Beijing Olympics: Britons arrested for flying pro-Tibet banners

Peter Foster and Richard Spencer
London Telegraph
Wednesday, Aug 6, 2008

Iain Thom, 24 from Edinburgh and Lucy Marion, 23, from London were seized along with two American protestors after they scaled lamp-posts outside the ‘Birds Nest’ Stadium to make their protest.

The demonstration was one of a number of protests to highlight Tibet and religious freedom which took place around Beijing to coincide with the arrival of the Olympic torch in Tiananmen Square.

Ms Marion, 23, who grew up in Cambridge and now lives in London is a graduate of Bristol University and, according to the activists’ website, has been campaigning for Tibetan rights since visiting Tibet in 2003.

(Article continues below)

Mr Thom, a grass roots co-ordinator for Students for a Free Tibet UK climbed a 120ft lamppost with an American protestor, Phill Bartell, 34 from Colorado, to string up a 200ft-long banner.

The message, “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet” – a parody of the official “One World, One Dream” slogan of the Beijing Olympics – remained on display for more than an hour before Chinese police moved in, the activists claimed.

Mr Thom spoke by mobile telephone to ABC News, saying he entered China on a tourist visa.

He said: “I’ll probably get detained by the police and then ejected out of the country but I believe it’s not anywhere near the risk or the fear that Tibetans are living under the occupation of the Chinese government.”

Full article here

• 
• Social bookmarks
• 
• Email this article
• 
• Print this page

Comment Terms Of Use

2 Responses to “Beijing Olympics: Britons arrested for flying pro-Tibet banners”

1. Mark Says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 9:24 am

   Senior Nasa Official Clark McClelland who last week backed up the statements of astronaut Ed Mitchell regarding an military/alien alliance, has now updated his site this week with an artists rendering of what he saw during a classified shuttle mission. This is an explosive leak of classified information, and Clark definitely has the credentials to back his statements up!

   Be sure to check out the “incidents” link, as Clark has a lot of juicy revelations regarding many space missions!

   The link is here;

   http://www.hismailroom.com

2. Matthew Says:
   August 6th, 2008 at 8:53 pm

   CHINA’S government offered on Friday 25th April to meet an envoy of the Dalai Lama.

   “In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai’s private representative in the coming days,” the official Xinhua News Agency said.

   China has attached routine conditions for the opening of a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, including a demand that he stops plotting for Tibet’s independence “so as to create conditions for talks.”

   Following a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso called the announcement encouraging and said that China appeared prepared to discuss all issues except sovereignty.

   “So, if the concern of the Dalai Lama is, as he has always stated, respect of cultural identity, religious identity and autonomy inside China, I believe there’s real room for a dialogue,” said Mr Barroso.

   US embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said that diplomats there were encouraged by the report.

   “The US has long encouraged the Chinese to renew dialogue with the Dalai Lama and his representatives,” she claimed.

   But a spokesman for the self-declared Tibetan “government in exile” Samdhong Rimpoche said: “The Dalai Lama is always open to have a dialogue, but the present circumstances in Tibet do not appear to be an appropriate platform for a meaningful dialogue.”

   China and representatives of the Dalai Lama’s organisation held six rounds of inconclusive talks that foundered in late 2006.

   China has always said that it is willing to talk to the Dalai Lama as long as he recognises Tibet as a part of China.

   The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet amid a failed uprising in 1959, has claimed since then that he merely seeks meaningful autonomy for Tibet, not independence.