China Watch: SUPPRESSION OF MONKS IN SICHUAN

by B.RAMAN

Reports received from the Sichuan province of China speak of the arrest of about 300 Buddhist monks belonging to the Kirti monastery in the Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of the province for protesting against forcible re-education classes organized by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, China ’s internal intelligence agency, for the monks in the monastery.

2. The re-education classes were organized by the Ministry of Public Security following the self-immolation of a monk on March 17,2001, to protest against the Chinese colonization of the Tibetan areas. Before committing self-immolation, the monk reportedly shouted slogans in praise of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and called for the return of His Holiness to Tibet .

3. Thereafter, Chinese police and para-military forces occupied the monastery, seized and destroyed any literature praising His Holiness and pictures of His Holiness. They also forced the inmates of the monastery to attend re-education classes during which they were asked to shout slogans condemning His Holiness and praising the Communist Party of China.

4. On April 21,2011, the Ministry of Public Security officials arrested about 300 protesting monks and forcibly removed them in police vehicles to camps set up in the nearby counties of Wenchuan,Mao and LI which the Tibetans call Lunggu, Maowun and Tashiling respectively. When the local residents heard of the arrest and removal of the monks to detention camps, some of them protested and tried to prevent their forcible removal. Two elderly local residents were reportedly killed when the police and para-military forces used force to disperse them.

5. The Chinese also arrested 200 local residents for trying to prevent the arrest and removal of the monks and shifted them to a military camp. Many of them have since been released, but the younger elements have been detained. The Chinese seem to be worried about the likely reaction of the Tibetan youth to the developments and they are being kept under close watch.

6. Meanwhile, in a letter dated April 14,2001, addressed to the UN Secretary-General, Mr.Ban Ki-Moon, Tibet ’s exile parliament has drawn the attention of the UN to “the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet .” The letter said: “The security, dignity and human rights of over 2,500 monks of Kirti monastery, one of Tibet ’s most important monasteries, stand critically threatened.” The U.S. State Department has said that it had raised the issue of the Kirti developments with Chinese officials. Mark Toner, a spokesman of the Department, said: “ China ’s actions are inconsistent with internationally recognized principles of religious freedom and human rights We continue to monitor the situation closely and are obviously concerned by it.”

7.The monastery normally has about 2500 monks. About 300 of them, who are looked upon by the Chinese as the ringleaders of the protest movement, have been forcibly removed by the Chinese to detention camps. About 200 are reported to have escaped from the monastery and taken shelter in the adjoining villages of Tibetan herdsmen. About 2000 monks are reported to be still in the monastery. Reliable source reports say that they are facing acute food shortage since the Chinese have curtailed the supply of food articles to the monastery in an attempt to force the monks still in the monastery to attend re-education classes and condemn His Holiness.

8. Following the attempt of some local residents to prevent the arrest and removal of 300 monks, the Chinese have also started re-education classes for the local residents, most of whom are herdsmen. (25-4-11)

(Bahukutumbi Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi , and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com)
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My comment: We, here in America, too are running re-education camps under the guise of ‘education’ (our schools and universities). Only Marxist ideology is approved of and validated by academe. As reprehensible as all this is, there is one key difference between what we and the PLA are doing. In the case of China, they are doing it to shore up their defenses against the upheavals that can be expected in the wake of America's ultimate undoing - which to many now seems certain - while we are effectively applauding our own demise.

Holding the Bag

What we are witnessing on every front is quite remarkable. It’s tough to keep up with it all and even tougher to make sense of it. Whatever happens in Libya, we now own it. There’s one school of thought that thinks it’s already too late; that the civil war there is already over; that Kaddafi has won; that to interfere at this late date will only serve to forestall the inevitable.

