50
BEIJING — China says it will allow protests during the Beijing Olympics, but the demonstrators will be confined to special zones in three suburban parks and must apply for official permission.
The announcement Wednesday is the first sign that China will slightly relax its normal ban on public protests, but the designated “protest pens” will be kept under strict control and permitted only during the Olympic period.
“During the Olympics, in order to ensure smooth traffic flow, a nice environment and good social order, we will invite these participants to hold their demonstrations in designated places,” said Liu Shaowu, security director with Beijing's Olympic organizing committee.
“If they make a legal application and are approved, the Chinese police can protect the rights of the participants,” he told a news conference Wednesday.
An armed personal carrier drives past the main Olympic stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, on Wednesday in Beijing. The 2008 Olympics' security chief has said that Beijing can stage a fun Olympics as well as a safe one, in response to charges that a massive security clampdown was squeezing the joy out of the Games. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)
Related Articles
With barely two weeks remaining until the Games, the rules for protests are still unclear. Mr. Liu was unable to give any information on who will be allowed to protest, what restrictions will apply and whether Chinese citizens and foreign groups will have the same rights to demonstrate.
Similar protest zones have been allowed at previous Olympics, and at meetings of major international groups such as the G8 and the World Trade Organization. Usually, the protest zones are far from the competition or conference locations.
Mr. Liu listed three suburban parks in Beijing where “designated areas” will be created for protesters. All will be more than 10 kilometres from the main Olympic stadiums and media centres, although they will be within a few kilometres of smaller Games venues.
But the exact locations are still shrouded in uncertainty. Even after Mr. Liu mentioned the three parks, their names were carefully deleted from the transcript of his news conference when it was posted on a government website Wednesday.
Human-rights groups were unimpressed by the Chinese plan. “For us, the protest-zone proposal is too vague,” said Alexis Poulin, spokesman for Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based media freedom group.
“We don't know yet what the procedure is to submit a protest for approval, and so far, the Chinese authorities have the right to refuse a protest because of its theme,” he said. “We doubt protests on Tibet or human rights will be able to be staged on those spots.”
Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, an independent group based in New York, said the protest zones are a “fishbowl approach” that fails to provide any real freedom to people in China.
“It curtails the people's right to protest, since they have to do it within the boundaries that the government sets,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
“It's a fig leaf to conceal the fact that people aren't free to demonstrate in China. It will create the impression to foreign television audiences that demonstrations are permitted, but domestic audiences will never see it.”
He predicted that the protest zones will be sealed off and tightly controlled by a heavy police presence, which will discourage any protests by Chinese citizens. “Chinese people know better than to go to a heavily policed area where the police will videotape them.”
Based on the experience of protest zones in Hong Kong and other international conference sites, it is likely that the protesters will be required to register and sign their names, and they will not be allowed to talk to the news media during their protests, Mr. Bequelin said.
China permitted some protests by activist groups in 1995 during a United Nations women's conference, but the protests were confined to the remote Huairou district, about 50 kilometres from Beijing, where non-governmental groups were required to hold their meetings.
As the Olympics approach, Chinese authorities are increasingly obsessed with keeping a tight rein on Beijing during the Games. Outdoor music concerts have been cancelled, sidewalk cafés have been restricted, small restaurants and shops have been closed and many nightclubs have been shut or prohibited from holding live-music events.
But Wednesday, Mr. Liu denied that the Games will become a “no-fun” event. “We truly do want to preserve a festive and joyous atmosphere at the Olympic venues,” he told the news conference.
