom to choose its own future, US President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to Beijing brings back the memory of a regrettable episode during former US president Bill Clinton’s visit to China in June 1998.

Early in the spring of that year there were signs that the US government would assure China that Washington would not defend Taiwan if it declared independence. On March 13, Joseph Nye proposed in a Washington Post op-ed piece to eliminate the ambiguity in the US position by stating that the US would not recognize or defend Taiwan if it were to declare independence.

I argued against such a policy in an op-ed piece in the Japan Times and directly to the US assistant secretary of state Stanley Roth in Tokyo when he was accompanying US secretary of state Madeline Albright on her way to Beijing to prepare for Clinton’s visit.

My argument was as follows: “Suppose Taiwan declared independence and China used forced, believing in the American statement of its position, I wonder whether the American public and the Congress would acquiesce in abandoning a free and democratic Taiwan to China. If not, it is tantamount to tricking China into a war. It would be similar to how the Korean War began. The United States declared that South Korea is outside its defense line, but intervened when the North launched an attack, having possibly believed in your words.”


I do not know whether my arguments had any influence, but there were no statements about not defending Taiwan then. On the eve of Clinton’s visit, however, stories began to circulate that he was going to state a “three nos” policy: The US would oppose Taiwan independence, oppose a “one China, one Taiwan” policy and oppose Taiwan’s formal membership in state-based international organizations.


Fortunately, there was no mention of “three nos” in Clinton’s joint press conference with the Chinese president Jiang Zeming (江澤民), nor in Clinton’s major policy speech at Peking University. Then the volte-face came. On a visit to Shanghai, Clinton announced the “three nos” during a dialogue with Chinese intellectuals on a TV show.


Although the US Congress quickly rejected Clinton’s commitment through resolutions of both Houses, China may still view his remarks as an official commitment of a US president and may quite likely expect Obama to reconfirm the three nos.

It is not difficult to suspect that there were some disgraceful deals behind the scenes. The date of Clinton’s visit, to start with, is believed to have been sought by the US to turn attention away from a domestic scandal, and that indebted the US to announce the three nos, while bypassing Japan and South Korea to make the longest trip Clinton paid to a single country. In addition, the topics of the Shanghai TV interview, which was originally scheduled to focus on cultural affairs, appeared to have been changed on short notice.

Through the 37-year history of US-China engagement, the US has consistently retreated in the war of semantics about Taiwan. The US has been unable to muster points against the steel wall of one-party dictatorship. It lost inch-by-inch every time. Each time, however, Washington reassured the US public that its position hadn’t changed.


How deceptively the US position had eroded can be seen in the comments made by Clinton. He began his remarks on the “three nos” by stating that he was reiterating US policy on Taiwan but not specifying the time of the previous remarks, whether it was during his meetings in Beijing or much earlier. Then national security adviser Sandy Berger said the US had simply repeated its basic position.


In fact, the US has consistently shifted its position. It started with an admirably objective statement by then national security adviser Henry Kissinger in 1972: “The US acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China.”


This was cleverly phrased but would have become obsolete were Taiwan to declare independence. The retreat from this position began in 1983 by denying the intention of pursuing a policy of “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan.”


The word “pursuing” implies planning, working for and encouraging, but it does not prevent the US from accepting a fait accompli of Taiwan’s independence. However, there is a more clear implication in the term “not support” used during Clinton’s 1998 visit, which was well explained in Washington Post editorials as among the options that the Taiwanese eventually might choose.


The US assured Taiwan at the time that “not support” did not mean “oppose.” In fact, “oppose” was the term sought by China through former US president George W. Bush’s administration. China boasts domestically that it has won the commitment from the US, but there is no diplomatic record to testify to such a position.


As for Obama’s trip, it would be best not to go beyond the three joint communiques that have long defined US-China relations. The bottom line should be not to reconfirm the “three nos,” which were already denied by Congress. The Obama administration should never accept a change from “not support” to “oppose.”

Incidentally, the Japanese government, perhaps uncharacteristically, has never conceded an inch in the past 37 years from its stand to “understand and respect the Chinese position.”

(Hisahiko Okazaki has served as Japanese ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Thailand. He now runs the Okazaki Institute, a think tank in Tokyo. This piece was first published in ACFR NewsGroup No.1528, an e-mail publication of The American Committees on Foreign Relations, on Oct. 27)

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Why is China scared?

(Article Courtesy: phayul.com, first published in “Asian Age”, Tuesday, November 03, 2009, Burma Review thanks Ms. Maura Moynihan for truth speaking and her love for Tibetan people)

By: Maura Moynihan

A special ritual of life in Dharamsala is welcoming His Holiness the Dalai Lama back to his exile home. A victory banner is strung over the road as a multinational crowd pours into the lanes of Mcleodganj and down Temple Road to His Holiness’ residence, waiting for a glimpse of the great spiritual master and honorary citizen of India, waving from the window of a vehicle escorted by a crack team of Indian commandos.


The Dalai Lama never seems to rest; he just returned from North America, to commence a week of teachings on the Diamond Sutra and the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha. It’s impossible to find a hotel room — Dharamsala quivers from the weight of tourists and pilgrims from five continents who have come to this refugee town in Himachal Pradesh to touch a piece of old Tibet that fell upon this hillside 50 years ago.


There is disquiet among Tibetan refugees and their supporters over escalating Chinese repression in Tibet and Beijing’s success in pressuring world leaders to back off from the Tibet issue.


