Thousands march in Black Lives Matter protests across Asia, from Australia to Japan

Packed rallies were held across Australia on Saturday in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, with many joining Sydney’s demonstration after an appeal court overturned a government ban on the protest. An injunction was granted on Friday night to stop the rally but was overturned at the last minute on Saturday and deemed “an authorised public assembly”, the New South Wales Supreme Court announced. Cheers erupted from the crowd assembled outside Sydney’s Town Hall waiting for the rally to start when they were told the New South Wales Court of Appeal had ruled it was a legal public assembly, the national broadcaster ABC reported. Police had earlier threatened to arrest anyone who joined the rally as it breached Covid-19 restrictions on gatherings. Three people were arrested before news of the ban being overturned reached the crowd, according to the ABC. Rally organisers handed out face masks and sanitisers. Most protesters wore the masks as they listened to Aboriginal speakers decry the treatment of black people in Australia. Thousands have turned up for the rally in Naarm (Melbourne) & they’re doing their best to social distance #BlackLivesMatterAustralia pic.twitter.com/GqoagpGPl6 — Joshua Badge (@joshuabadge) June 6, 2020 The chief health officer of the state of New South Wales, Kerry Chant, warned on Friday that a protest of 10,000 people could increase the risk of community transmissions of infection. Months of restrictions have reduced new cases of Covid-19 to almost zero in the state. Huge crowds estimated at over 10,000 people each filled city streets in Adelaide and Brisbane, with another estimated 5,000 in Melbourne, in peaceful protests with police allowing them to spread out so they had a safe distancing of 1.5 metres. A Maori group performed a traditional haka, or war dance, during the Brisbane protest. The large crowd later marched to a local police precinct, some chanting: “They say justice, we say murder.” The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council appealed to people at home across the nation to stand in silence in their driveways or balconies at precisely 4.32pm in memory of the 432 Aboriginal people who have died in custody in Australia since 1991. “For more than 30 years Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been unfairly treated in custody,” said chairperson Anne Dennis. “Lives are being lost. No one should be in custody and lose their life, so why on earth are we sitting here today reflecting on 432 deaths in custody? That number is absurd and an indictment on Australian society,” she said. Meanwhile in neighbouring Indonesia, the Black Lives Matter movement has become a rallying cry for pro-Papuan activists. Social media users have adopted the hashtag #PapuanLivesMatter alongside #BlackLivesMatter and prominent writers and artists have promoted it, a sign that the issue resonates beyond Papuans in an archipelago of 270 million. The BLM movement is useful in that it forces Indonesians to reflect on how Papuans have been treated by the police Ligia Judith Giay, Papuan student in Australia Accusations of discrimination have endured for decades in the resource rich and remote provinces of Papua and West Papua, whose indigenous people are of dark-skinned Melanesian origin in contrast with most in the world’s fourth most populous nation. “I think the BLM movement is useful in that it forces Indonesians to reflect on how Papuans have been treated by the police,” said Ligia Judith Giay, a Papuan postgraduate student at Australia’s Murdoch University. Indonesia’s Papua burns as protests against alleged police abuse turn violent Parallels have been drawn between the death of George Floyd, a black American man in Minnesota that unleashed the mass protests and the treatment of a Papuan man, Obby Kogoya, who was pinned down during his arrest in 2016 before he was jailed. A website, “We need to talk about Papua”, has been set up, while an Instagram post about the site attracted more than 12,000 likes. In Japan, marchers in Tokyo protested against what they said was police treatment of a Kurdish man who says he was stopped while driving and shoved to the ground, leaving him with bruises. Organisers invoked the US protests, saying they were also marching in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. “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. She and her friend, Moe, marching in their school uniforms, held a sign saying: “If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention”. “No justice, no peace, no racist police,” the crowd chanted. South Korean activists were planning to march in downtown Seoul later on Saturday, with organisers expecting several hundred people. Coronavirus curbs thwarted plans to gather in front of the US embassy, they said. With pandemic restrictions in Bangkok, activists were going online, asking for video and photos of people wearing black, raising their fists and holding signs, and explaining why they “stand united behind Black Lives Matter”. Protesters in Thailand plan to gather on the video-meeting platform Zoom on Sunday and observe 8 minutes 46 seconds of silence – the period that Floyd was filmed pinned under the police officer’s knee. Additional reporting by AP

Thousands march in Black Lives Matter protests across Asia, from Australia to Japan

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Aboriginal speakers in Australia decried the treatment of black people in the country Other rallies took place in Japan and Indonesia, with protests also planned in South Korea and Thailand

Aboriginal speakers in Australia decried the treatment of black people in the country

Other rallies took place in Japan and Indonesia, with protests also planned in South Korea and Thailand