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Afghanistan: After a Deadly Night Raid

2010-05-18T08:55:00Z

Jason Motlagh, for the Pulitzer Center

Jalalabad, Afghanistan

It was late Friday afternoon when we heard that a nighttime US Special Forces raid had allegedly killed civilians in a village about nine miles west of Jalalabad, our reporting base in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province. Our local fixer had waited to pass the news; he feared that we'd insist on going straight to the scene where a brick-throwing mob might have attacked us once they learned we were American journalists. He was right.

Wire reports based on witness accounts were saying that at least ten civilians were killed: nine in the raid, and one shot dead by police when protesters tried to break into the district headquarters. The US military maintained the operation had targeted Taliban militants, including a sub-commander by the name of Qari Shamshudin who was killed. It said no civilians were harmed.

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Under Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of international forces with a special operations background, night raids have accelerated to undercut the insurgency's leadership structure. They are part of the gathering offensive to re-assert control over the ethnic-Pashtun heartlands where the Taliban is strongest. Ground forces must adhere to new restrictions meant to reduce civilian casualties that have eroded public trust. But Special Forces continue to operate freely outside the chain of command. The secretive nature of missions, and the fact they typically happen in hostile areas, have made them difficult to report on. This was a rare chance to follow-up.

We drove past the district police center, where the day before protesters had chanted "Death to America" and the unpopular provincial governor, Gul Agha Shirzai. Shopkeepers were now opening their stalls. A police officer peered out from the broken window of a guard tower that loomed over the road, charred from burnt tires. Coils of razor wire had been torn off the perimeter walls.

Before reaching the village of Koshkaky, scene of the raid, we pulled off at a crumbling cemetery on the side of the road. In the near-distance, a group of women in sky-blue burqas crouched around five fresh mounds of dirt topped with stones and pale white stakes. Torn green flags, the color of Islam, rippled in the desert wind. Then, silently, they walked away. A small crowd of young men replaced them.

The graves belonged to a family of five -- a father and his four sons -- said 19-year-old Assadullah, a student who lives in the area. He knew the boys well, he added, and listed their names and ages one by one. He and his friends said they had no knowledge of any Qari Shamshudin, the alleged Taliban sub-commander. They said their village was peaceful, free of militants. "(The Americans) killed innocent people. We know the truth because we are from this village," he said. "They are more dangerous than the Taliban." One boy who stood outside the group held a hard stare while I interviewed the others.

Koshkaky was quiet when we arrived, the sun pounding down. A few men greeted us outside the high adobe walls of the communal compound where the American assault took place. They seemed to be almost emptied of anger, perhaps spent from protesting and mourning. Nazir Ahmad, a burly farmer with a bandaged face, shook our hands and gave his version of what happened, explaining how he was awakened by gunfire and thought that thieves were on the property. It seemed to be coming from the guardhouse outside the walls. He claims that he and several other men picked up rifles and fired warning shots into the air, only to be struck down by a hail of bullets and grenades. (The US military says forces issued a warning and were fired upon.)

He said his brother-in-law, Sayid Rahim, was killed within seconds, along with his sons. Nazir was comparatively lucky: he took a piece of shrapnel in his cheek. His daughter was hit in the back. On seeing this, he says, "all I could think about was putting on a suicide jacket."

Our attempts to get inside the compound to assess the damage were futile; we were told women were still mourning inside. Its front door was partially blown off its hinges; faint pools of dried blood and shattered glass were on the ground, and a few car windows were smashed by bullets. The bodies of the deceased, however, were already underground in accord with Islamic custom.

Nazir said that US forces and Afghan forces had detained them until after dawn. They were interrogated for several hours, he went on, while some soldiers cleaned up the scene and tended to the wounded. Their weapons were taken away, as well their cell phones. In a statement released to the media, the military used the term "communications equipment."

At the guardhouse where villagers say the shooting began, the blood-stained sheets and pillows. There was no trace of the dead inhabitants, Gholaleh and Babar, save for a picture of one of them on the wall posing with friends by a rickshaw. A poster of Haji Qadir, a former government minister from the area who was assassinated, hung beside it. One of our escorts said this was proof the guards were not militants. "If the Taliban saw this poster, they would kill them for sure."

Our hosts said it was time to leave. They offered no reason why, though it appeared that a group of elderly men sitting outside might have been bothered by the presence of American journalists hours after American soldiers had stormed in and killed their own. So we left, without any sense of feeling threatened. For all we could tell this was not a hostile place. But our first-hand impressions that something had gone wrong lacked the ballast of hard evidence. There were just fragments.

As usual it was a case of "our-word-versus-theirs", Afghans and the US military telling two different stories that could not be reconciled. One thing was certain, though: this village was lost.

Learn more about this reporting project

A 'Raging Storm': The Crackdown on Tibetan Writers and Artists after Tibet's Spring 2008 Protests

2010-05-17T17:21:23Z

#tibet

Kate Saunders, International Campaign for Tibet
A vibrant literary and cultural resurgence has swept Tibet since Spring 2008 when supporters of the Dalai Lama went into open protests against Chinese government policy across the plateau.
A new generation of Tibetan intellectuals, often fluent in Chinese and familiar with digital technology, are daring to refute China's official narrative. Their critiques, expressed particularly in the written word, are among the most wide-ranging indictments of Chinese policy in Tibet for 50 years.

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In response, there is a deepening crackdown by the Chinese government against Tibetan writers, bloggers, artists, and other intellectuals in the public sphere. For the first time since the Cultural Revolution, writers, intellectuals, singers and artists in Tibet are being systematically targeted for their work, and almost every expression of Tibetan identity can be accused of being 'reactionary' or 'splittist'. A popular singer from Amdo (now Qinghai), Tashi Dhondup, is in a labor camp as a result of singing songs referring to Tibetans' grief at the killings in March, 2008. The founder of a Tibetan website promoting Tibetan culture, Kunchok Tsephel, was sentenced in November to 15 years in prison. Bloggers, artists and other intellectuals, including an artist who taught the Tibetan language to nomad children, have 'disappeared'.

