Olympia Torch-lighting protest

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DEAR ALL, THIS IS NOT A CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHINA. THIS IS A COMPILATION OF REPORTS PERTAINING TO THE HISTORIC EVENTS BUILDING TOWARDS THE 2008 BEIJING OLYMPIC GAMES WHICH MAY WELL, ON THE EVIDENCE AND ACTIONS TO DATE, BECOME A TUMULTUOUS EVENT. KK

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece, March 24 AFP - Protesters today disrupted the ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games, amid mounting controversy over China’s crackdown in Tibet.
Three men breached security around the site of Ancient Olympia to unfurl a flag demanding a boycott of the Olympics and shout slogans denouncing China’s rights record.
But International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge insisted there was no momentum'' for a boycott of the event which starts in the Chinese capital on August 8. Three men staged the protest as the chief Chinese Olympics organiser, Liu Qi, made a speech before the flame was lit. One man unfurled a flag declaring Boycott the country that tramples on human rights’’. Another tried to grab the microphone from Liu and shouted freedom, freedom'' at the official stand where Rogge and other dignitaries were sat. Security officers quickly dragged all three away. Greek police had imposed heavy security around the site, which included armed police watching down from nearby hills. Amid a politically charged atmosphere around the event, Greek state television cut its live broadcast to an image away from the protesters when the incident started. China's state broadcaster also quickly changed. The lighting of the flame at the venue of the ancient Olympics launched a relay that marks the final countdown for each Games. The journey to Beijing is the longest ever planned, lasting 130 days and covering 137,000 kilometres worldwide. A crackdown on anti-Chinese protests in Tibet, which exiled Tibetans say have left at least 130 dead, has overshadowed the buildup to the Games. Speaking to reporters before the ceremony, Rogge said however that the major political leaders don’t want a boycott.’’ He added: There is no momentum for a boycott.'' Bush doesn’t want a boycott, Sarkozy doesn’t want a boycott, Brown doesn’t want a boycott,’’ Rogge said, referring to President George W Bush of the United States, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
But he acknowledged that the torch relay across a number of countries and Mount Everest and Tibet in early May might be hijacked.
Of course it's a concern,'' he said. I would hope that potential protesters will understand that public opinion would not want the torch relay painted by political protests. It would be counterproductive.’’
In his speech at the ceremony, Rogge said the Beijing Games should be an opportunity for China and the world ``to learn, discover and respect each other’’.
Various rights groups have drawn up plans aiming to galvanise opposition to China’s record on Tibet, Darfur, human rights, religious freedom and other issues in the run-up to the Beijing Games.
The Falungong group is running a rival torch relay to highlight the plight of its followers in China, who it says are subject to brutal persecution.
Dream for Darfur, an organisation set up to pressure China into helping end the bloodshed in the western Sudanese region, is planning protests along the torch relay route.
Already, Thai environmental activist Narisa Chakrabongse, chosen to carry the Olympic torch when it crosses Thailand next month, has declined in protest against Beijing’s crackdown.
The torch relay is the longest ever but most of it will be on Chinese soil.
Aside from Athens, the flame will only stop in London and Paris among European capitals.
North and South America only get one city apiece – San Francisco and Buenos Aires – with two more Africa stops scheduled in Dar es Salaam and Muscat.
Upon arrival in Beijing on March 31, one flame will be separated from the torch and kept in a special lantern that will be transported to base camp at Mount Everest, ready for the ascent of the world’s highest peak.
The relay is scheduled to scale the world’s highest peak during early May and then return to Tibet from June 19-21.

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BEIJING, March 24 AFP - Chinese state television cut away from the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece today as two protesters tried to disrupt the speech given by China’s organising committee chief Liu Qi.
Broadcaster CCTV’s news channel cut to what appeared to be stock pictures of the ceremony site in Olympia, after protesters made a grab for the microphone during Liu’s speech.
The protesters unfurled a banner reading ``Boycott the country that tramples on human rights.’’
Several Chinese channels were showing the traditional ceremony in Olympia, which is the start of a huge worldwide tour of the torch before the Games opening ceremony in Beijing on August 8.
The torch ceremony was being shown on CCTV with a short delay, compared with BBC World images seen in China.
Campaign groups are expected to target the torch route to highlight their causes, which include improved human rights in China and anger at the clampdown following rioting in Tibet over the past two weeks.

