WASHINGTON, D.C.—On a rainy Sunday in Washington, D.C., three Nubian Sudanese athletes, with torches in hand, ran from the Victims of Communism Memorial to a lively crowd of hundreds of participants of a Global Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR) rally at Freedom Plaza on April 6.
China's continuing violation of human rights leading up to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was the focus of attention of the HRTR rally, as the international campaign passed the torch to the nation's capital, having passed through 29 countries, and the American cities of San Jose, Boston, Denver, and, most recently, San Francisco, which received the torch on Saturday.
The Washington, D.C. City Council passed a resolution that supported HRTR and condemned the human rights abuses in China.
The HRTR ceremony opened at the Victims of Communism Memorial on New Jersey Ave, a block from Union Station. Torches were lit and Nubian runners from Sudan, carried the torches down New Jersey Avenue, Louisiana Ave., right on Connecticut and a right on Pennsylvania Ave up to Freedom Plaza on 13th Street, where they were greeted by a large crowd.
Many groups suffering under communist rule were represented at the rally, including Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, Tibetans, Vietnamese, Laotians, Chinese and democracy advocates.
The Nubian runners, representing an ethnic group in Sudan and Egypt, made a big hit with the crowd. China supports the government of Sudan, both monetarily with equipment and by a Chinese labor force, in their intention to building the Kajbar dam and other dams, without the consent of the Nubian people.
"If these dams are built, the Nubian society will be gone forever," said Nuraddin Mannan, Secretary General, Rescue Nubia Committee. He said that the Nubians is one of the oldest indigenous and distinctive cultural groups in Africa, and the dams would result in a great archeological loss to the world.
A large group of Tibetans were present at this event, and waved colorful Tibetan flags—red and blue skies, and a pair of lions facing a snow mountain. Mr. Namkha Tenzin, president of the Capital area Tibetan association said that more than 140 people have recently died in Tibet, "but the Chinese communists have said that only about 20 people have died. You know that the communist China is lying."
John Kusumi, co-founder and Director Emeritus of China Support Network, said, "America use to know that a nuclear-armed, communist superpower is a bad thing… Americans by and large were united in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. We all did what was best for national security which included no free trade with a nuclear-armed, communist superpower… why is free trade bad with such a regime? Because it enriches the dictators and all parts of their regime. When Tibetans have been shot this month, the bullets are financed by such money, as you yourself may have spent in Wal*Mart."
John Kusumi is also co-founder and director of Freedom First, Olympics Second Coalition. (http://www.noolympics.org)
Democracy advocate Wei Jingsheng spoke to the crowd saying, "The Olympic spirit should not be tainted."
"The flame you see here is the real Olympic torch," he said. Mr. Wei spent 19 years of his life in Chinese prisons. "What right have they to carry the Olympic torch?" He said, "The Chinese communist Olympics will fail for sure."
More than one group represented Vietnamese. Binh Nguyen, a human rights activist and an Assistant Professor of Radiology, Uniform Services University at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said communist Vietnam's human rights record was as deplorable as China's Communist Party, "from brutal cracking down on dissidents, harassing and putting religious leaders in jail or house arrest, total control of media and distribution of information, restricting freedom of speech, assembly, total disregard of the people's property rights…"
As Falun Gong teaches "truth, compassion and tolerance," the communists represent "falsehood, hatred and struggle," said Dr. Nguyen, who represents the International Committee to Support the Non-Violent Movement for Human Rights and Democracy in Vietnam.
"The Olympics must not be allowed to use an excuse to do evil," said Ms. Xiaodan Wang. Ms. Wang is the daughter of Zhiwen Wang who was seized on July 20, 1999, the day that Falun Gong was banned in China and the persecution of practitioners began. She remembers that day when he was taken away at dawn. "He never committed a crime and was thrown in prison without a fair trial," she said.
Like several others, Ms. Wang referred to the nearly 1900 Falun Gong practitioners who have been arrested since January 8th. The repression against Falun Gong and dissidents intensifies as the Olympic Games' start date on August 8th approaches. The Falun Dafa Information Center (www.faluninfo.net) reported that Public Security Bureaus in some cities are offering individual citizens up to USD $360 to identify Falun Gong practitioners, thus making ordinary citizens complicit in the government's ongoing and relentless persecution. The Information Center is a New York-based organization that monitors persecution against followers of the Chinese spiritual practice, Falun Gong.
"The International Olympic Committee (IOC) must no longer turn a blind eye on the Chinese Communist regime and blithely claim the Olympics are not political. IOC officials must hold the Chinese government accountable for its brazen violations of its citizens' fundamental human rights, and must itself be accountable for its failure to do so," says HRTR USA Outreach Director, Susan Prager.
The Human Rights Torch Relay is an international campaign that seeks to bring an end to all human rights abuses against the people of China, while highlighting the persecution of Falun Gong - the most severely persecuted group in China today. During the run up to the 2008 Olympics, the HRTR will host events in 37 countries across six continents to present its message: The Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot coexist in China.
HRTR was initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) to provide "a forum for athletes, human rights organizations, Chinese democracy groups, Tibetan rights activists and other concerned individuals to rally under the banner: The Olympics and Crimes Against Humanity Cannot Coexist in China." (http://www.humanrightstorch.org/)
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