Although less well-known outside China than high-profile Chinese dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo and Hu Jia, many of the Tibetan intellectuals named are famous among Tibetans, and are also enduring long prison terms for peaceful expression. Their concerns about restrictions and repression mirror those of their Chinese counterparts.

A new list is now available at www.savetibet.org detailing the cases of more than 50 Tibetans, including 13 writers, involved in the arts and public sphere who are either in prison, have been 'disappeared' or have faced torture or harassment due to expressing their views.

Since March 2008, the Chinese government has engaged in a systematic attempt to block news of the arrests, torture, disappearances and killings that have taken place across Tibet. The dangers faced by Tibetans who seek to describe the situation on the ground or simply express their views to the outside world have dramatically increased, which is linked to the widespread availability of the internet and other means of communication and the challenges that poses to China's aspirations for domestic and international message control.

Among those named in the International Campaign for Tibet's report are Tibetans sentenced to long prison terms for simply speaking about the crackdown via email or on the telephone. The penalties attached to these cases indicate a zero tolerance policy for even low-level information sharing in Tibet that is counter to China's obligations to freedom of speech under its domestic law and international human rights law.
More here

Thai army stumbles as bullets shatter fragile peace

2010-05-15T13:26:11Z

By Brian McCartan for Asia Times Online

BANGKOK - The Thai government has finally matched its strong rhetoric with action by surrounding "red shirt" demonstrators and cutting off food and utilities to force them out of their protest site in the heart of the capital.

The move appeared to be backed up by the shooting on Thursday evening of Major General Khattiya Sawasdipol, a high-profile protest leader and renegade army general in an apparent assassination attempt. Within hours, however, the plan to isolate the protesters seemed to stall in another show of lack of determination.

Sporadic gunfire and several grenade blasts occurred after the shooting and one protester was killed during clashes late on
Thursday night. But on Friday things became much more serious as troops clashed with the protesters, firing rubber bullets, live ammunition and tear gas in an attempt to seal off their encampment that, according to news reports, had yet to succeed.
Khattiya, also known as Seh Daeng, was shot at about 7pm while talking to a group of international journalists at one of the protest barricades at Lumpini Park. He remains on life support at a nearby hospital.

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Seh Daeng was widely believed to be the leader of the "armed wing" of the protest movement, a shadowy group of men in black who appeared during the April 10 military crackdown with automatic rifles. He is also believed to be behind a series of grenade attacks and shootings that took place around Bangkok before and during the demonstrations.

Although some observers pointed to Seh Daeng's uncanny ability to predict grenade attacks, there is little hard evidence. Regardless, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajeva branded him a terrorist and named him as a major impediment to a peaceful solution to the crisis that has gripped the country for months.
read more here

Brian McCartan is a Bangkok-based freelance journalist. He may be reached at brianpm@comcast.net

Where's Gao?

2010-05-03T01:05:00Z

First he dropped off the map for 13-months, only to emerge in March from the Chinese gulag after an international outcry.

Now the human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng vanished again, after a visit to Urumqi, the capital of the East Turkestan/Xinjiang region of western China, where he had been visiting his father-in-law.

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Gao failed to return to a Beijing apartment last week after his trip to Urumqi, where repression is severe. Gao telephoned his father-in-law as his plane left Urumqi, saying he would call again upon his arrival in Beijing. He never did.

Associates say the government has disappeared him and that the decision to allow him reappear in public was a PR ploy to the outside world, showing that he was alive.

"Now we understand that the freedom was arranged by the authorities just for a show," Jiang Tianyong, a Beijing lawyer and rights activist told the NYTimes by telephone. "He is missing again; he is still under their control. We must continue to pay attention to his case."

An official of Amnesty International said Friday that the organization was "seriously concerned" for Mr. Gao's safety.

"It's a matter of serious concern when he loses contact with his family and friends," the organization's deputy director for Asia and Pacific programs, Catherine Baber, said.

Mr. Gao, is one of the nation's best-known activists who has remained an irritant to Chinese authorities.

In the early 2000s he worked on behalf of practitioners of Falun Gong, which Chinese authorities say is an antigovernment sect.

H was stripped of his law license and sentenced to prison in late 2006 on charges of inciting subversion after writing to President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, accusing the government of persecuting Falun Gong members,

On his released, Mr. Gao said he had been tortured, but warned that discussing his torture publicly would result in his murder.

"There is no such thing as him being tortured," China's foreign minister, Yang Jiechi responded.

Last year his wife and two children escaped from China, and gained asylum in the United States.

In a telephone interview with The New York Times, he said he had given up his work as a human rights defender and merely sought "to calm down and lead a quiet life."

He refused to say whether he had suffered mistreatment while in captivity. In an April 7 interview with The Associated Press, he said simply, "I don't have the capacity to persevere."

The South China Morning Post, based in Hong Kong, first reported Gao's disappearance on Friday, saying he was "quite outspoken" during an April 6 interview in his Beijing apartment, despite the near certainty that security agents were secretly recording his conversation.

The article said he had asked that details of his treatment by the authorities while in captivity not be made public. "If this is reported," he was quoted as saying, "I'll disappear again."

Kim of North Korea "In China"

The opium weavers: Afghanistan's carpet sweatshops

2010-04-30T15:13:38Z

In a tiny room with no door, in a village with no roads, a drugged woman ties thousands of knots to weave a rug worth $5,000 for others to walk on.

BY ANNA BADKHEN | Foreign Policy

OQA -- The wooden loom takes up the whole room, clay wall to clay wall, south to north. In the southern end of the room, two women sit cross-legged on top of the first few inches of the carpet they started weaving this month.

Fine clay dust dances in the light that seeps into the room through the entryway, a woozy approximation of a rectangle.

]]> Read on here

Open letter on the quake, puts Tibetan writer behind bars

2010-04-27T22:30:20Z

A prominent Tibetan writer has been detained, after he and a group of Tibetan intellectuals
based in Xining wrote an online open letter criticising government corruption in earthquake relief efforts:

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated two blogposts from the Xining-based Tibetan website www.sangdhor.com. The first blogpost reports the arrest of a prominent Tibetan writer and intellectual called Shogdung (or Zhogs Dung, his pen name, meaning "morning conch") on April 23, 2010 and was posted online on April 25, 2010. The second blogpost is an open letter to victims of the earthquake in Kham.

