TIBET ACTIVISTS RETURN TO NEW YORK’S JFK AIRPORT TODAY AFTER ACTION NEAR BEIJING’S BIRD’S NEST STADIUM

Tibetan Community and Supporters Greet Activists Deported for Displaying Tibetan National Flag in China

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 9, 2008
Contacts: In New York, Celia Alario +1 310 721-6517, and Yangchen Lhamo +1 415 997-3212
In Asia, Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director, and Kate Woznow, Campaigns Director, +1 917-289-0228 or +44 2070-846-359

Photos and video footage of the action and the activists’ bios available at: http://freetibet2008.org/mediacenter/updates/teamtibetflags/

New York– Three Tibet supporters are returning home today after being deported for staging a protest near the Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing, one hour before the Olympic Opening Ceremony began yesterday. Jonathan Stribling-Uss, 27, and Kalaya’an Mendoza, 29, Americans, and Cesar Pablo Maxit, 32, an Argentine-American, displayed three Tibetan national flags. Displaying Tibet’s national flag is a serious crime in China, and the three men were quickly tackled to the ground by security officials.

Stribling-Uss, Mendoza and Maxit will arrive at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport on United Airlines Flight 4451 at approximately 2:15pm today. They will be greeted at the airport by friends, supporters and members of the Tibetan community. Spokespeople from Students for a Free Tibet will be available for comment at the arrivals terminal, and the activists will offer remarks on their actions in Beijing and subsequent detention and deportation.

“We proudly displayed the Tibetan flag in Beijing yesterday to shine a spotlight on the Chinese government’s lethal military crackdown inside Tibet and its attempt to use the Beijing Olympics to cover up its human rights abuses there,” said Kalaya’an Mendoza of New York City. “As long as people of conscience actively support Tibetans in their struggle for freedom and human rights, pressure on China to resolve the issue will continue to grow.”

“These activists delivered a message of solidarity with the Tibetan people, highlighting the grave situation in Tibet just moments before the Beijing Olympics began,” said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “The Chinese government wanted the world to be dazzled and distracted by the grandeur of the opening ceremony, but its true face can be seen in its ruthless and intensifying repression of the Tibetan people.”

Tibet groups are planning ongoing protests and events for the duration of the Beijing Games, from Santiago to Montevideo, New York to Toronto, London to Warsaw, Delhi to Brisbane, and many more, to highlight the Chinese government’s attempt to use the Olympics to legitimize its rule in Tibet and call on the Chinese leadership to meaningfully address the issue of Tibet.

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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