Tiananmen Square II


Ever wonder how to kill people and get away with it. Most people investigate when shots are fired and blood is spilled, but it seems China doesn't. This was an article featured on NYtimes.com and is about the cover up of an event that involved a little death and a little cover up.

China Covers Up Violent Suppression of Village Protest

By HOWARD W. FRENCH

Published: June 27, 2006
SHANWEI, China, June 20 — When the police raked a crowd of demonstrators with gunfire last December in the seaside village of Dongzhou, a few miles from this city, Chinese human rights advocates denounced the action as the bloodiest in the country since the killings at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, in 1989.

Villagers said at the time that as many as 30 people had been killed, and that many others were missing. The authorities have said little or nothing about the episode, concentrating instead on preventing any accounts of it from circulating widely in the country. In the limited coverage that was allowed, officials blamed the unrest on the villagers.

Six months later, there has been no public investigation of the shootings. Instead, the government has quietly moved to close the matter, prosecuting 19 villagers earlier this month in a little-publicized trial. Seven were given long sentences after being convicted of disturbing the public order and of using explosives to attack the police. Nowhere in the verdict is there any mention of the loss of life.

Outside court, villagers say, the authorities have privately acknowledged the death of three residents during the protest. Many say they suspect that more were killed, citing a witness account of a pile of bodies, and details about people who remain missing, but they say they have been warned not to cite a higher figure.

Indeed, residents of the village, in Guangdong Province near Hong Kong, say they have been warned not to talk to outsiders at all. Given the fact that journalists, lawyers, human rights workers and other independent observers have been kept away from Dongzhou, a definitive death toll may never be established.

Whatever the lingering uncertainty, the handling of the protest and its aftermath stand out as a prominent example of how China deals with localized unrest, which has been rising in the countryside.

The protest erupted over plans for a wind-power plant that used village lands and required significant landfill in a bay where the people have for generations made a living fishing. Before that, nearby village land had been used for the construction of a coal-fired power plant.

But that is not the story that Beijing, which has a long tradition of establishing official histories, wants the world to hear. Dongzhou, it seems, has been consigned to the annals of forgettable minor incidents rather than the milestone it undoubtedly is in the wave of unrest over land issues that has swept the Chinese countryside.

Even six months after the deaths, pressure to deny the truth of the matter remains intense. In dozens of telephone conversations and in interviews with the handful of villagers who were willing to slip away from home and risk speaking with a foreign reporter here, residents of Dongzhou say their telephones are tapped and entry and exit from their village tightly controlled. One phrase, "We are scared to death," was repeated over and over.

"My phone is tapped, and our conversation is being monitored," one man said hastily before hanging up. "The police may arrive even while we're still talking. I can say I don't think the villagers are guilty at all. What we did is try to regain our lawful rights over the land."

Villagers said relatives of those who had been tried were monitored especially closely. The police promptly pay visits to those who make phone calls outside the village, warning them of trouble if they speak about the December shootings. A $200 reward has been offered to informers, many said. Travel permits to Hong Kong — where many here have relatives and where there is a free press — have been barred for the entire village.

Despite their fears, and whether or not their relatives were accused of a crime, many villagers talked. They described the recent two-and-a-half-day trial as a farce that offered no real opportunity for most to defend themselves.

All but one villager were too poor to hire their own counsel, and lawyers provided by the state asked few questions, called no witnesses and presented no evidence on behalf of the accused. Sometimes, villagers said, the lawyers urged the defendants to admit their "guilt."

One man, refusing to admit guilt, said that an oral confession cited by the judge had been beaten out of him in detention, but that he had refused to sign it, according to a villager who attended the trial. The court ignored his protest.

"Even a child can understand this trial was unfair" said one woman, who would not give her name for fear of reprisals. "We don't think they are guilty, because everyone knows what happened on Dec. 6. There were killings when the government opened fire. I'm afraid I can't say anything more to you, because every telephone in Dongzhou is tapped."

The authorities have made equally strenuous efforts to keep outsiders from offering help to the villagers.

In the last few years, China has seen the emergence of public-spirited lawyers who seek out civil rights cases in the countryside and volunteer their services to peasants in disputes over land or other matters.

In a growing number of such cases, including Dongzhou, the government has threatened the lawyers with hardball tactics, including the threat of suspending their law licenses, arrests and the implicit threat of violence.

"Local governments are very determined to prevent the involvement of outside lawyers, especially those from Beijing, because if they can control the local lawyers, keep them under their will, the trial will remain completely under their control," said one civil rights lawyer from Beijing, who was turned away from Dongzhou in December.

