Pro-China protesters and Uighur activists argued outside an Australian film screening yesterday, each side condemning the other as “terrorists” who incited violence in restive Xinjiang region.
Police had to break up a heated exchange between supporters of exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer and detractors who said Beijing was right to label her a “criminal” who started last month’s violence that left at least 197 dead.
Dozens of protesters from either side rallied outside the 1,500-seat Melbourne Town Hall, where a sell-out screening was underway of 10 Conditions of Love, a film about Kadeer’s life, at which she was the guest of honor.
PHOTO: AFP
“Two thousand years ago China was there [in Xinjiang],” yelled Stanley Li, objecting to the Kadeer biopic and her presence inside the venue.
“It’s not appropriate to show this film in public,” he said, according to the AAP newswire.
“I care about these people in China and they are being killed by terrorists,” added pro-China demonstrator Bruce Jiang.
Uighur advocate Hikmat Hason countered with an accusation that Li and his group were the terrorists, sparking a heated row which had to be broken up by police, AAP said.
Uighur supporters carried the blue and white flag of the independence movement of East Turkestan, the name by which the movement refers to Xinjiang.
One female supporter briefly clashed with a pro-China protester and had to be separated by police, witnesses said.
Kadeer, exiled head of the World Uyghur Congress, was escorted through the back door of the venue under tight security, organizers for the Melbourne International Film Festival said.
Police said there were extra officers on hand to deal with an anticipated crowd of up to 100 people, but the gathering had been relatively small and peaceful and no arrests had been made.
“It was all a bit of a non-event, it wasn’t anywhere near as big as anticipated,” a spokeswoman said.
The screening was moved to the Town Hall earlier this week due to unprecedented demand for tickets, fuelled by intense controversy surrounding the film and Kadeer’s visit, to which Beijing strongly objected.
Beijing had urged Australia not to give Kadeer a visa, and all Chinese films and funding were withdrawn from the festival program after it refused to pull the Kadeer biopic. The film festival’s Web site has twice been hit by cyber attacks mounted from China.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Friday defended Kadeer’s visit, but assured China that Australia did not necessarily agree with her views and respected China’s “territorial integrity and sovereignty” over Xinjiang.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS