Amnesty Scotland tells Russia: stop arming Syria

Campaigners protest at Russian Consulate in Edinburgh. Photo: Shabnum Mustapha

I was up early on Saturday morning to join an Amnesty Scotland protest outside the Russian Consulate in Edinburgh. The event was to mark 500 days since the start of the uprisings in Syria which have seen so many  lives brutally taken. There as a mix of particpants, with the youngest at just 10 months, to symbolise the 24 lives needlessly lost every day. It goes without saying that little children like Zain here should be happily toddling around, not being indiscriminately murdered by a horrible regime. 

What do we want the Russians to do? Well, they could stop giving the Syrian Government arms for a start.Amnesty Scotland Director Shabnum Mustapha added that:

We are calling for an immediate arms embargo on all arms sales to the Syrian government, we are calling for the situation to be referred to the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes, and we also want a freeze on the assets of the president and his associates.

What started as a protest for freedom and rights has ended in terrible bloodshed.

The event attracted a fair bit of media coverage, on the BBC , STV, the Scotsman and many local papers across Scotland.

Shabnum Mustapha herself had a long article in the Scotsman on Saturday in which she wrote:

We were disappointed that the extended UN supervision mandate in Syria did not include a stronger human rights component which would have improved monitoring and reporting of human rights violations on all sides. Amnesty has repeatedly called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court, to freeze the assets of the Syrian president and his associates and to impose an immediate arms embargo to stop the transfer of arms to the government.

We have also been consistently calling for the international community to unite to end the violence. With Russia and China vetoing a UN Security Council resolution last week (the third one they have vetoed since the violence began), the international community has collectively failed the people of Syria. By the end of today, another 24 lives will be lost.

I've finally put my money where my mouth is and actually joined Amnesty. I've been meaning to do it for ages but never got round to it. Amnesty Scotland has done so much great work in the past year, on Guantanamo, Egypt, Syria and equal marriage.

Amnesty Scotland disappointed that Scottish Government is not meeting Dalai Lama #dontpandatoChina

I asked on Monday why on earth Alex Salmond wouldn't meet the Dalai Lama. It now seems worse than I had anticipated as Dundee City Council have gone at best lukewarm over an event they were supposed to be full partners in. It appears that the Chinese Consul-General has sent the boys round, not only to Bute House, but to Edinburgh, Dundee and Highland Council too, to express their displeasure.

Amnesty Scotland's director, Shabnum Mustapha, has issued this statement today, expressing Amnesty's concern over the Scottish Government and Dundee Council's snubs to the Tibetan Spiritual Leader:

It is appalling and very worrying if Dundee City Council has ‘withdrawn’ its support for the Dalai Lama’s visit to its city due to pressure from the Chinese Government.

Amnesty has again and again highlighted China’s questionable human rights record, including its continued restriction on freedom of expression – and it seems that this censorship has now reached our shores. To think that our own publicly-elected officials would bow to pressure of this kind is unthinkable, and we would urge Dundee City Council to reconsider their decision.
It is also very disappointing that it appears no-one from the Scottish Government, including the First Minister, is able to welcome the Dalai Lama as he embarks on his visit to Scotland.

His visit to our country should serve as yet another opportunity for our government to put the spotlight on human rights abuses in China. Instead it seems that economics trump human rights when it comes to Scotland's growing relationship with the world's second largest economy.

The Scottish Government should be welcoming this opportunity to support the Dalai Lama, an important spiritual figure who symbolises the movement for non-violent self-determination for an oppressed people.

Throughout China, freedom of expression continues to be restricted by the authorities and re-education through labour camps continue to operate. And the Chinese government has displayed increasingly repressive behaviour in ethnic minority areas such as Tibet.

Why will Alex Salmond not meet the Dalai Lama?

