Protesters march in Europe, Japan, New Zealand
PARIS: Social justice demonstrations sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement were held on Sunday across European cities, Japan and New Zealand, in the wake of deaths of African Americans at the hands of police officers in the US.
Thousands demonstrated in Berlin against racism and for broader fairness, including sharing the coronavirus burden, as they stretched a human chain through the German capital on Sunday while keeping safe distances. Hundreds also turned out in other cities like Leipzig and Hamburg.
A spokesman for progressive movement Unteilbar (Indivisible) told AFP “more than 20,000 people” had participated in the event in Berlin, while police estimated around 8,000. The route of the human chain - stretching from the world-famous Brandenburg Gate past the landmark Communist-era TV tower at Alexanderplatz and down into the ethnically diverse Neukoelln district - had to be extended to accommodate the numbers.
Holding handmade signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” several hundred people marched peacefully at a Tokyo park on Sunday, highlighting the outrage over the death of George Floyd even in a country often perceived as homogeneous and untouched by racial issues.
Sunday’s turnout in Tokyo underlined how Japan has historically been reticent in dealing with diversity
In New Zealand, thousands protested in Auckland and Wellington on Sunday. The Auckland protest began at the central Aotea Square and ended at the US consulate, where people took a knee and observed a minute of silence for Floyd. “When George Floyd took his last breath, it allowed the rest of us to breathe,” social activist Julia Whaipooti told the crowd. In Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, protesters marched from Civic Square to the grounds of Parliament, chanting “Black Lives Matter” and holding placards with slogans including “Racism is a pandemic, let’s fight it!”
The US embassy in Seoul displayed Black Lives Matter banner in support of anti-racism protests.
In Australia, police arrested two people after a statue of Captain Cook was defaced
Thousands demonstrated in several French cities, and clashes broke out in Paris and Lyon. Protesters in Paris demonstrated against the death in 2016 of a black Frenchman in police custody.
In the UK, public anger was fanned by the image of man urinating next to a memorial to a police officer murdered in 2017 when he tried to stop a knifewielding terrorist from entering the parliament. Police on Sunday said they arrested a 28-year-old man “on suspicion of outraging public decency.”