9pm Friday night it was confirmed that Ashin Gambira was free
Much Metta
Saturday, 11 February 2012
China Sentences Activist to 7 Years Over Poem « VOA Breaking News
China Sentences Activist to 7 Years Over Poem
Posted Friday, February 10th, 2012 at 7:05 amVeteran Chinese democracy activist Zhu Yufu has been sentenced to seven years in prison after writing a poem urging his fellow citizens to rise up and demand greater freedoms.
His wife and son said Friday that Zhu was found guilty of “inciting subversion of state power” by a Chinese court in the eastern city of Hangzhou.
Zhu is the fourth prominent activist to receive a lengthy jail sentence in the past seven weeks, as China cracks down on dissent ahead of a rare leadership transition later in the year.
The ruling comes just before Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping's trip to the United States next week, when human rights is expected to be a key topic discussed. On Thursday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who is hosting Xi, said more openness and the protection of human rights is the best way to promote prosperity and stability in China.
Chinese police arrested Zhu Yufu nearly a year ago after he wrote a poem titled “It's Time.” The poem was published during the height of the Arab Spring uprisings that swept across North Africa and the Middle East. Zhu was detained as part of a crackdown by Chinese officials on political dissidents who called for similar protests.
Zhu denies inciting subversion. He says he did not organize any protests. He also denied posting the poem to any public online forum, saying he only shared it with friends.
The 58-year-old dissident has been convicted twice before for his activism. He spent seven years in prison after his first conviction in 1999 and served another two years in prison after a conviction in 2007.
Zhu's poem includes these lines: “It's time, Chinese people! / The square belongs to everyone / the feet are yours / it's time to use your feet and take to the square to make a choice.”
Social Injustice Fuels Self-Immolation Protests | Asia | English
February 08, 2012Social Injustice Fuels Self-Immolation Protests
Photo: ReutersTibetan Buddhist nun Palden Choetso sets herself ablaze in Daofu, or Tawu in Tibetan, in this still image taken from video shot November 3, 2011.A growing number of Tibetans in China have set themselves on fire in recent months to draw attention to what they consider to be Beijing’s cultural and religious repression. This wave follows the self-immolation of dozens in Tunisia and other countries swept up in the Arab Spring. The suicidal act, while making new headlines, has a long history of being used as a political tool around the world.
In 1963, Buddhists in South Vietnam were facing discrimination by the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, a member of the Catholic minority. The treatment became intolerable for many, and one monk, Thich Quong Duc, made a decision that would have a resounding impact on Vietnam and beyond.
“Thich Quong Duc sets himself on fire, and that becomes a major news story all over the world,” recalled Michael Biggs, a sociologist at Oxford University and the author of “Dying Without Killing,” a history of self-immolations.
The iconic image of the monk engulfed in flames was captured in a prize-winning photograph.
“And as a result of that, not only do other people in Vietnam start using that action, but other people in other places completely unconnected with Vietnam start using it as well,” said Biggs.
Some of these images may be disturbing.
Beyond borders
These acts of desperation have been mostly concentrated in Asia, but there have also been incidents in Eastern Europe, North Africa and the United States.
In 1969, Jan Palach set himself on fire in then-Czechoslovakia to protest the occupation of his country by Soviet troops.
In South Korea, pro-democracy and labor rights advocates used self-immolation as a political tool before the country became democratic.
And when India’s government pursued affirmative action policies in 1990, students set themselves on fire to protest the decision to give underprivileged castes more opportunities.
Personal is political
Self-immolation does not always bring about the desired reforms, but the decision to burn oneself to death is a powerful outlet, particularly in countries where there is no democratic means to address injustices.
Rodger Baker of the global intelligence firm Stratfor says there are a number of motivating factors.
“It is an attempt to draw attention to, in a very drastic manner, some form of political change or political injustice. So, when you see it with the Tibetans, it is about the Chinese domination of Tibet, but it also may be seen as an economic protest. What we saw in Tunisia, for example, was political, but it was also economically motivated,” he said.
AP
Tunisian President, Moncef Marzouki places flowers at the tombstone of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old who set himself alight on Dec. 17, 2010
Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in December 2010, an act widely seen as the start of the revolution that brought down the government of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and fueled the Arab Spring. Others in North Africa followed in his footsteps, showing that self-immolation has the ability to cross not only national boundaries, but religious barriers as well, said Baker.“In Islam, as in Christianity, the concept of suicide is very much against what they do, and in some sense in North Africa, it’s sort of like saying, ‘I’d rather die in hell than live on Earth,’” he said.
Silent stoicism
Baker says one of the reasons why self-immolation is so powerful, rallying supporters to a cause and drawing international attention, is because of its visual imagery.
“You don’t see self-immolators who are running around screaming in pain. The whole point is to have that added element in many ways of stoicism. For most people, the concept of even burning yourself on the stove is something that you can already feel just by talking about, and it’s extremely painful. The idea of lighting oneself on fire is beyond the level of pain that most people are willing to endure,” he said.