We are all used to seeing Alex Salmond jetting off round the world to meet foreign dignitaries. He's off to California soon, Hollywood no less, among other places, to "promote Scotland's interests". He's at a film premiere tonight, mixing with the rich and famous - as he seems to like doing. Let's not forget his mates Murdoch, Connery and Brian Souter and his former bff Donald Trump. Our globe-trotting First Minister has also been to China, the Gulf States and Norway in the past year. If he's bringing the money in by promoting Scottish products to foreign businesses, then fair enough, I suppose.It would be good to have a balance sheet on that so we can judge for ourselves, though.

Given that Salmond is so keen to meet anyone he can, it's quite perplexing that he can't find the time to meet the Dalai Lama during his forthcoming visit to Scotland. You have to ask yourself why. Could it be anything to do with the fact that such a meeting would upset the Chinese? I would be disappointed if that were the case. I have a pretty good hunch that he backs the rights of the people of Tibet to self determination. David Cameron and Nick Clegg took some grief from the Chinese over their meetings with the Dalai Lama so why shouldn't Salmond do the same?

Salmond will be back from his US trip while the Dalai Lama is here. It would be good if he could find a space in his diary to spend some time with him.

Willie Rennie certainly seems to think so. Yesterday he said:

This is a missed opportunity. By failing to meet with the globally respected spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate the First Minister may leave the impression that he is more concerned with pandering to the diktat of the Chinese government than promoting human rights.  We ignore China’s human rights record at our peril.  I appreciate that China would be sensitive about such a meeting but the First Minister should stand up for what’s important. People from across Scotland have waited six years to meet with His Holiness. The cities of Dundee, Edinburgh and Inverness have all noted their enthusiasm towards welcoming him into their streets and town halls.
 Either Mr Salmond has completely misjudged the importance of this event, or he has shown once more that he is too afraid of “rocking the boat.” Last week we saw the First Minister continue to defend Mr Murdoch’s Empire. This week we are seeing his obsession with powerful people continue. I call upon the First Minister to recognise that it is in Scotland’s best interests for him to honour this historic event and show respect for his position by meeting with the Dalai Lama

If Salmond does not meet the Dalai Lama, it could be construed, not least by the Chinese themselves, as panda-ing to them a subject I wrote about when our furry zoo friends were first announced. I'm  reminded of what Shabnum Mustapha, Director of Amnesty Scotland, said when Salmond was in China at the tail end of last year - that, yes, the Chinese would have the diplomatic equivalent of a bit of a strop when human rights were mentioned, but there was evidence that repression did reduce as a result. Offending the Chinese authorities is therefore not a bad thing to do, whether it's about the Dalai Lama or human rights.

Shabnum Mustapha urges Salmond to raise human rights in China

Shabnum Mustapha is a good friend of mine and she's recently started a new job as Director of Amnesty Scotland.

It was lovely to wake up this morning and hear her talking about human rights in China in the context of the pandas and the First Minister's visit to China. She made the point that it's really important for everyone who comes into contact with the Chinese Government to raise the issue of human rights. They may well gruffly brush off such approaches, but there is evidence to show that they do have an effect in reducing the amount of repression that actually takes place.

She talked about the recent deterioration of human rights in China, and described how people in civic society in China welcome the intervention of western governments on these issues and how they appreciate the support of governments and people across the world.  Shabnum said that these trade delegations and the arrival of the pandas are an important part of engagement with the rest of the world and that it gives the opportunity to raise concerns about executions and repression.

You can listen to the whole interview here from around 1:16:30.

Willie Rennie said something very similar the other day - that the arrival of the pandas at Edinburgh zoo wasn't just about the cute and cuddly but a real opportunity to engage with the Chinese Government over human rights. It's a huge opportunity and privilege to represent your country abroad and I think that our ministers, Scottish and UK, have a responsibility to push as hard as they can on human rights issues. It breaks my heart to think of families broken up just because one of their members believes in freedom and democracy, of  people executed after unfair trials, of not being able to say what you feel about the Government for fear of violent retribution. International pressure works to reduce repression and should be used at every possible opportunity.