Olympics Campaign Highlights
Olympics Campaign Highlights
2008: August - This is a historic moment for Tibet. Tibet activists are engaged in nearly daily pro-Tibet protests in Beijing, and Tibetans and supporters around the world have been working tirelessly to organize a global uprising in support of Tibetan freedom. Rallies and vigils and demonstrations have been taking place from Santiago to Montevideo, New York to Toronto, London to Warsaw, Delhi to Kathmandu. These inspiring events reaffirm two things that we already know - Tibetans will never give up, and people worldwide are with us.
June – Turning up the heat on the International Olympic Committee (IOC), SFT activists and allies from the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe gathered in Athens during the IOC’s last meeting before August. Tibet campaigners held a press release in Athens, sought meetings with IOC officials, staged protests outside the hotel venue of the IOC meeting, and were physically dragged away by Greek police. While the IOC stubbornly refused to do the right thing, Tibet remained high on the Olympic agenda, much to the consternation of the Chinese government.
May - Despite opposition and appeals to the International Olympic Committee not to allow China to take the torch to Tibet, China finally completes its assault on Mt. Everest, taking an Olympic torch to the summit while Tibetans everywhere stage vigorous protests. Meanwhile, Tibetan nuns in Eastern Tibet stage demonstration after peaceful demonstration, facing arrests, beatings and torture for their courageous defiance. The Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement continues its March to Tibet in India, focusing attention on Tibetans’ opposition to the Olympic torch going to Tibet.
April – In San Francisco, SFT activists captured the world’s imagination with a daring action when they climbed the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge – an architectural icon recognized the world over – to unfurl one banner proclaiming China’s official Olympics slogan “One World, One Dream” and another banner with our answer: “Free Tibet.” The dramatic action makes global headlines and news footage is broadcast live worldwide. The action sets the stage for the torch to arrive in San Francisco. When the torch arrives, Tibetans from all over North America are there, joined by many thousands of people speaking out for Tibet. With the torch route completely clogged with Tibet supporters, officials are forced to run it through an entirely different section of the city and cancel the closing ceremony altogether. At least two Olympic torchbearers make bold statements in support of Tibet during their run with the torch. Demonstrations also took place
April – As Tibetans inside Tibet continue to rise up – and continue to face a brutal crackdown from Chinese authorities – activists turn their sights to what Beijing dubbed its “Journey of Harmony.” In London and Paris, on the Olympic torch relay’s first two stops, SFT activists abseil from two different central bridges – the Westminster Bridge over the River Thames in London and the Pont Au Change over the River Seine in Paris – to hang dramatic protest banners. In both of the European capitals, Tibetans and their supporters filled the streets with banners and flags, sometimes interrupting the torch procession. Vigorous demonstrations for Tibetan freedom and against China’s crackdown in Tibet immediately overshadow the international torch relay, leading many to question the IOC’s decision to allow it in the first place.
March – After peaceful protests in Lhasa marking the March 10th 1959 Tibetan national uprising erupted into a new popular uprising that rippled across Tibet, Tibetans and their supporters redoubled their Olympic-year efforts. On the same day, Tibetans lit a Tibetan Freedom Torch in Olympia, Greece, and sent the torch on its own relay around the world. A short time later, Tibetans returned to Olympia and staged bold protests at the lighting of China’s Olympic torch. It marked the beginning of vigorous protests of the international leg of the Olympic torch relay. On March 10th, the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement, based in Dharamsala, India, also commences a Return March to Tibet, with one hundred marchers vowing to march back to Tibet. The march quickly grew to many hundreds.
2007: April – On the same day as the International Olympic Committee and China’s Olympic Committee announces the route of the Beijing Olympic torch relay, Students for a Free Tibet activists unfurled a banner at Everest Base Camp reading “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet 2008.” Wearing a t-shirt reading “IOC: No Torch Through Tibet,” SFT’s Deputy Director Tendor lit a Tibetan Freedom torch and sang the Tibetan National Anthem on Tibetan soil. The event showed the bold determination of Tibet activists, making headlines worldwide. After subjecting the activists to intensive interrogation and holding them for three days, Chinese authorities expelled them to Nepal.
August – During the week leading up to the one-year countdown to the Beijing Games, SFT’s Executive Director and a colleague from Free Tibet Campaign (UK) explored Beijing and reported openly on a new blog, Beijing Wide Open, about preparations for the Games and China’s Tibet-related Olympics propaganda. At the same time, Lhadon attempted to meet with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge. Their video reports and blogging captured the attention of global media, as well as Beijing authorities who followed her everywhere she went until finally arresting her (and other Tibet activists - see below) on August 8th, just hours before the one-year countdown celebrations in Tiananmen Square.
On August 7th, six activists from Students for a Free Tibet were arrested after rappelling from the Great Wall of China to unfurl a 500-square foot banner proclaiming One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008 in English and Chinese. They videotaped the nonviolent protest themselves and broadcast it live via satellite and the video images were on youtube and running on the news almost immediately. The creative demonstration helped set the stage for the one-year countdown, leading reporters, supporters, and Chinese officials to wonder what kinds of protests to expect during the Games themselves.
2006: During the Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Tibetans and their supporters have a strong presence in Torino. Along with two fellow Tibetans, then-73-year old Tibetan monk Palden Gyatso – who spent 33 years as a political prisoner in Tibet – staged an indefinite hunger strike, calling it off only when IOC officials agreed to sit down and consider their concerns and demands.
2005: Tibet activists continue to organize, fundraise, and prepare the Olympics campaign, while focusing on other vital priorities like securing the freedom of political prisoners, and campaigning to keep foreign companies from investing in China’s colonial projects in Tibet.
2004: Before and during the 2004 Summer Games, Tibetans and supporters were in Athens, educating the public and raising concerns about the next Olympics in Beijing. Activists held several demonstrations and captured media coverage in the build-up to the handover of the Olympic flag after an 8-minute event by Beijing’s Olympic Committee at the Athens Games’ closing ceremonies. In Beijing, Tibet activists representing the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN), a global coordinating body of Tibet Support Groups, held a press conference on the morning after the hand-over of the Olympic flag to Beijing. Later the same day, two activists are arrested after holding a protest banner on a bridge near Beijing’s Olympic Park.
2002-2003: Tibet support groups reached out to the International Olympic Committee, encouraging them to hold Beijing to the pledges it made during its bid for the games. The IOC denies repeated requests for dialogue and meetings with Tibetans and Tibet support groups.
2001: Tibet supporters campaigned vigorously against Beijing’s bid for the games – even outside the Moscow venue where the IOC announced they were awarding the 2008 Games to Beijing back in 2001. Russian police arrested several Tibetans and activists for speaking out.