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ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece, March 24 Agencies - The Beijing Olympics flame was lit in a tightly-guarded ceremony in Ancient Olympia today at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics.
The ceremony launches the Olympic torch relay that marks the countdown for each Games.
The Beijing Games relay is the longest and most ambitious ever planned, lasting 130 days and covering 137,000 kilometres worldwide.
The Beijing Olympics, the first to be held in China, will open on August 8 and run until August 24.
Prior to the lighting of the flame, the ceremony was marred when three unidentified protesters tried to disrupt the speech of China organising committee chief Liu Qi.
The protesters tried to grab the microphone, and unfurled a banner reading Boycott the Games in the country that tramples on human rights.'' The three men are believed to be part of the international rights group Reporters Without Borders. The Olympic flame will radiate light and happiness, peace and friendship, and hope and dreams to the people of China and the whole world,’’ Qi said in his speech.
On an overcast day inside the archaeological site, that played host to the Olympics in ancient Greece, the actress Maria Nafpliotou playing the high priestess used a break in the clouds to light the torch in front of the Temple of Hera.
Greek athlete Alexandros Nikolaidis, an Athens 2004 Games taekwondo silver medallist, will be the first torchbearer starting a six-day Greek relay before the flame is handed over to the Chinese on March 30.
Earlier today, a Tibetan activist briefly confronted International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge at his hotel in Ancient Olympia.
Deadly protests started March 10 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
The demonstrations turned violent four days later, touching off demonstrations among Tibetans in three neighbouring provinces.
Beijing’s official death toll from the rioting is 22, but the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile has said 99 Tibetans have been killed.

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The Beijing Olympics flame was lit in a tightly-guarded ceremony

Well… not so tightly… :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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ANCIENT OLYMPIA, March 24 AFP - About 10 Tibetan activists staged an anti-Chinese protest today shortly after the lighting of the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games at the tightly-guarded Ancient Olympia in Greece.
The activists, covered in red paint to simulate blood, marched out of a hotel and lay in the town’s main street, shouting slogans against Chinese rule in Tibet.
Some were detained by police and the rest ran away.
An hour earlier, three members of Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) breached security around the site of Ancient Olympia to unfurl a flag demanding a boycott of the Olympics and shout slogans denouncing China’s rights record.
``I think it’s always sad when there are protests, but they were not violent and that’s the most important thing,’’ International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge told reporters after the first incident.

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THIS IS OUTSTANDING: SOME GUY IN CHINA ORGANISED A PETITION SAYING “WE WANT HUMAN RIGHTS, NOT OLYMPICS” AND JUST COPPED FIVE YEARS IN PRISON. :eek: :rolleyes:

BEIJING, March 24 AFP - In a case closely watched for signs China might ease the pressure on its critics ahead of the Olympics, a court today handed down the maximum five years in prison to a human rights activist.
Authorities threw the book at Yang Chunlin, a former factory worker, on the same day that the Olympic flame was lit in Greece, beginning the countdown to an event China’s communist rulers hope to use as a national showpiece.
The 52-year-old Yang was arrested last year after reportedly collecting more than 10,000 signatures on a petition entitled We want human rights, not the Olympics.'' Both the family and us lawyers think it is a heavy sentence, as five years in prison is the highest sentence possible in this case,’’ said Yang’s lawyer Li Fangping.
An official at the court in Jiamusi city, in the northern province of Heilongjiang, confirmed the sentence but declined to give details or further comment.
The case against Yang, who has also battled Chinese authorities on behalf of farmers whose land was seized by the government, had been watched for any sign of leniency in the run-up to the Olympics in August.
Nicholas Bequelin, from Human Rights Watch, said the verdict showed China cared little for world opinion and wanted to send a clear signal that anyone who tarnished the country’s image before the Games would suffer.
What we have seen is a very systematic attempt to silence Chinese activists who wanted to use the focus of the Olympics to bring attention to their causes,'' he said. Yang has denied the charges and refused to sign the verdict, his sister, Yang Chunping said, indicating he remained defiant. We want my brother to appeal but he is not sure he wants to because he has no confidence in the judicial system of China,’’ she said.
Li, the lawyer, said he hoped to meet with his client to discuss his next move.
Human Rights Watch had previously said Yang was denied due process and access to his lawyers.
A Beijing court is also imminently expected to announce a verdict on Hu Jia, a high-profile dissident who was arrested in December and went on trial last week on the same charges, according to his lawyers.
The verdict on Yang comes just days after China launched a crackdown on protests in Tibet and heavily Tibetan areas, which Tibetan exiles say has left around 130 people dead.
China has blamed the Dalai Lama for the protests, which it says are aimed at undermining the August 8-24 Games in the Chinese capital Beijing.
The crackdown has drawn worldwide criticism but few serious calls for any boycott of the Olympics.
In Greece today a ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic torch, which had Chinese officials on hand, was briefly disrupted by three protesters.
One unfurled a flag declaring: ``Boycott the country that tramples on human rights.’’