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Shogdung's real name is Tagyal (bkra rgyal) and he was a member of staff at the Nationalities Publishing House in Xining. He is the author of several books including the recent publication gnam sa go 'byed (The Line Between Sky and Earth) about the events in Tibet of 2008. In 1999, to mark the centenary of Lu Xun's death, Qinghai Tibetan News (mtsho sngon bod yig gsar 'gyur) carried two articles by Shogdung, which ignited huge debate amongst the Tibetan intellectuals in Amdo. Shogdung argued that Tibetans could only overcome their colonised condition through wholesale modernisation. He argued that Tibetans should embrace modernisation and disassociate from traditional Buddhism learning as a means of overcoming their present condition. In fact, Shogdung's hyper critical attack on traditional Tibetan cultural practices was seen by many Tibetans as remnant of the Cultural Revolution and the fact that his article was published through an official channel, it was seen as resembling the view of the CCP.

From the blogpost it would appear that Shogdung's detention is related to the earthquake in Kham of April 14. Just three days after the earthquake, on April 17, a group of prominent Tibetan intellectuals based in Qinghai's Xining province had written an open letter of condolence to the victims of the disaster. Shogdung was one of the signatories of this open letter (in his real name Tagyal) and it was published on his blog.

The open letter expresses condolences and at the same time is critical of the Chinese government in their handling of the earthquake relief efforts. Other signatories of this open letter include well known Tibetan writer and singer Jamyang Kyi and other members of the group known as the New School of Thought. The New School is a group of progressive writers who are critical of the past and argue for the need for internal reform and change in Tibetan tradition. They are highly critical of the negative aspects of Tibetan Buddhism. The Tibetan version of the open letter carries the pen names of the signatories but the Chinese version gives their full names, and also includes short descriptions of the people, and this is the version that appears below in translation.

The story has been picked up by mainstream media including AP, AFP,
Reuters and The Times (UK):

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-47997320100426

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article7108169.ece

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gdspdDB0WaMv_An4A-NvHB_DwmCwD9FALMMG0

As soon as his detention was reported on, the website that his open
letter appeared on was shut down: http://www.sangdhor.com

The Bombing at Bala Baluk

2010-04-20T04:19:58Z

Jason Motlagh
Virginia Quarterly Review
The burn ward at Herat regional hospital is the best public facility of its kind in Afghanistan. It was opened with American aid money to handle the influx of women setting themselves on fire to escape domestic abuse, a countrywide phenomenon most acute in the hardscrabble villages of the western plains. The first time I visited the hospital, in the spring of 2007, a dozen teenage girls were crowded into a dank hallway of the former building. Some were covered with third-degree burns, wrapped mummylike in gauze dressings, still breathing but condemned to die. Two years later, their desperate stories were overshadowed by the grim reason for my return visit. On May 4, 2009, the American bombardment of two villages in a Taliban-controlled area of Farah Province, about 170 miles to the south of Herat, had yielded heavy civilian casualties. Word soon reached me back in Kabul that several victims had been transported by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Herat for emergency treatment.

]]> Details of the incident were vague and conflicting, the clash of narratives disturbingly familiar. Fighting in Bala Baluk District apparently broke out in the morning when hundreds of Taliban militants ambushed police, taking over a fortress near the hamlet of Granai and high ground in an adjoining village. Even with the arrival of reinforcements from a neighboring district, police said they were taking casualties. They called for Afghan army troops, who were quickly pinned down. US Marines based in Farah were summoned and they too required backup, this time from Special Forces operatives. Unlike most encounters in Afghanistan, in which insurgents attack and withdraw, the Taliban were pushing the engagement and, as fierce gun battles and RPG exchanges surged into the night, maintained the initiative.
At some point, air support was requested. Afghan officials later claimed that 140 people, mostly children, died in the ensuing attack, with some residents adamant the Taliban was long gone by the time the bombs struck. If confirmed, this amounted to the deadliest single incident against civilians in nearly eight years of war, at a critical juncture for the US-led mission. The US military countered that the Afghans' claims were exaggerated, that most of those killed in the operation were Taliban militants attempting to take the area by force. Surgical air strikes hit only the houses that militants were firing from, it added; any civilian casualties must have been caused by Taliban grenades exploded among the locals in a cynical bid to frame coalition forces. No alternative death count was issued.
A nurse at the spotless new ward instructed me to put plastic coverings over my boots and wait in an anteroom. Mohammad Aref Jalali, the head doctor, was still dressed in scrubs as he finished a half day's worth of interviews with Afghan journalists. When my turn finally came, he greeted me with a weak grip, and wearily asked if we could pause for a few moments. He sat his lean frame down and lit a cigarette, not seeming to care that we were in a sterilized area. "My patients are my first priority," he exhaled, "and I'm not getting enough time with them now because of this [media attention]."
I offered to come back later, when the patients were rested, but Dr. Jalali shook his head. He stepped out to check with the victims' parents and then motioned me inside. A laminated sign on the door read Infected Acute: Men. Inside, the room reeked of antiseptic. Haji Sayed Barakat and Sayed Malham held vigil over what remained of their families. Barakat had lost two children and his wife in the attack; Malham, a daughter.
Barakat, a sturdily built farmer in his midfifties with deep creases in his forehead, said he had been staying with relatives while his wife and daughters visited his mother-in-law in Granai, where the brunt of the bombing took place. Although he recalled hearing sporadic gunfire earlier in the day, he said no Taliban had passed through the area for at least two hours before the air strikes. At around 8 P.M., warplanes screeched overhead, followed by a series of concussions that made the ground tremble. The planes passed a second time, then a third. He ran toward the village in the pitch-darkness and found a crowd of people picking through blood-flecked rubble where a seven-room compound had stood. Some torn limbs were spotted in a tree. "It was total destruction," he said.
Hand over fist, he dug by the flickering light of a hurricane lamp. Moans from below drove him on. It took more than two hours until he found his family, his wife identifiable by the torn shreds of a yellow scarf and his children's bodies huddled around her. "How could the Americans, with all their technology, kill so many of the wrong people?" he asked in a voice more confused than angry. There is a common belief among rural Afghans that air strikes are precise to within four inches of their target. Barakat gestured toward his three wounded daughters: Tillah, twelve; Nuria, seven; and Fereshta, five. "My girls, do they look like Taliban?"
Malham stood to the side, cupping his daughter Nozou's hand. Like thousands of Afghans seeking a better livelihood, he worked in Iran for months at a time, driving a truck to make a living, and did not learn of the attack until two days later; the news made him faint. He said the Taliban imposed a kind of shadow government in Bala Baluk, demanding money in exchange for "protection" he'd never asked for. His area had been trouble-free until a couple of years before, when the militants started coming from neighboring provinces where they faced greater pressure. Police in Farah were outnumbered by as much as three to one. The shift had attracted Afghan army units with American trainers to hunt them down. Militants would reappear as soon as security forces moved on. Malham blames the Taliban for the bombs dropped on his village. "If they didn't bother us, there would be no bombs, no deaths," he said, lowering his voice. "My daughter would still be outside."
Her bangs and eyebrows singed away by the explosions, nine-year-old Nozou now could pass for a boy. The other children, faded from morphine, were numbed to my presence and to the flies that landed on them. Nozou kept her large brown eyes fixed on me. "There was war all around," she said. It was nighttime and Taliban were outside in the streets firing their guns and shouting. "After some time the airplanes came and they bombed us two times. My mother said we should go to another place because they are bombing here. We went to another house. I was very tired and tried to sleep. Then I heard a very loud noise that went draaam and the house crashed down on us."
She pointed to the raw skin on her face.
"I was hurt," she said.

