Rev. Danny Fisher

Today marked the fifth anniversary of the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq. Five years ago, we began our occupation of their country based on specious claims made by the Bush Administration. (Saddam Hussein had absolutely no connection to the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, and his country had no weapons of mass destruction, period.) Along with the U.K., Australia, Poland, and Denmark, we flouted the U.N. Security Council and international law by invading Iraq. Worse still, the human cost of all this has been exorbitant. At the time of writing, these are the numbers:

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS (IRAQ): 3,992

U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED (IRAQ): 29,395

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS: 151,000

‘EXCESS’ IRAQI DEATHS: 655,000
Additionally, the cost of this war as of around 10 p.m. this evening was a mind-boggling $503,993,939,887 (and climbing every second).

This evening, I joined about twenty-five or thirty others in the Whitneyville neighborhood of Hamden, CT, for a candle-light vigil sponsored by MoveOn.org. I was moved that so many registered participants showed up in spite of the cold and pouring rain. (Considering the level of discomfort that our U.S. military personnel and many Iraqi civilians face every single day, though, I suppose it’s the least any of us could do.) And the response to our presence was overwhelmingly positive–lots of thumbs-ups, waves, cheers, and car horns. Some drivers even pulled over to chat and offer words of support.

I think it’s very important that Americans show up for these kinds of event. Two-thirds of us apparently think this war was a mistake, and we ought to back that up with action. But what’s to be done about Iraq? How do we leave? Do we “bring our troops home” just like that? To be honest, I have no idea what the solution is to avoid more violence and death. I do know this, though: at least several points of Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) 12-point exit plan make good sense. In particular, I think he’s quite right to say that one of the first things that needs to happen is “a simultaneous return of all U.S. contractors to the United States and [turn over of] all contracting work to the Iraqi government.”

The contracting process has been rife with world-class corruption, with contractors stealing from the U.S. Government and cheating the Iraqi people, taking large contracts and giving 5% or so to Iraqi subcontractors.

Reconstruction activities must be reorganized and closely monitored in Iraq by the Iraqi government, with the assistance of the international community. The massive corruption as it relates to U.S. contractors, should be investigated by congressional committees and federal grand juries. The lack of tangible benefits, the lack of accountability for billions of dollars, while millions of Iraqis do not have a means of financial support, nor substantive employment, cries out for justice.

Whatever the solution, though, let’s hope/pray/practice for peace and stability in the region. For no more loss of life. For the safe return of our military personnel serving abroad.

May all beings everywhere plagued
with sufferings of body and mind
quickly be freed from their illnesses.
May those frightened cease to be afraid,
and may those bound be free.
May the powerless find power,
and may people think of befriending
one another.
May those who find themselves in trackless,
fearful wilderness–
the children, the age, the unprotected–
be guarded by beneficial celestials,
and may they swiftly attain Buddhahood.

I leave you with some raw footage I shot at the Hamden vigil this evening. (Think of it as a sort of participant’s-eye-view of the event.) You can watch it here (below), at iTunes, at Switchpod, or at YouTube.

The Nation has chimed in on the situation in Tibet with a piece from University of California-Irvine professor Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom. The author of China’s Brave New World–And Other Tales for Global Times questions the appropriateness of the world power hosting the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Below is the piece in its entirety.

Karl Marx famously observed that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. But when it comes to the periodic clashes between Tibetan protesters and China’s authorities, tragedy is all one can see.

As in 1959 and 1989 a familiar story is now unfolding in Lhasa. Once again, crowds of Tibetans angered by limits on their autonomy and fearful of the destruction of their culture took to the streets. Once again, after a wave of protests, a harsh crackdown has begun. Each time, the drama has started in March–no mystery, really, since the 1989 and 2008 protests were triggered in part by the arrival of the anniversary of the 1959 unrest, which swelled into a full-fledged uprising.

History never really repeats itself exactly in any setting. This time, there is the added drama of the Olympics, which take place in Beijing in August, preceded by the spectacle of the Olympic torch making its way across Asia. In early May relay runners are expected to carry the flame through the Himalayas, all the way to Mount Everest.

The Games have focused international attention on nearly every aspect of the People’s Republic of China, including the regime’s flawed human rights record. There has also been hope among activists that the Chinese leadership will this time feel more constrained in its use of force against protesters. It is an open question as to how different the strategy used against the Tibetan demonstrations and riots would have been if the Games weren’t on the horizon.

