The latest video from Tibet, released on 8 December by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, does not have the same graphic quality. However it terrifies us and tests our conscience to the same level, if not more.
How would you feel if state-sanctioned police brutality was unleashed in your own bedroom?
In a media release, the Tibetan Government-in-Exile stated that the footage was shot in Dodge township near Lhasa in March 2008. The arrested people were suspected of taking part in a protest on 11 March that year, one of the first demonstrations to spark the uprising across Tibet.
The arbitrary arrest of Tibetans in Tibet is well known. There are currently over 700 political prisoners in Tibet, many of whom were arrested during the peaceful protests in 2008. However most of them have merely become a number in political prisoner databases as the Chinese authorities block information on their status and whereabouts. The above video, which shows Chinese police raiding homes in the wee hours of the morning and arbitrarily arresting Tibetans in their beds, has put faces to some of these statistics.
The release of the video two days before the Human Rights Day on 10 December couldn’t have been more timely or perhaps more ironical. As the international community prepared to celebrate the principles of human liberty, as adopted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 63 years ago, we were reminded of the sad situation in Tibet today.
The fact that these Tibetans were dragged out of their beds at the first break of daylight for allegedly taking part in a protest shows how entrenched China’s control over the lives of the Tibetan people is. The fact that they were arrested without any warning or explanation shows the extent of China’s tyranny and free rein in Tibet.
The extraordinary behaviour of terrorising people in their most ordinary state has brought home the reality of living under Chinese rule in Tibet.
One thing that is increasingly becoming clear is that the Tibetans are desperate to let the world know what is happening in Tibet despite China’s efforts to black out information. However as these leaked images testify, the Chinese government cannot win its battle to supress information. As China’s thuggish behaviour in Tibet is exposed to the world literally every week, we in the free world must continue to shine a spotlight on the determination of the people in Tibet.
