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Action Alert: Help Cancel Showcase of Chinese Army

Students for a Free Tibet | 03.08.2004 15:55 | Anti-militarism | Repression | Social Struggles

Every year, Scotland hosts an event called the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, that showcases military bands from around the world. The prestigious event is attended by 217,000 people and broadcast around the world to a television audience of millions. This year, the Tattoo organizers have invited the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The PLA is responsible for countless atrocities carried out under the Chinese government over the past 55 years - they enabled the invasion of Tibet in 1949, the massacre of protesters in the Tiananmen Square Uprising, and the daily repression of every person living under Chinese Communist Party rule. The Tattoo is billed as a celebration of international friendship and Scottish heritage. This year, it is poised to celebrate one of the most brutal armies in the world. Protests highlighting the PLA's bloody history are planned for the duration of the Tattoo. Today, add your voice to tell the Tattoo organizers not to give the Chinese government international prestige that it doesn't deserve.

What's At Stake:

As the military arm of the Chinese Communist Party, the PLA has a 55-year history of brutality. Its forceful entry into Tibet enabled - and continues to enable - the illegal occupation of Tibet, whilst soldiers were permitted to rape, imprison and kill innocent Tibetans. In 1959, when the Tibetan leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, fled Tibet, the PLA massacred more than 87 000 Tibetans. Since then, soldiers have continued to act with impunity throughout Tibet. In March 1989, after several days of protest in Lhasa, now-Chinese president Hu Jintao declared martial law in Tibet, enforced by the PLA for three years. In June 1989, the PLA carried out orders to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, using tanks and automatic arms to kill unarmed citizens. Over the past five years, the PLA has detained, beaten and killed thousands of practitioners of Falung Gong.

By inviting the PLA, the Edinburgh Tattoo is providing the Chinese government with international prestige and respectability that it does not deserve. Please join citizens of conscience in urging the Tattoo organizers to respect human rights and Tibet by turning away the PLA.

 http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/PLA

Campaign Expiration Date:
August 15, 2004

Students for a Free Tibet
- Homepage: http://actionnetwork.org/campaign/PLA


Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

army's in general (sorry for the pun)

03.08.2004 16:56

why stop with just the red army. has there ever been a just army, in any country?

the army is a state apparatus used to further the cause of the capitalist class (imperialism). demolish the army and give the people arms. why do we waste billions on a nuclear deterrant, or an army? what better deterrant that an armed populus and the promise of decades of guerilla warfare if anyone takes away our liberty!

it makes sense, a "mechanism" rigged for defence only.

bit of a syndaclist marxist


Dear 'bit of a syndaclist marxist'

04.08.2004 08:36

I agree with you about the role of an army. However, regarding us all having arms? You have only got to look at the murder rates in the US to see what this leads to.

Dickie

Dickie


be wary of Falung Gong

04.08.2004 10:00

Be carefull about working with the reactionary Falung Gong. The Chinese govt are reaping what they sowed when they gave Mr Li a platform, to help save on heathcare costs, and they are certainly been subject to brutal supression but give *very* conditional solidarity with them.
Do not ally oneself with there call to a return to 'traditional values'. Do not give them a platform.

sb


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