It is indisputable, though, that the Olympics have influenced the official Chinese response to events in Tibet. One tangible Games-related result is that Beijing has pressured Nepal’s government to close off access to Everest from that country’s side of the mountain. This should ensure that no pesky “Free Tibet” banners are unfurled when the torch is at its highest point this spring, since plans to beef up security on Everest’s Chinese side have been in place for some time.

But it remains doubtful that the regime will be able to keep tourists or spectators in Beijing from voicing support for the Dalai Lama or making eye-catching pro-Tibet gestures while the Games are actually taking place in August.

Communication is another issue. Beijing has made more use than ever before of video footage that shows Tibetans engaging in acts of violence. The regime’s “Net Nanny,” as the cyber-censorship system is sometimes called, has been working overtime, trying to sweep the Web free of all postings that present the protesters in a positive light. And the blogosphere has been filled with comments on Tibet that spin off in many directions, with many nationalistic young Chinese expressing harsh criticism of the Lhasa protesters, while human rights groups stress the injustice of the crackdown in stepped up calls for a boycott.

It may be some time until we know just what happened last week in Lhasa, who did what to whom and when. The city has been sealed off from most foreign observers, yet there have been excellent reports by The Economist‘s James Miles and some scattered messages from international tourists as well as on-the-spot commentaries from outsiders. It remains to be seen how high the toll of violence was when frustrated Tibetan youths lashed out against locals of other ethnicities (both Han Chinese and members of the Hui Muslim minority). Nor do we know how many protesters were beaten, killed or arrested when paramilitary forces moved in to quell the unrest.

Still, it seems likely that as more specifics come to light, what will emerge is a pattern that, despite its distinctively 21st-century features, is easily recognizable to those who have followed the tense push and pull between Tibet and Beijing. The outlines of a tragic and painful dynamic that we have seen before are daily becoming more distinct.

Yet Marx’s suggestion that tragedy and farce are closely linked is not completely without relevance in a situation that pits Tibetan desires for independence (or at least cultural autonomy) against Beijing’s determination to maintain control (and prevent what it dubs an illegitimate separatist movement).

Tragedy gave way to farce in August 2007, when without any apparent irony, the Chinese authorities issued an injunction against unauthorized reincarnation. Concerned by various statements the Dalai Llama had made about how his succession might work, the officially atheist Beijing government laid down the law. To become a “living Buddha without governmental approval,” the edict read, “is illegal and invalid.”

And just before the most recent round of protests began, Icelandic songstress Bjork performed in China’s biggest city. The dramatic high point of her show came when she sang “Declare Independence,” a song that includes exhortations like “Protect your language” and “Make your own Flag!” Though it was written with the Faroe Islands and Greenland in mind, and though the singer has sometimes dedicated renditions of it to Kosovo’s people, she gave it a new twist in Shanghai, saying “Tibet, Tibet” after finishing the number–a local gesture that gained global attention on YouTube.

The Chinese government’s response to this was annoyance, leading to a call for closer advance scrutiny of the playlists of foreign performers. One of the first to suffer was Harry Connick, Jr., who put on a show in Beijing just as the protests in Tibet began. According to Beijing-based blogger Jeremiah Jenne, who attended the concert, the audience went away disgruntled by the brevity of the show, the lack of encores, and the fact that the singer barely used his horn section. Afterward, Jenne notes, scattered wire reports and Web posts explained why Connick and his band couldn’t find their groove. Officials showed up right before the show and, working from one of the singer’s old playlists, demanded that he substitute some “safer” numbers for those he had planned to perform.

Even the most paranoid Beijing official has not suggested that there is a direct connection between what Bjork did in Shanghai and what the people of Lhasa did soon afterwards. Nor would I suggest, as new details emerge about the human rights abuses in Tibet, that official meddling with the song list of a foreign performer is a major issue.

Still, the tragic and farcical developments of recent weeks underscore the inherent conflict between China’s desire to place itself in the global spotlight and its hope that no one will focus on the nation’s flaws. They want internationally acclaimed artists to perform in cities like Shanghai without doing unexpected things–even if, like Bjork, part of their cachet is an ability to surprise an audience. But the Chinese leadership is no more capable of balancing these tensions than Don Quixote was of slaying windmills.

The theme song for the Olympics is “We Are Ready,” which points to the fact that Beijing now has world-class arenas in which to hold sporting events. But when it comes to having an Olympic year that follows a script it can control, the song that sums the situation up more effectively might be “The Impossible Dream.”

Yesterday, Amnesty International posted an urgent action about the plights of fifteen Tibetan monks arrested on May 10th for demonstrating in Lhasa. The monks range in ages from 15 to 32, and their portraits may be viewed here.

