By Jennifer Hill,
Scottish Press Association
Scores of people took to the streets of Scotland’s capital today to protest against the appearance of a band from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at this year’s Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Around 120 human rights activists and members of the Free Tibet Campaign marched from the Tattoo offices on Edinburgh’s Market Street and along Princes Street before gathering for rally at West Princes Street Gardens.
Accompanied by a lone piper, drummers and percussionists, amid a high police presence, the throng of men, women and children of all ages and races waved banners with messages such as: “PLA, toot for human rights abuses in China”; “Stop the injustice, Stop the PLA”; “Scotland’s kids say free Tibet”; and “People’s Liberation Army, 18 million victims.”
Speaking at a rally in the midst of a merry-go-round and ice cream stalls, John Watson, programme director of Amnesty International Scotland said: “The situation in China is appalling in terms of human rights with thousands of people executed on the back of a legal system that’s not working properly and where torture is being used as a means of extracting information from people.
“People using the internet in China are being persecuted and put into jail, people trying form trade unions are being persecuted and put into jail.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army are implicitly involved, it’s at the heart of the Chinese system that’s bringing this about.”
Mr Watson said Amnesty International had taken its concerns to Brigadier Melville Jameson, chief executive and producer of this year’s Tattoo, which starts on Friday. Brigadier Jameson claimed this week the organisers were “100% right” to invite the PLA.
However the director conceded Mr Jameson was “not a man for turning”.
“He says that the PLA are charming people and that the events that Tiananmen Square are in the past and things have changed,” Mr Watson said.
“Let’s make our response clear – the charming people that he’s talking about are in the good books of the Chinese government, he should be careful about who he wants to be friends with.
“And Tiananmen Square is not history, it was not a one off incident, it was a particularly brutal incident, but it still goes on, this is living history and the PLA is still involved with it.
“It’s clear the PLA are still going to take part in this Tattoo, but for as long as they are involved in these abuses we will speak out against it.”
