Chinese Goons Take Over London?

Photo: YUI MOK/The Associated Press

Along London's Olympic torch route, a police officer Sunday tackled a man protesting China's human rights record and the recent crackdown on Tibet.
A fellow blogger has forwarded a very important and unexplored, (here in the USA) angle on the Olympic torch problem, at least regarding the events in London. I’ve selected a few paragraphs but you can go to the link below for the full blog:
Curly’s Corner Shop,
The Blog
April 8, 2008
Black Tuesday for Brown
Any good news for the PM?
[...] I wonder how comfortable our Scottish Prime Minister has felt seeing images of Chinese goons manhandling protesters on the streets of London, and pushing and urging on their British police counterparts as the Olympic Flame stumbled on it’s way? Apparently, Kevin Rudd, the Australian PM has declared that they will not be able to do the same job in his country, the Aussies will look after security themselves, the big question must be ‘who gave the authority for this display of Chinese security tactics?’
Geoffrey Wheatcroft writing in the Daily Mail says:
“The Prime Minister hadn’t himself planned this dismal event, and it would be nice to think that he hated every moment of it.”
Yes, he had a horrified look upon his face as the Olympic Torch closed in on him in Downing Street, he was at pains to ensure that he did not touch it himself, why doesn’t he take a big brave Merkel type decision to stay away from the games’ opening ceremony in Beijing?
In another article Lord Coe condemned the army of Chinese “thugs” who accompanied the Olympic torch relay through London.
The head of London’s 2012 Games described as “horrible” the burly henchmen who barged their way through the capital, shoving the public and even police out of the way.
“One thing in Paris is to get rid of those guys. They tried to push me out of the way three times. They are horrible. They did not speak English. They were thugs.”
The blue track suited goons were seen on television using judo tactics to bring down protesters before pushing the ‘yellow jacket’ British Police towards them, and what were they all carrying in those bum bags on belts around their waists? I sincerely hope they were first aid kits!
So who authorised their presence? Was it the British Olympic Association or the Greater London Authority? Where did the Home Office fit into the jigsaw puzzle? [my bold]
Either way, the Metropolitan Police do not seem impressed at all;
Privately, police were said to be furious as officers were made to look ridiculous, jogging along in cycle helmets and holding hands to form a chain around the bearers.



http://curly15.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/black-tuesday-for-brown/
Not to be frivolous, but I got a thrill when my fave “AbFab” gal, Jayne Secker, was interviewed on the video report, expressing “the greatest abhorrence” at what the Chinese government was doing to Tibet and other ethnic minorities. A great actor and citizen. Right on!

Beleaguered Olympic Torch Bussed into Paris

Isn’t it about time we Americans step up and show some serious support for human rights and basic civil liberties in China? It’s really amazing how more devoted some of us are to “political correctness” than in recognizing the simple fact that the people of Tibet have started a truly amazing movement which is spreading throughout China. It’s no longer enough to debate who’s on what side when people are imprisoned for having a photograph of this week's "counter-revolutionary," nor is it "progressive" to assume everybody in Tibet is a prop for the CIA, Chinese warlords or Black Hat Buddhists! Vive Le France! Right On, London! Get Your Feet in the Streets, San Francisco!

Olympic Torch Relay in Paris Halted as Protests Spread
By KATRIN BENNHOLD and JOHN F. BURNS
Published: April 8, 2008
PARIS — What was supposed to be a majestic procession for the Olympic torch through the French capital turned into chaos Monday as thousands of people from around Europe, many with Tibetan flags, massed to protest the passage of the flame. The torch went out several times, and police officers had to put it onto a bus to try to protect it as demonstrators swarmed the security detail. In the end, organizers canceled the final leg of the procession.
A police spokeswoman, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accordance with policy, said the torch went out “for technical reasons” unrelated to the protests, without offering further clarification. CNN reported that the torch was extinguished at least twice amid the melee, and The Associated Press said officials were forced to extinguish the flame five times to carry it in the safety of the bus.
[...] It was yet another unscripted moment in the passage of the Olympic flame, and the second time in two days that the torch relay had been disrupted in a European capital.
Some 3,000 police officers in Paris — on foot, horseback, in-line skates and motorbikes and even in boats on the Seine — tried to prevent a repeat of the scenes in London on Sunday, when the torch’s progression through the streets turned into a tumult of scuffles. One man broke through a tight security cordon in the London protests and made a failed grab for the torch, and 35 people were arrested.
[...] Officers with machine guns guarded sensitive Metro exits along the 17-mile route.
“One would almost think oneself in Lhasa,” said Jean-Paul Ribes, leader of the Support Committee of the Tibetan People in France, who was among the thousands massed on the Trocadero square, across the Seine from the Eiffel tower, where the flame began its passage through Paris. “It snowed last night, now the sky is blue — and police are everywhere,” Mr. Ribes said.
Many protesters — demonstrating against China’s human rights policies in general, or for a free Tibet, or simply for a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing — echoed a headline emblazoned across the front page of the left-wing daily Liberation, under a picture of the Olympic rings restyled as handcuffs: “Liberate The Olympic Games!”
[...] Tibetan organizations have said they plan protests at every stop on the torch’s 21-nation tour. After Paris, it moves to San Francisco, its only American stop, on Wednesday. The monthlong tour is scheduled to end in Vietnam; it is to be followed by a six-week, 46-stop tour of China.
[...] One protester who broke through the police cordon, David Allen, said his anger flared at the sight of British sports stars being guarded in London by Chinese security men.
“It makes us complicit in the regime’s repression,” Allen said. ”You have to ask: Where were these security men last week? Beating up people in the villages of China, no doubt.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/world/europe/08torch.html?hp
Retired French tennis player Arnaud Di Pasquale carried an extinguished Olympic torch to a bus for safe keeping. A police spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with policy, said the torch went out "for technical reasons" unrelated to the protests, without offering further clarification.

No Torch Support from Football Captain

India footballer in Tibet protest
India's football captain Baichung Bhutia has refused to carry the Olympic torch during its journey through the Indian capital Delhi later this month.
He told the authorities the move was in protest against China's crackdown on Tibetan demonstrators, officials said.
[...] "I sympathise with the Tibetan cause. This is my way of standing by the people of Tibet and their struggle. I abhor violence in any form," Bhutia told the Times of India newspaper.
Bhutia is a Buddhist who comes from the north-eastern Indian state of Sikkim which has long been claimed by China as its own territory.
The footballer told the newspaper he had not been requested by any group to pull out of the torch run.
"This is an absolutely personal decision. I feel what is happening in Tibet is not right and in my small way I should show my solidarity," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7323803.stm