So why did we do it? My guess is we were stung by the Saudi’s sending troops into Bahrain without telling us. To make up for it, we decided we must do something to show that we’re still relevant. (Democrats are always asking themselves if they’re relevant.) Never mind; when push comes to shove, our allies can be expected to excuse themselves to go to the bathroom. Many in our Congress know this; that we’ll be left holding the bag. They also know that we’ve had no time to prepare. It took Bush many months to launch an invasion into Iraq. I remember, even the weather became a factor. It pays to remember that initially Bush was hugely successful. Our troops hardly had to fire a shot. We could hardly believe our luck when our objective was met in record time.

But we just couldn’t leave it at that. We just had to embark on ‘nation building’, changing hearts and minds and all such rot. And even this would have succeeded if we hadn’t politicized it here at home. Democrats wanted Bush discredited at all costs. They were quite willing to gamble away all just to see it happen. As such, they happily undermined America’s effectiveness and prestige. They destroyed the levee known by its age old dictum that ‘politics stops at the water’s edge’, inviting a flood of recrimination and abuse from abroad. It worked and we lost our way.

What a price we’ve had to pay!!! Now we truly are irrelevant. Nobody takes us seriously anymore. Even the guy at the gas station on the corner can hardly stand to look at us. We have shamed ourselves in the eyes of the world, hastening our own demise to no purpose.

I say this in response to John Batchelor’s words last night when commenting on the self-immolation of a Tunisian fruit vendor and likening it to the recent self-immolation of a Tibetan monk. These were brave and honorable deeds that will go down in history as important turning points. When a rich and powerful country does the same, however, it is seen as utter folly.

What exactly is our goal in Libya? When will we know we have won? What exactly will we have won? And should we lose, and Kaddafi stays in power?

It has been my contention from the start that Obama is out to wreck every one of our key institutions. Already he’s done a fair job of it. The only thing remaining is the military.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Mt. Kailash: Shiva's Holy Abode

Mt. Kailash in Tibet is said to be a holy place. It is not very high, but no one has ever climbed it. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Bon come to walk around it instead. As single circuit of 32 miles is said to cleanse one of all one’s sins of this life; 108 circuits guarantees nirvana; and a frigid bath in nearby Mansarovar Lake is said to take away the sins of one’s previous lives as well.

Kailash is located near the source of some of the longest rivers in Asia. Hindus believe it to be the abode of Lord Shiva. It is a forbidding place where the air is thin and hard on the lungs. Pilgrims - especially the old - sometimes die in the course of their Pradakshina (or circumambulation).

Such deaths never make the news because they are primarily solitary events - attempts by individuals to strike a peace with their Maker. When people rise up in significant numbers in revolt, however, the mighty take notice and begin to shake in their boots. They either flee or meet the challenge head-on with threats and bullets.

The odds right now are in favor of Kaddafi winning over the rebels. These will continue to fight on with whatever means they have available. They have put their young lives on the line. Years of selective oppression have brought them to this point of desperate decision. Inspired by the various uprisings in neighboring states, they know it’s now or never.

Contrast this with the protesters at Wisconsin’s state capitol. Many were bussed in from elsewhere (like Zimbabwean mercenaries) to shout slogans and carry signs. They’ve trashed the premises to the tune of sums. They’ve managed to disrupt the orderly flow of representative governance for weeks on end on the slender basis of some ideological throw-back currently promoted by the president of these United States. It’s no more than a Hollywood casting call for the idle, framed by the marble walls of a grand old capitol, unsupported by what ever drops off the relatively narrow journalistic frame. Their signs tell the story of feigned outrage and unlikely connections. They are there simply because a free nation allows it without consequence.

I note that the signs in the video above are all handmade and not designed to play to movie audiences. The blood that is bound to stain them is real - not Taco Bell sauce or Nathan’s mustard. Wisconsin’s demonstrators represent nothing but rent-a-mob thrills.

All the worlds major religions define sin within the context of something that was actually done. Inattention and ignorance therefore do not qualify as sin. While Libya’s rebels still stand a chance of salvation, not even Kailash could cleanse Wisconsin’s rabble of their stain.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/