Continue reading the full post at Virginia Quarterly Review.

This reporting was sponsored in part by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.

Learn more about this reporting project.

Burma generals grip on power fueled by Shwe gas project

2010-04-19T09:38:18Z

Vast gas desposits off the coast of western Burma have proven a curse for the thousands of people deemed by the ruling junta to be standing in the way of its development. The construction of a multi-billion dollar pipeline connecting the Bay of Bengal gas fields to southwestern China has caused militarisation and displacement on an alarming scale, as the army looks to 'secure' the route and thus the capital generated from what is known as the Shwe Gas Project, little of which will benefit Burmese people.

Rights groups have warned of "systematic" and "shocking" human rights violations along the pipeline's trajectory that include forced labour and forced displacement. Yet the Burmese government continues to aggressively expand its energy sector, with the vast majority of produce siphoned off to neighbouring countries. This, despite Burma suffering from daily power shortages.
read more at Democratic Voice of Burma

]]> Who is investing in the project?
The 'Shwe' (meaning 'golden' in Burmese) projects entail exploitation of underwater natural gas deposits off the coast of western Burma's Arakan State and dual oil and gas pipelines that will transport this gas along with oil imports from Africa and the Middle East, to southwest China.

The Shwe Gas Project: A consortium of four Indian and South Korean companies led by Korea's Daewoo International are teaming up to exploit natural gas from blocks A-1 and A-3 in the Bay of Bengal. The project will be comprised of an offshore production platform, an underwater pipeline and an onshore gas terminal in Kyauk Phyu Township on the Arakan coast which will cost an estimated US$ 3.73 billion to develop. The consortium expects to extract 500 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

Dual Oil & Gas Pipelines: The gas will then be transported through Burma to southwest China (possibly as far as Nanning, capital of Guangxi Province), via a 2,800 km gas pipeline to be built by the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). The gas will be distributed by CNPC's subsidiary PetroChina. The Burmese military regime stands to profit at least US$29 billion over 30 years from the revenues.

Alongside the gas pipeline, CNPC plans to build a sister oil pipeline. The oil pipeline will allow CNPC to ship oil from Africa and the Middle East to China bypassing a slower shipping route through the Strait of Malacca. In October 2009 CNPC began construction on a deep-sea port and crude oil terminal to receive the oil in Arakan State's Kyauk Phyu Township. The 771 km-long oil pipeline may transport up to 22 million tons of oil per year to China's southwest Yunnan Province. CNPC holds a 50.9% stake in the pipelines project, with the Burmese military regime's Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) holding the remaining 49.1%. The estimated construction costs are US$ 1.5 billion for the oil pipeline and between US$1.04 and 1.95 billion for the gas pipeline. Additionally, CNPC may pay an annual transit fee of US$ 150 million per year to the regime for the use of the pipeline in Burma. The pipelines contract is expected to run 20-30 years, with CNPC paying as much as US$ 4.5 billion in transit fees to the regime.

The pipelines will traverse the entirety of central Burma, from Arakan State, through Magwe Division, Mandalay Division and Shan State, before entering China.
current status (Mar 02, 2010)

Pipelines: In March 2009 Su Shifeng, chief consultant of China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau, a unit of CNPC, announced that preliminary work on the dual pipelines would begin in the fourth quarter 2009. In August 2009, just before the planned start of construction, the Burmese military launched an attach on the Kokang militia, which controls territory near the planned pipeline route. The Kokang militia, which represents an ethnically Chinese minority from northeast Burma's Shan State, is one of the many armed ethnic groups opposing the military junta's rule. The fighting sent an estimated 30,000 refugees into China's Yunnan Province where they settled in temporary camps and with relatives. The assault and resulting refugee crisis prompted the Chinese Foreign Ministry to warn Myanmar to "properly handle domestic problems and maintain stability in the China-Myanmar border region."

CNPC began construction of the oil terminal in Kyauk Phyu Township in October 2009, according to Oil & Gas Journal.

On 20 December 2009 CNPC and the Myanmar Ministry of Energy signed a contract making CNPC the sole owner and operator of the crude pipeline. According to a CNPC press release, the agreement stipulates that CNPC will be responsible for construction and operation of the pipeline, while the Myanmar government will guarantee the company's ownership and provide security. The Myanmar government will grant CNPC-controlled South-East Asia Crude Oil Pipeline Ltd. tax concessions and customs clearance rights.

Gas Blocks: Daewoo reported that it would begin construction of the A-1 and A-3 Shwe gas blocks in September 2009, including offshore production platforms, an underwater pipeline and an onshore gas terminal in Kyauk Phyu Township on the Arakan coast.