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ROGGE SAYS GIVING CHINA THE GAMES WAS THE RIGHT DECISION

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece, March 24 Reuters - Awarding the 2008 Olympics to Beijing was the right decision, despite mounting criticism of its human rights record, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said today.
It was right to award the Games to China for two reasons,'' Rogge told Reuters in an interview. He said opening up a fifth of the world's population to the idea of Olympism, coupled with the media scrutiny China will be under in the run-up to the August Games, were reason enough. This will have a good effect for the evolution of China,’’ Rogge said on the day of the Beijing Games torch-lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia.
``We believe that the Games are a great catalyst for change.’’

Human rights groups have urged the IOC to pressure Beijing to improve its human rights record, especially after violence in Tibet earlier this month.
In mid-March, Tibetan areas were rocked by anti-Chinese protests and riots, claiming the lives of 18 innocent civilians and a police officer in Tibet’s regional capital, Lhasa, and four civilians in nearby Sichuan province, according to the Chinese government.
Exiled Tibetans say as many as 100 Tibetans died.
The unrest flared in Tibet when Buddhist monks started demonstrating in Lhasa on March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
China has accused the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, of plotting terror'' to wreck the country's Olympics. The Dalai Lama has rejected the claims, saying he does not oppose Beijing's Games. I have no message to give to China for what the sovereignty of China is concerned,’’ Rogge said. But the Games cannot be held in an atmosphere of violence. We are concerned about what is happening in Tibet.'' Exiled activists for an independent Tibet have pledged to demonstrate in Olympia today. Rogge said while he respected the activists' cause, the IOC was neither a political organisation nor an NGO. We know our limits,’’ he said. ``We will not enter into a political discussion,’’ he said, adding that when the Games were awarded to Beijing, the IOC had carefully studied the country’s human rights situation.
Human rights groups and other organisations have called for a tough stance against Beijing following the Tibet violence and even a Games boycott.
Reuters

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DALLAS MORNING NEWS, EDITORIAL

The following editorial appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Friday, March 21:

The rise of China on the world stage is one of the monumental stories of our time. Yet despite its modernization, China is still ruled by an authoritarian communist regime, one that does not hesitate to use deadly violence to enforce its rule.
That’s what’s happening in Tibet today, as Chinese soldiers have reportedly killed scores of Tibetans protesting Beijing’s ruthless suppression of their culture, religion and autonomy. Tibet has been harshly ruled by China since it smashed the 1959 independence rebellion and sent the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, into exile.
The Dalai Lama has agreed to yield to Chinese administrative control of Tibet, in exchange for religious and cultural independence - but Beijing refuses to deal. Younger generations of Tibetans are growing restless with the nonviolent Dalai Lama’s accomodationist strategy and have led the recent violent demonstrations precipitating the Chinese crackdown.
This is dangerous brinksmanship. Beijing cannot afford to let Tibet go. To do so would threaten the breakup of China, whose historic curse has been instability. The recent recognition by many in the world community of Kosovo’s independence frightened China and other nations with restless minorities seeking nationhood.
But Beijing is also playing a risky game with Tibetans. The Beijing Summer Olympics will be China’s coming-out party, celebrating its status as a major world power. If this week’s threats by France and others to boycott opening ceremonies in solidarity with bleeding Tibet amount to anything, China will lose an enormous amount of face.

