Friday, April 25, 2008
Un-Australian Chinese
Amnesty International is not one of the many One China-Issue causes, a la Tibet, Taiwan, Falun Gong, and bears in cages. While most of the latter have a point*, AI is more big picture than barrow-pusher. Its rap sheet on China goes like this:
While some reforms have been made on the death penalty, China remains the world's top executioner. Human rights activists continue to be detained and harassed. Internet users are censored. Individuals are subjected to detention without trial. While new regulations may give foreign journalists more freedom to conduct interviews in China until October, control over the domestic media has tightened. [And then there’s Tibet . . . ]
- Claire Mallinson, national director, Amnesty International Australia
For all its carefully nuanced concerns about China, this is what happened to a small group of Amnesty International supporters/demonstrators at yesterday’s Canberra torch relay:
Away from the front line, smaller skirmishes had broken out all day. Tibetan independence supporter Marie Gunderson-Briggs found herself in the middle of one.
"We'd just joined up with a group of about 30 Amnesty demonstrators when we were surrounded," she said. "They were pushing in on us. They were 10 deep, squeezing us, yelling 'go home' and 'liars' and grabbing at our banners. It was incredibly intimidating."
Mrs Gunderson-Briggs recounted how her 13-year-old daughter Manon had broken down crying.
"When the riot police did arrive, they had to force their way through," she said. "If they hadn't come, I don't know what would have happened."
A story in today’s Oz corroborates the role of the police in extricating the Amnesty International group from the threatening situation.
The similarities with the Cronulla riot of late 2005 are inescapable – the police barely able to cope with a thuggish army of thousands, all as one high on an ethno-exclusivist patriotism. Needless to say, both occasions were deeply un-Australian.
It is now incumbent on Australian Chinese leaders to condemn what took place yesterday, and for Australian authorities to act decisively to prevent a re-occurrence.
*Falun Gong excepted – no government could ever stop a person meditating in private, and if one’s right to group/public meditation in China is really your main or only China issue, then you’re a moronic stooge.
Amnesty International is not one of the many One China-Issue causes, a la Tibet, Taiwan, Falun Gong, and bears in cages. While most of the latter have a point*, AI is more big picture than barrow-pusher. Its rap sheet on China goes like this:
While some reforms have been made on the death penalty, China remains the world's top executioner. Human rights activists continue to be detained and harassed. Internet users are censored. Individuals are subjected to detention without trial. While new regulations may give foreign journalists more freedom to conduct interviews in China until October, control over the domestic media has tightened. [And then there’s Tibet . . . ]
- Claire Mallinson, national director, Amnesty International Australia
For all its carefully nuanced concerns about China, this is what happened to a small group of Amnesty International supporters/demonstrators at yesterday’s Canberra torch relay:
Away from the front line, smaller skirmishes had broken out all day. Tibetan independence supporter Marie Gunderson-Briggs found herself in the middle of one.
"We'd just joined up with a group of about 30 Amnesty demonstrators when we were surrounded," she said. "They were pushing in on us. They were 10 deep, squeezing us, yelling 'go home' and 'liars' and grabbing at our banners. It was incredibly intimidating."
Mrs Gunderson-Briggs recounted how her 13-year-old daughter Manon had broken down crying.
"When the riot police did arrive, they had to force their way through," she said. "If they hadn't come, I don't know what would have happened."
A story in today’s Oz corroborates the role of the police in extricating the Amnesty International group from the threatening situation.
The similarities with the Cronulla riot of late 2005 are inescapable – the police barely able to cope with a thuggish army of thousands, all as one high on an ethno-exclusivist patriotism. Needless to say, both occasions were deeply un-Australian.
It is now incumbent on Australian Chinese leaders to condemn what took place yesterday, and for Australian authorities to act decisively to prevent a re-occurrence.
*Falun Gong excepted – no government could ever stop a person meditating in private, and if one’s right to group/public meditation in China is really your main or only China issue, then you’re a moronic stooge.
