NEW YORK—While the Beijing Olympics Torch is paraded around the world amidst protests, another torch is traveling the world—the Human Rights Torch. The Human Rights Torch Relay came to New York City on Sunday, shining a light on the human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese Communist regime four months ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Beginning on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the Torch, which has been to more than 100 cities around the world, made its way down to the historic Union Square Park. Five runners carried torches representing persecuted Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, AIDS victims in China, Christians, and the crisis in Darfur, which the Chinese regime has been complicit in.
Runner Louie Russo said, "In the course of our route, the people we passed weren't aware of what this was but when they read our shirts and the van, every street, people clapped waved their hands, shouted out to us or gave us the thumbs up." Russo is a Long Island resident and Falun Gong adherent, who said he volunteers his time to raise awareness of the persecution of the peaceful spiritual practice in China.
After arriving at Union Square, an all-day rally was held complete with Greek goddesses, live music, and speakers from a variety of groups. Around one thousand people attended the rally.
"Why did we all come here today?" asked Susan Prager, Outreach Director for the Human Rights Torch Relay U.S. Campaign. "I think it's because we all share a goal, to stop the persecution of innocent people, who are simply trying to uphold dignity and peace."
Prager added that in recent weeks news headlines have been full of the atrocities in Tibet and genocide in Darfur. She also cited suppression in Burma, North Korea, and Xinjiang Province, where the Uighur Muslims and their culture are systematically destroyed. And the dirty laundry list didn't end there.
"Christian leaders are tortured and killed, reporters are silenced, and Falun Gong practitioners are banned from the Olympic Games, rounded up in house arrests, and killed on demand for their organs," said Prager.
 The audience at the Human Rights Torch Relay at Union Square reacts enthusiastically to a speaker's comments. A nearly 1,000 strong audience, composed of different groups being persecuted in China, were at the rally. (Dayin Chen/Epoch Times)
 International human rights lawyer David Matas. (Dayin Chen/Epoch Times)
 Tsering Palden, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress. (Dayin Chen/Epoch Times)
 Reverend Herbert Daughtry (Dayin Chen/Epoch Times)
 New York State Senator Eric Adams. (Dayin Chen/Epoch Times)
 The crowd watches at Union Square in New York City. (Dayin Chen/Epoch Times)
|
Tsering Palden, President of the Tibetan Youth Congress, talked about the lack of basic rights, including freedom of religion in Tibet.
"They restrict the number of monks and nuns who enter the monasteries and nunneries," said Palden. "Before the monks and nuns enter the monasteries they have to denounce his Holiness the Dalai Lama and his Holiness the Dalai Lama is so deeply respected in the hearts of Tibetans. They are not allowed to keep pictures of his Holiness the Dalai Lama who is their religious leader."
The recent episode in Tibet began in March, when Tibetan monks peacefully protested.
"Since March 10, 155 Tibetans have been shot by the Chinese communist authorities, all those who participated in a peaceful demonstration," said Palden, who is based in New York and New Jersey. "They just tried to exercise freedom of speech and for that lost their lives."
Levi Browde, director of the Falun Dafa Information Center, highlighted the persecution of Falun Gong by detailing the story of a Beijing resident named Yu Zhou. Yu Zhou was a folk musician and a Falun Gong adherent.
"On Jan 26, Yu Zhou and his wife were driving from their recording studio and they were picked up by Beijing authorities and taken to a detention center," said Browde. "Ten days later, Yu Zhou was dead. His wife, as far as we know, remains in a Beijing detention center to this day and may not even know the fate of her husband." Browde added that the persecution of the peaceful spiritual practice Falun Gong has escalated ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
"The timing of his death was not an accident," said Browde.
Penelope Beasley, from the Christian advocacy group Voice of the Martyrs, said the Christian church in China is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and that many Christians there are persecuted—with as many as 35,000 imprisoned, according to Beasely.
"What is taught, what you can say, how many members you have, everything is controlled by the Communist Party. The Communist Party is the head of that church [but] the head of the Christian church is Jesus Christ not the Communist Party," said Beasley. "So subsequently it has driven the Christian church underground, we have probably over a million house churches. People meet privately in their homes, secretly."
Beasley told the story, with accompanying pictures, of a house church pastor in Beijing whose door was welded shut by Chinese authorities.
"His house is ten minutes from the Olympic village. So to all those people who are going to the Olympics, when you are cheering and sharing in the festivities, I want you to remember him, he will be able to hear you, he is that close to the Olympics."
Rev. C. Herbert Oliver, an advocate for ending genocide in Darfur, Africa, voiced his support for the Human Rights Torch Relay in light of the Chinese Communist Party's support for the Sudanese government, who has engineered the genocide.
"We do not approve of the Olympics being held in Beijing China. Not because we hate China—we love China, but we love life and so we are calling on nations the world over to not support the Olympics in Beijing because they support genocide," said Rev. Oliver. "If we participate in the Beijing Olympics we are saying, 'That's alright, kill all the black people in Africa, we'll go ahead with our sports.'"
Rev. Herbert Daughtry, founder and chairman of the National Religious Leaders of African Ancestry Concerned about Darfur, said, "Practicing the Olympic games in China is like practicing the Olympics games in a graveyard, you are dancing on the graves of people who have been killed. You're dancing and throwing balls and playing games on the deaths of millions of people who have been destroyed by this government."