Despite its substantial material progress, the Tibet crackdown shows that the real face of China continues to be the same authoritarian scowl that massacred pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square in 1989. That’s a lesson not lost on neighboring Taiwan, a prosperous democracy that lives under constant threat from China, which views it as a renegade province.
Neither Tibetan nationalists nor Chinese authorities can hope to win this fight with force. While there’s still time, China should talk without guile to the Dalai Lama, a man of peace whose requests are reasonable - but who, thanks to Beijing’s short-sighted intransigence, is losing influence over his own angry people.

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ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece, March 24 Reuters - Human rights demonstrators breached tight security and tried to hijack the Beijing Olympic torch lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia today.
In a globally televised ceremony to mark the start of a five-month torch relay, the actress Maria Nafpliotou playing the high priestess used a break in the clouds to light the torch in front of the Temple of Hera.
However, just before the torch-lighting ceremony inside the archaeological site that played host to the Olympics in ancient Greece, three demonstrators managed to break a tight police cordon.
One of them, carrying a black banner with five interlocked handcuffs in the pattern of the Olympics rings, approached Beijing Games chief Liu Qi during his speech in front of hundreds of officials but was quickly led away by police before unfolding it.
Liu failed to get distracted by the commotion and continued his speech, while television footage immediately cut away from the incident.
The Olympic flame will radiate light and happiness, peace and friendship, and hope and dreams to the people of China and the whole world,'' Liu told the assembled crowd. Police said that three men had so far been arrested and would be charged with breaching the peace. Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said three of its members had tried to stage the protest. If the Olympic flame is sacrificed, human rights are even more so,’’ the group said in a statement on its website (www.rsf.org/).
We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace without condemning the dramatic human rights situation.'' Reporters Without Borders secretary general Robert Menard unfurled a second black banner from the VIP area where he was seated. Protests also followed the first few runners of the relay, with several demonstrators briefly holding up the runners, when they lay in front of the convoy of cars. Others wore Free Tibet T-shirts and a large banner was hanging from one of the buildings along the main street through Olympia. They managed to hold up the relay very briefly at three different parts of the high street,’’ a Reuters photographer said.
Exiled Tibetans had pledged to demonstrate on the day against China’s security crackdown in the region and what they say is the IOC’s hesitance to pressure Beijing to improve its human rights record.
Police said an additional 25 protesters had attempted to come in but a strong police presence kept them at bay before they dispersed.
Greek police added they had also detained Tibetan activist Tenzin Dorjee of the Students for Free Tibet group in Olympia.
He was not part of the protest but was planning to stage a demonstration later in the day.
I was just arrested by over 20 Greek undercover officers. I am now held at the police station,'' he told Reuters. Greek athlete Alexandros Nikolaidis, an Athens 2004 Games taekwondo silver medallist, was the first torchbearer starting a six-day Greek relay before the flame is handed over to the Chinese on March 30. China's only Athens 2004 Games swimming gold medallist Luo Xuejuan was the second runner. The flame then starts a long international and Chinese relay that will include Tibet and the peak of Mount Everest before ending in Beijing on August 8 when the Games officially open. I express here the hope that the symbol of the torch will be recognised by everybody and that the right circumstances can be created, wherever the torch travels, for it to resonate,’’ International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said in a speech inside the ancient stadium.

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Sounds to me like someone on the inside let this happen. Any security at all would have kept protesters far away from the officials. Grabbing the mike just happened?
On the other hand, the Greeks were also in charge of security at the 2004 Olympic Marathon when an imbecile protester tackled the leader and destroyed his gold medal chances.

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Sounds to me like someone on the inside let this happen. Any security at all would have kept protesters far away from the officials. Grabbing the mike just happened?
On the other hand, the Greeks were also in charge of security at the 2004 Olympic Marathon when an imbecile protester tackled the leader and destroyed his gold medal chances.

