China Defies Rudd On Torch Relay
The Age
Wednesday April 23, 2008
CHINA'S ambassador to Australia has defied Prime Minister Kevin Rudd by declaring that Chinese attendants travelling with the Olympic torch will "use their bodies" to protect it.
On the eve of the torch's arrival in Canberra from Jakarta this morning, Zhang Junsai made it clear that the blue tracksuit-wearing attendants would become involved physically if anyone tried to extinguish the flame."Their role is to make sure that the flame will not go out," he told the Nine Network. "Was the flame attacked, I believe they will use their bodies to hold this, not to let flame go out."His statement contradicts repeated assertions by Mr Rudd that the Chinese attendants would have no security role in tomorrow's Australian leg of the torch relay.After scuffles broke out when the Olympic torch was in London, Paris and San Francisco, Mr Rudd said: "The physical security of the Olympic torch will be provided by Australian security officials only."He said the Chinese attendants would travel in a bus, except when they were needed to light a fresh torch.The Federal Government stood its ground last night, firmly rejecting any suggestion that the torch attendants would become involved in security.Concerns about tomorrow's event have grown following clashes involving protesters across the globe, and plans by thousands of Chinese Australians and pro-Tibet demonstrators to gather in Canberra for tomorrow's events.In Jakarta yesterday, 5500 police provided security for the relay, which was witnessed by hand-picked onlookers. Police broke up a rally by pro-Tibet activists outside the national stadium, which was protected by security forces.About 100 protesters wearing "Free Tibet" T-shirts chanted, "A united people will be invincible." Police moved in, dragging nine away for questioning. All were quickly released at the scene, but a Dutch man was taken to Jakarta police headquarters and remained in custody last night.Mr Zhang said that as long as protests in Canberra were peaceful, they would be respected. "This should be an occasion for the people from all ethnic groups to come to celebrate," he said.In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that after extensive consultations with Canberra, China was confident the torch relay would be "properly handled".The controversy over security for the torch came as a former Australian human rights commissioner accused China of using the Beijing Games as a propaganda tool in the same way Nazi Germany did in Berlin in 1936. University of Sydney adjunct professor Sev Ozdowski said Chinese authorities were trying to use the Olympics to enhance China's status as a world power and economic success story. Like Nazi Germany, there were political executions, media censorship and restrictions on freedom of association in modern China.He said there was agreement among experts that human rights had deteriorated in China since it won the Games, and likened the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners to the exclusion of Jews from the 1936 Olympics.Dr Ozdowski - who as human rights commissioner wrote an influential report on the mandatory detention of children in immigration - was speaking in Sydney to the Foreign Correspondents' Association.He said the Olympic flame had come to represent civil liberties and freedoms and the fact it was being guarded by Chinese authorities and hidden away from the public was symbolic of the way civil liberties were being treated in China.Dr Ozdowski said it was "wrong" if the Chinese embassy in Australia was helping organise pro-Beijing demonstrations.The celebrations tomorrow will begin before dawn, when Canberra's skyline is lit up with fireworks to welcome the torch to Australia.After Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe lights the Olympic cauldron at the official ceremony on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, 30 hot-air balloons will take to the sky. Among the performers will be Shannon Noll, Brian Cadd, Russell Morris and Australian of the Year Lee Kernaghan. -- With AGENCIES
© 2008 The Age