Self-immolators are sometimes called “terrorists” by the governments they’re protesting. That’s not the case, according to Biggs.
He says suicide bombers rely heavily on organization, access to bomb-making techniques and logistical support. But self-immolation is different.
“It’s something that ordinary people, occasionally, almost spontaneously decide to do as a kind of an act of will of their own individual decision,” he said. “And often we find organizations condemning the act and telling the people, ‘No, no, we don’t want people to do this.’”
State action
Governments also find it difficult to respond to such actions, says Baker.
“Even when we see, for example, a group of people self-immolate, rarely are they coming out of a larger group who says, ‘Why don’t you guys go burn yourselves, and next week we’ll go burn ourselves,’” he said. “And this is one of the challenges China has had because they are trying to portray it as, ‘Okay, the Dalai Lama is telling these people to go out and burn themselves.’ But it’s a very difficult argument for them to make that that is the case.”
Beijing has, in rare cases, seen self-immolation work in its favor. When followers of the Falun Gong movement carried out a series of self-immolations in China more than a decade ago, one woman took along her daughter to Tiananmen Square, where the girl also set herself on fire.
Biggs says that is one of the only cases of self-immolation in recent history where the act hurt the cause and helped the government the activist was rallying against.
VOA News will host a Google Plus Hangout to discuss this issue and other matters relating to China. Please join William Ide for a discussion at 0330 UTC Thursday.
via voanews.com
Netease Offers Attitudes on Drugs « China Wangre
Netease Offers Attitudes on Drugs
Inmates peer out of a barred window near the Chinese character "Drug" at the Chengdu Compulsory Drug Rehabilitation Center in Chengdu, southwestern China's Sichuan province. (AP File PHoto)
The Netease microblog (网易微博) calls itself “The microblog with an attitude.” This is very true of its latest topic: Drugs.
The issue is being discussed a lot recently because the son of the famous actor Zhang Guoli (张国立) has been caught up in a marijuana scandal.
The son, Zhang Mo (张默), is an actor himself. On January 31, microblogs exploded because of the news that he had been taken into custody for 13 days after being found smoking pot at home.
Marijuana, along with substances such as heroin, cocaine, are lumped together and called “drugs” or “dupin” (毒品).
Drugs have brought down other famous people in the past. Zhang Yuan (张元), the famous director of East Palace West Palace (东宫西宫), was arrested in 2008 for doing ketamine and ice.
Burma Authorities Release Dissident Monk | Asia | English
February 10, 2012Burma Authorities Release Dissident Monk
Photo: ReutersThis January 19, 2012 photo shows U Gambira, leader of the All-Burmese Monks Alliance, after he was released from prison.Authorities in Burma briefly detained a prominent dissident monk Friday, less than a month after he was released from jail along with dozens of other political prisoners. A rights group monitoring the situation said U Gambira’s detention appeared to be a warning for the former prisoners not to get involved in politics.
Witnesses say several Burmese officials took U Gambira from a monastery in Rangoon before dawn. A sister of the monk told VOA's Burmese service several hours later that her brother had been released unharmed at a Rangoon monastery.
She said she had not seen her brother since his release and did not know why he was arrested.
The religious affairs and special branch police gave little information about the apprehension, saying only that the 31-year-old monk was wanted for questioning.
Bo Kyi is founder of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPB), a Thailand-based monitoring group. He says authorities have no legal reason to detain U Gambira, whom he referred to using the honorific “Shin,” given to monks.
“That should not be because Shin Gambira did not do anything as far as we know," said Bo Kyi. "So, therefore there is no reason to be taken…taking him to the questions.”
Since his release in January, U Gambira has spoken out against the military-backed civilian government and expressed doubts that it is becoming a real democracy.
Reports say he was also attempting to reopen monasteries that authorities closed after the 2007 democracy protests known as the Saffron Revolution, because of the color of robes worn by monks.
U Gambira and other monks led the protests but the military violently ended the movement and jailed him and hundreds of others.
U Gambira was sentenced to more than 60 years in prison.
Most political prisoners in recent months were released under general amnesties, part of the civilian-led government’s reform efforts.
But their freedom is conditional. If convicted of a crime, their previous sentence can be reinstated, forcing them to serve out the remaining time.
Bo Kyi says U Gambira’s detention is likely meant as a warning to other recently released political dissidents.
“If the Burmese government really wants national reconciliation, and then really wants the people to trust them, they need to recognize the existence of political prisoners and release them as soon as possible unconditionally," said Bo Kyi. "That is the first step they need to do. Otherwise it is really difficult to get like the trust by the people, both domestic and international.”
The release of all political prisoners is a key demand by western nations for lifting economic sanctions against Burma.
Burmese authorities refuse to officially recognize political prisoners and say all prisoners of conscience have been released.
The AAPB estimates there are more than 800 still locked up for opposing military rule while other estimates put the figure at around 300.
A civilian-led government last year replaced decades of military rule and began implementing political and economic reforms.
But observers debate whether the military is still in charge, and if reforms are genuine or designed to get sanctions and Burma's pariah status lifted.
via voanews.com
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