Protests mar Olympic torch relay

Several thousand human rights activists gathered in Seoul in an attempt to block the torch relay for the Beijing Olympics yesterday.

About 5,000 people, including North Korean refugees, got together at the Olympic Park in southeastern Seoul, hours before the relay began there around 2 p.m. They were protesting China`s crackdown in Tibet and the abuses of human rights of North Korean defectors.

More than 8,300 police officers were mobilized to prevent possible disruptions of the 22-kilometer march and clashes between the protestors and some Chinese residents who were there to root for the relay.

The torch relay was kicked off by Kim Jung-gil, president of the Korea Sports Council and the Korean Olympic Committee, and was led by about 80 runners. It finished at Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall in central Seoul. The route was not announced due to security concerns.

Famous Korean singers and actors, such as Jang Na-ra and Song Il-kuk, were among the runners.

In other parts of the city, a range of civic groups rallied against Beijing.

"I believe China isn`t qualified to hold the Olympics," said Han Chang-kwon, head of a union of North Korean defectors here. "They`re currently using the Olympics to send North Koreans back to their country, which is why I came to rally, to publicize their inhumane actions."

Some 100 protesters vowed to follow the relay runners and possibly obstruct the event with their bicycles.

Many human rights activists here are protesting the Olympic torch relay because of China`s treatment of North Korean defectors. The activists say that China is sending defectors back to their country where they can be tortured or executed.

Beijing has refused to accept fleeing North Koreans as refugees, in defiance of a United National Human Rights Commission`s recommendation, and it is accused of accelerating its repatriation of North Korean defectors to remove any tension prior to the Olympics in August.

On another front, two leading activists in South Korea turned down an offer to carry the Olympic torch earlier last week, in protest against China`s actions in Tibet.

Choi Seung-kook, secretary-general of an environmental group called Green Korea, and the renowned human rights lawyer Park Won-soon boycotted the relay for that reason.

Park, who leads a philanthropy group called the Hope Institute, won the Ramon Magsaysay Award -- Asia`s version of the Nobel Prize -- in 2006.

The torch, which was lit in Greece just over a month ago, has been met by a raft of protests worldwide as activists demand that China end its crackdown on pro-independence demonstrators in Tibet. South Korea is the 17th leg of the relay. The next stop is Pyongyang.

By Cho Ji-hyun

(sharon@heraldm.com)