Wikileaks releases over 150 censored videos and photos of the Tibet uprising

From Wikileaks

Original link: http://wikileaks.cx/wiki/Wikileaks_releases_over_120_censored_videos_and_photos_of_the_Tibet_uprising

Wikileaks Press Release
Tuesday March 18, 2008 updated Monday March 24, 2008

In the last week Wikileaks has released over 150 censored photos and videos of the Tibet uprising and has called on bloggers around the world to help drive the footage through the Chinese internet censorship regime — the so called "Great Firewall of China"

The transparency group's move comes as a response to the the Chinese Public Security Bureau's carte-blanche censorship of youtube, the BBC, CNN, the Guardian and other sites carrying video footage of the Tibetan people's recent heroic stand against the inhumane Chinese occupation of Tibet.

Wikileaks has also placed the collection in two easy to use archives together with a HTML index page so they may be easily copied, placed on websites, cd's, emailed across the internet as attachments and uploaded to peer to peer networks.

Censorship, like communism, seems like a reasonable enough idea to begin with. While 'from each according to his ability and to each according to his need' sounds unarguable, the world has learned that these words call forth a power elite to administer them with coercive force. Such elites are quick to define the needs of their own members as paramount. Similarly 'from each mouth according to its ability and to each ear according to its need' seems harmless enough, but history shows that censorship also requires an anointed class to define this "need" and to make violence against those who continue talking. Such power is quickly corrupted.

The first ingredient of civil society is the people's right to know, because without such understanding no human being can meaningfully choose to support anything, let alone a political party. Knowledge is the driver of every political process, every constitution, every law and every regulation. The communication of knowledge is without salient analogue. It is living, unique and demands its rightful place at the summit of society. Since knowledge is the creator and regulator of all law, its position beyond law commands due respect.

James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and other Enlightenment framers of the US Bill of Rights understood this well when they began the First Amendment's constitutional protections of speech and of the press with 'Congress shall make no law....'.

As knowledge flows across the world it is time to sum great freedoms of every nation and not subtract or divide them. Let us then unite in common purpose for the surest way to protect the freedoms of any nation is to protect the freedoms of every nation.

See

• Censored Tibet March 2008 protest photos (120 photos on a single page)
• leak:tibet-protest-photos.zip (120 photo archive)
• Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - display (35 flash videos on page)
• Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - FLV format (Flash archive)
• Censored Tibet March 2008 protest videos - AVI format (AVI/mpeg4 archive)

PLA agents instigated unrest to justify crackdown

Britain's GCHQ spy agency has confirmed the fact that Chinese People's Liberation Army agents posing as monks staged violent riots in Tibet in order to justify a brutal crackdown, but that the demonstrations have now escalated beyond Beijing's control.

According to a report in today's Epoch Times, "GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer."

Fearing that legitimate demonstrators would become more active in the months leading up to the Beijing Olympics, Chinese authorities planned to create a pretext to crush the movement by instigating violence that would sour global opinion towards the Tibetans.

According to the report, GCHQ's geo-positioned satellites in space were able to obtain images proving that the Chinese had infiltrated agent provocateurs into Lhasa. PLA agents posing as monks were responsible for setting fire to buildings and killing non-ethnic Chinese citizens as well as police in an attempt to demonize the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan freedom movement.

However, according to the report, "What the Beijing regime had not expected was how the riots would spread, not only across Tibet, but also to Sichuan, Quighai and Gansu provinces, turning a large area of western China into a battle zone."

Though the report seems to explain why images showed supposed Tibetans protesters inexplicably burning their own villages, it has to be cautioned that Epoch Times is a traditionally pro-Tibetan news outlet and there's no doubt that propaganda is being used by both sides.

It's probable that Chinese PLA agents instigated some of the violence but the fact that young Tibetans are engaging in violence completely of their own accord is largely accepted.

As the report points out, many of the Dalai Lama's supporters are "young, unemployed and dispossessed and reject his philosophy of non-violence, believing the only hope for change is the radical action they are now carrying out"

On a personal note, having visited Tibet myself and experienced some less than cordial interactions with the Tibetan people, it has to be said that they are certainly not deserving of the angelic tag some quarters of the media lavish upon them - being tribal, aggressive and spiteful towards foreign visitors as well as hostile towards tourists from the Chinese mainland.