Additionally, in October 2009 Irrawaddy News reported that Myanmar Petroleum Resources (MPRL), a Singapore-based company run by a Yangon businessman, is preparing to conduct seismic studies in an additional gas block in the Shwe reserve for possible exploitation at a later date.

Activism: On 28 October, the Shwe Gas Movement held a Global Day of Action Against the Shwe Gas Project. This included delivering an appeal letter written to Chinese president HU Jintao from SGM and over 100 other organizations at Chinese embassies around the world. Until date no response from the Chinese government has been received.
brief history

In August 2000, South Korea's Daewoo International signed a production sharing contract with the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) to explore, produce, and sell underwater gas reserves off the Arakan coast.

In January 2004, Daewoo announced a "commercial scale gas deposit" in the offshore A-1 block. One month later, Daewoo acquired the neighboring A-3 block. In August 2006 the two blocks are certified to have an estimated available reserve of 5.4-9.1 trillion cubic feet.

In June 2008, CNPC signed a memorandum of understanding with Daewoo and other members of the Indian-South Korean consortium to purchase and transport the natural gas from blocks A-1 and A-3.

In June 2009 CNPC signed an MOU with Burma's Ministry of Energy to construct, operate and manage the oil pipeline, an unloading port, terminal, and storage and transportation facilities.

In October 2009, CNPC began construction of the oil terminal in Kyuak Phyu township.

Completion of the crude oil port and storage facilities was expected sometime in 2010 and commencement of natural gas transfer to China was expected in 2013.

*unless otherwise noted, all information can be found in the Shwe Gas Movement's September 2009 report, "Corridor of Power," p.10.

Bajaur aftermath - Peace has not returned to FATA

2010-04-17T09:11:48Z

Pakistan's battle with insurgents is far from over, despite routing the Taliban from its lair

rom Abu Muqawama reported by Amil Khan

Patrick Cockburn has great report from Bajaur in the Independent. The access comes about as a result of a PR trip organised by the Pakistani military but Cockburn takes that into account in his analysis.

"It is hazardous to draw too many conclusions from an official tour such as the one I was on in Bajaur. There is so much one does not see. But it is impossible for foreign journalists to visit the area without official permission and protection."

read on

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The fighting in FATA needs good independent reporting. Events such as those described by Cockburn are in dire need of independent scrutiny:

"Many people have died and are still dying in this vicious and little-reported war where it is difficult to get details even when there are many dead. For instance last Saturday some 75 villagers were killed in an air strike by Pakistani jets in the Khyber district of FATA. The army at first said they were Islamic militants, but later admitted that there had been a blunder and victims were being compensated."

I have heard a good few Pakistani military people and politicians express the fear that a successful military operation now could be a source of a bigger problem in five to 10 years. Without on-the-ground independent reporting there is no voice agitating for things to be done any differently than they are now.

However, I think Cockburn nails the situation in his last paragraph:

"Peace has not returned to FATA. Local papers carry stories down-column of suspected Islamic militants' houses being burned, refugees in flight or returning, a girls' school destroyed by insurgents and many killed by American drone attacks. The army is in control, but it is not clear what would happen if it left. It may find it more difficult to get out of FATA than it was to get in."

Earthquake in Tibet causes terror and death

2010-04-16T01:19:40Z

Dechen Pemba of High Peaks Pure Earth

It has been reported both by Chinese state media and Western media that a 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck in Tibet early April 14, 2010. Whilst Chinese media refers to the affected area as the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Yushu in Qinghai province, Western media has been calling it Western or North Western China inhabited by "ethnic Tibetans" or part of the "Tibetan plateau".

In fact, the area known in Tibetan as Kyegundo (skye rgu mdo) is considered by Tibetans to traditionally be part of Kham, eastern Tibet. Although spelt Kyegundo, when spoken it sounds more like Jyekundo. This Google map shows the position of Kyegundo in relation both to Lhasa and also to the provincial capitals of Qinghai and Gansu, Xining and Lanzhou, to the north east. Here is the link to the map on the website of Tibetan and Himalayan Library, an excellent resource site.

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Whilst media reports on the technical details of the natural disaster and the ongoing aid efforts, High Peaks Pure Earth has been looking at the online responses by Tibetans as expressed on blogs and social networking sites.

Just hours after the earthquake, Tibetan netizens were expressing their grief and anxiety. These Tibetans wrote the following status updates on a Chinese language social networking site for Tibetans and seem to be mostly Tibetan students based in Chinese urban centres:

The status updates read:

May the Buddhas protect our brethren!
Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani Padme Hum, Om Mani Padme Hum
I want to go to Yushu, I'll go there soon!
Fortunately, due of economic underdevelopment in Yushu and the remote location, most housing would only be buildings for officials, so compared to earthquakes of the same level in other areas, the number of casualties would be relatively small.
I don't want to pray, I want to do something!

One netizen anxiously writes:

All of my relatives are in Yushu, I can't get through to them, so anxious! hope they are ok

This netizen then wrote a short poem about her feelings:

My Loved Ones

Dears, my only relatives
You are my everything, in this world, my everything
It's only because of you that I live
It's only because of you that I can feel joy, sorrow
Before I get there, you mustn't leave me
Before I rescue the lost lambs
You mustn't abandon me
You are all my guardian spirits -- my everything
I will always serve and revere you
Dears
Promise me, you won't leave me so soon
Promise me, you won't leave me alone
Promise me, that I will still be able to see your bright smiles in my dreams
Promise me, your hands will stay warm like the sun's rays
I will always pray for you, my brethren, my loved ones.
You all must stay alive.

Today, the most popular Tibetan blog portal TibetCul has a black and white banner on its website to commemorate the earthquake:

High Peaks Pure Earth recommends donating to http://tibetanvillageproject.org/yer.html

"Happiness at Gunpoint" by Woeser

2010-04-15T06:04:51Z

"Happiness Under Gunpoint"
By Woeser

In an article titled "China's Continued Crackdown in Tibet" published in the British magazine "The Economist", it says: "In Tibet, March is the cruellest month, and it is also the traditional season for doomed protests against Chinese rule. This year the authorities are unusually edgy. They have mounted a pre-emptive clampdown of a severity rarely seen in recent years [...] Helmeted troops bearing rifles patrol Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. Snipers lurk on rooftops near the Jokhang temple, Tibet's holiest shrine and often a focus for protests."

