Worldwide protests on eve of China Olympics

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 8/7/08 | AFP

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PARIS (AFP) - Police banned demonstrations outside the Chinese embassy in Paris on Thursday but critics of China's human rights record stepped up protests elsewhere in the world to mark the start of the Beijing Olympics.

Police in the French capital said they did not want a repeat of the "violent disturbances" that broke out in April when the Olympic torch passed through Paris, when activists angry at China's crackdown in Tibet disrupted the route.

They banned any protests outside the embassy on Thursday and Friday, when the Games officially open, including a demonstration planned Friday by a coalition including media watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

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China has painted the Games as a celebration of three decades of economic reforms and hopes the event will showcase a rapidly modernising country.

But activists across the world are using the Games to pressure Beijing over its rule of Tibet and heavily Muslim Xinjiang province, the arrests of dissidents, Internet censorship and concerns about Chinese foreign policy.

A total of 127 athletes, including more than 40 competing in the Games, have called on China's President Hu Jintao to seek a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue and improve the rights situation, according to an open letter posted online.

In Washington, scores of activists protested in front of the Chinese embassy, shouting "Beijing Olympics, Genocide Olympics," "China lie, People die" and "Stop the killing in Tibet, Stop the Killing in East Turkestan."

"The Beijing Games is supposed to reflect peace and human rights but the Chinese government is continuing its crackdown on our innocent people, detaining and executing them," charged Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of Uighurs in Xinjiang, a vast area that borders Central Asia.

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A frame from a video purportedly from the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), taken from the Internet, shows a speaker with an image of a burning bus, as he speaks in front of a black banner carrying the words in Arabic: "There is no God other than Allah, Mohammad is the messenger of God". A little known Islamist group has threatened attacks against the Olympic Games in China and urged Muslims to keep away from any activities linked to its events, two U.S.-based terrorism monitoring firms said on Thursday. REUTERS/Handout

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A torchbearer takes part in the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay at the Badaling section of the Great Wall on the outskirts of Beijing August 7, 2008. (Joe Chan/Reuters)