Stay credible – Human rights must not be a subject for taboo!

Bundeskanzler Merkel must not treat the massive violations of human rights in the People’s Republic of China as a subject for taboo on her visit to China, which begins on Sunday, but must speak out on them. This was the demand of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) in an urgent letter to the Bundeskanzler on Thursday. Since the German government has emphasised for years that it is not concerned with the independence of Tibet, but for the preservation of the traditional Tibetan culture and religion, Merkel should not here be silent.

„The German government must now stand by its word and call for a more effective protection of this culture, which is thousands of years old, for this is threatened with extinction through China’s policies”, says the letter of the GfbV. The settling of hundreds of thousands of Chinese settlers in Tibet, the forced resettlement of 700,000 Tibetan nomads, new restrictions on the practice of Tibetan Buddhism and the increased repression of Buddhist monks and nuns and restrictions on instruction in the Tibetan language have all meant an enormous pressure on the Tibetan people. Tibet will be destroyed in 15 years if China continues without hindrance the systematic Sinicization of Tibet, warned the Dalai Lama recently. There are clashes with ever growing frequency between the immigrating Chinese settlers and Tibetans since the Tibetan people, who have lived here since time immemorial are being suppressed systematically in the economy and society.

The bankruptcy of China’s policies regarding nationalities is evident in the neighbouring Xinjiang (East Turkistan) with the criminalisation of the Muslim Uyghurs living there when they demand their rights guaranteed by the constitution, criticised the GfbV Asia correspondent, Ulrich Delius. With arbitrary arrests, closing of mosques and Koran schools, re-education courses for Muslim clerics imposed by the government and the settling of hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese the Chinese government is establishing a climate of force, arbitrariness and distrust. The eight million Uyghurs also fear the destruction of their traditional culture, since China is systematically changing the population structure of the Autonomous Region Xinjiang.

„The Tibetans and Uyghurs urgently need supporters from abroad since they are not allowed to give information on their dramatic situation either through the media or on the internet”, says the GfbV Asia correspondent, Ulrich Delius. New regulations concerning the media contain long prison sentences for the dissemination of reports „which do not represent the truth” or „”endanger the peaceful harmony of the peoples”.

The last high-ranking German visitor of the government in Peking, the President, Horst Köhler, avoided the subject of human rights in May 2007 following a complaint of the Chinese government on a critical resolution of the German Parliament.