This passage just as much applies to March this year, which is closely associated with the penetrating clamour of the authorities' propaganda. Since March 10, 2010, apart from armoured vehicles and armed patrol cars as well as those brand new military and police cars whose names we don't know, there have also been propaganda cars decked with coloured banners and Five-Starred Red Flags passing through the Lingkhor road and main roads of Lhasa.

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Deafening loudspeakers repeatedly play songs by the "government sponsored" singer Tseten Dolma such as: "Bitterness has Turned to Sweetness after the Communist Party Came " and the "Song of Emancipated Serfs". Those revolutionary songs, which have been popular for many political movements, makes the whole of Lhasa once more be flooded with the gruesome and evil spectre of the Cultural Revolution. Moreover, banners hang on the cars reading: "The army-civilian relationship is just like that of fish and water, Han Chinese and Tibetans are one family". It is so offensive to the eyes that it has a strong sense of irony.

The mindset of the authorities is really strange; on the one hand they feel the urge to terrorise Tibetans, spreading fear but on the other hand they want to create a harmonious, joyful and happy family atmosphere. So the problem is who really believes them? Perhaps the passing tourists? Or the journalists who have been invited to watch a meticulously prepared stage play? This place is nothing but an absurd drama turning the lives of those living in it into abnormality. On the surface, we only see Tibet with blue sky, with white clouds and the magnificent sunlight as well as the always smiling and seemingly honest and simple Tibetan people, perfectly in line with the image the outside world has of Tibet. Furthermore, in order to give their rule the appearance of legality, the authorities spare no pains to reconstruct the story of two entirely different societies, an old one and a new one. But in fact, this story is only an imitation of those fabricated excuses, which the colonisers made up in order to invade other people's land and plunder other people's resources. History is nothing but repeating itself with the only differences being time, place and people.

But all the protests that spread from Lhasa to Amdo and Kham in March 2008 encompassed almost all levels of Tibetan society, proving that resentment among Tibetans is extremely strong. But of course, the suppression from the authorities is also very harsh. At the same time, the authorities launched a propaganda machine loudly propagating "to be grateful", this being forcing Tibetan people under gunpoint to be grateful to them. A few people who sold their souls were given rewards in forms of high positions with handsome salaries; it is only that those shining peacock tail feathers, determining a person's status, contaminate the blood of the Tibetan people. As for now, there is that new Chairman, who is scathingly denounced by people from Lhasa as "Pang-khu" (meaning beggar in Tibetan). He opens his round red butcher eyes suddenly spitting out dreadful curses aimed at His Holiness, which even the colonists would be hesitant to utter. When people are shameless to such a despicable degree, a different power, such as God's will or Karma, will certainly appear to punish them.

However, the strongest catchphrase is of course "happiness", asking everybody to unanimously praise a previously never experienced life of happiness. Yet, if people are really happy, their backs wouldn't have to continuously be pressed against guns held by that imperceptible hand, Lhasa wouldn't be turned into a militarized city guarded by guns day and night. When I asked a retired cadre who used to hold a post in a provincial government department and who now enjoys a comfortable life if he was really happy, he first turned off his mobile phone, took out the battery and only then answered "How can one live in happiness when one is guarded by a gun every day? People living in prison, are they happy? We live in a place which is just like a giant prison. We cannot even speak a sentence of truth without having to be afraid of being bugged; only the apathetic might feel happiness." And the government employee from a work unit anxiously says: "we work on shifts in turn, all night long, how can you bear that? First I thought it would be over by March 14 but then those authorities concocted another one of those Serf Liberation days, this is just misery, I will be on duty until the end of the month, how can we speak of happiness?"

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser that was originally written for Radio Free Asia on March 17, 2010 in Lhasa and posted on her blog on March 25, 2010.

It is another in a series of blogposts written and posted from Lhasa and the second to address the theme of "happiness", read her previous blogpost "What Is Happiness" here.

China alarm on Kyrgystan fears 'Uighur contasion'

2010-04-09T13:12:45Z

China is increasingly rattled about unrest in Kyrgyzstan, fearing that it will stir up protests in its restive Muslim region of Xinjiang or East Turkestan.
Beijing said it was was "deeply concerned" about the situation and a declared that: "China ... hopes the country will restore peace soon and maintain stability."

"China hopes that relevant issues will be settled in a lawful way," a spokesman said, signalling Beijing's deep anxiety that local anger at its repressive measures will turn bloody once again.

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The picture remains muddled in Kyrgistan (but vivid and stunning scenes have been documented --see the collection of photographs at the Boston Globe's Big Picture, and the BBC's video reports).
The former foreign minister, Roza Otunbayeva, has now taken over and says her "transitional government" has dissolved the parliament. (Journalists are still struggling to find a name for the unrest (the Tulip Revolution occurred in 2005, so perhaps this should be called the crimson revolution after the blood thats been spilt).
Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the Kyrgyz president, is still claiming to be in control - in an unknown location - and the US is anxious at what the NYTimes calls a "threat to the American military supply line into nearby Afghanistan."
The US has a big base in Kyrgyzstan, but it also turns a blind eye to gross abuses of human rights by its landlord.

For example, when freelance journalist Almaz Tashiev went to apply for a new passport in Nookat District on July 4, second lieutenant Shukurbek Nurmatov had an arguement with him. Tashiev, a frequent government critic, was jumped by as many as six police officers who beat him so badly that on July 12, he died as a result of the injuries.

This time Beijing has been looking out for Chinese casualties from the unrest, in which scores of people are reported to have been killed in ferocious clashes in Bishkek and other cities.
Chinese web users passed around messages via the microblogging service Twitter that linked to video footage of the violence and news reports that the country's interior minister had been killed by rioters.

Many of China's largest online news providers, including Sina, Sohu, and Baidu ran coverage and carried netizens' comments on the riots, which were the culmination of spiralling protests in the Central Asian republic.

