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KHALID A-H ANSARI |
When the Olympic torch arrived here yesterday to a rousing reception after its 136-country, 87,000-mile controversy-riddled journey over six continents, four protestors climbed a pole outside the Games Village and hoisted a "Free Tibet" banner. They have been detained pending deportation.
Security precautions have been beefed up in Beijing since last week's bomb attacks by Turkestan separatists linked to overseas Uygur terrorist groups in China's north-western Xinjiang province bordering Central Asia, in which 16 policemen were killed.
Security personnel were ubiquitous at Shanghai's spanking new Terminal 3, when I arrived yesterday morning, with police positioned under all major bridges and junctions and at landmarks such as Tiannanmen Square and Xinhuamen, the main entrance to the national leaders' offices.
A total of 110,000 police officers are said to guard the capital city, with an estimated 1.4 million volunteers assisting them.
With more than 80 world leaders and senior officials attending the opening tomorrow, the Beijing Olympics are expected to have the biggest presence of international dignitaries in the Games' history.
It is estimated that more than 110 flights carrying VIP guests will arrive at Beijing Capital International airport, peaking today with more than 50 flights.
President George W Bush, made a reference in Seoul yesterday to China's unsatisfactory human rights record, terming denial of religious rights a "mistake". He was expected to express disapproval of suppression of dissent in China during his whistle stop visit to Thailand last night.
Rigorous checks
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Rafael Nadal practices at the Olympic Green Tennis Center ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, yesterday. |
Surveillance cameras have been set up at sensitive areas in the city and all vendors and scavengers near the famed square have been evicted. Those caught peddling in the streets anywhere in the capital are sent to detention centres for five days.
All 1,080 businesses in Shanghai's subway stations were closed down yesterday in the interest of public security during the Games, with food, garment, electronics and newspaper stores and stands in 70 of the city's 164 metro stations shut down, without compensation, until after the Olympics.
About 1,600 buses on routes past the Shanghai Stadium, where most of the soccer matches will be played, were equipped with video cameras yesterday, when the women's football event got under way.
Although most have accepted the deprivation of civil rights stoically, some in the national interest, not all affected people have acquiesced.
Last Monday, about 20 Beijingers, whose homes in historic Tianamen Square were demolished to make way for a facelift, protested, demanding compensation following their failure to reach agreement with the government on the quantum of compensation.
"We don't oppose the Olympics, but it's wrong for them to demolish our houses. It's wrong," a female protestor was filmed as telling foreign journalists.
In another denial of civil rights, many Chinese websites remain blocked although some have been opened in the run-up to the Games.
Among those still blocked are those of Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, Radio Free Asia, the BBC's Chinese language service, and several Taiwan and Hong Kong newspapers, as also those related to the Falun Fong spiritual movement, Tibetan exile groups and rights groups Human Rights in China and Chinese Rights Defenders.
The small breach in the Great Firewall of censorship is patently the result of intense pressure from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and civil rights advocates. The IOC was patently embarrassed by Beijing's blatant violation of the world body's pledge of unfettered Internet access during the Olympics.
For the first time in many years, some of the fiercest critics of the Chinese government in Beijing have been allowed freedom on the Internet, but only after an uproar in the international media.
No change
Edward Friedman, professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, writes in Singapore's New Strait Times: "On the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, many human rights activists and observers continue to hope that the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) embrace of odious regimes such as Myanmar's and Sudan's, and its oppression of Tibetans Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and Falun Gong spiritualists will lead democratic heads of state to boycott the Olympics, or athletes and spectators to demonstrate on behalf of the victims.
"I doubt it. The only demonstrations are likely to be those celebrating China's massive gold medal count."
Joey Cheek, American speed skating gold medallist in the Turin '06 Winter Olympics and co-founder of Team Darfur, has had to cancel his visit to Beijing, where he had intended raising awareness of the atrocities in Darfur, because his visa has been revoked at the last minute.
Despite the prognostications of local weather pundits, who have forecast bright and sunny weather at 8 pm (the time of the Opening) on 08- 08-'08 and right through the Games, the city was shrouded under murky skies yesterday morning, the smog intensifying as the day wore on.
In a desperate bid to solve the pollution problem, Chinese authorities have curbed, and in some cases, stopped the working of factories. Vehicles are permitted only on alternate days, depending on the numbers on licence plates. This has led to more people using bicycles, but the problem persists. (US cyclists who arrived at Beijing airport wearing anti-pollution masks have apologised, saying it was only a precautionary measure).
Meteorologists, smug until last week, are beginning to express apprehension about the possibility of rain during tomorrow's opening ceremony and later, apart from extreme heat and humidity, which are expected to affect competitors in outdoor endurance events.
Even typhoons are not ruled out. Hong Kong, which was lashed by a thunderstorm yesterday, will host the equestrian events, scheduled to start in the former British colony on Saturday.
