Tibet is Gone

Tibet is gone…

The governments of the free world watched it go and paid the merest lip service to efforts to save it.

It is has been fifty years since the Chinese government ordered the invasion of Tibet. Under its control so many Tibetans have been murdered that, if we were to stand for a minutes silence for each one we would be standing for over two years.

Thousands of Tibetans have been imprisoned and tortured simply because they have stood up and staged peaceful protests against the Chinese government’s brutal rule. When called on to allow Tibetan’s their basic human rights and stop the torture, the Chinese simply point the finger back at the West and say, “you practise and condone torture, but we do not.” The US and UK governments certainly have heavily soiled their record and lost a considerable amount of moral high ground with such high profile blunders of judgement and decency as the shameful Guantánamo Bay fiasco. However, in defense of our governments, they do not hang old men upside down like light bulbs, they do not order the systematic beating of them – and then punish the beater for not beating severely, ‘patriotically,’ enough - and they do not rape nuns with electrified batons. All of which is being inflicted on Tibetans held in Chinese controlled prisons right now. One Buddhist monk, Palden Gyatso, spent thirty three-years under arrest, during which he was subject to the most brutal tortures, both physical and mental, that can be inflicted on a human being – his crime, peaceful protest.

What are our governments doing to address this physical and cultural genocide?  Apparently, US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, held talks, relating to human rights issues, ‘behind closed doors’ with the Chinese government on her first visit to the country. How simple it is to appear to do something but, actually, do nothing ‘behind closed doors.’ What did you say Hilary? And what reply did you get?

And what of the-one-eyed-man-who-would-be-king, Gordon Brown? How has this mighty ‘world saving’ leader stood up to the Chinese government? One of his crew of minions and toadies – Foreign Secretary David Milliband – said in February of this year, “We have made it clear to the Chinese government, and publicly, that we do not support Tibetan independence.” – that’s telling ‘em Dave. This from a  government that had already taken away the right of Tibetan’s living in the UK to state on official forms – applications for passports, etc – that their country of birth was Tibet. They, say this government, must admit they are really Chinese!  However, to be far to Gordon Brown, at least, his foreign policy in regards to ‘bigger boy’ countries is consistent, and can be summed up in six words ‘we bend over and take it.’

On the subject of Brown and the bigger boys; I wanted to quote a passage from his recent speech to the US congress. It was for me the best, most moving, seemingly the most heartfelt, part of an otherwise, frankly, kissy, kissy, verbose example of copy and paste rhetoric.  He told the story of a young boy – David – who died during the conflict in Rwanda, believing that the United Nations would come to save him. I cannot quote his words exactly because in all the ‘full texts’ of his speech I have found on the internet (The Times / The Guardian / The Telegraph), issued to the news media by the UK Government, the passage is missing. Welcome to Orwellian Britain, the record has been changed, and the Prime Minister never embarrassed the leader of the free world with an example of how it failed the innocent. But, what else can you expect from a government who arrest its citizens if their waste bins are too full or they have taken a photograph of a train.

Tibet is gone. It will never be an independent country again. But, what of Tibetans and their gentle culture of peace, spiritual harmony and love of family? Their home is being torn apart and polluted by Chinese industrialisation and they have become a minority within it, due to the millions of Chinese immigrants being shipped in.  Tibetan’s are as strong and resilient as the mountains of their country. However, mountains can be reduced to rubble and that rubble ground to dust. The one last flicker of hope for thei survival is in our hands, dear reader. ‘The’ governments of the world are ‘our’ governments. If we are united and speak loudly enough they must listen – never forget, never let them forget, we are the masters they the servants. Tell them, “Stop the torture, and stop the killing in Tibet now!”

Why should we speak up for Tibetans, or anyone but ourselves? Remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller:

“When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.”

And they are coming…