I would tend to believe that Greek security is not so efficient.

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BEIJING, March 25 Reuters - A mob armed with stones and knives has killed an armed Chinese policeman in a Tibetan part of western China, Xinhua news agency said today, a sign that unrest is still flaring despite a huge security presence.
Wang Guochuan died during an attack yesterday on a group of police in the Garze Tibetan Prefecture in Sichuan province, the report said, adding that several others were wounded in the clash that ended after the police fired warning shots.
The report did not say if the attackers were Tibetan.
Anti-government demonstrations, which in some cases have turned violent, erupted throughout ethnic Tibetan parts of western China last week, following a March 14 riot in Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
Xinhua had reported the areas had been calm since late last week and China has poured armed police into the regions to prevent further unrest, which the government says has been coordinated by the Dalai Lama from his home in exile.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, has lived in the Indian hill station of Dharamsala since 1959, when he fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese Communist rule. He denies masterminding the protests.
In Sichuan’s Aba country, where the government said police opened fire on an earlier protest, 381 people surrendered to authorities for joining in, Xinhua reported.
Crowds had attacked government offices, police stations, schools and hospitals, the report said.
It did not say when they might face trial for the violent demonstrations, in which some protestors carried the banned flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile and shouted independence slogans, or what penalty they could expect.
``Among those surrendered, most are common people or monks deceived or coerced,’’ Xinhua quoted Shu Tao, Communist Party head in a village where 40 people turned themselves in, as saying.
Some 23 monks surrendered on Sunday, the report added.
Before yesterday’s incident, China said 19 people had died in the violence.
The Tibetan government-in-exile raised its death toll to 130 today.
China has barred foreign journalists from Tibet and surrounding areas, making independent verification of the reports difficult.

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ATHENS, March 24, 2008 (AFP) - Three French activists from a media rights group who were arrested for staging an anti-China demonstration at the lighting of the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games were charged and released from custody late Monday.
Three members of the Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reports Without Borders – RSF) group, who had unfurled a flag calling for a boycott of the Beijing Games, said they had been charged with an offensive act.'' Our trial has been set for May 29. We will be there to denounce again the corruption of Olympianism’’ at the Beijing Games, RSF president Robert Menard, one of those arrested, told AFP.
The charge against them of an offensive act is not the same as a provocation,'' he said, and is subject to a maximum one year prison term and/or a fine. Menard and two other members of RSF staged their protest as the chief Chinese Olympics organiser, Liu Qi, made a speech before the flame was lit at the ancient Greek temple of Olympia. One man unfurled a flag declaring Boycott the country that tramples on human rights.’’ Another tried to grab the microphone from Liu and shouted freedom, freedom'' at the official stand where International Olympic Committee chairman Jacques Rogge and other dignitaries were sat. Security officers quickly dragged all three away. The RSF activists were taken to the neighbouring city of Pyrgos before being brought before a prosecutor and charged. RSF has made calls for international heads of state to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games on August 8. If the Olympic flame is sacred, human rights are even more so,’’ RSF said in a statement released in Paris which announced the group’s involvement in the protests.
We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace, without denouncing the dramatic human rights situation in the country, less than five months from the start of the Olympic Games,'' said the statement. Menard was presented with the Legion of Honour, France's top civilian award, by President Nicolas Sarkozy, on Sunday. The statement condemned China's clampdown on reporting about a crackdown against protests in Tibet. The group said it would use every opportunity to protest against grave violations of fundamental liberties’’ in China.

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China and the Olympics

In these days the games are every bit as corrupt and unpleasant as the Chinese government - thus i would suggest that the event and the venue richly deserve each other. The ends always justifies the means :confused:

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yep yep. … :o

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Foreign journalists allowed in Tibet

By CHARLES HUTZLER Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 03/26/2008 01:48:43 AM PDT

LHASA, China—China on Wednesday announced the surrender of hundreds of people over anti-government protests among Tibetans and allowed into the regional capital Lhasa the first group of foreign journalists to visit since the violence.

The moves appear calculated to bolster government claims that authorities are in control of the situation and that the protests that began peacefully were acts of destruction and murder.

