BEIJING: A Tibetan independence group says six of its activists were arrested after staging a protest at the Great Wall of China.
A spokesman for the Free Tibet campaign said two members abseiled down the side of the Great Wall today morning and unfurled a large banner based on the Beijing Olympic
slogan, saying "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008".
The pair stayed on the section of the wall at Mutianyu to the north of Beijing for about two hours before climbing down. They and four other members of the group, some of whom were photographing and videoing the protest, were then
arrested.
Free Tibet Campaign spokesman Matt Whitticase, who spoke to the group before their arrest, said the protest was timed to coincide with the one-year countdown to the start of the Beijing Olympics tomorrow.
"China is using the Olympic Games to project a positive image of itself on the world stage, but we just wanted to highlight the reality of its occupation of Tibet," he said. "China likes to present Tibet as peaceful and prosperous, but the reality is very different."
Members of the Paris-based press freedom group, Reporters Without Borders, yesterday staged a small protest near the headquarters of the Olympic organizing committee in Beijing.
The group says China has failed to live up to promises to improve press freedom in the run-up to the Beijing Games.
Several reporters were questioned and detained by police after the protest. The four members of the pressure group who took part in the demonstration were also later
questioned by police at their hotel, cautioned and then taken to the airport before their flight back to Paris.
