ID :
15832
Thu, 08/14/2008 - 09:43
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/15832
The shortlink copeid
LEAD: 7 U.S. pro-Tibet protesters deported from China
BEIJING, Aug. 13 Kyodo - (EDS: UPDATING WITH U.S. PROTESTERS BEING DEPORTED) Seven U.S. pro-Tibetan independence protesters who were detained by police on Wednesday after staging a demonstration near the Olympic village in Beijing have been deported from China, according to a spokeswoman of the U.S.-based group Students for a Free Tibet which organized the protest.
The spokeswoman said the group has received no word on an eighth member, a woman of Japanese nationality, who was detained after watching the protest andspeaking to reporters.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing confirmed that a Japanese national has beendetained and that it will offer assistance as needed.
Shortly after noon Wednesday, five Americans -- three men and two women -- chanted pro-Tibet slogans at the gate to an ethnic-minority theme park not farfrom the main Olympic Stadium before they were led away by police.
Two other Americans were detained nearby after they were caught carryingTibetan flags as they made their way to the protest.
The Japanese woman, Pema Yoko, 25, told Kyodo News before she was detained, ''Chinese people have the right to be proud to be Chinese. Why can't Tibetan people have the right to be Tibetan? It is our country. It was invaded by China.'' ''The Chinese people deserve to hear the truth about what is happening inTibet. The Tibetan people are undergoing psychological torture,'' she said.
John Ray, a British TV journalist from the British news company ITN, was also briefly detained by police as security guards jostled and pushed photographersand cameramen as they tried to film the demonstration.
Ray said he was manhandled and shoved by police before he was released.
''I tried to explain that I was a reporter doing my job, but they wouldn't listen,'' he said. ''They dragged me to the ground, and dragged me away. They kicked me to the floor in a nearby building and tried to confiscate my equipment.'' A statement released by the Public Security Bureau in Beijing said the eighthad been detained for carrying out illegal activities near the theme park.
Eight members of Students for a Free Tibet who carried out two protests inBeijing over the past few days have already been deported.
Yoko was born and lives in London. Her father, Ugyan Norbu, is a Tibetan exile,and her mother, who died six years ago, was Japanese.
Speaking by telephone from London, Norbu said, ''I am very proud of her. Mydaughter was speaking out on behalf of 6 million Tibetans who have no voice.
For thousands of years we had our own country and that has been taken away from us.'' Five activists from Students for a Free Tibet staged a protest in Tiananmen Square on Saturday, with four of them draping themselves in the Tibetan flagbefore they were led away by security officials.
Three activists from the U.S.-based group were detained on Friday last week near the National Stadium waving Tibetans flags, about an hour before theGames' opening ceremony.
The protests come amid massive security in Beijing, with about 150,000 police and troops patrolling the streets and nearly 300,000 members of the public wearing red armbands stationed on virtually every street in the city to watchfor disturbances.
Demonstrations have to be approved in advance by the local government andpolice in China, or else they are deemed illegal.
The Chinese government has said that rights groups, as well as terrorist organizations, are actively planning to disrupt the Beijing Games, whichstarted last Friday.
The spokeswoman said the group has received no word on an eighth member, a woman of Japanese nationality, who was detained after watching the protest andspeaking to reporters.
The Japanese Embassy in Beijing confirmed that a Japanese national has beendetained and that it will offer assistance as needed.
Shortly after noon Wednesday, five Americans -- three men and two women -- chanted pro-Tibet slogans at the gate to an ethnic-minority theme park not farfrom the main Olympic Stadium before they were led away by police.
Two other Americans were detained nearby after they were caught carryingTibetan flags as they made their way to the protest.
The Japanese woman, Pema Yoko, 25, told Kyodo News before she was detained, ''Chinese people have the right to be proud to be Chinese. Why can't Tibetan people have the right to be Tibetan? It is our country. It was invaded by China.'' ''The Chinese people deserve to hear the truth about what is happening inTibet. The Tibetan people are undergoing psychological torture,'' she said.
John Ray, a British TV journalist from the British news company ITN, was also briefly detained by police as security guards jostled and pushed photographersand cameramen as they tried to film the demonstration.
Ray said he was manhandled and shoved by police before he was released.
''I tried to explain that I was a reporter doing my job, but they wouldn't listen,'' he said. ''They dragged me to the ground, and dragged me away. They kicked me to the floor in a nearby building and tried to confiscate my equipment.'' A statement released by the Public Security Bureau in Beijing said the eighthad been detained for carrying out illegal activities near the theme park.
Eight members of Students for a Free Tibet who carried out two protests inBeijing over the past few days have already been deported.
Yoko was born and lives in London. Her father, Ugyan Norbu, is a Tibetan exile,and her mother, who died six years ago, was Japanese.
Speaking by telephone from London, Norbu said, ''I am very proud of her. Mydaughter was speaking out on behalf of 6 million Tibetans who have no voice.
For thousands of years we had our own country and that has been taken away from us.'' Five activists from Students for a Free Tibet staged a protest in Tiananmen Square on Saturday, with four of them draping themselves in the Tibetan flagbefore they were led away by security officials.
Three activists from the U.S.-based group were detained on Friday last week near the National Stadium waving Tibetans flags, about an hour before theGames' opening ceremony.
The protests come amid massive security in Beijing, with about 150,000 police and troops patrolling the streets and nearly 300,000 members of the public wearing red armbands stationed on virtually every street in the city to watchfor disturbances.
Demonstrations have to be approved in advance by the local government andpolice in China, or else they are deemed illegal.
The Chinese government has said that rights groups, as well as terrorist organizations, are actively planning to disrupt the Beijing Games, whichstarted last Friday.
