The Global Human Rights Torch will arrive in Australia this month, bringing with it hope for Chinese people that basic rights will be delivered before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The Torch, which will be run in relays through every major city in Australia plus a number of regional centres, will highlight the range of human rights concerns surrounding China in the lead up to the Games, particularly reports of organ harvesting from practitioners of the persecuted spiritual group Falun Gong.
A welcoming ceremony for the Torch's arrival will take place in Sydney on Saturday October 27. It will include a relay run from Sydney's Town Hall through the city to Circular Quay for a concert. The Torch will also travel by ferry to Manly where a smaller ceremony will take place.
The Global Human Rights Torch will then relay its way round Australia beginning in the north to take in Brisbane on November 3, Sunshine Coast the day after, November 4, and the Gold Coast and Cairns on November 10.
Dr Sev Ozdowski, OAM, a member of a coalition of individuals investigating the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China and who was one of the initiators of the torch, says conditions for most Chinese people have improved in terms of more food and employment, but the organ harvesting issue is a "scandal".
"The communist bureaucracy of China was benefiting from killing people and selling their organs to buyers on the market," he told The Epoch Times.
"It is just beyond imagination of most people in the western world that it is possible, that these practices do exist, in any country of the world".
Dr Ozdwoski, who as Australian Human Rights Commissioner from 2000 to 2005, was responsible for a report that saw children of asylum seekers freed from detention in Australia, says what is happening to Falun Gong in China is an indication of just how bad the human rights situation is in China.
There is no freedom of expression in China, the web is controlled, minorities are still suppressed and "there is still no democratically elected government in China," he said.
"The torch is to bring attention of the people of the world to those issues and to impact on China so the human rights situation of Chinese is improved."
Former Wallaby, Barry McDonald who was one of seven Australian Rugby Union players who refused to play for their country against a South African team that was selected on the basis of race, said he was aware of atrocities occurring in China.
Mr McDonald said the Chinese regime would not be hosting the Olympics for the Olympic spirit, but as a propaganda exercise to promote its image on the world stage.
He is set to run with the Human Rights Torch in Sydney.
"They use these international forums as a means of justifying the continual repressions and putting on a nice face to the world," he said, "every totalitarian regime is the same – they want the power."
Mr McDonald believes that you have to fight injustices and human rights violations wherever they occur and the Human Rights Torch was a suitable vehicle to put pressure on the Chinese regime in the lead-up to the Olympics
"These torches can actually change things in a more peaceful way," he said. "They keep putting more and more pressure on and eventually they crack."
Olympic rower Noel Everson who ran with the Olympic torch in Sydney in 2000, will also run with the torch in Sydney. Mr Everson said he knew about the organ harvesting, that people were being persecuted in China and that many people were not allowed to attend the Games.
"There are people that are being persecuted that could possibly be some of the best athletes in the world and they don't get a chance," he told The Epoch Times.
A document leaked from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security Issues in April this year, listed 43 categories of people who are banned from participating or attending the Olympics in Beijing. The list, translated into English include: "the Dalai Lama and all affiliates", members of "religious entities not sanctioned by the state" (eg Roman Catholics), members of Falun Gong and "individuals who instigate discontentment toward the Chinese Communist Party through the Internet".
Mr Everson said he believed that it was important to let Chinese people know that people outside China were speaking out for them.
"Surely we can try and help in some way," he said.
The torch relay itinerary can be viewed at www.humanrightstorch.org.
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