According to information published by the Tibetan Centre on Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), 15 Tibetan monks were detained on 10 March for staging a peaceful demonstration in Barkhor, Lhasa, the capital of Tibetan Autonomous Region. There is no information of their current whereabouts or of any charges brought against them. They are at high risk of torture and other ill-treatment.

On Monday 10 March hundreds of monks began a march from Drepung Monastery towards Barkhor. Another group, which included the 15 monks now in detention, began their march from Sera Monastery, but were soon detained. The monks had been demanding that the government ease a “patriotic re-education” campaign which forces them to denounce the Dalai Lama and subjects them to government propaganda.

Protests began in other monasteries in support of those detained. Demonstrations also involving lay people then followed across Lhasa, in other parts of Tibet and in areas of the neighboring provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan with large populations of Tibetans. On Friday the protests became violent, with some protesters specifically targeting and setting fire to Chinese-owned businesses and attacking people from other ethnic groups.

The Chinese authorities urged the protesters to give themselves in by Monday 17 March at midnight, Beijing Time, and promised that those who did would be treated leniently. As of today, the streets of Lhasa were reported to be largely quiet and empty.

Police and soldiers are reported to be conducting house to house sweeps in Lhasa. Some eyewitnesses have reported individuals being dragged from their homes. There continue to be reports of unrest in neighboring Sichuan and Gansu provinces. There are also reports that some Chinese police and soldiers have used excessive force, including lethal force, against Tibetan demonstrators in Lhasa and elsewhere. With large numbers of troops now deployed in the region further human rights violations may be committed.

The Chinese authorities have imposed a near-total block on information leaving Tibet and surrounding areas. Permits for journalists to enter Tibet were stopped from 12 March. Foreign journalists have been barred or removed from districts in Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai provinces, where the unrest has spread.

The Chinese government has the right and duty to defend all individuals and property from violence. At the same time international law requires that the authorities handle such crises in ways that uphold fundamental human rights and the principles of necessity and proportionality in the use of force. For example, firearms should only be discharged as a last resort and when lives are at risk.

As I said when I posted an urgent action about Myanmar’s U Gambira a few weeks ago, the thing you can about all of this is write letters. Amnesty International is asking concerned citizens throughout the world to write letters to Chinese officials. You are asked to do the following things in your letters:

urge the authorities to release the fifteen monks named above, as well as all others detained for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly;

urge the authorities to fully account for all those detained during the demonstrations, ensuring they are not tortured or otherwise ill-treated, have access to lawyers and medical care, are brought promptly before an independent
court and are able to challenge their detention;

ensure that those prosecuted are charged with internationally recognizable offences and tried in proceedings which meet international fair trial standards;

allow full and unimpeded access to Tibet and other Tibetan areas to journalists and other independent observers;

allow independent UN investigation into the events of the last week, including full access to scenes of confrontation, eye-witnesses, and detainees, and allow similar access to independent observers, including journalists and human rights NGOs.Once you’ve written your letters, send them to the following addresses:

President of the People’s Republic of China
HU Jintao Guojia Zhuxi
The State Council General Office
2 Fuyoujie, Xichengqu
Beijingshi 100017
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Your Excellency

Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People’s Government
Qiangba PUNCOG Zhuren
Xizang Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu
1 Kang’angdonglu
Lasashi 850000, Xizang Zizhiqu
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Dear Chairman

Minister of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China
MENG Jianzhu Buzhang
Gong’anbu
14 Dongchang’anjie
Dongchengqu, Beijingshi 100741
People’s Republic of China
Fax: 011 86 10 63099216 (it may be difficult to get
through, please keep trying)
Salutation: Your Excellency

COPIES TO:
Mayor of Lasa Municipal People’s Government Tibet Autonomous Region
LOBSANG Gyaincain Shizhang
Lasashi Zizhiqu Renmin Zhengfu
16 Jinjulu, Lasashi 850000, Xizang Zizhiqu
People’s Republic of China
Salutation: Dear Mayor

Ambassador Wen Zhong Zhou
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Fax: 1 202 745 7473

You will find postage rates listed in PDF version of the urgent action.

You can also spread the urgent action around. Email it to your friends. Print out copies and take them to your local dharma center or sitting group. Spread the word.

Time is of the essence, so please send your letters immediately if not sooner.

Our pal Erick sends two more articles about the Tibetan situation to us that are worth taking a look at.

The first comes from the New York Times and concerns the various resentments that led to the uprising.

