Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Chinese Christians and the UNCHR

An article by Jason Lee Steorts in the NRO today demonstrates what is surely an abysmal - and instructive - lapse for the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. Christians in China have been persecuted for their faith for many years. I'm talking about the old-fashioned definition of persecution, not the current American one. That is, they are being arrested, jailed, tortured, or killed, not being disagreed with, made fun of, or ignored. But Bob Fu, the president of the China Aid Association, got a taste of UNCHR-style persecution when he gave a presentation at their 61st session in Geneva. Mr. Steorts writes:

One of the Chinese police's favorite torture devices, and one that has probably been used repeatedly on Cai Zhuohua is a kind of electric baton. Bob Fu owns such a baton, smuggled out of a Chinese prison. He took it to Geneva after obtaining permission from the secretary of the UNCHR to conduct a demonstration of it during his testimony. This demonstration consisted of Fu's holding it in the air over his head and turning it on for six seconds.

Predictably, the Chinese delegation went berserk, its members claiming that the demonstration made them feel threatened. (One is left to wonder how they would feel if the baton were actually used against them.) They then demanded that Fu be booted from the proceedings. The commission's chairman, obliging chap that he is, agreed. Fu was escorted from the building and stripped of his U.N. badge. His baton was also seized, and has not been returned.

[Cai Zhuohua is a pastor jailed for printing Bibles without Chinese government permission.]
According to a news release on the China Aid website, the Chinese delegation was "insulted". Well, there are worse things. Like the things that hoppened to Bob Fu, for example. From a press release on China Aid, in which Mr. Fu describes the incident, and addresses the chairman of the UNCHR:

Mr. Chairman, as a former Chinese Christian prisoner, I have held great respect and high expectations upon the UNCHR which is supposedly the highest authority and institution on this earth with the stated mission "to protect and promote human rights for all". However, given what I have experienced and testified, I think that certain countries with the poorest of human rights records and worst violators have managed to seize control of and cripple the functionality of the UN Commission on Human Rights and its Secretariat. The issue of reform of various UN bodies is being discussed in the U.S. and internationally. The time is ripe to consider fundamental reforms to restore the focus of this Commission to its original purpose and to remove control of the Commission from the worst violators.

Mr. Chairman, about nine years ago, I was forced into a police car and taken from my home to prison by the Chinese Public Security Bureau in Beijing for alleged "illegal religious activities." Sadly, this is the second time I have been put into a police car and it was done by UN security guards. The only reason I was treated like that was because of a complaint filed by representatives of torturers. That very torture device is being widely used even today, at this moment, against hundreds of thousands of victims of conscience. As the device is described in its specifications it is an "an ideal tool for the Chinese law enforcement officials."

Human rights violations, including torture against those prisoners of conscience and religious beliefs in China, should be stopped immediately. Before we can accomplish that, we must first reform the very institution designed to protect human rights for all. An institution that even now is intolerant of demonstrating the torturers' cruel device.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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In all my life, I've never heard a 'thank-you' that has reverberated with more irony than that one.

Thursday, April 21, 2005

lgf: France Backs China on Taiwan

Just when you thought you'd run out of reasons to dislike the French...
France Backs China on Tiawan. Well, business isn't so good in Iraq these days. Guess Reffarin's trying to drum up new unholy-alliance weapons deals. But, of course, the fault will be with the U.S., no?

Filibuster for the "Protection of Minorities"?

Only when it's convenient, evidently. According to Robert Novak of the Chicago Sun Times:

Liberal Democrats, who now extol the filibuster to protect minorities, were in the forefront advocating strict majority rule through most of my nearly 48 years as a reporter covering Congress. As recently as 2000, architects of the filibuster strategy to block President Bush's judicial nominees -- with Democrat Bill Clinton still in the White House -- were demanding straight up-or-down votes on judges.
(Via RealClearPolitics)

(True confession: I used to have a big dog. Every so often, I'd go to the yard to pick up dogshit. No matter what you do, if you have a dog, there it is, this distasteful chore. In the same way, I'm finding it hard to attend to the blatently self-serving, hypocritical, character assassinating lies of the left. The difference? Well, there's the obvious upside to having a dog, and on balance, dogshit is only moderately offensive.)

Monday, April 18, 2005

More Minuteman Project Fuss: The Rottweiler Sniffs Out ACLU Antics

The Minuteman Project, ("a citizens' neighborhood watch along our border") has had its share of opposition, including threats from terror-connected gangs. Now there are accusations, albeit unsubstantiated, that volunteers for the ACLU, having decided to "monitor" the Minuteman Project at the border, is actually assisting those attempting to cross the border. See The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: More ACLU Antics. (Question: Now that the ACLU is concerned with Mexican civil rights vs. the interests actual American citizens - do we call 'em the MCLU?? Or maybe the A in ACLU referred to the continents of the Americas and not the U.S? The C./M./U.S./S.A.CLU? Oh, nevermind.)

Monday, April 11, 2005

Cuban "Healthcare" - Viewer Discretion Advised

The Black Informant exposes a very different view of Castro's so-called "excellent [free] healthcare" than the official Cuban description leads us to believe, in The miseducation of American Negroes on Cuba. (The photos are shocking. Brace yourself.)

Friday, April 01, 2005

On the Subject of Anti-Christian Bigotry (again)

Hugh Hewitt is looking for outbreaks of "religiousrightitis", a term evidently coined by Mr. Hewitt himself (I may be wrong about this - if so, comments are open) to describe the vitriolic verbiage aimed at Americans who dare to adopt a Judeo-Christian value. Surely you know the kind of thing he's talking about, but in the event that you don't, he gives examples. I'm not quoting any of it, because I want you to GO READ HIS POST! (Pushy, no?)