"The authorities publicly told the villagers they could hear all of their conversations and warned if you talk to outsiders you will be arrested," the lawyer said. "It was an open threat. The villagers were really scared, and the authorities controlled the entrance from the expressways and beat people who tried to enter."

While the convicted villagers have the right to appeal, most said they saw little point and spoke of being exhausted and demoralized. Villagers said that work on the wind plant resumed the day after the protest and was racing toward completion.

"This village has been pacified as if nothing ever happened here," said one man. "The government hasn't given us a single cent for the land it took, let alone for the sea they filled in and the mountains they blasted for rocks. We dare not ask for more, because they've made it clear: if you oppose the government, they'll show their true colors."

This is an effort by Eric Mata to tell everyone who he is, and who are you? What we are standing on and who has fallen so we can stand up now. This is for the plight of the oppressed and the fight we must keep fighting Feel the people on this piece as Eric Mata shuts it down!!!!! I appreciate him writing this...

( This video was played at the American Multicultural Student Leadership Conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to set the tone for the event. We got Eric Mata to write a spoken word piece and a handful of student leaders on campus to bring it to life)

Calling All Minorities





Recently I was involved in a conversation about minority students and diversity at Georgia College and State University. A lot of people think we need more minority students on this campus. But how do we get minority students to attend Georgia College and State Univeristy, I say, get well-known black professors, they will bring students who will want to learn from them. Imagine if Nikki Giovanni came here to teach Creative Writing, I bet a few black students would come just to learn how to write some poems. Also race relations are the wave of the future, why not have, and I'm borrowing this idea, a Race Relations Major, as corporations realize the profitable benefits of diversifying their employee base, I'm sure they would like to know how to best get along with and thrive with their new employees. Also good race relations may end the bias associated with job oppurtunites because good race realtions in a workplace could help engage bias prejudice attitudes and erase years of prejudice programming, this is all a bunch of "ifs". But back to Georgia College, we need things here to make African Americans, Latin Americans, Asian Americans, and all the Americans that contribute to diversity at this institution. How do we get them here, give them the things they need for an education, appealing faculty, prior experiences here on campus, and scholarships, we only have one thank you Mary Peyton and Cook. Georgia College is currently taking steps in the right direction, there is minority engagement currently engaging and there was a gift of $700,000 for scholarships and recruitment of Latin American students, thanks Goizueta. It will be interesting to see this school in a 5 or ten years, It'll be after I have long graduated, let us hope that a change is on the horizon. And last but not least, just to call even more attention to the need, I couldn't even find stock pictures from GC&SU with all the minorities I just mentioned, had to go to Texas Tech to find a photo.

Racism and Soccer

In light of the start of World Cup 2006, let's learn a little bit about the experience of Futbol or Soccer Players of African descent in the European Soccer world. Europe and Racism... Please Post a comment

Tupac Shakur Speaks

This is ancient history to most of you, and 1992, is what, 14 years in our past, but for most people my age and for those of us living in the age of hip-hop, let's take it back to 1992 to an age where hip-hop wasn't as popular as it is now, and amid the hip-hop artists there were some that recognized that we as black people must stand up for something beyond money and it is our responsibility to teach and guide ourselves to a better place in this world. This is Tupac Shakur speaking at a conference in Atlanta in the long ago time of 1992. WARNING!!! There is Explicit Language.

Teen Pregnancy





I know most of us know that teen pregnancy has been a problem for many years, and girls younger and younger are getting pregnant everyday. Sex among teenagers is here and it doesn't look like it's going anywhere as everyday more and more kids make adult decisions. A dilemma I was confronted with not long ago was centered around a young girl who is pregnant and doesn't want to tell her parents because they will certainly throw her out of her home if they find out she is pregnant. She has currently gathered enough money for an abortion and the only barrier to her getting the abortion currently is the distance to the clinic where the procedure will take place. Now as both sides of the argument line-up and we begin the Abortion is wrong and the Women's right to choose arguments. Let's first put ourselves in this young child's shoes. If I tell my parents they will kick me out of the house. If I abort this baby, I can continue my life, not get kicked out of my house, go to college, but I will forever remember the child I could have had, and instead killed. I could have this child and give it up for adoption, and after I endured all nine of the months, I'm supposed to give up my baby? How could I, and why are so many foster kids I've met so screwed up after growing up in and out of different homes. Finally if I keep my child, how will I afford it? Can I afford it? And I wonder if my baby's father will even help me...

The problem for me is not that this child is having a child and that she had sex before she was married, for me the problem lies with her inability to tell her parents and have their support rather than disapproval and disownership. I believe this child needs help and support rather than ridicule, how do you feel about the situation, let me know, post a comment.