TOKYO—Robert Menard, the Secretary-General of the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), arrived in Japan on Friday, and says he is going to stage a demonstration against the Chinese regime Saturday in Nagano, when the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay takes place there.
Due to the increasingly controversial Beijing Olympic Torch Relay to be staged in Nagano, Menard's trip to Japan has drawn a great deal of attention from the media.
On March 24, Menard and two other members of RSF attempted to disrupt the lighting of the Olympic Torch in Greece and were arrested.
After being delayed for hours at Narita Airport immigration, Robert Menard startled the long-waiting journalists who were over-crowding the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Japan the moment he entered the room, by pouring down a bag of colorful badges on the table.
After giving a brief introduction of RSF's history of opposing the holding of the Olympics in Beijing, Menard said he and his friends are going to hold a peaceful demonstration in Nagano tomorrow, by wearing these badges, which are imprinted the Chinese characters for "Liberty," and by wearing t-shirts and carrying flags displaying the chained Olympic symbol displayed at the Olympic Torch-lighting Ceremony in Greece.
Menard said the purpose of his trip in Japan is to urge President Fukuda to speak "very clearly and strongly" on Tibet and on China's human rights issues to Hu Jintao during Hu's visit to Japan planned for May 6.
"I want him [President Fukuda] at least to speak very clearly and strongly about this issue. I will give him a list of dissidents imprisoned in China's jails [to present to Hu Jintao], and ask him not to attend the Olympic Opening Ceremony if those people are not released."
He emphasized that with 100 days left before the summer Olympics in Beijing, he thinks it is very important for a democratic country like Japan to state very clearly and strongly its attitude towards the Chinese regime, as Japan is a neighbor of China with strong economic power.
He stated that RSF is neither a political nor a pro-Tibet organization. "The sole reason we started this campaign is because China has not respected the commitments it has promised to observe."
"This is why I am here: to urge the head of this democratic country to take its responsibility."
He mentioned that Japanese should remember the Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai, who died in Burma, whose regime is the Chinese regime's best friend.
He did not disclose the number of those who will protest, but emphasized it is going to be peaceful with no violence and no intention to touch the torch. "The group is going to be closest to the relay passage,"he said.
He also invited the journalists to wear the badges he provided, whether in reporting in Nagano on Saturday or when in China.
Asked whether the journalist's role should be observing and reporting instead of acting, Menard answered that journalists should do their job by observing and reporting, but also should commit themselves in certain matters.
According to Menard, it is not enough for journalists to report the Olympics in China, but they should also report everything happening during the Olympics in China.
Wearing the badge imprinted with "liberty" will remind them "where you are when you are doing the reporting," and it is also a small gesture in support of the Chinese journalists who are imprisoned for reporting the truth.
He referred to the Chinese human right activist Hu Jia, who was "sentenced because he answered the questions of foreign journalists."
Menard also mentioned the serious persecution of the Falun Gong group in China, and said that "from now everybody must be informed that what happens in China relates to the human rights situation and the Tibet issue.
"Before people only know China's economic power, from now on everyone should also know the price of its economic power is its severe human rights violations. Government officials should consider whether they should go to China to attend the Olympic ceremony."
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