…To many Tibetans and their sympathizers, the weeklong uprising against Chinese rule in Lhasa reflects years of simmering resentment over Beijing’s interference in Buddhist religious rites, its tightened political control and the destruction of the environment across the Himalayan territory the Tibetans consider sacred. If there is a surprise, it may be that Beijing has managed to keep things stable for so long.

Since the last big anti-Chinese riots in Tibet two decades ago, Beijing has sought to smother Tibetan separatism by sparking economic development and by inserting itself into the metaphysics of Tibetan Buddhism. But an influx of Han Chinese to Tibet, and a growing sense among Tibetans that China is irreparably altering their way of life, produced a backlash when Communist Party leaders most needed stability there, analysts say.

“Why did the unrest take off?” asked Liu Junning, a liberal political scientist in Beijing. “I think it has something to do with the long-term policy failure of the central authorities. They failed to earn the respect of the people there.”

[...]

The unrest is a blow to President Hu Jintao, who personally directed a crackdown on Tibetan protests in 1989 and who has considered the Tibetan region part of his core political base within the Communist Party since then. It will fall to Mr. Hu to figure out how to restore order in Tibet without undermining the Olympics coming-out party that China has meticulously planned for years.

[...]

…Some analysts say Mr. Hu ruled out any compromise that would allow the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet, which he fled after a failed uprising in 1959. Instead, China appeared to want to keep talking until the Dalai Lama, who is 72, died and left Beijing more firmly in control. Beijing has also infuriated many Tibetans by trying to monopolize the most sacred rituals of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Communist Party, atheistic by doctrine, has insisted that it has the sole authority to approve incarnations – the divine process by which a “living Buddha” is chosen in boyhood. Beijing had already selected a boy as its own Panchen Lama, the second ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism, and reportedly jailed a boy chosen by the Dalai Lama.

Last November, the Dalai Lama countered with his own surprise. He proposed that instead of waiting for senior religious figures to search out his incarnation following his death, he might choose his own reincarnation – a possibility that has enraged Beijing. The Dalai Lama proposed a referendum among Tibetan Buddhists on whether to change the current reincarnation practice, in a way that could allow him influence in picking his own successor.

Meanwhile, Beijing has steadily been taking a tougher line on religious practices and cultural expressions of Tibetan pride. In November 2005, Zhang Qingli was appointed Communist Party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Mr. Zhang came from the Communist Youth League organization, part of the political stronghold of Mr. Hu. Mr. Zhang has made no attempt to disguise his paternal attitude toward his charges.

“The Communist Party is like the parent to the Tibetan people, and it is always considerate about what the children need,” Mr. Zhang said last year. He later added: “The Central Party Committee is the real Buddha for Tibetans.”

Robert Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University, said Mr. Zhang had taken a tough line. Tibetan government employees faced periodic requirements to write denunciations of the Dalai Lama. Mr. Zhang reintroduced a policy that forbade Tibetan students and government workers from visiting monasteries or participating in religious ceremonies or festivals.

By 2006, Mr. Zhang had revived an “anti-Dalai” campaign and intensified “patriotic education” at Buddhist monasteries. Monks are now required to attend long sessions listening to recitations of China’s interpretation of Tibetan history and also denounce the Dalai Lama.

[...]

In 2006, China opened the world’s highest railway, which cost $4.1 billion and traverses the Tibetan plateau to connect isolated Lhasa with the rest of the country. Beijing described the railway as a vital tool in developing the Tibetan economy, the poorest in China.

But many Tibetans regard the railroad as a threat. China has poured money into Tibet in hopes that economic development and higher incomes would win over a younger generation. For many Tibetan families, life has improved. But China has also encouraged huge numbers of Chinese migrants, whose presence has diluted the Tibetan majority.

[...]

Economic development also has brought environmental exploitation. The railway is regarded as a critical spur for China to extract and transport the rich deposits of copper, iron, lead and other minerals in the large unspoiled Tibetan highlands.

Last year, Tibetans in Ganzi Prefecture in Sichuan Province held angry protests to stop a mining company that was shearing off a mountain considered sacred by Buddhists. Eleven days ago, just before the Lhasa riots, about 100 monks and other Tibetans attacked Chinese cars and shops and clashed with the police there.

Several analysts say China cannot win the hearts of Tibetans if it continues to demonize the Dalai Lama. But China’s rhetoric about a sinister “Dalai clique” orchestrating the protests from behind the scenes suggests that its attitude is hardening. Mr. Shakya said restricting the flow of Chinese migrants would be a major concession. But few analysts believe Beijing is in any mood to make concessions.

---

The second article, from the Associated Press, concerns the rift among Tibetans over how to respond to China.

