Lots of stuff happening both inside and outside Tibet yesterday, including a huge demonstration in San Francsico of today’s Olympic torch relay.

Tibetan monks have again disrupted one of the Chinese government’s dog and pony shows for foreign media. These monks from Labrang are taking tremendous personal and physical risks to speak the truth to reporters. This is an immeasurable act of patriotism and an unquestionable statement about Tibetans commitment towards freedom from Chinese rule.

Despite international outrage and a month long uprising in Tibet, China remains committed to bringing the torch through the occupied country. China Digital Times reports on a profoundly disturbing statement about China’s commitment to stop Tibetan separatism through murder.

It is learned that on April 2 Zhang Qingli, the party secretary of TAR made a stern speech on the meeting attended by cadres who were at least county magistrates or department heads in Tibet Autonomous Region. He said that they should strengthen the effort to arrest the “Separatists”. Their arrest orders should be approved rapidly, these people should be arrested fast , then they should be prosecuted fast and killed promptly, too. In addition, he became more serious when he declared that “a group of people will be killed.”

The IOC should know at this point that if the Olympic torch passes from Mount Everest to Tibet and a single Tibetan is killed while protesting, the blood will be on their hands. This is beyond the point where even the most self-interested supporter of the Olympics and China’s rise in the world could reasonably think bringing the torch through Tibet is a good idea, let alone a moral one.

Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, explains why the Olympic Torch Relay is being protested by Tibetans and their supporters in a debate-style piece on the BBC News website.

Nima Taylor Binara, a friend I’ve known as long as I’ve been involved in the Tibet movement, has a powerful op-ed in today’s San Francisco Chronicle. Nima’s op-ed is a powerful deconstruction of China’s claims to Tibet, as well as a convincing argument that the protests we see going on today throughout Tibet are a far more meaningful and fecund uprising than the famed 1989 protests in Lhasa. Nima concludes his piece:

The magnitude and vociferousness of the protests across Tibet demonstrate that Beijing cannot forever contain Tibetan demands for self-rule. Trying to do so only leads to instability. Through their courage and resilience in the face of a half-century of military occupation and religious and cultural oppression, Tibetans have made it abundantly clear that they want more than ever to determine their own future. The world should stand by their side.

Bob Brigham has great pictures from yesterday’s Free Tibet rally in San Francisco over at Calitics.

White House Spokesperson Dana Perino left the door open on the possibility that President Bush will skip the Olympics’ opening ceremonies.

French athletes may have violated IOC rules by wearing badges saying “For a better world.” The Times reports that, ” Rule 51 of the Olympic Charter prohibits athletes from engaging in political demonstrations at Olympic events or sites.” So let me get this straight. It’s not political when China runs the Olympic flame through occupied Tibet, up Mount Everest, and back through Tibet (not to mention, through occupied East Turkestan). But it is political when athletes put on a patch that says wishing for a better world. Now that I’m clear on these landmark differences in circumstances, could the International Olympic Committee be any more obtuse in their refusal to be an agent for making the world a better place?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says China is making the torch relay “a political event” and commended people protesting the torch’s presence in her home city of San Francisco.

Reporters Without Borders has obtained an internal IOC memo that shows they didn’t expect there to be protests surrounding the Olympic Torch Relay related to China’s human rights abuses. Obtuseness strikes again.

Tibet Will Be Free remains the best place for news and updates from the protests in San Francisco. They will be streaming the events live again today.

Yesterday Lhasa Rising reported that the International Olympic Committee and Beijing were in crisis talks about what to do about the massive, global protests that are taking places where ever the Olympic Torch Relay stops. Surely the huge banner hang off of the Golden Gate bridge has contributed to the IOC and Beijing’s fears about what may happen when the torch reaches American soil and a city with a large local Tibetan population. CNN has reported that the IOC is considering canceling the remainder of the torch relay – a decision that would surely reduce tensions in connection to the Beijing Olympics. The BBC, however, is reporting a more misguided, milquetoast response to the torch relay crisis:

What is most likely is that the Beijing international relay will continue, and a decision will be taken after the Games in China about the desirability of holding international relays before future Games, our correspondent adds.

