India's Foreign Secy raises Churachandpur ambush with Myanmar military rulers ::::::: China 'vanishes' Pillar of Shame from Hong Kong varsity

India's Foreign Secy Harsh V Shringla on a two-day visit to Myanmar on Thursday raised matters relating to India’s security with Myanmar military rulers especially in the light of the "recent incident in Churachandpur" district in southern Manipur. 

The Foreign Secretary is on a "working visit" to Myanmar from December 22 to 23. 

He called on the 

Chairman, State Administrative Council and other senior representatives and held meetings with 

members of civil society and political parties, including the National League for Democracy (of Aung San Suu Kyi)," the release said.

India has also pitched for "complete cessation of all violence". 

India strongly backed Myanmar's return to democracy and suggested it is

in the "interest" of India.

A part of the 'Made in India' vaccines handed over to the Myanmar Red Cross Society on Wednesday

by the Foreign Secretary would be "utilized for communities living along Myanmar’s border with India".

 He also reaffirmed India’s strong and consistent support to the ASEAN initiative and expressed hope that progress would be made in a pragmatic and constructive manner, based on the five point consensus.

"Emphasizing that India shares a long border with Myanmar, Foreign Secretary conveyed India’s continued humanitarian support for the people of Myanmar". 

A grant of 10,000 tons of rice and wheat to Myanmar was also announced.

Foreign Secretary Shringla expressed "India's continued support for people-centric socio-economic developmental projects, including those along the India-Myanmar border areas" as well as India’s commitment for expeditious implementation of ongoing connectivity initiatives such as the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project and the Trilateral Highway. 

He reiterated India’s commitment to continue with the projects under Rakhine State Development Programme and Border Area Development Programme for the benefit of the people of Myanmar.

China 'vanishes' Pillar of Shame from Hong Kong varsity :: Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot says “I’m totally shocked 

"The old cannot kill the young forever" ...... but ....

New Delhi:

China has done it again; shown its ruthlessness and total dislike for any
criticism or anything that brings out its past blunders and human rights violations.

Danish sculptor Jens Galschiot said, “I’m totally shocked that Hong Kong University is currently destroying the Pillar of Shame …".

The famous statue at the University of Hong Kong marking the Tiananmen Square 
massacre of 1989 has been removed.

The statue showed piled-up corpses to commemorate pro-democracy protesters killed by the Chinese authorities.

"It was one of the few remaining public memorials in Hong Kong commemorating the incident, which is a highly sensitive topic in China. Its removal comes as Beijing has increasingly been cracking down on political dissent in Hong Kong," says a BBC report.

Reports say workers hung curtains and plastic barriers around the area and boarded up windows at 11pm (Hong Kong) to obscure the view of the site while security guards refused access to journalists and cordoned off roads. 

A cargo container was reportedly put into service and construction noise could be heard as 

workers pushed carts of rubble, and finally the statue had vanished by 1 am (Dec 23, 2021).

The Pillar of Shame at Hong Kong University’s campus came up about 24 years ago.

"It is my private property and the sculpture belongs to me personally … I will claim compensation for any damage to the sculpture. It is a disgrace and an abuse and shows that Hong Kong has become a brutal place," said the Danish sculptor

Jens.

"… And it’s even more grotesque that they use the Western holiday, Christmas, to carry out the 

destruction of the artwork," he said in a statement.

Reuters/BBC snap 

The move is a major blow of an authoritarian regime against 'freedom movements' in Hong Kong.

Till 2020, Hong Kong, due to its promised freedoms and autonomy under the “one country, two systems” 

principle, was the only city under China’s sovereignty where the Tiananmen Square massacre could be 

commemorated.

In the book 'The People's Republic of Amnesia', author Louisa Lim charts how the events of 

June 4th 1989 changed China, and how China changed the events of June 4th by 

'rewriting its own history'.

The book also introduces individuals whose lives were transformed by the events of Tiananmen Square, 

such as a founder of the Tiananmen Mothers, whose son was shot by martial law troops.

The book says, few people in China born after 1989 are even aware of the massacre, such is the regime’s propaganda and control of information.

The BBC's Grace Tsoi, who was at the scene on Wednesday night, said there was sound of cracking and 

drilling, but no one could see what was happening.

The Communist regime in Beijing has covered up the causes of Covid-19 global crisis, silenced whistleblowers 

and rejected demand for an independent international investigation. 

It has also spoken far from truth about the genocide of the Uyghurs and denied its forced organ harvesting.

ends 

Chinese hills

In October, nine pro-democracy activists were sentenced to between six and 10 months in prison for taking part in the banned 2020 vigil in Hong Kong.

Media tycoon Jimmy Lai also received 13 months in prison. The Chinese government has clamped down hard in Hong Kong, introducing a strict national security laws. 

The laws criminalise secession, subversion, terrorism and alleged connivance with foreign forces. 

Each sculpture of the Pillar of Shame was an 8-metre tall statue of bronze, copper or concrete. The sculpture was inaugurated at the NGO Forum of the FAO summit in Rome in 1996. Since then three other pillars have been erected, in Hong Kong, Mexico, and Brazil. A fourth one in Berlin was planned for completion in 2002. 

The statue depicts 50 torn and twisted bodies to symbolize those who died in the government crackdown. On the base of the statue, the history and pictures of the massacre are carved in and engraved into the base, in both English and Chinese, are the words "The Tiananmen Massacre", "June 4th 1989" and "The old cannot kill the young forever."

Every year on June 4, thousands of Hong Kongers gathered in the city’s Victoria Park to remember the 1989 massacre. Now, many of the organisers of the vigil are in jail, and the commemoration is banned.

"The destruction of the Pillar of Shame shows the regime’s intention to ban not only vigils but any visible symbol, with the hope of erasing from the history books and future generations’ memories any knowledge of the tragedy that was unleashed on the people of China in 1989. It represents the regime’s campaign to turn Hong Kong into just another Communist Party-controlled city in China," says a UCAN report.