US Protesters turn Olympics spotlight to Tibet in Beijing

two U.S. citizens detained in Beijing after they hung banners protesting human rights abuses in China talk to the press.
PARIS: As China celebrated sports and spectacle, protesters across the world Friday sought to yank the spotlight away from the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing and shine it on human rights issues.

In Ankara, a member of China's Uighur minority drenched himself in gasoline and set himself alight before fellow demonstrators rushed to extinguish the flames and he was taken to a hospital.

In Copenhagen, activists pledged to cut off their hair outside the Chinese Embassy to protest Beijing's policies in Tibet.

Exiled Tibetans took their grievances to the street in Nepal and India. And three American activists were reportedly detained in Beijing.

Demonstrations also took place in London, Madrid, Berlin, Stockholm, Lisbon and Amsterdam, with further marches planned in Washington and Toronto.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• China
• Tibet
• Protest
• Australia
• Canada
• Dalai
• Beijing
• Olympics
• document
• news
• France
• SFT
• FreeTibet
• Human
• Right

[mayyoubekind]

Phill Bartell, activist with Students for a Free Tibet. He was arrested in Beijing on Wednesday after he a scaled a 120-foot-tall lamppost near the main Olympic stadium in Beijing and unfurled a banner calling for a free Tibet.

[phuntsokdl]

thankz alot guys free tibet.

[tsotube2]

thats funny man..this is what you are!!! dont point toward Tibetans, its you chinese the worst human kind of the 21st century,,when you are out of evidence and logical explaination because of your unlimited crimes! nowhere to hide but to blaming other people and making fake stories!!! wash your sins first then comment on others!! till then god bless you!

[thewiffenpoof]

nuke tibet!

[perrypang]

PRC has done far more for the Tibetans than any other government/leader (dalai lama) in the entire Tibetan history.,,,PRC they are not prefect the Chinese know but they are working on it ,but we mustnt forget rome was not build in one day,,, china had a very sad history in the last 2century,,,right now china are coming back to the world,,so just try to understand and accept it ,,,dont hate china or Chinese coz they are your brothers and sisters they are your future too,,

[perrypang]

Tibetan population has seen a rapid growth in the past 50 years, and according to national census figures ethnic Tibetans account for more than 95 percent of the region's population. The region's birth rate has been above the national average since 1970 because of a lenient family planning policy. Eighty percent of Tibetan farmers and herdsmen are free to have as many children as they want. Only urban Tibetans have to follow a two-child family planning policy.

[perrypang]

Nowadays, illiteracy among adults under the age of 50 has fallen to below 2.4 percent.,,, The economy has moved forward in leaps and bounds. From 1959 to 2008, Tibet's GDP increased from 174 million yuan to 39.591 billion yuan, an increase of 65 times when accounting for inflation, an annual growth rate of 8.9 percent.

[perrypang]

prior to 1959, 95% of Tibetans lived in 'feudal serfdom',[2] and cite cases of abuse and cruelty in the traditional Tibetan system,, Before the democratic reform, education was monopolized by monasteries and more than 95 percent of Tibetans were illiterate

[TrilogyLegend]

The only reason China is so hardcore on Tibet is because they used to have an army of 15 000 people. The so called peaceful monks fought in wars...

[clavie05]

Who care your da-lying lama.

dalai lama lie, tibetans die !

[Ganeschar]

Dalai Lama is a problem for CCP - I knew that !!!!

You can wait long as he is going to overleave all those CCP gangsters.

[clavie05]

No dalai lama no problem :)