Olympic ceremony disrupted by Tibetan protest
China pledged strict security measures to ensure its segment of the Beijing Olympics torch relay will not be marred by protests similar to the one at today’s lighting ceremony in Greece.
The Communist leadership has faced a public relations disaster since demonstrations against Chinese rule turned violent March 14 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, sparking waves of unrest in surrounding provinces.
In Greece, two demonstrators ran onto the field at Ancient Olympia during the flame lighting ceremony, which was carried on Chinese state television with a more than 30-second delay.
Cameras abruptly cut away when a man carrying a black banner with handcuffs used to symbolise the five Olympic rings ran behind Liu Qi, the president of Beijing’s Olympics organising committee, as he was giving a speech.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders journalism rights group said the banner was one the group uses and police detained three of its members.
Minutes later, a Tibetan woman covered herself in red paint and lay in the road in front of a runner carrying the Olympic torch while other protesters chanted “Free Tibet” and “Shame on China”.
Chinese authorities hope to prevent such displays when the torch arrives in the mainland.
China has already been embarrassed and angered by the Lhasa riots, the largest and most sustained in almost 20 years. It has blamed them on followers of the Dalai Lama.
Beijing’s communist leadership has promised a smooth run-up to the Summer Games and is hoping a successful games will bolster its international image.
“The more determined the Dalai clique is to ruin the torch relay and the Olympic Games, the more hard and good work we need to do on the preparation and the implementation of all aspects,” Yin Xunping, a Communist Party official, was quoted as saying by the Tibet Daily newspaper.
Yin is party secretary of the Tibet Mountain Climbing Team, which is participating in the Mount Everest segment of the torch relay.
He was speaking at a meeting organised last week by Tibet’s sports bureau, whose head, Dejizhuoga, urged “intense precautions and heightened security.” Like many Tibetans, she goes by a single name.
Mount Everest straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet. China has already begun denying mountaineers permission to climb the Tibetan side of the mountain - a move that reflects government concerns that activists may try to disrupt its torch plans.
The torch will arrive March 31 in Beijing. It will then travel through 20 countries before returning to mainland China on May 4.
China’s plans to take the torch through Tibet and to the top of Mount Everest have upset Tibetan activist groups, which accuse Beijing of using the event to convey a false message of harmony in the troubled Himalayan region. Chinese Communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.
The Lhasa protests have highlighted accusations that China has harshly restricted Tibet’s unique Buddhist culture and flooded the area with the majority Han Chinese ethnic group.
Critics of China’s handling of the protests have called for heads of state, dignitaries and corporate sponsors to boycott the games, or at least the opening ceremony.
IOC President Jacques Rogge said that there was no credible momentum for a boycott and while he was concerned by the violence in Tibet, the IOC could do no more than call for a peaceful resolution because it is a sports organisation.
But Rogge said he was engaged in “silent diplomacy” with China on Tibet and other human rights issues and would meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao next month.
The demonstrations started by monks in Lhasa on March 10, the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, exploded into rioting, looting and arson four days later. China’s reported death toll is 22 but Tibet’s exiled government says 80 Tibetans were killed. Another 19 died in subsequent violence in Gansu province, it said.
The Chinese government dispatched thousands of troops to Lhasa and the surrounding provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai, where sympathy marches have erupted into clashes. It also issued a “Most Wanted” list of 21 protesters, appealing to people to turn them in.
In Gansu province, an official in Xiabagou said the town’s Tibetans had fled into nearby mountains to evade arrest over the weekend.
“There are no Tibetans left here,” said the official at Xiabagou’s forestry bureau, who refused to give his name because of the sensitivity of the issue.
On Saturday, hundreds of Tibetans marched through the town, about six hours by bus away from the provincial capital of Lanzhou, and removed the Chinese flag from a government building, the official said. He said he did not have any other details but said order had been restored, with policeman with guns and batons patrolling the streets.
At a rare news conference Shan Huimin, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, said five people had been detained in two arson cases during the Lhasa riots that killed 10 people.
Shan gave no details but said “their goal was to create an incident to disrupt and sabotage the 2008 Beijing Olympics which has peace as its theme.” She did not take any questions.
Authorities say at least 26 people have been arrested in Lhasa and more than 170 people have turned themselves in.
Also today, a Chinese activist who circulated an open letter titled “We want human rights, not the Olympics,” was sentenced to five years in prison, a court official said.
Yang Chunlin had been charged with subverting the power of the state, a claim authorities commonly use to clamp down on dissent. His trial was the latest in a series of similar cases as China’s leaders crack down on dissidents in the run-up to the August 8-24 games.
