Beijing parks Olympic dissent

By Mure Dickie in Beijing

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Beijing has set aside areas in three city parks for public demonstrations during next month's Olympic Games – but would-be protesters will still need to get prior government approval.

The announcement yesterday by Liu Shaowu, security director for the Beijing Games organising committee (Bocog), left unclear how willing authorities will be to tolerate displays of dissent in the parks.

Chinese officials rarely grant approval for public protests unless judged supportive of government policy. People who organise protests judged hostile or subversive are routinely detained, jailed or, in the case of foreigners, deported

Members of groups critical of China's policies on Tibet, human rights, the banned Falun Gong sect and Sudan are expected to try to demonstrate during the games.

Mr Liu stressed that no demonstration of “political, religious or racial propaganda” would be permitted in any Olympic site, venue or area. He gave no details of what protest forms or topics would be allowed in the three parks in Beijing's Chaoyang, Fengtai and Haidian districts. It was also unclear how keen Bocog is to make local citizens aware of the designated protest areas; the committee did not include details of their location in its transcript of the press conference.

In response, Human Rights Watch suggested Beijing had adopted a “fishbowl approach” to control demonstrations during the games that would amount to a denial to the right to protest.

“Designating unilaterally ‘protest zones' for demonstrators does not equate to respecting the right to demonstrate because in this situation control comes first and the right second,” Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher at the rights watchdog, said.

“We are also concerned about the possibility that the authorities might use the existence of these zones to justify repressive measures against demonstrators outside of the zones,” he said.

While China insists politics be kept separate from the Olympics, it has defend- ed attempts by officials in Tibet to link the games with its crackdown on separatist dissent in the restive Himalayan region.