Though fearful of a Chinese crackdown–he compared the plight of Tibetans to that of “a young deer in a tiger’s hands”–the Dalai Lama insisted he could not abide violence by his own people. Peaceful protest is the only way, he said.

He said that if the situation gets out of control, his “only option is to completely resign.”

An aide later clarified that the Dalai Lama meant he would step down as the political leader of the exile government–not as the supreme religious leader of Tibetan Buddhists.

Regardless, his call for Tibetans to work with the Chinese stands in stark contrast to the “Free Tibet” chants of thousands of Tibetan youths, Buddhist monks and nuns who have marched the steep paths of Dharmsala in recent days, angry faces painted with Tibetan flags and chests smeared with blood-red paint.

They want action not diplomacy, independence not autonomy.

“There is growing frustration among the younger generations. They have been talking for 20 years and nothing came out of it,” said Tsewang Rigzin, head of the Tibetan Youth Congress.

He urged “the protesters in Tibet to continue in their protests until China gets out of Tibet.”

While hesitant to directly criticize the Dalai Lama–who is deeply revered by Tibetans–and careful not to endorse violence, the younger activists warn that patience with his approach is running thin.

“I certainly hope the middle way approach will be reviewed. The Tibetan nation and Tibetan culture are on the verge of extinction,” Rigzin said.

Another activist, Tenzin Choedon, a 28-year-old student, said: “It is time for a change in Tibet and the Tibetan movement.”

The activists argue that the Dalai Lama is squandering a golden opportunity by not opposing China hosting the Olympics.

“We have to seize the opportunity of the Olympics,” said Rigzin. “We have to shift the spotlight while the whole world is watching to show the true color of China.”

[...{

...The Dalai Lama understands the anger of the young.

"In recent years our approach has had no concrete improvement inside Tibet, so naturally (there are) more and more signs of restlessness, even inside Tibet," he said.

[...]

The Dalai Lama insists pacifism is the only path to saving Tibet from the “cultural genocide” that he sees being inflicted by Han Chinese migration to Tibet and the communist regime’s religious restrictions.

“Our only strengths are justice and truth,” he said. “Force is immediate, but the effects of truth sometimes take longer.”

This statement was issued by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama yesterday in response to the current situation in Tibet.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to world leaders and the international community for their concern over the recent sad turn of events in Tibet and for their attempts to persuade the Chinese authorities to exercise restraint in dealing with the demonstrations.

Since the Chinese Government has accused me of orchestrating these protests in Tibet, I call for a thorough investigation by a respected body, which should include Chinese representatives, to look into these allegations. Such a body would need to visit Tibet, the traditional Tibetan areas outside the Tibet Autonomous Region, and also the Central Tibetan Administration here in India. In order for the international community, and especially the more than one billion Chinese people who do not have access to uncensored information, to find out what is really going on in Tibet, it would be of tremendously helpful if representatives of the international media also undertook such investigations.

Whether it was intended or not, I believe that a form of cultural genocide has taken place in Tibet, where the Tibetan identity has been under constant attack. Tibetans have been reduced to an insignificant minority in their own land as a result of the huge transfer of non-Tibetans into Tibet. The distinctive Tibetan cultural heritage with its characteristic language, customs and traditions is fading away. Instead of working to unify its nationalities, the Chinese government discriminates against these minority nationalities, the Tibetans among them.

It is common knowledge that Tibetan monasteries, which constitute our principal seats of learning, besides being the repository of Tibetan Buddhist culture, have been severely reduced in both in number and population. In those monasteries that do still exist, serious study of Tibetan Buddhism is no longer allowed; in fact, even admission to these centres of learning is being strictly regulated. In reality, there is no religious freedom in Tibet. Even to call for a little more freedom is to risk being labeled a separatist. Nor is there any real autonomy in Tibet, even though these basic freedoms are guaranteed by the Chinese constitution.

I believe the demonstrations and protests taking place in Tibet are a spontaneous outburst of public resentment built up by years of repression in defiance of authorities that are oblivious to the sentiments of the local populace. They mistakenly believe that further repressive measures are the way to achieve their declared aim of long-term unity and stability.

On our part, we remain committed to taking the Middle Way approach and pursuing a process of dialogue in order to find a mutually beneficial solution to the Tibetan issue.

With these points in mind, I also seek the international community’s support for our efforts to resolve Tibet’s problems through dialogue, and I urge them to call upon the Chinese leadership to exercise the utmost restraint in dealing with the current disturbed situation and to treat those who are being arrested properly and fairly.