Photographs by Sarah Lonsdale and prose by Sam (Samantha) Salvaneschi
Sarah Lonsdale photographed the Australian leg of the Olympic Torch Relay. Sam (Samantha) Salvaneschi co-convened the Goulburn-Canberra Region Organising Committee for the Global Human Rights Torch Relay.
It was 13 July 2001, when the International Olympic Committee announced Beijing as the host city of the 2008 Olympics. From that day onwards, individuals and organisations across the globe have staged different sorts of human rights protests about the State of China’s human rights record. Many people opposing these protests have made much heat and noise to deauthorise them. For example, Kevan Gosper, Australian International Olympic Committee official, characterised the protestors as “professional spoilers” who “just take their hate out on whatever the issues are at the time”.1 Zhang Rongan, of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Australia, called upon Chinese students in Australia and Chinese Australians to "go defend our sacred torch" against "ethnic degenerate scum and anti-China separatists".2 The statements made by these, and other opponents of the human rights protestors, did not, for the main part, address why the latter might be so agitated.
Reputable, independent organisations such as Amnesty International3, Human Rights Watch4, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture5 have long amassed evidence on the State of China’s human rights breaches. This evidence encompasses the Chinese State extensively and directly persecuting its own people6, Tibetans7, Uighurs8 , and North Koreans9, and giving financial aid and political counsel for crimes against the people of Burma10 and Darfur11.
In 2007, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong in China launched the Human Rights Torch Relay for all those humans oppressed by China’s state apparatus as well as those doing the oppressing. The Coalition is comprised of many prominent exiles from China, human rights lawyers, parliamentarians, and others from several countries.12 On 3 December, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Region Declaration affirming the humanist, globalist principles of the Human Rights Torch Relay was signed by leaders of the Coalition, the ACT Refugee Action Committee, the World Citizens Association, the Goulburn-Canberra Diocese of the Catholic Church. It was also signed by representatives of the Burmese-, Darfur-, Tibetan-, and Vietnamese-Australian communities.13
On 11 December, the Human Rights Torch arrived in Canberra, after its travels through the towns and cities of several continents. The Torch was welcomed by a large gathering.14 At this welcome, signatories to the Declaration called for the State of China to live up to its promise to comply with the Olympic Charter. The Charter requires all Member States and, particularly, States hosting the Olympics to effectively act against this devastation of humans and the environment.15 The Declaration reached people all over the world, through media outlets.16
On 8 August 2008, it will be the Beijing Olympic Games media coverage echoing throughout the world. Unfortunately, there is little to suggest that Beijing is winding down its human rights abuses, in anticipation of hosting the Games. Indeed, there is much incontrovertible evidence of the opposite.
Four days after the International Olympic Committee voted for the 2008 Olympics to be hosted by Beijing, China’s Deputy Prime Minister Li Lanqing, said that ‘China’s Olympic victory’ should encourage the country to maintain its ‘healthy life’ by combating such problems as the Falun gong spiritual movement, which had ‘stirred up violent crime’. No other organisation in the world has suggested that the Falun Gong are violent. In fact, they are known for their steadfast commitment to their deeds and words being peaceful.
Soon after the International Olympic Committee announced that Beijing would host the Olympics, the then Vice-President Hu Jintao – now China’s President – announced that the Beijing ‘triumph’ meant it was ‘crucial to fight without equivocation against the separatist forces orchestrated by the Dalai Lama and the world’s anti-China forces’. Simultaneously, the police and judicial authorities were given orders to pursue a ‘hit hard’ campaign against crime. The security officials reinvigorated their pursuit of dissidents purveying free speech through the internet, newspapers and other media.17
People throughout the world who treasure the fair go and mateship salute individuals like the ones pictured in this story’s photographs. The photographs are of protestors outside the Australian Parliament on the day the Olympic Torch passed through Canberra. It was the day before ANZAC Day. It was also the day before the anniversary of when China cracked down in 1999 on a peaceful assembly of Chinese citizens pleading to the Chinese Communist Party to release from detention their fellow Falun Gong practitioners.18 The Chinese Government continues to imprison people from this group, subjecting them to hard labour, and killing them for doing nothing other than gathering together and practising their exercises in parks, which look like Tai Chi. The same Government systematically mistreats Christians19, gays and lesbians20, journalists21, dissidents22, and others23.
Messrs Kevan Gosper and Zhang Rongan, please note well: The humans pictured in the below photographs are protesting against the State of China’s continual abrogation of rights and freedoms. They are defending the same rights and freedoms that Australian defence personnel and volunteers, and many others throughout the world, made enormous sacrifices to preserve.
1http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/04/08/2211252.htm
2http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-7465594,00.html
3http://action.amnesty.org.au/china
4http://hrw.org/englishwr2k8/docs/2008/01/31/china17604.htm
5http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/677C1943FAA14D67C12570CB0034966D
6http://action.amnesty.org.au/china,http://hrw.org/englishwr2k8/docs/2008/01/31/china17604.htm, and http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/677C1943FAA14D67C12570CB0034966D
7http://www.tchrd.org/
8http://www.harunyahya.com/e_turkestan01.php and http://www.pekingduck.org/archives/001384.php
9http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/13/china18447.htm and http://www.cecc.gov/pages/annualRpt/annualRpt05/2005_7_refugees.php
10http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=4851 and http://www.slate.com/id/2175047/
11http://www.dreamfordarfur.org/ and http://www.smh.com.au/news/general/big-australian-branded-moral-coward/2008/04/25/1208743212468.html
12http://cipfg.org
13http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-12-4/62543.html
14http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/12/11/2115969.htm
15http://www.olympic.org/uk/utilities/reports/level2_uk.asp?HEAD2=26&HEAD1=10
16http://www.humanrightstorch.org/news/2007/12/11/putting-torch-to-torture/, http://www.humanrightstorch.org/news/images/Canberra_Times_1.jpg, http://www.humanrightstorch.org/news/category/torch-relay-news/, http://cipfg.org/en/index.php?news=723, and http://act.greens.org.au/1229
17http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=174
18http://121blog21.blogspot.com/2008/04/april-25-ninth-anniversary.html
19http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3993857.stm and http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=7971
20http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/20/china12328.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_China and http://www.tibetjustice.org/reports/beijing.html
21http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=174 and http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/07/yahoo-knew-more.html
22http://www.rfa.org/english/china/china_template-20080109.html and http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/2546/china_dissidents_disappeared/
23http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/014/2004 and http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E6DE1F3CF933A05752C0A9669C8B63
