Torch begins journey, will remind the world about Tibet
Almaty (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The torch relay kicked off as the Beijing Olympic flame arrived in Almaty today, first leg in a journey long 137,000 kilometres that will take it to 21 venues around the world. At the same time international organisations report that the worst repression in years is underway in mainland China. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is also complaining about censorship on the Internet.
The torch arrived by plane from Beijing. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev was there to welcome it. In a jovial move the president made a short symbolic run carrying the torch. He thanked China for choosing Almaty, “centre of Eurasia”, as first stop after Beijing.
But Kazakhstan still felt obliged to deploy 4,500 police and plainclothes agents to patrol the streets in case of any protests.
Men and women in national costumes performed elaborate, well-coordinated dances and several panda-shaped balloons were released into a clear spring sky.
Here, along the Great Silk Road linking Asia and Europe, the torch sets off on its 33-day journey that will take it to London, Paris, San Francisco and all over the world, till it makes its way back to China on May 4.
But this same journey is becoming a magnet for all those who want to protest against the repression in Tibet and human rights violations in China as well as genocide in Darfur.
About 80 torch-bearers, including Timur Kulibayev, a billionaire son-in-law of Nazarbayev, and top industry officials, are expected to carry the torch around the leafy streets of the Soviet-built capital.
China's human rights abuses are intensifying as the government in Beijing tightens the screws, especially after its military intervention in Tibet and the arrest of human rights activists, before the Olympic Games begin in August, Amnesty International said in a report today.
The London-based group called on governments and international organisations to press China to free activists Hu Jia (who is on trial) and Yang Chulin (already sentenced to five years in prison for writing “We don't want the Olympics, we want human rights.”).
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu dismissed Amnesty’s report, saying that “the organisation has always held a prejudice against China and you can imagine what kind of report it will release”.
Amnesty and other groups insist though that China allow journalists and independent observers access to Tibet and other provinces (Sichuan, Gansu, Qinghai, Yunnan) touched by Chinese military intervention in accordance with the “official promises to ensure complete media freedom in the run-up to the Olympics””
Yesterday the IOC also insisted that during the Games Beijing allow an open access to Internet, at least for the expected 30,000 journalists.
China routinely blocks internet access, a practice it has stepped up since rioting broke out in Tibet on 14 March.
For Kevan Gosper, vice-chairman of the IOC co-ordinating commission, blocking Internet caused some criticism “but this is not Games time.”
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