Divesting Pension Funds from China
Local New York officials also participated in the Human Rights Torch events, announcing legislation that would remove millions of dollars of New York State funds that are invested in countries with horrible human rights records, like China. "I'm going to introduce a piece of legislation that will call for the state pension funds to be divested from any country that has human rights abuses," said New York State Senator Eric Adams, who presided over the Human Rights Torch lighting ceremony.
"There is nothing that we can do about the atrocities of slavery, there is nothing we can do about abuses before our time. But we cannot ignore abuses that take place during our time. So shame on us if the future shows that the abuses that are taking place in China happened while we are standing by and pretending that they don't exist," said Sen. Adams.
The New York State pension fund has over 150 billion dollars, with funds invested in companies throughout the country and all across the world.
"Some of these companies unfortunately do business in places like China who systematically violate the human rights of others," said State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. "We're here today not because we are anti-business we're here today because we're anti-injustice."
New York City Councilmember David Yassky also added his voice at the rally.
"When the flame is paraded through the streets of Beijing, we have an obligation to do just what you are doing here today, stand up to speak out, to make it clear what our ideals and our values are and that the government of China today is totally opposed to the ideals that we believe in and the values we stand for," said Yassky, who is running for city comptroller.
Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong
At the rally, David Matas, an International human rights lawyer, detailed the findings of 2006 investigation he conducted that concludes that Falun Gong adherents are being killed in China for their organs. Matas authored the investigation report with former Canadian official David Kilgour.
"Falun Gong began in 1992 as an exercise regime with a spiritual foundation. By 1999, it had grown more numerous than the Communist Party. The Communist Party banned it out of ideological envy," said Matas. "Falun Gong practitioners protested in the hundreds of thousands in Beijing and they were arrested… if they did not recant after torture they disappeared."
The report found that after these people were being arrested and disappeared, the volume of organ transplants in China shot up dramatically. Yet, the other sources of organ transplants in China did not change and, in fact, there is no functioning organ donation system in China—as there is in the United States and most countries.
Matas said that the Chinese Communist Party has only replied to the report with disinformation.
"They make up quotes that we did not say and disagreed with our quotes, and did not answer our questions. Indeed, our report has been substantiated by independent peer review," said Matas.
While some have argued that the using the Olympics for human rights is political, Matas said he disagreed.
"Politics means that there is a difference of opinion that is viable on both sides but there are not two sides on the human rights issue. There is not a side that says human rights abuses are okay."
China has signed on to international agreements on upholding human rights, including the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
Voices of Political Justice
Pan Qing, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of China spoke in Chinese at Union Square, calling for political reform in his homeland.
"This has been the impression I have of the Americans since I've been here, the Americans are full of compassion and hope. The righteous American people, they drove away the evil flame of the Olympic torch from San Francisco," said Pan Qing.
"Here today, I want to ask all you Americans to bring out your compassion, bring out your courage, and tell your president, President George Bush, not to go to an Olympics presided over by the the Chinese Communist Party."
John Kusumi, founder of the China Support Network, spoke out against free trade with China. Currently, China has "most favored nation" trade status with the United States.
"Washington simply likes to keep up appearances while the free trade goes on and on. At the very least the American politicians can do is to get behind a boycott or a change of venue for the Olympics," said Kusumi, whose group was founded by Americans in 1989 in response to China's Tiananmen Square massacre. "To stop the killing in China, every kind of pressure is in order. The West should pressure China, the world's leading abuser of human rights, and all of us from the grass-roots to the politicians, should pressure the [International Olympics Commission] and its president."
"The entire reign of Communist party had been a rude interruption to Chinese democracy," said Kusumi. "Taiwan is a splendid example of a Chinese democracy."
Hu Ping, Chief Editor of the political publication Beijing Spring, remembered how the Chinese Communist regime promised to improve the human rights record in China.
"But now in the year when the Games is to take place, it has created the most serious human rights disaster in the nation," said Hu Ping.
The conclusion by all of the political speakers was that China would be better off without communism.
"In the final analysis, our top priority is to promote democracy in China. The rise of a free and democratic China will be a blessing and contribution to humankind," said Hu Ping.
The Lone Heckler
The heavily attended peaceful event saw one lone anti-protest protester, Gary Phaneuf, 52, of Queens, New York. Phaneuf, who attempted to disrupt the event when it began at 77th St. earlier in the day, also appeared at the rally in Union Square, yelling at the crowd and individuals.
When approached by an Epoch Times reporter for an interview about what he was protesting, Phaneuf refused to give his name, and although he was wearing a Chinese Communist flag around his waist, he would not admit any affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party.
When asked if he had been paid to come to the event, Phaneuf replied, "Even if they did, what difference would that make?" When asked how much he had been paid, he responded to the reporter, "You should be punched in the face right now."
At approximately 2:00 p.m., Phaneuf, who has a history of disrupting public demonstrations in New York, was arrested by police for disorderly conduct and issued a summons by the New York City Police Department, according to Detective Christin in the NYPD Press Relations Office.
Additional reporting by Genevieve Long and Frank Yu.
Feeds