As we reported on Monday, former Chinese Communist Party official Ruan Ming was the first to accuse China of staging the violent riots in order to demonize Tibetans in the eyes of the international community, justify a brutal paramilitary police crackdown and force the Dalai Lama to resign.

"The demonstration on March 10 was meant to be peaceful. You can see from the pictures that the demonstration was all monks," he explained, adding that the CCP carefully introduced violent unrest in order to "deceive the world".

By LILY HINDY
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 20, 2008

NEW YORK -- China forced the last remaining foreign journalists out of Tibet on Thursday, and stepped up restrictions on Internet and radio reports from people within the country, a media watchdog said.

Georg Blume, a correspondent for German newspapers Die Zeit and taz, and Kristin Kupfer of the German EPD news agency, left Thursday after being confronted by an official who threatened to cancel their Chinese visas, Reporters Without Borders said.

Earlier this week, Economist correspondent James Miles and a group of 15 Hong Kong reporters also were forced out.

"If they don't have anything to hide, then why are they making foreign journalists leave? It's clear that they don't want any witnesses," said Vincent Brossel, who heads Reporters Without Borders' Asia desk.  

Beijing has warned foreign tourists and journalists to stay away from a huge expanse of territory across four provinces, acknowledging that last week's anti-government protests have spread far beyond Tibet's borders.

The protests, led by Buddhist monks, started peacefully but erupted into rioting on Friday, drawing a harsh response from Chinese authorities. The Chinese crackdown has drawn worldwide attention on the country's human rights record, threatening to overshadow Beijing's attempts to project an image of unity and prosperity in the lead-up to the Olympic Games in August.

The German left-leaning daily taz posted a story on its Web site protesting Blume's expulsion.

"Apparently the Chinese government cannot tolerate any further Western witnesses in Tibet. That is, for us, no real surprise - the position of the People's Republic on press freedom is well known," wrote Reiner Metzger, the newspaper's deputy editor.

Reporters Without Borders said Chinese authorities are using "jamming stations" to block radio broadcasts out of Tibet and have asked Internet cafe owners to increase the surveillance of their clients.

The group also obtained a message it said was being sent to Tibetans living outside of Tibet from the "Internet Surveillance Bureau," which said: "It is forbidden to post news about Tibetan events ... anyone infringing on this ban will have their IP address sent to the police who will take the necessary steps." 

By CARLEY PETESCH
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 20, 2008

NEW YORK -- Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and 25 other Nobel laureates on Thursday condemned the Chinese government's violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters and called on Beijing to exercise restraint.

"We protest the unwarranted campaign waged by the Chinese government against our fellow Nobel laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama," the group said in a statement released by Wiesel.

Wiesel told The Associated Press that the group wanted renewed negotiations between China and the Dalai Lama, who won the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.

"The latest events are dramatic and the main thing is to stop the present oppression, persecution and violence," Wiesel said.  

"I don't understand the Chinese hierarchy there," he added. "Why are they afraid of Tibet?"

Led by Buddhist monks, protests had begun peacefully in Lhasa early last week but erupted into rioting on March 14, drawing a harsh response from Chinese authorities.

The crackdown drew worldwide attention to China's human rights record, threatening to overshadow Beijing's attempts to project an image of unity and prosperity in the lead-up to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.

Wiesel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, said he is close friends with the Dalai Lama and that the Tibetan leader has repeatedly said he is not asking for a sovereign independent Tibet. "All he wants is religious and cultural autonomy," Wiesel said.

That autonomy, the statement said, "is fundamental to the preservation of the ancient Tibetan heritage."

When asked what he would do if the Chinese did not agree to talks, Wiesel said: "If they don't agree and the violence goes on we will have to ask for more, maybe the reconsideration of the Olympics ... but we are not there yet."

Wiesel said it was not the time for the international community to take actions such as boycotts. But he said pressure for peace and dialogue is needed until we "hear reports from the Tibetan themselves that all has been restored and the prisons are opened."

Tibetan exile groups have claimed that 80 people were killed during the protest and its aftermath, while Beijing maintains that 16 died and more than 300 were injured.