Japan to allow pro-Tibet protests

By Patrice Novotny, AFP Apr 22, 2008
TOKYO - Japan will allow pro-Tibet protests when the Olympic torch arrives this weekend, marking a change from recent legs of the relay, but will limit the rallies’ size, officials and activists said today.

Demonstrators plan a ceremony at a famed Buddhist temple, which backed out
of plans to be the starting point for Saturday’s relay, to mourn victims of China’s recent crackdown in Tibet.
"Protesting doesn’t pose any particular problem," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters.

He warned, however, that police would intervene if violence broke out at the relay in Nagano, a central mountain town that hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics.

Akemi Takahashi, a member of Students for a Free Tibet Japan, said Nagano police had told the group that it would only allow rallies of "around five people" near the torch.

Police told demonstrators that areas near the relay route "will be occupied by activities of the IOC" (International Olympic Committee), she told AFP. "We have the right to make big demonstrations, but not close to the relay route," she said.

Kyodo News, quoting local officials, said that hotels in Nagano have also been asked to keep a close eye on the identification of foreign guests.
The latest relay legs have been run amid high security following chaotic protest scenes in Western cities, particularly London and Paris. On the torch’s Asian journey, Indonesian police on today broke up a peaceful rally by pro-Tibet demonstrators in Jakarta.

A day earlier, police in Kuala Lumpur said they detained a Japanese family waving Tibetan flags at the relay who had been hit by Chinese nationals with plastic batons.
High-profile protestor Robert Menard, head of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, is planning to come to Japan to hold a rally.
Menard and two others disrupted the flame-lighting ceremony in Greece by unfurling a banner with Olympic rings replaced by handcuffs, setting the stage for demonstrations throughout the torch relay.

Justice Minister Yukio Hatoyama denied reports that Japan was considering barring Menard from entering the country. "If he had received a criminal sentence, it would be a different story, but as of now there are no grounds to discuss denying him entry,"
Hatoyama told reporters.
Japan has been trying to repair ties with China, which are uneasy due in part to memories of Japanese aggression. Chinese President Hu Jintao is due to pay a rare visit to Tokyo from May 6.

The Japan Buddhist Federation, the nation’s largest Buddhist body, gave a letter to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Tuesday calling for a swift resolution to problems in Tibet, which last month saw the biggest protests in nearly two decades against China’s controversial rule.
"We, Japanese Buddhist monks, feel deep sorrow over the serious situation in which clashes in (Tibet capital) Lhasa and its vicinity have caused many casualties," Daijo Toyohara, head of the association, said in the letter. "I would like you to make efforts to reach a humanitarian resolution as soon as possible through peaceful dialogue without the use of force," he said.

Buddhist monks said yesterday that they would hold a ceremony of
mourning for Tibetans on Saturday at the seventh-century Zenkoji temple,
which backed out of being the starting point for the relay.

Den norske TIBET-komité

Den norske Tibet-komité er en partipolitisk uavhengig, landsomfattende organisasjon som er dannet for å arbeide for tibetanernes rettigheter. Tibet-komitéen ble stiftet våren 1989 og har ca 1500 medlemmer. Det finnes tilsvarende støtte-organisasjoner for Tibet over hele verden. Den norske Tibet-komité er en av de største og mest aktive. Våren 1994 arrangerte vi i Norge en konferanse for de europeiske støttegruppene.

Norge og nordmenn har fått en spesiell stilling blant tibetanere etter at deres religiøse og politiske leder, Dalai Lama, i 1989 mottok Nobels fredspris. Flere av de tibetanerne som kom til Norge på 60-tallet, bor her fortsatt, og de er aktive i komitéen. Våren 1996 begynte radiostasjonen Voice of Tibet med sendinger til Tibet, og Norge har igjen styrket sin posisjon i tibetanernes bevissthet.

Tibet ble okkupert av Kina i 1950, og tibetanernes situasjon blir stadig forverret. Fundamentale menneskerettigheter brytes, og den rike tibetanske kulturen står nå i fare for å bli utslettet.

Den norske Tibet-komité har som formål å:

• Få norske myndigheter til anerkjenne Tibet som et okkupert land
  
• Informere om brudd på menneskerettigheter, økonomisk utbytting og diskriminering av tibetanere
  
• Gjøre Tibets rike kultur kjent i Norge