Yesterday: Buddhist leader Dalai Lama Extends support to Burmese protesters. Today: DW:
Germany’s foreign minister said China is still upset over a meeting between the German chancellor and the Dalai Lama last week. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Friday touched on Iran and Burma but Sunday’s meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the exiled Tibetan leader in Berlin emerged as the main issue. China reacted angrily to the encounter, warning Germany that bilateral ties had been damaged and insisting the Dalai Lama was a dangerous figure who sought independence for Tibet. China routinely criticizes visits abroad by the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet for India in 1959 during a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
I have been in today’s protest in Madrid, where there were THREE vans of anti-riot police. I just don’t know what they were there for really. The people who were there were all peacefully protesting against the crackdown in Burma, no one was going to turn violent.
I have not been able to take but one photo (the camera was full and I am a fool for not copying them before in the PC 
) . These were the dangerous people against whom the Government sent the policemen:
The event had been organised by the anti-Castro “Cuba Democracia ¡Ya!”(that is, “Cuba, Democracy Now!”). That’s why the placard reads “Down with dictatorships in Cuba and Burma“.
There were not a lot of people, but the day was awful, nearly raining (you can see the sky, normally full blue, totally cloudy). And it is Saturday morning and, if it would not have been for blogs, no one would have known. No TV spoke about it, that I know of. And if normal MSM don’t speak, it does not exist.
Anyway, with not so many people there, the presence of all the policemen was ridiculous, to say the least.
Lastly, Zapatero has, at least, spoken about Burmese dictatorship, speaking with Putin:
Both men also spoke about the worsening situation in Myanmar. They agreed that the international community needs to monitor the situation very closely, but the leaders believe it is still too early to draw conclusions or introduce sanctions.
I was going to write I am shocked but I’m not the least. Zapatero has a good relationship with China -to whose leaders he did not even remind their lack of respect for Human Rights- asking even for a lift in the arms embargo (but afterwards claiming he is a “pacifist” 
). And now wants to strenghten the ties with Russia. But he has again mistaken the rules about basic sight regarding diplomacy: in the same statement Putin remarked that Lugovoi was a Russian citizen who could not be extradited by now:
“Mr Lugovoy is a Russian citizen. As we have said several times, if we are given any evidence of illegal activity, the Russian law enforcement system will certainly take the decision to bring anyone to justice. Unfortunately the demands from our British partners to extradite Lugovoy are not supported by any documents that prove that he has committed any illegal actions. There is the demand to extradite him based only on suspicion - but no proof,” said the Russian President.
The Spanish Prime Minister did not comment directly on the ongoing dispute between Moscow and London.
From bilateral ties to international problems, Madrid and Moscow seem to share not only many common projects and goals, but political viewpoints as well. Both the Russian President and the Spanish Prime Minister seemed very satisfied not only with the course of their talks, but with the development of their countries’ relationship. The frank discussion of various international issues is further evidence that Russia and Spain are generally in agreement politically.
This could be another front on the bad relationship that Spain has had with Great Britain since Zapatero came to power -even if Blair did not show it very much as Bush has done-. Gordon Brown has been one of the toughest leaders speaking against Burmese crackdown and his Government is the one who is asking Putin to extradite Lugovoi, now in the party of ultra-nationalist and supporter of polygamy to defend the purity of Russians, Zhirinosky.
Kate has a lot of photos from the protest in Washington: Of all of them this is the most significant of all:
(Para lectores españoles: “China: ¡Frena a los asesinos birmanos! Exigimos a China que inmediatamente:
- condene la represión violenta de los monjes budistas y de los demás que protestaban pacíficamente.
- deje de apoyar al gobierno militar birmano.”)
John from This Ain’t Hell has also posted some photos of the event.
Aquiles writes there are concentration camps on the making in Burma.
God help them. Because we, human beings, are too coward to do it. 
____________________
He estado en la protesta contra la represión en Birmania en donde casi había más policía que personas protestando (había TRES furgones de policía anti-disturbios, que no entiendo realmente para qué estaban allí…). La única foto que he podido sacar está arriba.
Pero se entiende esta actitud si consideramos las declaraciones de Zapatero junto a Putin en Rusia:
Están de acuerdo en que la comunidad internacional debe monitorizar la situación de cerca, pero ambos líderes creen que es todavía muy pronto para sacar conclusiones.
Para una persona que está dando la tabarra con que a su abuelo lo mató Franco este tipo de declaraciones son del todo sorprendentes (o no, si consideramos lo que dijo a la madre de Irene Villa). Además, son una muestra de frialdad hacia las personas que protestaban pacíficamente totalmente inaudita. Como si la vida de 200 personas, los campos de concentración (arriba, link de Aquiles), los monjes detenidos en los conventos y la seguridad física y piscológica de los demás, no le importase nada (realmente no, no le importa nada).
Pero es que además puede provocar otra crisis diplomática con Inglaterra, porque Gordon Brown es uno de los líderes mundiales que más se ha destacado en la denuncia de lo que acontece en Birmania y porque en la misma rueda de prensa, Putin volvió a repetir que no va a extraditar a Lugovoi, al que se acusa del asesinato de Litvinenko y que además ahora se ha incorporado al partido político del ultranacionalista Zhirinovsky, que defiende la poligamia obligatoria para las mujeres rusas solteras, para de ese modo conservar la pureza de la raza rusa.
¿Y qué gana España? En primer lugar, el apoyo de China, con quien los socialistas en el Gobierno quieren estrechar relaciones para abrir su mercado a la inversión española -Zapatero incluso pidió que levantaran el embargo de armas a China, pero luego va por ahí diciendo que es “pacifista”-. Pero en segundo lugar, el apoyo de Rusia, con quien se subraya la plena coincidencia en política internacional de “ambos líderes”, es decir, Putin y Zapatero.
Por último, mete el dedo en el ojo a Bush que ya pidió fuertes sanciones en la ONU y ha decretado sanciones importantes contra 14 mandatarios birmanos.
Anti-anglosajonismo/occidentalismo puro y duro, aunque para ello haya que apoyar al demonio. Esa es la política exterior española.
Repito: había TRES furgones antidisturbios. ¿Tendrá algo que ver que se compara a Castro con los generales de la Junta birmana? ¿Y que sea socialista la Junta Birmana?
Entradas
