Free Tibet vs Olympic Torch Relay
6th April, 2008 – London
The Olympic torch was in London today, and was due to travel 31 miles across the capital by 80 or so tpeorchbearers, which included Olympic medalists. Protests had marred the torch’s journey from its origin in Athens, and now it was London’s turn to stage demonstrations against the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and China’s crackdown on Tibetan protesters. If you want to know more on why protests are taking place, read this.
The last Tibet protest in London that I attended was entirely peaceful, and although I didn’t know what to expect today, I hadn’t envisaged just how intense it would be.
This was the 31-mile route, designed to pass through central London:
Source: Mayor of London |
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I went to Whitehall (opposite Downing Street) first, which was designated as the prime protest location. The torch was due to pass here in a few hours.
Things started off very peacefully, with other causes being protested as well, including Darfur and Burma. Why not use the opportunity to protest other issues!
Something to read..
At this stage only a fraction of the crowd had arrived.
Further up Whitehall, a Chinese crowd were showing their support for the Olympic Games, jeering at protesters walking to their own protest, a small sign of what was to come.
Up the road in Trafalgar Square, people had started to congregate, although there weren’t many protesters yet.
A band were playing music, surrounded by Chinese supporters, but this sign really stuck out:
I went to take a closer look at what was going on over there
The guy in the hat was holding the sign, surrounded by Olympic supporters, all heckling him with the Chinese flag, calling *him* sick in response to his sign.
In stark contrast, he stayed quiet.
People tried to cover his sign up with Chinese flags, and erm, a brolly.
It didn’t really work!
I have to point out, that although the sun was out at this stage, the weather was abysmal, just like in the last major Tibet protest in the city. There was snow. Yes, real snow! The weather didn’t deter the demonstrators though, as you’ll soon see.
The torch was due very shortly in Haymarket, so I walked over there. Police presence indicated the torch was very near – exciting stuff!
Many vehicles drove past, and as this bus pulled over, one of the torch bearers got out right where I was standing – perfect!
It’s Peter Kenyon, chief executive of Chelsea Football Club. He waited here for the current torchbearer to arrive, to light his torch, where he would then take over for a while.
The runner was approaching, but all I could see were policemen..
Notice how the streets aren’t lined with many people here.. I expected barriers along the roadside with crowds of supporters, but here it was a very quiet affair!
A chinese official (they were all in blue) ushered Kenyon over to get ready to take over the torch..
Suddenly, gone was my great view amidst a herd of policemen.
It was quite bizarre.. the police took up their positions in a star-shape to protect the torch as it was lit.
They did this with precision and efficiency before quickly moving along, still surrounding the torch.
At this point I moved ahead quickly to Trafalgar Square where this guy was apparently waiting to receive the flame. He didn’t appear to be a legitimate athlete though 
These waiters decided to check out the action. Note that there are still hardly any supporters lining the streets here.
Here’s Steve Cram, waiting for the runner to arrive from Trafalgar Square..
It was at this point that things started to get a little chaotic. Photographers and people standing anywhere on the road were pushed aside with a lot of force.
Protesters were very loud and outnumbered the supporters. In fact, don’t think I even saw any supporters here. I couldn’t really see what was going on with the torch as there were far too many people in front of me.
People got arrested.
At the same time, a wall of policemen stopped us from moving further up, so essentially I was stuck here with nowhere to go.
Very shabby, as I could see a lot of action happening up ahead, and had I been a few seconds faster, I would have made it across with the others.
To see some better pictures of what was happening over there, take a look at James’ blog. It definitely helps being 6’4″ compared to my feeble 5’6″!
It was actually very frustrating being held like this. Some press photographers showed their badges in an attempt to move ahead, but were told it didn’t make a difference. Hah!
I decided to pass the time taking some videos on my phone. The quality isn’t great at all but this should give you more of an idea of the atmosphere.
If you can’t see any of these videos, you can find them on my YouTube page. It was very intense – I was knocked to the ground twice and the police were very stringent. Finally, they let us go, and I was immediately confronted by a riot police horse which almost knocked me in the face. Arghhh.
People continued to protest although by now the torch would have passed Downing Street and was well on its way through London.
The road had been blocked ahead to prevent any of us moving further down towards Westminster, so I stayed in the area and listened to what this guy had to say.
I took a video of him:
Further back down Whitehall, Chinese supporters from Trafalgar Square were walking towards us, causing tension between them and the pro-Tibet demonstrators.
As soon as police noticed, they broke up the commotion, and in the process literally threw anyone, including me, away from the action.
I moved away from West London and headed east to St. Paul’s Cathedral where there wasn’t much happening. The torch was still a while away.
So I checked out City Hall (the London Mayor’s office) where some activities were meant to be taking place. This is all I saw:
It wasn’t very exciting and there were hardly any people there! So back to St. Paul’s Cathedral it was.
By now it wasn’t possible to get all the way to the Cathedral itself, where apparently a very large number of protesters had gathered. Near me were only a few dispersed demonstrators.
After all the security issues with the torch (someone had tried to extinguish the flame, for example), it had been put on a bus, so no one here even noticed it go by as there were so many vehicles accompanying it. Disappointing. Many, many more protests took place along the route but this is where I stopped.
By now I’m sure you’ve read about the day’s events or seen it on the news, but if you haven’t, check out this concise BBC report.
It was a strange day.. fun, but in a weird way. I’ve never been to a protest like this one – being literally flung around by no-nonsense policemen which kind of distracted me from taking pictures. They’re all pretty mediocre in my opinion. It was still exciting, and at the same time frustrating, fun, and at the same time annoying. Did I mention how tiring it is as well? Who would have thought photojournalism would be so physically demanding. 
I’d still do it again.
It appears as though the day was a success for the pro-Tibet protesters whose demonstrations completely overshadowed the purpose of the torch relay. On the one hand this is a shame – shouldn’t the Olympic Games solely be about the sport? At the same time, China’s handling of Tibetans has been appalling – and the Olympic Games in Beijing is the perfect platform upon which to voice these concerns. They’ve done a damn good job of it so far.
