Beijing: Ethnic Park Protest - Aug. 13, 2008
Five Tibet activists blockaded the front entrance of the Chinese Ethnic Culture Park, at the south end of the Olympic Park, at 12:30pm today. The five were behind locked bicycles across the entrance to the park, which prominently features an exhibit of Tibetan culture. They wore t-shirts reading “Free Tibet” and held a banner reading “Tibetans Are Dying for Freedom.” A sixth activist, a Tibetan-Japanese woman, made a statement about what they were doing and the situation on the ground in Tibet.
Nearby, two other activists unfurled a banner over a pedestrian bridge, which read “Free Tibet.”
The two activists at the bridge were immediately detained by security officials. The six outside the park were detained after approximately five minutes. The activists are: Pema Yoko, 25, a Tibetan-Japanese woman resident in the UK; Americans Tom Cohen, 41; Martin Thomas, 36; Jennifer Kirby, 30; Jene DeSpain, 31; James Brady, 41; Bani Campozano, 20; and Jonathan Fox, 29, an Israeli-American. Their present whereabouts are unknown.
Click here to read SFT’s press release.
Digital Media
High-resolution stills available as a Flickr Photoset or a Downloadable ZIP (10MB)
Beijing: Ethnic Park Protest - Aug. 13, 2008 from Students for a Free Tibet on Vimeo.
Video available to watch here in raw MPEG-4 format or for download here.
HD video footage available upon request.
UK Channel 4 Report on Protests and Arrest of Activists and an ITN-TV Reporter
Includes SFT-UK leader and Tibetan activist Pema Yoko speaking – her bio below video.
Biographies
Pema Yoko Niwa Norbu, 25, was born in London, England to a Tibetan father and Japanese mother. She feels a strong sense of commitment to defending Tibetan identity and speaking out against the Chinese government’s brutal regime destroying her father’s homeland. She is one of the coordinators of Students for a Free Tibet UK and previously served as its National Coordinator. Pema currently lives in London. Watch the personal video-statement Pema recorded before going to Beijing. Download the video-statement as an MPEG-4 file
HOLDING FREE TIBET BANNER ON BRIDGE:
James Brady, 41, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, and currently lives in Washington, DC. He works for Greenpeace and is also an avid musician.
Jene DeSpain, 31, lives San Francisco, California, USA, and is a long time social justice and environmental activist. She also runs her own jewelery making business.
BLOCKING ENTRANCE TO PARK:
Bani Campozano, 20, was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA, and raised Queens, New York where she currently lives. She is a professional dog walker, is active with many social justice and environmental groups, and her Buddhist faith and her belief in non-violence is what drew her to the Tibet cause.
Jennifer Kirby, 30, was born and raised in Maryland, USA. She is a student and currently lives in Washington, DC. She has been involved in causes ranging from the environmental movement to prison rights and housing rights struggles, on the local, national, and international levels, and is long-time Tibet supporter.
Jonathan Fox, 29, is an Israeli-American currently living in Bangkok, Thailand, where he works for a local civil society organization. Jon graduated from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs in 2007 with a Masters in International Affairs focused on human rights, and graduated from Hebrew University in 2005 with a major in political science and East Asian studies.
Martin Thomas, 36, was born in Cambridge, UK and raised in Indiana, Pennsylvania, USA. He currently lives in Washington, DC where he works as a union organizer. Martin lived in China for 3 months as a teenager in the late 1980s before the Tienanmen Square massacre. He developed friendships with many Chinese students and since then has been interested in the Chinese democracy and human rights movements.
Tom Cohen, 41, was born in Salinas, California, USA and currently lives in Oakland, California where he works as a chef. He has been involved with Students for a Free Tibet for almost twelve years and believes this is a critical time to take action for Tibet.
