http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/10/chinas_great_leap_human_rights_watch
excerpt:
AMY GOODMAN: We have a very graphic slideshow of monks that have been
killed in Tibet. What do you know about that?
MINKY WORDEN: Human Rights Watch has one on our website, as well, that
talks about the--we've done years of re****ting on Tibet. All of our
research over the years shows that there's a climate that has been
created where there is desperation among the Tibetan populous, and
certainly religious freedom has been an issue for many years.
Human Rights Watch doesn't have--Tibet is closed. It's closed to
re****ters, and it's closed to any type of international investigation.
So the one--we have actually said, for example, we've said the torch
relay must not go through Tibet, unless it is carried by a UN
investigation team. And, you know, these pictures that are up on the
screen are a pretty good example of the type of crackdown that you can
see. There is--this is really the most significant crackdown inside
China since Tiananmen Square. And some of--there are some parallels in
terms of the roundup of monks and protesters that is going on even
today. So people think that the crackdown is over, but there is every
reason to believe that it's continuing quietly inside this closed-off
area.
JUAN GONZALEZ: We quoted earlier President Bush saying that he doesn't
need anybody to tell him about human rights in China, that he's been
urging it now throughout his administration. Your sense of how the
Bush administration has dealt with this issue over the last several
years?
MINKY WORDEN: Well, last August, when President Bush accepted an
invitation to attend the Games, he missed a great op****tunity. He said
he was going to attend the Games as a, quote, "s****ts fan." Well, I
don't think the president--the elected leader of any country attends
the Olympic Games in a repressive country as a s****ts fan. So a great
op****tunity was missed and has been missed for the last year to turn
up the heat on the Chinese government to honor the very specific
commitments they made to get the Games. And I do think that that is
true not only of the United States, but of a lot of other countries
around the world. There shouldn't be any problem for governments or
world leaders or cor****ations to insist that China follow through on
the commitments it made.
AMY GOODMAN: Migrant workers building the Olympic stadiums?
MINKY WORDEN: Up to four million in Beijing alone. So Americans and
other people around the world should be aware that when they look at
these gleaming new stadiums--these are actually pictures from our photo
essay in the book--petitioners who have--are being pushed off the
streets. Migrant laborers across China, they're up to 200 million.
It's a large work force that does not have true protections, no
workers' compensation. There have been, the Chinese government admits,
ten deaths alone on that signature Bird's--they call it the Bird's
Nest, the Olympic stadium that you're seeing there. If you'll look
closely, you'll see that those workers are wearing flip-flops on a
worksite, which explains part of how the--some of these deaths have
occurred. But they also have no--many of them, we've do***ented in a
re****t, are not even paid. They work for a year--they're paid annually--
and then, at the end of that process, they don't even get proper
compensation.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you for coming in. We'll certainly
continue to follow this story. And radio listeners can go to our
website at democracynow.org to see the images that we've been
broadcasting on the television show and on our video podcast, as well
as the streaming online. China's Great Leap: The Beijing Games and
Olympian Human Rights Challenges is the name of the forthcoming book
that is edited by our guest, Minky Worden. Thank you very much for
joining us, a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch here in New York. ...
(cont)
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