UIGHURS: Freedom of speech denied to British athletes

Monday, February 11, 2008

Freedom of speech denied to British athletes

This picture is of the England team being forced to give a Nazi salute in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Embarassing eh? A mistake definately. But we have learnt nothing. In 2008 it was announced that British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing.

Exactly what planet are they all on? Oh yes, its the ' let's be nice to China' planet. Never mind that the lack of fair trials are a serious concern, with thousands of people locked up in "re-education through labour" camps without any trial at all. Thousands each year are sentenced to the death penalty, even for non-violent crimes. Free speech remains severely curtailed, with around 30 journalists behind bars and internet users denied information and jailed for their blogs. And what about Tibet? What about the Uighurs? What about (dare I say it) common sense?

Yahoo, Google and Microsoft, who built reputations and vast fortunes on the principles of free expression and access to information, have trampled over their own ideals in the rush for a slice of the Chinese market. They shut down blogs and censor their own search engines - all in the name of ..... MONEY.

Well it's not good enough is it. Can we really tolerate this type of behaviour, and indeed become infected by it? If we allow our kow-towing to China to inform many more decisions we may as well hang our few remaining shreds of democracy in the National People's Congress of the People's Republic.

Remember that Nazi salute.

1 comment:

Unknown said...: hello; February 24, 2008 at 12:01 PM

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I met Rebiya Kadeer in October 2007

Her brave diminutive form spoke in a language of passion and grief and hope.

Like many others I was moved by her plea to help her country, (East Turkistan, now known as the Xinjing Autonomous Region) to survive the cultural and cruel vice of insidious Chinese occupation. She has quite literally sacrificed her children to come to us, to plead with us, and our option cannot be to do nothing.

I have been to China. As a tourist I have faced fixed bayonets in Tianamen Square for simply wanting to enter at the wrong time of day. I have no difficulty imagining the inscrutable rule of this ambitious race as they slowly but surely spread their unyielding muscle across the less aggressive nations within their reach.

The Olympic games will be upon us soon, and the democratic world is turning a blind eye to the grotesque abuse of human rights in China. The Olympic games were supposed to encourage China to become more aware, instead they are encouraging us to put on the blindfolds and become less aware.

The media circus will not want to highlight the issues. They will be far more interested in getting their investment returns. The athletes – with some reason – will not want to be involved in politics. My voice is small, but if you read this, you are joining me on the stage.

Potted history of the Uighurs

During the mid-1700s and mid-1800s, China and the Soviet Union conquered a large region north of China which included the peoples of Central Asia - Kazakh, Uzbk, Turkmen, and Uighurs. The Xinjian Uighur Autonomous Region was created by China on October 1, 1955.

When the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, all of these people regained their freedom except for the Uighurs. In order to prevent an uprising for independence among the original people of the region, the Chinese infiltrated the country with millions of settlers and have taken measures to obliterate the language, religion, and traditions of the Uighurs. The Uighurs are repressed as much as possible and kept at minimum subsistence levels.

Xinjiang is an area rich in natural resources. This is the main reason that China seeks to hold on to it with such tight reins. Xinjiang contains one-third of China's total oil reserve. The country is rich in gold and coal as well as steel, yet the region remains poor because the rightful owners are being exploited and degraded.

Despite these abundant resources, the "wealth gap" has significantly widened between the minorities and ethnic Chinese of the region. Most of them are farmers, only averaging an annual income of £45. Nearly 80 percent of Uighurs live below the poverty level. Less than a quarter even have running water.

Each year, the Party Committee asks each citizen of Xinjiang to work anywhere from 45 days to six months without pay. Many benefits, such as job incentives are only available to the Chinese, not the Uighurs .Without being able to speak Chinese, these people are at a major disadvantage - they cannot get jobs. Many are left unemployed.