Japan to allow peaceful pro-Tibet protests during torch relay
Posted: 22 April 2008 1412 hrs

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TOKYO - Japan said Tuesday that pro-Tibet activists were free to protest when the Olympic torch arrives this weekend, signalling a change from recent legs where demonstrators have been warded off.

Demonstrators plan a ceremony at a famed Buddhist temple, which backed out of plans to be the starting point for Saturday's relay, to mourn victims of China's recent crackdown in Tibet.

"Protesting doesn't pose any particular problem," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters.

But he warned that police would intervene if violence broke out at the relay in Nagano, a central mountain town that hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics.

The latest relay legs have been run amid high security following chaotic protest scenes in Western cities, particularly London and Paris.

On the torch's Asia journey, police in Kuala Lumpur on Monday detained a British woman and a Japanese family who waved Tibetan flags at the start of the Olympic torch relay.

Police said the family was taken away when Chinese nationals hit them with plastic batons.

High-profile protester Robert Menard, head of Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, is planning to come to Japan to hold a rally.

Menard and two others disrupted the flame-lighting ceremony in Greece by unfurling a banner with Olympic rings replaced by handcuffs.

Justice Minister Yukio Hatoyama denied reports that Japan was considering barring Menard from entering the country.

"If he had received a criminal sentence, it would be a different story, but as of now there are no grounds to discuss denying him entry," Hatoyama told reporters.

Buddhist monks said Monday that they would hold a ceremony of mourning for Tibetans on Saturday at the seventh-century Zenkoji temple, which backed out of being the starting point for the relay.

"We hope for the peaceful realisation of the Beijing Olympics and that the principle of freedom will spread in the world," said Keishi Wakaomi, a monk involved in the protest. - AFP/ir