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http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/420703
Patriotism eclipses Olympic torch protests in Hong Kong
TheStar.com - Olympics - Patriotism eclipses Olympic torch protests in
Hong Kong
May 01, 2008
Bill Schiller
Asia Bureau
HONG KONG =97 A patriotic crowd of Chinese citizens waving flags shouted
down a group of pro-Tibetan protesters here today, as the Olympic
torch began its journey through the streets of Hong Kong marking its
return to Chinese soil after a controversial tour of 20 international
cities.
Despite drizzle, thousands turned out for the event amid heavy
security and vastly outnumbered demonstrators =97 some carrying Tibetan
flags and pro-Tibetan placards =97 who had come to protest for democracy
and human rights.
Police had to protect a 21-year-old university student, identified as
Christina Chan, who draped herself in a Tibetan flag, then defiantly
waved it on high towards the crowd.
She was packed into a police van as an angry crowd shouted obscenities
at her.
"What kind of Chinese are you?" someone in the crowd shouted.
The 33-km relay began peacefully and triumphantly with a ceremony led
by Hong Kong's Beijing-appointed Chief Executive Donald Tsang calling
for "unity and peace."
"We are a world in a city, where different people with different
beliefs and different views have thrived in a spirit of diversity,
tolerance and respect," Tsang said.
Those differing views, however, were mainly held in check as the relay
began.
Citizens had been encouraged to wear patriotic red and they clearly
dominated Friday's festivities as the relay got underway.
Tibetan sup****ters had vowed to dog the relay with protests.
Lhadon Tethong, the executive director of Students for a Free Tibet
campaign promised during a webcast earlier this week that Tibetans
would do "everything in their power to protest the torch relay."
But in the early stages today, only a few carried signs urging greater
respect for human rights and calling attention to the Tibet crisis.
The relay will now march on to more than 100 Chinese towns and cities
in the lead-up to the games that begin Aug. 8.
Meanwhile, actress-turned-activist Mia Farrow landed here Thursday,
skirting controversy but determined to bring the plight of the people
of Darfur into the light of the Olympic flame.
Pulled aside and questioned by authorities, she said that she had no
intention of disrupting events, she told re****ters later.
"We're not going anywhere near the torch," Farrow said. "Nor would we
want to disrupt it."
But it was equally true, she acknowledged, that she had been drawn to
Hong Kong by the arrival of the flame.
Choosing her words carefully, she said she had wanted to be here
"while the torch was passing through" to bring "balance" to the issues
being considered surrounding the Games and to ensure the voice of
Darfur's voiceless is heard.
Farrow insists that China has "unique leverage" to alleviate the agony
and suffering of Darfurians, now enduring their fifth year of attacks
by outlaw militias sup****ted by the Sudanese government.
China is one of Sudan's biggest backers and a supplier of arms to the
African state.
It also relies on Sudan for oil.
"There are 2.7 million people in camps across Darfur and eastern
Chad," Farrow said, adding that she wants to make sure that "their
voice is heard."
She wants China to do "two things and two things only," she said: to
persuade the Sudanese government to end both aerial bombardments and
ground attacks against Darfur, and to allow a full peacekeeping force
of 26,000 to deploy in Sudan as soon as possible, as proposed under a
United Nations resolution.
Sudan has blocked full deployment and allowed a weaker force of just
9,000 to assemble.
China, she believes, has the power and influence to change all that.
Farrow =97 and the group to which she belongs: Dream for Darfur =97
persuaded Hollywood director Stephen Spielberg to resign from his
advisory position with the Beijing Games.
Farrow did it by popularizing the term "the Genocide Olympics."
China's failure to influence Sudan to end the rape and pillage of
Darfur runs the risk of having the Beijing Olympics remembered as "the
Genocide games," she argues.
International human rights monitors, and the U.S. government, have
said the situation on the ground in Darfur constitutes "genocide."
Spielberg's resulting resignation embarrassed and infuriated the
Chinese government.
But it opened the door to Farrow and to Dream for Darfur executive
director Jill Savitt.
"They were very nice. They were very polite," Farrow said of
authorities who questioned her. She said the authorities wanted "some
reassurance" that they had not come to disrupt the torch relay and she
gave it.
The 19-city international leg of the Olympic torch relay which ended
this week has been a fiasco.
It has been marred by protesters keen to draw attention to China's
human rights record and by counter-protests by Chinese nationals
overseas who claim anti-Chinese bias in the Western media.
Chinese authorities remain anxious about the relay.
Hong Kong still prides itself on upholding free speech and the right
to dissent under its unique "one country, two systems" arrangement,
rights that were guaranteed when it was repatriated to China in 1997.
Such rights have not yet been extended to the mainland.
Farrow's relatively smooth entry was won during a week when a number
of other activists were blocked from entering Hong Kong, including
Canadians Kate Woznow and Lama Tsering from Students for a Free Tibet.
Asked about their plight, Farrow said: "I made a resolution not to
talk about the Tibetans and their struggle. But on a personal note, I
do sympathize with their struggle. It's just not helpful to discuss it
here, now.
"It's always worrying when you see human rights activists expelled or
denied access."
Farrow added she intends to broadcast live during the Olympic Games
from camps in the Darfur region.
"The people of Darfur cannot show up," she said, "They cannot
participate in the Games, attend the Games or even view the Games.
"They have no voice."
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur during the turmoil.
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