Brawls mar Japan torch relay
Victim of scuffle: A wounded pro-China spectator with his face bleeding during the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Nagano yesterday. The Japanese leg of the Olympic torch relay ended after completing a four-hour course amid protests and scuffles that injured at least four people, witnesses said. Picture: AFP
Sunday, April 27, 2008
PROTESTERS hurled rubbish and flares yesterday at the Beijing Olympic torch and brawled with Chinese supporters in a chaotic Japanese leg of the troubled round-the-world relay.
At least four people were injured in the scuffles in the mountain resort of Nagano, where more than 85,000 people packed the streets including Chinese students who turned the town into a sea of red national flags.
After relative calm elsewhere in Asia, the torch met at least hundreds of protesters here ranging from Buddhist monks and pro-Tibet demonstrators to nationalists, who provocatively waved Japan's old imperial flag.
Protesters threw trash, an egg, a tomato and flares as the torch was paraded through the streets despite more than 3,000 police guarding the route, who had raised security to a level usually accorded to Emperor Akihito.
Japan has been trying to repair uneasy relations with China dating to the legacy of Japanese aggression before World War II, but China is a top bugbear for nationalists here, who are notorious for noisy demonstrations.
Furious Chinese supporters in turn surrounded demonstrators waving Tibetan flags. In one brawl the Chinese charged with flagpoles and were kicked by anti-Beijing demonstrators until police intervened, witnesses said.
At least four Chinese were injured, none of them seriously, said the fire department of Nagano, the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics some 180 kilometres north of Tokyo.
One young man was seen on the ground with cuts on his forehead as supporters wrapped a red Chinese flag around him.
"At first I didn't think I would come here as I didn't have the time or money," said Xin Xin, a 24-year-old student wearing a Chinese flag.
"But many things happened these past weeks. We had to come here to support the Olympic games in China," he said.
Robert Menard, the founder of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders who helped set off global protests, hailed Japan's handling of the relay as the best yet and played down the significance of the scuffles.
"This has given democracy a great name," said Menard, who disrupted the flame-lighting in Greece last month.
But some Japanese demonstrators were turned off by the tone of protests.
Five protesters were were arrested for throwing objects or bursting onto the streets to try to disrupt the relay.AFP
At least four people were injured in the scuffles in the mountain resort of Nagano, where more than 85,000 people packed the streets including Chinese students who turned the town into a sea of red national flags.
After relative calm elsewhere in Asia, the torch met at least hundreds of protesters here ranging from Buddhist monks and pro-Tibet demonstrators to nationalists, who provocatively waved Japan's old imperial flag.
Protesters threw trash, an egg, a tomato and flares as the torch was paraded through the streets despite more than 3,000 police guarding the route, who had raised security to a level usually accorded to Emperor Akihito.
Japan has been trying to repair uneasy relations with China dating to the legacy of Japanese aggression before World War II, but China is a top bugbear for nationalists here, who are notorious for noisy demonstrations.
Furious Chinese supporters in turn surrounded demonstrators waving Tibetan flags. In one brawl the Chinese charged with flagpoles and were kicked by anti-Beijing demonstrators until police intervened, witnesses said.
At least four Chinese were injured, none of them seriously, said the fire department of Nagano, the site of the 1998 Winter Olympics some 180 kilometres north of Tokyo.
One young man was seen on the ground with cuts on his forehead as supporters wrapped a red Chinese flag around him.
"At first I didn't think I would come here as I didn't have the time or money," said Xin Xin, a 24-year-old student wearing a Chinese flag.
"But many things happened these past weeks. We had to come here to support the Olympic games in China," he said.
Robert Menard, the founder of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders who helped set off global protests, hailed Japan's handling of the relay as the best yet and played down the significance of the scuffles.
"This has given democracy a great name," said Menard, who disrupted the flame-lighting in Greece last month.
But some Japanese demonstrators were turned off by the tone of protests.
Five protesters were were arrested for throwing objects or bursting onto the streets to try to disrupt the relay.AFP
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