Edinburgh students today marched through the city asking shoppers to remember China’s human rights abuses in Tibet when they watch the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Five Edinburgh students dressed as bruised and chained monks were lead through the city holding over-sized Olympic rings. Supporters flew Tibetan flags and a banner that read ‘China: Passing the Torch to Torture’.
Mike Pringle, MSP for Edinburgh South supported the students, Edinburgh students are fighting for the basic human rights of the Tibetan people – Im supporting them today in this cause.
James Gould, president of the Edinburgh University Tibet Society (EUTS) said, “we’re not anti-Olympics, but people in Scotland must realise China is destroying the Tibetans and their way of life.”
Karma, a Tibetan living in Scotland said, Tibet has a football team but were forbidden from entering the Olympics. China occupied Tibet over 50 years ago and were still fighting for our independence today.
China will host the Games before they come to London in 2012. The International Olympic Committee’s decision to award the Olympics to Beijing sparked controversy when it was announced in 2001. Human rights organisation Students for a Free Tibet fear the Games will allow China to tighten its control over freedom of speech and religious expression in Tibet and gain acceptance on the world stage.
The students chose today to stage their protest as it marks the anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day. On March 10th 1959 a demonstration in Lhasa, Tibet, ended in the death of more than eighty-seven thousand Tibetans at the hands of the Chinese Army.
Students for a Free Tibet UK (SFT UK) supports this action, along with hundreds of other protests around the world marking Tibetan Uprising Day. Spokesperson for SFT UK Iain Thom said “Basically, the message is: Watch the Olympics; Watch China”.
For further information please call the press officer:
James Gould – President EUTS
07986 000826
