FREE TIBET PROTEST OUTSIDE BIRD’S NEST STADIUM IN BEIJING
August 6, 2008 · Print This Article
Four Tibetan Independence Activists Detained After Dramatic Banner Hang
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 6, 2008
Contacts: Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director, and Kate Woznow, Campaigns Director:
+1 917-289-0228 (United States)
+44 2070-846-359 (United Kingdom)
+852-3050-9088 (Hong Kong)
***Photos and video footage are available at: http://freetibet2008.org/mediacenter/updates/birdsnest/
Beijing– Four Tibet activists from Britain and the United States were detained in Beijing today after unfurling Tibetan flags and two 140-square-foot banners outside the Olympic stadium. The first read, “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet” in English, and the second read, “Tibet Will Be Free” in English and “Free Tibet” in Chinese. The dramatic action took place hours before the Olympic Torch arrives in Tiananmen Square, and two days before the Olympics opening ceremony takes place at the stadium. The activists were detained by Chinese authorities after displaying their message for nearly an hour; their current whereabouts are unknown.
Tibetans and their supporters worldwide condemn the Chinese government’s attempt to use the 2008 Games to cover up its occupation of Tibet and its violent and ongoing crackdown on Tibetans struggling for their basic rights and freedoms.
“For years, the Chinese government has tried to use the Olympics to legitimize its illegal occupation of Tibet,” said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “At this very moment, Tibetans are facing the most severe and violent repression they have seen in decades at the hands of the Chinese government, and we have taken nonviolent action at this critical time to draw the world’s attention to the crisis gripping Tibet.”
“Days before the Olympic Games begin, and as all eyes turn to China, we appeal to the world to remember that millions of Tibetans are crying out for human rights and freedom,” said Tenzin Dorjee, Deputy Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “As the Chinese leadership prepares its display of grandeur and power in Beijing, trying to convince the world of its new tolerance and openness, it is waging a ruthless campaign of repression inside Tibet.”
Mr. Dorjee continued, “As long as the Chinese leadership continues its brutal occupation of Tibet and refuses to meaningfully address the issue, the Chinese government will not gain the international recognition it so desperately craves.”
Students for a Free Tibet made headlines on August 7, 2007, when an international team of activists unfurled a large banner on the Great Wall of China, overshadowing the official one-year countdown to the Beijing Olympics. Tibetans and supporters have vowed to demonstrate worldwide during the Games in solidarity with Tibetans inside Tibet, who are suffering under an intense clampdown by Chinese authorities in the wake of protests that began on March 10th, the anniversary of the 1959 uprising against China’s occupation of Tibet.
A nonviolent protest begun by a group of monks in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on March 10th rippled across the entire Tibetan plateau in the following weeks and months. More than two hundred Tibetans were killed in the Chinese government’s violent retaliatory crackdown against the demonstrations and thousands of Tibetans remain ‘disappeared’ or in detention. Buddhist monasteries and nunneries in Lhasa have been sealed off and Chinese officials have rolled out political indoctrination campaigns across the region designed to break Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule.
In the run-up to the Olympics, reports have emerged that at least 1,000 Buddhist monks from the major monasteries around Lhasa have been shipped more than 1,000 kilometers away to prisons and detention camps in northern and eastern Tibet. The Times of London (July 7, 2008) reported that family members of the monks were told those detained will be released only after the Olympics are over and that they will be forced to return to their home villages, often far from their Lhasa-based monasteries.
Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) is a network of young people and activists campaigning for Tibetan independence, with 700 chapters in more than thirty countries worldwide. SFT’s international headquarters are in New York, with offices in Toronto, London, and Dharamsala, India.
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[...] can read SFT’s press release on the banner action here. SFT has also posted background bio info on the four activists — Iain Thom, Phill Bartell, [...]
If there is NO DEATH in human SPIRIT, the VOICE OF TIBET will never ceased……. FREEEEEEE TIBETTTTTTTTTTTT
Thank you for taking action. I feel you are speaking for me.
[...] FREE TIBET PROTEST OUTSIDE BIRD’S NEST STADIUM IN BEIJING Four Tibet activists from Britain and the United States were detained in Beijing today after unfurling Tibetan flags and two 140-square-foot banners outside the Olympic stadium. The first read, “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet” in English, and the second read, “Tibet Will Be Free” in English and “Free Tibet” in Chinese. The dramatic action took place hours before the Olympic Torch arrives in Tiananmen Square, and two days before the Olympics opening ceremony takes place at the stadium. The activists were detained by Chinese authorities after displaying their message for nearly an hour; their current whereabouts are unknown. [...]
[...] FREE TIBET PROTEST OUTSIDE BIRD’S NEST STADIUM IN BEIJING Four Tibet activists from Britain and the United States were detained in Beijing today after unfurling Tibetan flags and two 140-square-foot banners outside the Olympic stadium. The first read, “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet” in English, and the second read, “Tibet Will Be Free” in English and “Free Tibet” in Chinese. The dramatic action took place hours before the Olympic Torch arrives in Tiananmen Square, and two days before the Olympics opening ceremony takes place at the stadium. The activists were detained by Chinese authorities after displaying their message for nearly an hour; their current whereabouts are unknown. [...]
Thanks for all of you. Great job. Creative. Bravo. I can’t express my feelings in words. Thank you very much.
My special big THANKS to Iain Thom, Phill Bartell, Phill, Lucy Marion and Tirian Mink.
Tibetans won’t forget your kind forever. We’ll honor you Tibetan citizenship when we get free tibet :)..
Lobsang
Its time to free Tibet, China has tryed in so many ways to keep people from being freebut, this is not going to so this year. To many people already know the truth and they want everyone else to know. How they treat people and animals. They treat them both the same. Stop the crulety on Tibet give them there freedom and the cruelty to animals. Boycott China
[...] Click here to read Student for a Free Tibet’s press release about the action. [...]
Recognizing how brutal the Chinese police force can be, this is incredibly brave. Let’s all hold these freedom warriors in our thoughts.
Namaste/\
[...] to speak out for human rights and freedom in Tibet during the Beijing Olympics with a dramatic banner-hang action outside the main Olympic stadium on Wed., Aug. 6th. With a support person each below, two activists [...]
Good work all you protesters! Brave brave SFT in Beijing. We are thinking of you and send our support and wait for your re-appearance. Let’s keep the pressure on around the world.
i am so much impressed by the SFT and the support it’s getting. hats off to all those brave sft supporter who managed and dear to protest near bird’s nest,china.
God knows how long can we practice non violence …….i am just loosing my patience.
god bless lhadon and sft team.
just to make sure that all santeints beings in this lovely planet get the rights to speak ,religion,freedom..freetibet,,,
i feel really good to be one of the humanrights citizen… i appreciate for all those people who feel human rights is the must…i want my tibe back and democracy
What Courage, What Strength, What Stamina, What Fine Young People, What An Embarassment For the Chinese Authorities!!
These fabulous young people did what we all wish we could do.
They are the ones who deserve gold medals.
I salute you Iain Thom, Phill Bartell, Phill, Lucy Marion and Tirian Mink.
I’m so pleased you are home safely, as are your loved ones, I’m sure .
Thank you so much.