The protests embarrassed the government ahead of this summer’s Beijing Olympics, leading it to flood Tibet with troops and ban foreign journalists. The protests took a violent turn on March 14, when rioters set hundreds of fires in Lhasa and attacked ethnic Chinese.

It was unclear how much freedom to report the small group of foreign journalists, among them an Associated Press reporter, would have during the Chinese government-arranged two-day trip. The visit comes amid rising international pressure over China’s crackdown in Tibet less than five months ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

State-run media announced that more than 600 people had turned themselves in to police in Lhasa and in Sichuan province, where unrest also broke out.

Police also had published a list of 53 people wanted in connection with the riots, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. At least 29 people have been formally arrested, but it wasn’t clear if they were among the 53 on the wanted list.

The uprising was the broadest and most sustained against Chinese rule in almost two decades, embarrassing and frustrating the communist leadership. Thousands of troops and police have been deployed to contain the unrest.

The government says at least 22 people have died in Lhasa; Tibetan rights groups say nearly 140 Tibetans were killed, including 19 in Gansu province.

So far, the U.S., Britain and Germany have all condemned China for its response to the protests, but stopped short of threatening to boycott the games or the Aug. 8 opening ceremony.

But French President Nicolas Sarkozy has suggested he could boycott the opening ceremony.

“Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet, and I will adapt my response to the evolutions in the situation that will come, I hope, as rapidly as possible,” he told reporters in southwest France.

Belgian Vice Premier Didier Reynders, meanwhile, said officials in his government had not excluded the possibility of staying away from the Games. The sports minister of the northern Dutch-speaking region of Flanders has already said he will not attend the opening ceremony of the games, arguing the ceremony is used to promote Chinese propaganda.

Also Tuesday, China’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at a British newspaper editorial comparing the Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Games in Nazi Germany as an “insult to the Chinese people.”

The editorial by ex-British Cabinet minister Michael Portillo published in The Sunday Times revealed the “despicable psychology of some people,” spokesman Qin Gang said in a statement.

Authorities had pledged harsh punishment for those participating in the violence. The Tibet Daily quoted the national police chief as saying monks would be subjected to “patriotic education” classes :eek: :eek: :eek: and he accused the protesters of violating Buddhist tenants.

In such classes, monks are forced to denounce their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who remains widely revered despite Beijing’s relentless vilification, and declare their loyalty to the communist government.

China’s communist troops entered Tibet in 1950, and the country claims to have the Himalayan region for seven centuries. Many Tibetans say they were effectively an independent nation for most of that time.

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I simply do not trust ALL the news from western media sources.

Check this out;

http://www.anti-cnn.com/index2.html

It has been known fact that media power houses like CNN like to invent stories. The truth eventually surfaces but a few years too late.

