By Brendan Connor in Brussels

It's a sunny afternoon, and like many football fields around the world, there are a couple of teams getting set to kick it about.

Here, the sides are made up of lads of Tibetan heritage, and they are playing in a tournament.

They have hopes of winning, but the main reason they are there is to spotlight their cause.

And that cause is an independent Tibet, free from China's rule, and perhaps someday, a place in the Olympics under their own flag.

China took over Tibet in 1959, and many Tibetans, including their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled across the Himalayas and took refuge in India.

From there many left for far-flung places to study and work, and today the Tibetan diaspora encompasses thousands of people who have settled in Europe, the UK, America, Canada, and elsewhere.

The children of those Tibetans who left have grown up in their adopted countries, playing sport as any Swiss, German, British or American youth would do, but they say there remains a longing within them.

It's a longing to have their former country recognised, and someday given autonomy from China, and maybe one day competing for their former nation.

Pema Yoko, a young woman of Japanese and Tibetan heritage who grew up in the UK, is an accomplished table tennis player.

Yoko is part of a newly-formed organisation called 'Team Tibet', which is a group of leading athletes from various countries who are putting faith in, and pushing the agenda of, the Tibet freedom movement.

"I've never been to Tibet, but it's within me. So is the pain of growing up in exile, and hearing the stories of my people escaping across the mountains all those years ago, and never being allowed to return," Yoko said.

"Growing up in England, I have had no icons to look up to. If we were able to ever compete at an Olympics, I think Tibetans would feel so, so represented. I think it would be great."

Lobbying the IOC

The 'Tibetans in exile', as they call themselves, recently began taking official steps to pursue this seemingly impossible dream, beginning with the formation of a National Olympic Committee and the presenting of their bylaws to the IOC offices in Lausanne.

Tethong Wangpo is the Tibetan NOC president, and says if Team Tibet is not allowed to compete under its own flag, then there are alternatives.

"There have been precedents over the years where athletes from countries without nation-status have been allowed to march under the flag of the IOC," Wangpo said.

"It's been done for Palestine, Hong Kong, Taiwan and others. We hope the IOC will help us in our quest."

To think that any kind of lobbying effort for a free Tibet, regardless of how impassioned, would sway the Chinese in time for Beijing 2008, may seem an impossible dream, and that was emphasised to Team Tibet during their visit to the European parliament.

"Of course I sympathise, and of course it has been discussed by us in Lausanne," said Pal Schmitt, an IOC member from Hungary, who attended the EU session in Brussels where Team Tibet made its presentation.

"But, I am afraid this cannot happen. We, as the IOC are not a political group. We are meant to be free of politics, and we cannot interfere in government dealings.

"This is a matter for the United Nations. When, and if Tibet, are recognised as a nation by the UN, then we can consider it further. Until then, it's up to China, and it's an internal matter for them."

'Inclusion and universality'

Peter Stastny, a legendary ice hockey star in the former Czechoslovakia, disagrees, after he finally realised his dream of playing in the Olympics for his native Slovakia because the political landscape suddenly changed.

"I never thought as a boy growing up, that I would ever see it, but then it happened out of the blue," Stastny said with a smile.

"The Soviet rule was over, we parted ways amicably with the Czech Republic, and there I was in 1994, marching in a stadium in Lillehammer, Norway at the Olympic opening ceremonies, with the Slovak flag.

"This IOC stance is just a set of rules. Rules can be changed and modified and they should. They need to reflect evolution and progress and change. The Olympics should be a leader in this. The Olympics is supposed to be about inclusion and universality."

The Tibetan athletes are a spirited, driven group and they say they are prepared for setbacks and initial refusal, but they vow to continue their mission.

"It's our dream to march in an Olympic opening ceremony, and to look up and see our Tibetan flag," said Dominik Kelsang, a world-class table tennis player from Switzerland.

"It would be so important for us athletes, but even more for the significance of what it would represent. It would tell the world that our country and our people are still here."

Raising the profile

As the day ended, the people attending the session of the inter group of the European parliament filed out, and were handed literature and souvenir scarves by the Tibetans.

"This was a big day for us, and it's so important getting support from parliamentarians like this," said Kelsang Gope, a senior organiser for Team Tibet.

"Not only will this will go a long way to help raise the profile of our movement, but we think and hope that China will see it as an opportunity. They are such a world power now, and emerging as a huge force on the world economic scene, they could see this as a bridge they could use.

"Maybe if they allowed us in the Olympics, they could earn peoples' respect on the human rights front. They could show that their Olympic slogan 'One world, one dream' is more than just a slogan."

As the Tibetan group packs up and disperses, Pema Yoko had a parting chat with two Buddhist Monks who live in Brussels and came to show support and to be part of a Tibetan display.

"I think it was a great day. Very inspiring. I hope that we made progress, and that someday, maybe if not in Beijing in 2008, then in London in 2012, we can be there," said Yoko.

"We want Team Tibet to be a reality."

Then it was time for her to depart for the Brussels train station and the journey back to England, where she will await the next call to take up the cause, and to again speak up for the dream of Team Tibet.


Click here to see Brendan Connor's full story on 'Team Tibet'