Chinese activists detained on way to church

Five Tibet activists were taken away by Chinese security agents today after protesting during the Olympic Games, hours after a Christian activist was detained on his way to a church service in Beijing attended by US President George Bush.

Padma-Dolma Fielitz, a 21-year-old Tibetan woman from Germany, and another activist held Tibet’s national flag aloft just outside the south entrance of Tiananmen Square, according to a statement by Students for a Free Tibet.

Photos on the group’s website show a woman identified as Padma-Dolma being dragged on the ground as police and plainclothes agents try to wrest the flag away from her.

Shortly afterward, three other activists tried to unveil a banner that said “Tibetans are dying for freedom” but were stopped by authorities, the group said.

All five protesters – including two Americans and two Canadians – belong to the New York-based group.

Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before Communist troops invaded in 1950, while Beijing says the Himalayan region has been part of its territory for centuries.

Pro-Tibet activists say China is using the Olympics to legitimise its rule in Tibet and have used the games as a platform to spotlight their cause.

The demonstration lasted about five minutes and all five were taken away, the group said. It was the latest in string of similar protests in the past week as Beijing became a focus of international attention because of the Olympics, which opened on Friday.

Hours earlier, Hua Huilin said he and his brother, Hua Huiqi, a housing activist and pastor in an underground Christian church, were stopped by two black cars while bicycling to the church attended by President Bush.

Hua Huilin said they were taken away in separate cars by security agents, whom his brother recognised from previous encounters. He said they took away his brother’s Bible and mobile phone. He was released in the afternoon but Hua Huiqi was still at an undisclosed location, he said.

“I told him not to go because it’s during the Olympic Games and this period is sensitive,” Hua Huilin said. “But he was determined to go because he said that church was where he was baptised. So I went with him hoping to protect him.”

There have been small protests by foreign activists near the National Stadium, a key Olympics venue, and Tiananmen Square in the past week. They have ended peacefully and no arrests were reported, though several people have been deported.

China allows worship only in officially approved churches such as the one President Bush visited with first lady Laura Bush, so millions of people pray privately in house churches to avoid detection.

After attending the service President Bush gathered for photos with parishioners on the front steps and told reporters that no country should “fear the influence” of religious freedom, a clear reference to China’s tight control of churches.

“It just goes to show that God is universal,” he said. “No state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion.”