PROTESTS ACTION
PEOPLE around the world are embracing the Black Lives Matter movement. Banners and slogans have focused not just on George Floyd, but on a string of other controversies in specific countries and mistreatment of minorities in general. Thousands took to the streets across Australia yesterday, as did hundreds in Tokyo and Seoul to support US protests against police brutality, while demonstrations have taken place across Europe with more expected today. The rolling, global protests reflect rising anger over police treatment of ethnic minorities, sparked by the May 25 death of Floyd in police custrody in Minneapolis in the US. Asia-pacific demonstrations were limited by social-distancing curbs aiming at stopping the Covid-19 pandemic. In Australia, police estimated 10 000 people joined a protest in Brisbane. Many called for an end to police mistreatment of indigenous Australians. In Sydney, a last-minute court decision over-ruled a Covid-19 ban as thousands marched, amid a heavy police presence, chanting: “Whose lives matter? Black lives matter.” Rallies were also held in Melbourne, Adelaide and other Australian cities. In Japan, marchers protested in Tokyo against the police ill treatment of a Kurdish man who says he was stopped while driving and shoved to the ground, leaving him with bruises. “I want to show that there’s racism in Japan now,” said 17-year-old high school student Wakaba, who declined to give her family name. In Seoul, dozens of activists and foreign residents gathered. Others participated in an online “viral photo protest”. “South Korea is becoming a multicultural society,” organiser Shim Ji-hoon told Reuters. “So I proposed this march to have awareness of racial discrimination and make a world of living together.” With pandemic restrictions Thai protesters plan to gather on the videomeeting platform Zoom today and observe 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence – the period that Floyd was filmed pinned under the officer’s knee. Across Europe, which has seen a wave of anti-racism rallies drawing tens of thousands on to the streets, weekend protests were planned in Germany, Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Hungary. As in Seoul, Paris authorities banned demonstrations in front of the US embassies, citing the coronavirus. | dpa, Reuters and AP