Last month United States President Barack Obama declined to meet the Dalai Lama as it would upset the Chinese Communist Party bosses in Beijing. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said: “The stronger relationship that we have with China benefits the Tibetan people.” A statement so credulous, or cynical, it seems to have been crafted expressly by the Beijing bureau of propaganda.

The grim reality of life in China’s Tibet is told in every corner of this refugee town, especially at the Gu Chu Sum Society created by ex-political prisoners from Tibet. The office stairwell is lined with drawings depicting the torture Tibetan nationalists endured in Chinese custody. One man was hung by his ankles for hours and whipped with barbed wire. Another had his legs and arms broken, was tossed into a sewage pit and pelted with rocks. A Buddhist nun was repeatedly raped with an electric cattle prod.

This is how China governs Tibet, and the most dangerous outcome of Mr Obama’s refusal to meet the Dalai Lama is the message it sends to the Chinese Communist Party: that their barbarous rule in Tibet can continue without impediment, that they can proceed with the plunder of Tibet’s lands and the yoking of Tibet’s rivers.

China has made the mere mention of Tibet so toxic that delegates at last month’s climate change summit in Bangkok refused to address climate change on the Tibetan plateau and its deleterious effect on the rivers of nation states in south and southeast Asia, hardly a small matter.


Control of the Tibetan plateau and its vast riches is a priority for Hu Jintao’s government. Since March 2008, China has mobilised an estimated 50,000 troops along the Tibet-India border, while protesting against visits by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Arunachal Pradesh and excising Kashmir from India in a new map and website. China is supplying Nepal with aid and weaponry, which fuels the advance of Maoist insurgencies across India. Himachal This Week just ran a two-page story on Chinese spies working in Dharamsala, with a timeline of a decade of arrests and confessions of agents with plans to attack the Dalai Lama.

Why does Beijing so fear this gentle Tibetan Buddhist master and purveyor of the Gandhian legacy of non-violence? On October 1, 2009, the Chinese Communist Party celebrated 60 years of one-party rule with a Cold War parade of massive weaponry and Maoist sloganeering. On October 2, India paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 140th birth anniversary with an inter-faith service at New Delhi’s Gandhi Smriti. Dr Singh sat upon the grass amid citizens and guests as prayers from all religions were read and sung, then scattered rose petals on the site of the Mahatma’s martyrdom with quiet dignity.


These twin ceremonies just a day apart reveal the vast gap between Mao’s and Gandhi’s visions of power. His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls Gandhi his political guru and has steadfastly pursued the path of ahimsa with the Chinese Communists who call him “an incestuous murderer with evil intentions”. But the Dalai Lama has not been broken. Witness him upon his lama’s throne, imparting the wisdom of the Buddha into the golden light of the Kangra Valley, to students from Mongolia, Vietnam and Laos, whose sanghas were laid waste by the Communists, who regard him as the Living Buddha.


“Look how much power China has, and they are so paranoid, they take such desperate measures to keep politicians away from the Dalai Lama,” says celebrated Tibetan poet Tenzing Tsundue. “The Dalai Lama has no aircraft, no money, he’s a refugee. China has weapons and banks, but they are terrified of this simple monk who wants to make peace with them. It shows their great insecurity. Our power lies in our faith in non-violence. The Tibet movement is still here after 50 years. We continue to inspire the people of the world who are looking for solutions to violence and conflict.”

(Ms Maura Moynihan is a writer who has worked with Tibetan refugees in India for many years. Now based in New York, she is researching a book on America’s failed China policy)

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Tawang Set to Welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama

News Courtesy: tibet.net

(Burma Review wishes for a very successful visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, India and welcomes US Administration supportive statement on the visit of His Holiness to Tawang Monastery)


The historic ‘Galden Namgyal Lhatse’, populary known as Tawang Monastery, located in India's north-eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, has got a facelift and adorned with welcome banners to receive His Holiness the Dalai Lama due to arrive on Sunday, according to media reports. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be in Arunachal Pradesh from 8 – 13 November, during which he will give religious teachings at Tawang, Dirang and Bombila. His Holiness will also inaugurate a super-speciality hospital at Tawang. It will be the fifth visit of His Holiness to the Indian Himalayan state, earlier he visited in 1959, 1996, 1997 and 2003. Tsona Gontsa Rinpoche, a senior Buddhist spiritual leader and chairperson of the state-level reception committee, said preparations are almost complete with 700 to 800 monks all set to give His Holiness the Dalai Lama a religious welcome.

T G Rinpoche is overseeing preparations at the Tawang monastery and also at a school playground here where His Holiness the Dalai Lama will hold a three-day religious discourse from Monday. Monasteries in Tawang are also conducting special prayers for a successful visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

'The entire town and the monastery have got a facelift. Devotees are excited about the Dalai Lama's visit,' T G Rinpoche was quoted as saying by Indo Asian News Service. The Tawang monastery was established in mid-17th century by Mera Lama, a contemporary of the Great fifth Dalai Lama. The monastery is a virtual treasure trove of Tibetan Buddhist culture. The Parkhang hall within the monastery has a library that houses a good collection of rare Buddhist manuscripts and “thanka” paintings (traditional Tibetan paintings on cloth). The sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, was born 1683 at Urgelling Monastery, 5 km from Tawang.


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