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OTTAWA — Demonstrators across Canada are using the opening week of the Beijing Olympics to highlight their protests against human-rights abuses in China and Chinese rule over Tibet.
A handful of protesters calling for a free Tibet chained themselves to the main gate of the Chinese embassy for a short time Wednesday before unlocking their bonds at police request.
Later, a call on the embassy from members of Amnesty International Canada, urging China to ease human-rights abuses, went unanswered.
In Vancouver, demonstrators set up a mock tank outside the Chinese consulate in another protest in support of Tibet.
A pro-Tibet demonstrator unfurls a banner on a lamppost outside the Chinese embassy during a protest in Ottawa Wednesday. (Chris Wattie/Reuters)
The free-Tibet activists blocked the entrance to the consulate as a protester dressed as a Tibetan monk dipped his arm into a bucket of mixed cement.
The RCMP removed the protester's arm from the concrete and arrested him on potential charges of trespassing. They later loaded the makeshift tank onto a flatbed truck and drove it away as evidence.
The group Students for a Free Tibet, which organized the demonstration, identified the arrested protester as Tashi Chogyal, a 21-year-old American-born Tibetan who travelled from Portland, Ore.
“As the Olympic Games come closer and closer, China is continuing to use the Games as a platform to legitimize their Olympic occupation,” said group member Hayfa Abichahine.
“The situation in Tibet has not improved since China was awarded (the Olympics). The situation in Tibet has actually dramatically worsened”.
In Ottawa, about half a dozen people strung thick, steel chains around their torsos and through the iron gates of the embassy before padlocking themselves together and tucking the keys to the locks inside their shoes.
As they sat down on the pavement, two women in climbing gear scaled light poles on either side of the gate and unfurled banners calling for an end to Chinese rule over Tibet.
Protest organizer Tsering Lama, also a member of Students for a Free Tibet, made no apologies for holding the demonstration just as the Summer Games were set to officially get underway on Friday.
“I think the Olympics were politicized from the very beginning when the Chinese government and the (International Olympic Committee) promised the world that human rights would improve inside China,” said Tsering.
“All we're doing is trying to tell the truth and use the Olympic spotlight to shine it on the situation inside Tibet.”
An embassy spokesman complained that police took too long to remove the protesters.
Police, however, said they were satisfied to end the demonstration without incident less than two hours after it began.
“Our job is to ensure that while individual rights are protected and respected, we reach the most peaceful ending to any situation that we're faced with,” said Cpl. J.J. Hainey, an RCMP spokesman.
The protest ended without any arrests. However, police said they would continue investigating.
There was no response at the embassy a couple of hours later when David Kelleher of Amnesty International rang the bell.
Kelleher and Beatrice Vaugrante, co-presidents of the group's Canadian branch, showed up with supporters carrying bags and boxes full of letters signed by Canadians demanding China fulfill its promise to address human-rights grievances.
Lindsay Mossman, the group's campaign head for human rights in Asia, said complaints were falling on deaf ears and the Chinese government needs to be held accountable.
“We have always been open to having a meeting with the embassy,” Mossman said.
The embassy's refusal to acknowledge the letters only supported Mossman's claim that requests to meet with Chinese government officials in person have been ignored.
Vaugrante gave up after waiting 20 minutes.
“Bye bye, embassy!” she said as she walked away from the large, black iron gate. “It was my pleasure.”
The tolerance of human-rights violations by Olympic host countries is no different from turning a blind eye to doping, said a new online journal focusing on the Olympics and human rights.
The journal, at www.olympicjournal.ca, was produced by Canada's International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, a body created by Parliament two decades ago to help close the gap between international human-rights obligations and actual practices.
The group's Olympic Journal called on the International Olympic Committee to consider adopting a human-rights framework based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“As Canada prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics, we must remind everyone that hosting the Olympic Games is not only a privilege, it is a responsibility,” Remy Beauregard, new president of the Montreal-based group, said in a statement.
“The IOC and the host country have a responsibility to see that international human-rights commitments are respected.”
While it doesn't mention the Beijing Games specifically in its preamble, the website contains numerous links to stories related to China's human-rights record.
