Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Surprise in Beijing, by Noémie Cournoyer
The Olympic flame finally arrived in Beijing Wednesday, under high surveillance, just two days before the opening of the Games.
This event has been overshadowed by action by a group of four foreigners. Two Britons and two Americans have foiled security in place banners on utility poles before the Olympic stadium. They called in particular the "free Tibet." The demonstrators were arrested by police 12 minutes after the first deployed a banner near the bird nest, "said agency official New China.
Members of the Chinese security tried to remove the banner of pro-Tibet demonstrators.
According to Students for a Free Tibet, the messages were visible for an hour.
The incident recalls several stages of the torch relay in the spring, including London, Paris and San Francisco, where protibétains demonstrators protested against the Chinese repression in Tibet.
Several thousand soldiers and policemen were deployed in the Chinese capital, where the Olympic flame must move for three days before lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony.
Wednesday, the first torchbearer in the capital since the Tiananmen Square was the Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei. The basketball player Yao Ming followed shortly thereafter.
Labels: China, Noémie Cournoyer, Sports
# posted by Francis Chartrand @ 11:45 AM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]