A day before the Olympics open in Beijing, around 100 protestors rallied in front of the Chinese embassy in Berlin Thursday to demonstrate for human rights. Similar protests are planned in several other European cities.
Demonstrators representing Tibetan groups, Uighurs, Mongolians and the Falun Gong spiritual movement gathered in front of the Chinese embassy in Berlin on Thursday, Aug 7, waving flags and holding banners.
The protest was one of a series of events planned in several European cities on the eve of the Olympic Games in Beijing to draw world attention to China’s poor human rights record.
Protests were planned in Lisbon and in Porto in Portugal, candle vigils in several Swiss cities and one in Norway, while in London the Free Tibet campaign was to hold a protest in front of the Chinese embassy on Friday.
France bans protests outside Chinese embassy
In Paris, authorities banned rights groups from demonstrating outside the Chinese embassy on Thursday and Friday.
News agency AFP reported that a ruling ruling sent to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) bans “all gatherings” from Thursday at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) to Friday at midnight (2200 GMT) within a fixed perimeter surrounding the Chinese embassy and consulate.
RSF had called for a rally outside the embassy at 1:00 pm Friday, to coincide with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s arrival in Beijing for the three-hour-long Olympic opening ceremony.
The media watchdog has challenged the ruling in court, with a decision due Friday at 10:30 am, AFP reported.
“Games of repression”
The demonstrators in Berlin tried — and failed — on Thursday to hand over a petition signed by 10,000 people calling for greater human rights in China organised by a local non-governmental organisation.
According to the Goettingen-based human rights group, Society for Threatened Peoples, the diplomatic delegation would not grant an appointment, despite multiple requests.
By handing over the petition the organization wanted to once against demonstrate against the increasing persecution of ethnic groups and religious communities. The Society for Threatened Peoples’ secretary general , Tilman Zülch, told German news agency DPA that this would not be a “Games of Peace” for Tiebtans, Uighurs, Mongolians and Falun Gong members.
“They’ve already suffered too much repression in the past months for that,” he added.
Zülch also told news agency DDP that the Olympics in China were “comparable with the games from 1936 in Berlin,” when Nazi Germany hosted the sporting event.
“These aren’t the games of openness and friendship, but rather the games of repression,” he said, adding that China was a ruled by a totalitarian regime that committed human rights abuses.
China has painted the Games as a celebration of three decades of economic reforms and hopes the event will showcase a rapidly modernizing country.
More than 1,000 Tibetans missing, groups say
Some 100 participants took park in the demonstration in Berlin which couldn’t take place directly at the embassy due to police barriers. They held up banners with Chinese characters written on them, expressing their hope for improvement of human rights.
The protestors also took lit torches, emblazoned with the Olympic rings, and put them out in giant tubs of water. With this symbolic gesture, the demonstrators wanted to make clear that Beijing has failed to honor the promises made leading up to the games to better human rights in the country.
According to human rights organizations, more than 1,000 Tibetan were taken into custody during the unrest and mass arrests in March 2008 and are still missing.
More than 1,500 Uighurs have been arrested in recent weeks for political reasons, and members of the Falun Gong sects have been victims of torture and murder. 3,160 of them have meet grisly deaths while in the custody of the security forces, they say.
Germany-wide “protestival”
Pro-Tibet groups are planning to hold Germany-wide demonstrations in order to call attention to the constant violations of human rights in China.
Over the next 17 days, some 50 campaigns are planned to take place in 30 different cities, including Berlin, Munich and Frankfurt.
One group of Tibet activists plan to hold a “protestival” at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate to call attention to the “ongoing bad human rights situation” in the Chinese-controlled province.
Campaign organizers are hoping to use the demonstrations to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet question as well as an end to torture, capital punishment and other human rights violations in China.