"I support this," wrote Sohu user "It is nearly destroyed."
"The new revolution has triumphed ... Down with corrupt governments ... Down with social injustice," the user wrote, in the comment most highly rated by readers.

"If a government gets corrupt it doesn't need to be overthrown by others. It has become so rotten that a gust of wind will blow it over," wrote a user from the northern province of Shaanxi whose comment was in the top five as rated by readers.

And a user from Beijing said that democracy is a strong force in the world.
"Those who support it will flourish, while those who oppose it will perish," the comment said.
Blame for U.S.
Meanwhile, official media carried a commentary saying that Washington was likely behind the uprising against Bakiyev.

"There are likely to be foreign forces at work behind these events," wrote Ma Fengshu, a Russian affairs expert at Shanghai Jiaotong University, in an analysis that was widely available to Chinese netizens.
"I would guess that the most likely candidate would be the United States, because ... President Bakiyev came to power with U.S. support during the Tulip Revolution ... but [later] asked the U.S. to close its military airbase."

"Kyrgyzstan is beginning to move closer to Russia, in the face of a number of social and economic pressures," Ma wrote.

"The U.S. didn't get what it was hoping for from its support of Bakyev, so it is understandable that it has now thrown its support behind the opposition."

He said the country has scant natural resources and has been hit hard by the global economic recession.

But he added, perhaps echoing sentiment in Beijing about Communist Party rule in the troubled Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region: "Kyrgyzstan's ethnic make-up is complicated, and failure to manage conflict between different ethnic groups could also induce unrest."

Xinhua news agency quoted the health minister of the interim government as saying that 74 people had been killed and 530 others injured in the unrest.

Official Chinese media also reported that Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has "recognized" Otunbayeva's government.

Kyrgyzstan, which shares a 533-mile (858-km) border with China, is also a gateway to other energy-rich Central Asian countries where China, Russia, and the U.S. are competing fiercely for dominance.

It is a predominantly Muslim country, but has remained secular.
The U.S. Embassy denied reports in the Kyrgyz media that U.S. citizens were being evacuated to the Manas air force base, where about 1,200 U.S. troops are stationed.
Americans in civilian clothing were seen entering the base early Thursday.
HT RFA/The New Yorker

Torture Without Trace: Five Songs by Detained Tibetan Singer Tashi Dhondup

2010-04-01T06:55:13Z

by High Peaks Pure Earth

Tibetan singer Tashi Dhondup, 30, from Amdo was sentenced to 15 months of re-education through labour for "separatist activities" related to his music on January 5, 2010.

On December 8, 2009, the International Campaign for Tibet released a report and gave the following details about his arrest:

Tashi Dhondup was detained last week at gun-point while his wife wept and grabbed one of the police officer's legs in an attempt to hold him back.

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A popular singer in Amdo, Tashi Dhondup became well known for his song "1958 - 2008" that compares two "terrifying" periods for Tibetans. This song spread amongst Tibetans via the internet and mobile phones and was written about by Tibetan writer and singer Jamyang Kyi on her blog as far back as February 12, 2009. Jamyang Kyi wrote:

I arrived in Ziling (Xining) yesterday and I learned that a young boy name Tashi Dondrup of Mongol origin has produced a CD named "Songs of 2008" but he was arrested before distributing it into the market in December 2008. I was told that his song has been posted on the internet and widely downloaded on to cell phones and is now distributed amongst the Tibetans.

Tashi Dhondup had been detained in September 2008 because of that song and the ICT report tells us "He was detained and beaten for over seven days by police in Xining".

Here is the High Peaks Pure Earth translation of the song "1958 - 2008":

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"1958 - 2008" by Tashi Dhondup from HPeaks on Vimeo

"1958 - 2008"

Hey!
The year of 1958,
is when the black enemy entered Tibet,
is when lamas were put in prison.

That time was terrifying
That time was terrifying

Hey!
The year of 1958,
is when Tibetan heroes were put in prison,
is when innocent Tibetans were put in prison.

That time was terrifying
That time was terrifying

Hey!
The year of 2008,
is when innocent Tibetans were tortured,
is when the earth destroyed people's lives.

That time was terrifying
That time was terrifying

The Radio Free Asia report tells us that Tashi Dhondup was detained again in Xining after thousands of copies of his CD "Torture Without Trace" started to be sold in Amdo. Court documents obtained by Radio Free Asia say that Tashi Dhondup and "some other associates copied about 3,000 CDS and distributed them in 11 counties in Qinghai, Sichuan, and Gansu".

This is the CD cover of "Torture Without Trace":

CD cover of "Torture Without Trace" by Tashi Dhondup

The full track listing reads:

01: Waiting With Hope

02: Western Land of Scolars

03: Torture Without Trace

04: Unable to Meet

05: For That I Shed My Tears

06: Pain of Missing

07: Go

08: Unbearable Fate

09: Unable to See

10: Tibet Has Good Karma

11: No Regrets

12: Think

13: A Sad Life

Four tracks from "Torture Without Trace" with full English translation are below, including the title track. For High Peaks Pure Earth readers who wish to see more of Tashi Dhondup's music videos, all thirteen music videos from "Torture Without Trace" have been uploaded on YouTube and can be found here:http://www.youtube.com/sonam0tenzin

Chinese translations of Tashi Dhondup's songs "Waiting With Hope" and "Torture Without Trace" are available on Woeser's blog: http://woeser.middle-way.net/2009/12/blog-post_07.html Woeser also wrote an excellent essay titled "What Kinds of Songs Are Reactionary Songs?" in early 2009 which is worth another read as background to Tashi Dhondup's situation.

Finally, High Peaks Pure Earth is very grateful to Bhuchung D. Sonam of Tibet Writes for his translations of the songs "Torture Without Trace", "No Regrets", "Unable To Meet" and "For That I Shed My Tears" and for allowing us to use and publish them. A big thank you also goes to the translator of "1958 - 2008"!

