by Haiti Information Project - HIP Tue Mar 18, 2008 21:03

HIP- Port au Prince - As Chinese riot police clash with Tibetan protesters over that country's independence, it calls into question the role of over 1000 members of China’s People’s Armed Police or PAP who have served in Haiti. Although the PAP is often referred to by the United Nations as a police force in Haiti, most experts call it a military force because it is an integral part of China's People’s Liberation Army.

The Chinese contingent, serving in Haiti since the ouster of the democratically-elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004, has also been the target of controversy. Many Haitians condemned their presence as representing the hypocrisy of the UN mission in their country calling for the restoration of democracy. One protester commented in direct reference to Chinese and Jordanian involvement in Haiti in 2004, "We know there are many countries that are part of the UN mission that not democratic themselves. How can they come here and pretend to teach us about democracy when they don't allow free elections in their own countries."

See above link to full article with pictures

Taken with a hidden camera, Chinese troops of the People’s Armed Police instruct the Haitian police in the use of weapons in 2004.

by Ilan S. Wed Mar 19, 2008 16:41

The Chinese state is a state capitalist entity. It conquered Tibet mainly for strategic reasons and not for exploiting the indigeneous people or a settler colonialist project.

I suspect the canceling of the extremely exploitative reactionary monastery theocracy was not motivated by solidarity with the Tibetan serfs.

(I am not so sure if most of the Tibetans really live in the inner Tibet or in the Outer Tibet which is part of the Sechuan(?) province - not that it matter so much.)

The suppression of "Tibetan culture" was a diminishing of the population of monks living in the monasteries that used to live on forced extraction from the poor peasants till the Chinese occupation, and may be forcing them to work?

The self-determination of the people in the capitalist system is rarely more than autonomy for a local elite to do the suppressing and exploitation of their working people.

Often, the "self-determining" ruling elite is even worse than the imperialists.

I wonder if any one will support the self-determination of the Hutu who murdered the Tutsi in Ruanda, or the Sudanese who commit genocide of the black people of the south and Darfur.... Or even that of the Israeli settler colonialist naZionists who transfered Palestinians in the past and do not respect their self-determination - both within Israel or in the Gaza strip and west bank... or the Indonesians who used their self-determination to colonialize the indigeneous people in East Timor and within its borders.

by Manuel Baptista Wed Mar 19, 2008 18:28

One cannot omit the doubts expressed by Ilan, but one can clearly say that, in fact, the national oppression is always worsening the capitalist exploitation. In Tibet, the state capitalist regime is using chinese colonists since a long while to submerge the autochtones with people from other parts of China, and therefore make Tibet population a very mixed one, devoid of roots, and without any attachment to Tibet's traditional culture.
One should take in account that culture [even the most conservative and atavic one], can change fairly quick in a non-violent way.
The opposition betwen two authoritarian ways of imposing cultural models and the social models implied, is a false one.

Theocracy regime is wrong and state capitalism is wrong too. The choice is again in favor of people's autonomy against the interference from external powers.
The Israel settlers would have to come to some sort of aggreement with Palestinian people if their «cause» was not artificially supported by the Jewish communities abroad.
The Hutu-Tutsi wars were fuelled by colonialists (Belgian and French, mainly) specialists in the «divide and rule».

It's true that national liberation is often deviated to another goal: sustaining a class structure, but we can say too that nations still exist and will remain as an expression of culture. Cultural evolution is the most effective tool humanity has for social emmancipation. If societies are wiped of their cultural memory, they will be easier prey to capitalist mentallity.

by Ilan S. - ainfos Wed Mar 19, 2008 23:31 Tel Aviv

http://www.peacenowar.net/newpeace/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=428&Itemid=1