Beijing - Chinese police on Saturday detained five members
of groups promoting independence for Tibet after they staged a
'die-in' in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, a witness and supporters
said.
Photographs and a video distributed by the London-based Free Tibet
Campaign showed four of the protesters wrapped in Tibetan flags and
lying on the square to stage the 'mock die-in'.
The fifth protester, identified by the group as Canadian citizen
Christopher Shwartz, stood in front of them to explain to onlookers
that they were 'calling for an end to the Chinese government's
occupation of Tibet'.
'We're here from several different countries to speak out for the
people of Tibet,' the video showed Shwartz, 24, saying in the square.
'This peaceful protest is also to shine a light on human rights
abuses inside of Tibet during the occupation (by China),' he said.
John Hocevar, the founder of Students for a Free Tibet, witnessed
the protest and said plain clothes police took away the five
activists after about 10 minutes.
'I don't know their whereabouts,' he said of the protesters.
Hocevar said a crowd of about 200 people gathered around the
protesters, who included three US citizens, one German and one
Canadian.
'It was very interesting to see the reaction (of the crowd),' he
told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone from the square.
'They were just watching. There was no sign of anger and
hostility,' Hocevar said.
He said uniformed paramilitary and city police stood back and
allowed the plain clothes officers to handle the protest, in contrast
to the rapid and decisive action against three pro-Tibetan protesters
who displayed Tibetan flags near the Olympic Green on Friday evening.
'Our protesters were tackled to the ground in less than a minute,'
Hocevar said of Friday's protest.
Matt Whitticase of the Free Tibet Campaign accused the Chinese
government of 'seeking to cover up its ugly occupation of Tibet with
the bright lights of the Olympics'.
'Our action at Tiananmen Square today highlights the determination
of Tibetans and people of conscience that no amount of repression
from the Chinese government will extinguish the desire of Tibetans
for freedom and to speak out against China's worsening abuses in
Tibet,' Whitticase said in a statement.
'The Chinese government will not be allowed to use the Olympics to
hide the reality of its harsh rule inside Tibet,' said Lhadon
Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet.
Despite the heavy security in Beijing, foreign activists have
managed to stage other protests in recent days.
Two US and two British citizens were detained on Wednesday after
the Britons scaled a 40-metre lighting post near the Olympic Green
and unfurled a huge banner calling for independence for China's Tibet
region.
All seven people involved in the two protests on Wednesday and
Friday were quickly deported from China, the Free Tibet Campaign
said.
Three US anti-abortion campaigners staged a brief sit-in on the
edge of Tiananmen Square on Wednesday afternoon, state media said.
Two local pro-Tibetan protesters were thrown out of an Olympic
equestrian event in Hong Kong on Saturday after they unfurled a
Tibetan flag.
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