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"Torture Without Trace" by Tashi Dhondup from HPeaks on Vimeo

Torture Without Trace

First, a sad tune for my brother hasn't returned from afar
Second, the pain because there is no harmony for people
Third, the occupation and denial of freedom for Tibetans

This is all torture without trace

First, the regret as our ancestral wealth is lost to outsiders
Second, the pain that we aren't the owners of our resources
Third, the practice of sterilisation to wipe out our race

This is all torture without trace
This is all torture without trace

First, the hurt from being denied my parents' love
Second, the failure to hear the inner voices of my people
Third, the grief that our mountains are belittled

This is all torture without trace

Third, the grief that our mountains are belittled

This is all torture without trace

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"Unable To Meet" by Tashi Dhondup from HPeaks on Vimeo

Unable To Meet

When I think about it I am unfortunate
I am unable to meet the Precious Jewel
Even though I wish, I have no freedom
If I think about this I am unfortunate

When I think about it I am unfortunate
I am unable to wave the Snow Lion Flag
Even though I wish, I have no freedom
If I think about this I am unfortunate

When I think about it I am unfortunate
I am unable to sing a song about loyalty
Even though I wish, I have no freedom
If I think about this I am unfortunate

Even though I wish, I have no freedom
If I think about this I am unfortunate

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"For That I Shed My Tears" by Tashi Dhondup from HPeaks on Vimeo

For That I Shed My Tears

My lama, the compassionate one
Has gone into exile from Tibet
It pains my mind no end
And the tears fall from my eyes

Courageous patriotic martyrs
Have sacrificed their lives for Tibet
It pains my heart thinking of them
And the tears fall from my eyes

Tibetans are denied freedom
And beaten up for no reason
It pains me thinking of this
And the tears fall from my eyes

It pains me thinking of this
And the tears fall from my eyes

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"No Regrets" by Tashi Dhondup from HPeaks on Vimeo

No Regrets

Some say I am bad
Some people say I am good
I can be good and I can be bad
But this suffering in me
for not being able to see my lama
I will tell the people of Tibet
For which even if I am killed
I have no regrets

Some people say I am bad
Some say I am good
I can be good and I can be bad
About the Tibetan martyrs
I will sing for the rest of my life
For which even if I am killed
I have no regrets

Some people say I am bad
Some say I am good
I can be good and I can be bad
Tibet has no freedom I sing
And I'll sing it throughout my life
For which even if I am killed
I have no regrets

I have no regrets

More Journalists' emails hacked in China

2010-03-31T15:26:15Z

A concerted new attack has been made on Yahoo email accounts of journalists and activists whose work relates to China.
The attack has focused on Uighur activists in particular and compromised accounts include those of the World Uyghur Congress, an exile group that China accuses of inciting separatism in the frontier region of Xinjiang which Uighurs call East Turkestan.

"I suspect a lot of information in my Yahoo account was downloaded," the group's spokesman, Dilxat Raxit said. An email account, he set up in Sweden, has been blocked for a month.

]]> "A lot of people I used to contact in Lanzhou, Xi'an and elsewhere have not been reachable by phone for the past few weeks," he said, noting that he set up the Yahoo email account to contact them.

The latest incident comes days after Google announced it would move its Chinese-language search services out of China due to censorship concerns.

Several journalists in China and Taiwan found they were unable to access their accounts beginning March 25, among them Kathleen McLaughlin, a freelance journalist in Beijing.

The New York Times writer, Andrew Jacobs, who is based in Beijing said his Yahoo Plus account had been set, without his knowledge, to forward to another, unknown, account.

"It's very unsettling," said Clifford Coonan, China correspondent for Variety magazine. His e-mail account was blocked last week after Yahoo noticed that someone unauthorised had gained access to it remotely. "You can't help but wonder why you've been targeted."

The attacks, began the very week that Google infuriated China by pulling the plug on its mainland China search engine and routed search engine requests via Hong Kong. Google explained the move as a principled objection to stepped up censorship and attacks that compromised Google e-mails of reporters and human rights activists in China.

Starting last April, those attacks affected numerous American corporations and individuas hostile to the practices of China's authoritarian government.

Typically Gmail accounts were set to forward emails to unfamiliar addresses, without the owners knowledge.

Dana Lengkeek, a Yahoo spokeswoman, would not discuss the specific incidents, citing company policy. "We are committed to protecting user security and privacy and we take appropriate action in the event of any kind of breach."

"Yahoo! condemns all cyber attacks regardless of origin or purpose," she told Reuters.

"We are committed to protecting user security and privacy and we take appropriate action in the event of any kind of breach."

The NY Times reported that "victims of the most recent intrusions included a law professor in the United States, an analyst who writes about China's security apparatus and several print journalists based in Beijing and Taipei, the capital of Taiwan."

Google's announcement of the hacking attacks drew unprecedented outside attention to cyber-security and China's Internet controls, used to limit discussion of topics deemed sensitive or threatening to "social stability."

Google said Wednesday said it had identified cyber attacks aimed at silencing opposition to a Vietnamese government-led bauxite mining project involving a major Chinese firm. The attacks were separate from, and less sophisticated than, those at the heart of the company's friction with Beijing.

China's control of the Internet and media has been stepped up under the current leadership and reflects a lack of understanding of the Chinese public, said Hao Xiaoming, a China media expert at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information in Singapore.

"China is going back rather than going forward in terms of information and control. That reflects the lack of confidence in the (current) Chinese leaders," Hao said.

"China's Internet has become a controlled Internet, an internal Internet rather than linked internationally. It defeats the whole purpose."

Very few of the other firms mentioned by Google in January as having been affected by the attack have identified themselves.

Yahoo said at the time that it was "aligned" with Google's position, but its Chinese partner, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, called that position "reckless."

Yahoo is more vulnerable that Google because it keeps some of its email servers in China. Yahoo was harshly criticized by the U.S. Congress when it released to Chinese authorities information relating to the account of Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist who was then sentenced to 10 years in jail for revealing state secrets.

N Korea, a cellphone network to freedom

2010-03-30T04:51:29Z

By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea, one of the world's most impenetrable nations, is facing a new threat: networks of its own citizens feeding information about life there to South Korea and its Western allies. The networks are the creation of a handful of North Korean defectors and South Korean human rights activists using cellphones to pierce North Korea's near-total news blackout. To build the networks, recruiters slip into China to woo the few North Koreans allowed to travel there, provide cellphones to smuggle across the border, then post informers' phoned and texted reports on Web sites.
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