Recently in Tibet Category

Ask any Pole, any Czech, any Hungarian what it means to be illegally occupied and raped by another country and they will tell you many stories you do not wish to hear; for they experienced it twice in one century. The first invasion came from Nazi Germany, and as hope dared to look up at the end of World War II, it saw the Soviet Union's tanks rolling by for the second. The brutality is enormous, the carnage unspeakable; the loss unimaginable. Doors kicked down in the dark of night, families disappeared by the military authorities or the puppet government, torture, rape, dismemberment, medical experimentation, and for the "lucky" ones, the heavy fog of fear and oppression.

Today, China is the new Nazi Germany as well as the new Soviet Union rolled up into one hideously evil empire. As all the others, it seeks to expand its Lebensraum into the ancient lands of its neighbors. At present, China illegally occupies the southern portion of Mongolia, Manchuria, East Turkestan, and Tibet. In every instance, China pursues a brutal campaign of physical and cultural extermination, and none is spared, from young to old, from weak to strong.

News of the latest victims comes out of Tibet. Two teenage girls were viciously beaten by a gang of male Chinese occupation forces then kidnapped by the occupiers under the guise of "arrest". Tashi Palmo is only 16; her friend Pema Yangzom just 19. Their "crime": peacefully calling for the end of the genocidal occupation by China of their beloved homeland. For this, they continue to suffer from injuries described as  serious made worse because the occupying Chinese have refused them access to medical care.

It would be helpful if the International Red Cross demanded access to the girls, but the IRC has become in many ways a political organ over the years and it may once again ignore its charter for the sake of expedience. The UN is also unlikely to take action; these girls were not so fortunate as to be born Palestinians, and challenging the human rights abuses of the most genocidal regime in human history - China - which also happens to be one of the leading states of the most influential coalition within the UN that also holds a seat on the UNSC is even more unlikely. Indeed, when you realize that the democracy of Israel has received almost half of all UN condemnations while China, which has murdered over 70 million - and counting - has barely been mentioned, it's easy to see the UN is fairly unreliable in terms of addressing human rights as a rule.

So the next question then is who will speak up. Will Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch stand up for these young teenagers who have their whole lives ahead of them? On occasion both these organizations have taken bold stands against the Chinese regime, yet to my knowledge neither has called for the complete end to all illegal Chinese occupations and it remains to be seen if these somewhat bipolar organizations - also quite politically motivated - will find it in their interest to cast the light of shame on this illegitimate regime.

This, sadly, is just another day in a gilded, blood-spattered hell-hole known as the Chinese sphere, in which those who wish to live are aborted against their mothers' wishes and those who are alive wish they had never been born. Perhaps someday there will be a Western government strong enough morally to take the stand that brought down the Soviet Union three decades ago. Until then, humanity will continue to witness a butchering machine like none other in human history - a human meat grinder - slowly turn as it crushes the lives of millions.

Martin is a master's student in national security studies and is the executive director of Samizdat International, a genuine human rights concern. Martin undertook his internship with the London-based Henry Jackson Society in the summer of 2009. He hates the Turabian style format.

UPDATE: The human rights group Samizdat International has sent out a press release condemning China's shocking atrocity and calling on the International Red Cross and Red Crescent to demand to see the girls and treat any injuries sustained during the attack. Samizdat International is owned by the author of this blog.