Because I did not want to prematurely do things before publishing my letter on December 31st, I spend one whole day with a former China correspondent that has lived in Beijing for a long time. He shared my view and analyses that the Olympic Games are going to be a massive propaganda display, not so much for China but mainly for the Communist regime over there.
He also endorsed the statement, made by Amnesty International, that we cannot know everything that happens over there, in as what that regime is doing, behind the façade of dynamic and modernization, in terms of violent repression, in prisons, camps, barracks and police stations. We simply do not get access, not the journalists nor the NGO's. Finally he gave notice to me that he rather would not have his name connected with my call for a boycott, because he still had many things to do in China and he would get into trouble that way.
Most curious was my informer, at that time it was in the middle of December 2007, about the ways in which the Western journalist would use the temporarily freedom given to them by the regime in the time in and around the Olympic Games. He pointed out two major obstacles: 98 per cent of journalists do not understand nor speak Chinese. They depend on Chinese interpreters and guides that in turn are at risk. Furthermore, the Chinese citizens that have the potential to blow the whistle will get into big trouble as soon as the journalist has left. This is something Bettine Vriesekoop, to her dismay, found out
Arrest Warrant Jiang Zemin
A Dutch journalist in China can steal the show the rest of their lives with reports about sexual morality, the film industry "Chinawood", the art scene, Rem Koolhaas, table tennis centres, Starbucks, environmental measures, internet control and hundreds of other Chinese features, varying from completely innocent to quite daring. But if they write a story about the Laogai (Chinese Gulag), the persecution of Falun Gong or about the arrest warrant issued by the Spanish High Court against Jiang Zemin on account of crimes against humanity…after such a story would be filed, the next day the bags would be packed and the newspaper will no longer have a correspondent in Shanghai or Beijing. So the agreement is made that if there would be writing about Falun Gong, then that would be done from the Netherlands. Much safer that way too.
Three years ago the Vice-President of the European parliament talked openly with two Falun Gong practitioners whom told him about the persecution they and other practitioners had suffered, including the notorious "organ harvesting". These two people did not make the end of the month. People told Edward McMillan-Scott later that the two had knowingly sacrificed themselves and knew what their destiny would be afterwards. McMillan-Scott felt embarrassed for his own naivety and from then on has become an advocate for human rights in China, getting the truth of the persecution of Falun Gong in the open, and "campaigner" for an Olympic boycott throughout all Western countries. See his website www.boycottbeijing.EU
"…"
Hereby I call on all the Dutch China correspondents to… do hard research so that you can decide your attitude towards the boycott issue: where, with which frequency, how seriously, does the Chinese government apparatus violate human rights? Where is Shi Tao, and how is he doing? Where is human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, and how is he doing? Why doesn't the Chinese government allow investigation into the gruesome organ harvesting stories? Research the entire appalling shopping list of Amnesty International, ask questions, put your foot in the door hold, push where it hurts! That is what we are doing here in the Netherlands, now you do it over there!
In scientific research one tests the hypothesis that all doves are white through searching assiduously searching for a black dove, even if it is only one. In China you trip over the black doves, but most journalists search zealously for ever more beautiful white ones.
For other interested journalists: it is easy to come into contact with me through my cabaret website.( http://www.erikendiederik.nl/ .) I am happy to help with any further questions.
Feeds