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By Peter Harmsen
BEIJING, March 28 AFP - China today let the first foreign diplomats visit Tibet following deadly riots there, amid debate in Europe over whether the Chinese crackdown should trigger a boycott of the Olympics opening.
Two weeks after the protests in the Himalayan region entered a lethal phase, diplomats from a number of countries, including the United States, Australia, Britain, France and Japan, set off on the government-organised tour.
I suppose the objective of the Chinese foreign ministry is to basically answer the international calls ... to have diplomatic access to Tibet,'' said Australian embassy spokeswoman Janaline Oh. Diplomats from about 15 countries were allowed to go on the hastily-arranged two-day visit, according to a Japanese embassy official. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack welcomed the move, but said it was not enough. We see this as a step in the right direction, but it’s not a substitute for the ability of our diplomats, as well as others, to travel not only to Lhasa, but into the surrounding area specifically,’’ he told reporters.
China brought a foreign media delegation to Lhasa on Wednesday for a three-day trip following international pressure to allow independent reporting from the Tibetan capital, after it was sealed off due to the unrest.
AFP and some other major news organisations were not invited on the trip, which has been criticised for being carefully choreographed to show only Beijing’s side of the story.
Nevertheless, the trip embarrassed China when monks at the Jokhang temple in Lhasa spoke out in front of the foreign reporters against Chinese rule.
We want (Tibetan spiritual leader) the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet. We want to be free,'' the monks yelled. The protests began in Lhasa on March 10 to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, an event that saw the Dalai Lama flee to India, where he has since lived in exile. The protests erupted into widespread rioting in Lhasa on March 14, and spread to neighbouring Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans. China says rioters killed 18 innocent civilians, including three ethnic Tibetans, and two police officers. Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at between 135 and 140, with another 1,000 people injured and many detained. Reports from Tibet indicated no let-up in China's efforts to contain the protests, as authorities kept a tight lid on any potential trouble spots. All monasteries in Lhasa remained closed today, an official with the Lhasa Tourism Administration said. None of the monasteries in Lhasa are open… it’s hard to say when they will reopen. This issue is beyond our powers,’’ said the official, who declined to be named.
The Wall Street Journal reported armed police had surrounded the three main monasteries in Lhasa - Drepung, Ganden and Sera - and that the foreign media delegation had not been allowed into them.
The International Campaign for Tibet, citing sources in Lhasa, reported that monks who had tried to leave Sera monastery had guns pointed at their heads and were ordered to go back.
In Slovenia later today, European Union foreign ministers were expected to discuss boycotting the August 8 Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing, with several eastern European leaders already vowing to stay away.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus and his Estonian counterpart Toomas Hendrik Ilves, along with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, have said they will not attend.
My evaluation is very clear: the presence of politicians at the inauguration of the Olympics seems inappropriate,'' Tusk said yesterday. However, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in London that Britain, which will host the 2012 Olympics, would not boycott any part of the Beijing Games. Faced with division in the European ranks, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who met with Brown in London yesterday, said he would ask EU leaders ahead of the Games whether they wanted to boycott the opening ceremony. At the time of the Olympics, I will be in the presidency of the European Union so I have to sound out and consult my fellow members to see whether or not we should boycott,’’ Sarkozy said.

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KATHMANDU, March 28 AFP - About 40 protesters were detained after teenage students shouting Free Tibet'' invaded a UN complex in the Nepalese capital today, police said. Kathmandu has seen almost daily protests outside UN offices by Tibetan exiles who are demanding that the world body probe the causes of violent anti-Chinese unrest that has shaken Tibet. This was the first time that protesters managed to elude a heavy police presence around the UN complex and scale the high walls. Some 18 teenage students wearing school uniforms jumped into the compound and were inside a UN building, and AFP reporter said, adding: Police are waiting for them at the entrance’’ to the complex.
We want the UN to investigate China's suppression of the Tibetans,'' said student Tenzing Topjor, 15, before being chased away by police. Around five teenage students were among the 40 protesters who were detained and driven away in police vans, the reporter said. We have no idea how they got into the UN complex,’’ said a police officer at the site who did not wish to be identified.
Human rights organisations, including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, have said that Nepal, which is sandwiched between China and India, should respect the Tibetan exiles’ right to protest.
These actions by police violate individuals' basic rights to freedom from arbitrary detention and freedom of movement,'' the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a recent statement. But Nepal's government says it will not allow Tibetan exiles to use the country as a springboard for anti-Chinese activities. Nepal supports Beijing's One China’’ policy that says Tibet, overrun by Chinese troops nearly six decades ago, and self-ruled Taiwan belong to China.
US-based Human Rights Watch says Nepal police have threatened to send Tibetan exile protesters back to China and accuses the government of using ``the threat of detention and deportation to China… to silence peaceful dissent.’’
At least 20,000 Tibetan exiles live in Nepal and every year around 2,500 Tibetans sneak across the Himalayas to Kathmandu.
Many travel on to Dharamshala, in northern India, home to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
The protests began in Tibet’s capital Lhasa on March 10 to mark the anniversary of the uprising and erupted into widespread rioting on March 14, spreading to neighbouring Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans.
China says Tibetan rioters killed 18 civilians and two police officers. Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from a Chinese crackdown after the riots at between 135 and 140.
India is home to at least 100,000 Tibetan exiles and refugees, as well as the Dalai Lama. It also says it will not allow Tibetans to use its soil for anti-Chinese activities.