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Friday, May 2, 2008
[+/-] : After Troubled Tour, Torch Arrives in China
Kin Cheung/Associated PressPolice officers prevented Leung Kwok-hung, a lawmaker and pro-democracy activist, from moving closer to the Olympic flame welcoming ceremony in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
After Troubled Tour, Torch Arrives in China
By GRAHAM BOWLEY and KEITH BRADSHER, The New York Times
The Olympic torch returned to China on Wednesday in preparation for its first relay on Chinese soil after a troubled worldwide tour.
There were no reports of protests, but several advocates critical of China had already been deported. The torch’s relay through Hong Kong will take place on Friday.
The torch’s arrival in Hong Kong has been depicted as part of a broader struggle over Hong Kong’s evolving role as an autonomous territory of China. The torch, traveling from Vietnam, landed at Hong Kong International Airport, where it was greeted by a marching band and flag-waving children dressed in red and white tracksuits, The Associated Press reported.
The torch was then taken to a welcoming ceremony at a cultural center.
On Saturday, the Hong Kong government denied entry to three Danish human rights advocates who had hoped to protest at the torch relay, detaining them for six hours and then putting them against their will on a flight to London. A Tibetan monk was stopped on arrival at the airport over the weekend and forced to fly elsewhere, according to the local news media.
On Tuesday, three pro-Tibet advocates were deported after they arrived at the airport in Hong Kong, The A.P. said.
In a statement on Wednesday, Amnesty International urged the Hong Kong authorities to allow protesters “to engage in peaceful demonstrations before, during and after the Olympic torch relay.”
Despite the deportations, local critics of China’s human rights record are still planning to demonstrate, and more rights advocates from overseas are expected to try to enter the territory of Hong Kong to hold their own protests, notably the actress Mia Farrow, who is now one of the most prominent critics of China’s role in the Darfur region of Sudan.
About 3,000 police officers planned to guard the torch during its relay on Friday, The A.P. reported.
The Hong Kong police authorities have been making extensive preparations to try to separate critics and supporters of China on Friday. “It has been, and continues to be, the Hong Kong Police Force’s policy to endeavor to facilitate, as far as possible, all peaceful public order activities,” the police said in an e-mail response to questions.
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which commemorates the Tiananmen Square killings in 1989 and seeks human rights improvements in Hong Kong, held a small demonstration on Monday to protest the government’s decision to block the entry of the Danish advocates.
“It really hurts the image of Hong Kong as an international city when we start restricting freedom of access,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a union leader, Hong Kong legislator and vice chairman of the alliance.
Any protests that take place Friday could be an early glimpse of demonstrations to come during the Olympics in August. The International Olympic Committee moved all six Olympic equestrian events from Beijing to Hong Kong after Beijing failed to convince international veterinary groups that horses brought into mainland China could be kept free of equine diseases.
Groups critical of China are considering whether to hold protests at Olympic events here or in Beijing. Hong Kong has a tradition of tolerating peaceful protest, but Beijing will host more Olympic events, so protests there may receive greater attention.
Reached by telephone on Sunday night at her Connecticut home, Ms. Farrow said she had not been aware that rights advocates were being stopped at the airport. She still planned to fly to Hong Kong this week.
“I don’t think we have a choice; we have to go,” said Ms. Farrow, chairwoman of the advisory board of Dream for Darfur, a group that criticizes China for its diplomatic, military and commercial ties to Sudan.
The Hong Kong immigration authorities have a policy of not commenting on individual cases. But officials have said in recent weeks that any government has the right to refuse entry to those who may be disruptive, and they have denied suggestions that the city is taking orders from Beijing.
Before Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, the Chinese government promised to let Hong Kong run its own domestic affairs, including immigration policies, with considerable autonomy until 2047.
Chinese citizens and people of Chinese descent have shown up in large numbers at torch relay events from San Francisco to Sydney and have sometimes scuffled with critics of China’s policies in Tibet. Three Japanese citizens received blows when they tried to unfurl a pro-Tibet banner at the torch relay in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, but suffered no lasting injuries, according to the Japanese Embassy there. Pro-China demonstrators also threw rocks, water bottles, and plastic and metal pipes at critics of China during the torch relay on Sunday in Seoul, South Korea.
Official Chinese news media have exhorted citizens in recent days to “defend the torch” in each city on the relay route. “We are worried that we may be confronted by these nationalists,” said Mr. Lee, of the Hong Kong Alliance.
Jill Savitt, the executive director of Dream for Darfur, who plans to arrive here with Ms. Farrow on Thursday, said that it was in the interest of Beijing officials to encourage Hong Kong to allow advocates to enter. “They have just called more attention to their repressive policies than letting them in would have done,” she said.
Dream for Darfur had been planning to hold protests in Beijing, but is concerned now about the increasingly tough Chinese position toward protesters, and is considering whether to shift demonstrations to the Hong Kong events instead, Ms. Savitt said.
The Chinese government has said repeatedly that it is seeking peace in Darfur, and its top envoy for the region has made a series of trips in an effort to win an agreement among the various warring factions. But groups like Dream for Darfur hold Beijing responsible for providing military, diplomatic and commercial assistance to the government of Sudan, which the activists accuse of allowing and even encouraging widespread murders and other human rights abuses in Darfur.
Graham Bowley reported from New York, and Keith Bradsher from Hong Kong.
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