Zimbabweans in Chinese embassy demonstration
By Lance Guma
08 August 2008

Zimbabwean activists in the United Kingdom on Friday teamed up with protesters from Burma, Tibet and Sudan to demonstrate at the Chinese embassy in London. Zimbabwe, Sudan and Burma have all suffered human rights abuses at the hands of dictators, supported by China. The people of Tibet meanwhile are fighting for their independence from China which invaded the territory in the fifties. Many died in that conflict.

While the opening ceremony of the Olympics in China was being played out in Beijing the marchers raised the various flags of the oppressed countries and their national anthems were played. British MP Kate Hoey, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Zimbabwe, gave a speech at the demonstration. Over 40 policemen formed a protective wall around the embassy, standing behind metal fences that were erected.

The Zimbabwean activists were protesting China’s continued support for the Mugabe regime, including it’s use of a veto last month to block a resolution at the United Nations Security Council calling for targeted sanctions against the regime. The resolution would have also seen a UN arms embargo being slapped on the country. The Chinese instead have been supplying arms to the Mugabe regime, despite international condemnation and arguments that there was no legitimate government in place.

The demonstrators put together a presentation featuring look-alike dictators from Zimbabwe, Burma and Sudan, bowing to a figure representing China. A black coffin was on display to represent the people who have died in the various countries while fighting for freedom. There was a lot of drumming at the venue, while banners were held aloft calling for a ‘Free Tibet’ and demands for China to stop it’s support of the brutal military junta in Burma.

Radical campaigner Peter Tatchell told journalists 'We are here to remind China and the world that the Olympics show may proceed but we have not forgotten the millions of people who are the victims of the tyranny of the regime in Beijing, the political prisoners, the suppressed trade unionists and the persecuted minorities like the Tibetans. He said there could be no normal sporting relations ‘with the abnormal oppressive regime in Beijing.’