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Beijing had urged Australia not to give Kadeer a visa, and all Chinese films and funding were withdrawn from the festival program after it refused to pull the Kadeer biopic.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.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS