ALBANY -- Following deadly clashes between Tibetan demonstrators and Chinese authorities, activists aim to focus attention on human rights abuses in China before the Olympic games in Beijing in August.
The Human Rights Torch Relay, which will traverse six continents, 40 countries and 150 cities, makes a stop in Albany on April 30. Its organizers include members of Falun Gong, the Tibetan Youth Congress and other groups.
Armed Chinese police on Monday cracked down on a peaceful march by monks and nuns in Garze of the Sichuan province bordering Tibet. The Tibetan capital of Lhasa has been rocked by violence, and dozens of people have been killed in demonstrations this month.
"The pictures coming out of China after the recent Tibetan uprising look like the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 all over again," said Leejun Taylor, of Gloversville, an organizer of the Albany event.
Taylor is a follower of Falun Gong, a sect that practices meditation and exercises meant to enliven mind, body and spirit. The sect ran afoul of Chinese Communist Party orthodoxy.
Scores of Falun Gong members, including members of Taylor's family, have been imprisoned by Chinese authorities since 1989.
Taylor and other Falun Gong members found a sympathetic ear among state lawmakers and health department officials at last summer's legislative forum in Albany that called for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic Games over allegations of organ harvesting undertaken on imprisoned Falun Gong members.
"The Chinese government's way of dealing with unrest and protest is to arrest more people and put them away in an attempt to silence them," Taylor said. "We need to hold China accountable."
The grass-roots Human Rights Torch Relay already has moved across Europe, Africa and Asia. It moves to U.S. cities this month. The East Coast kickoff will take place in Boston on March 30 with a marathon run, torch ceremony, rally and display of drawings by children from Darfur living in refugee camps.
Information:
What: Human Rights Torch Relay stops in Albany.
When: Wednesday, April 30. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where: Rally on Capitol steps, torch parade to City Hall and run through downtown.
Info. http://www.humanrightstorch.org