So the IOC is sticking to their crack “Close the barn door after the horse has escaped” strategy. Brilliant!

Via SFist, CBS 5’s Eye on Blogs reports that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has decided to alter the SF torch relay route and will not make any changes to it public.  Newsom said:

“The bottom line is we’ve said from Day One, we will continue to adapt. This route is not fixed. It will continue to change. It will change up until that torch is passed–potentially through even the middle of the relay.”

This is a laughable imitation of disclosure. Brock at SFist asks of the SF torch relay, “Can we watch it? Will it be inside a gymnasium? On the beach? Virtual?” Newsom seems to be ready to replicate the failed tactics of the London and Paris torch relays, which continued to change their route throughout the run. But neither worked. The London police commander in charge of the route was furious that the Olympic Committee was given full control over the course of the relay, leaving his officers in confusion and failing to keep things calm. The route in Paris was so disrupted by protests and five occasions where officials extinguished the Olympic flame and put it on a bus (guarded by over 60 police), that the relay itself was canceled, along with the accompanying ceremony. In short, Newsom is about to institute tactics that are already proven failures.

What’s worse is that in so doing, Newsom is making a mockery of the notion of a transparent, civil torch relay. He is replicating the policies of Beijing in an American city. He is specifically and concretely trying to stifle lawful acts of protest. Given the large Tibetan community, San Francisco’s liberal streak, and widespread media coverage following this weekend’s protests, I expect the SF relay to be just as disastrous – if not more – than the stops that preceded it. Newsom should change course and cancel the torch relay in San Francisco.

Whatever decision may be made to alter the torch relay to cease the public, 24/7 coverage of the protests related to the Games and China’s oppression in Tibet it’s clear that China has been shamed. They are not being welcomed onto the international stage as a respected member of the global community and this must be a humiliating defeat for Hu Jintao and the CCP cadre that planned to use the Olympics as a means of secure much-wanted prestige. It’s sad that an American city is about to facilitate a rise in the tension and chaos associated with the Beijing Olympics.

CBS 5 in the Bay Area interviewed Laurel Sutherlin while he was suspended over the Golden Gate bridge attached to banners reading “One World One Dream Free Tibet.” You can watch the interview here, complete with intense helicopter sounds in the background.

Statement and video from Tibet Will Be Free:

San Francisco – Seven Tibet independence activists were detained this afternoon after three of them scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled a large protest banner reading “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 08.” The three climbers remained on the bridge for about 2 hours before coming down voluntarily. Upon their descent they were met and arrested by officers of the California Highway Patrol. The daring action comes two days before China’s torch relay is expected to be greeted by thousands of Tibet protesters from across North America when it arrives in San Francisco.

“In two days, the Chinese government is bringing the Olympic torch to San Francisco, while inside Tibet it continues its brutal and violent crackdown on Tibetans crying out for freedom,” said Tashi Sharzur, spokesperson for Students for a Free Tibet and one of the activists detained in today’s action. “The International Olympic Committee must immediately withdraw Tibet from the Torch Relay route. Carrying the Olympic torch through Tibet would exacerbate the crisis and cause yet more suffering for the Tibetan people.”

“San Francisco has a long, proud history of standing up for human rights and freedom, and we will not allow China’s government to make a mockery of everything this city stands for,” said Laurel Sutherlin, one of the
climbers and a spokesperson for Students for a Free Tibet. “Gavin Newsom has privately agreed to express his concern with the IOC over China’s  torch going through Tibet. Mayor Newsom must now publicly follow up on
this promise and call for Tibet to be removed from the torch route.”

I love this pic too:

CNN.com is streaming the banner hang live. Truly incredible action – it’s a double banner that reads “One World One Dream Free Tibet 08”, a jam on the Beijing Olympic slogan.

Hopefully San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is watching and heeds calls to cancel the SF stop of the Olympic Torch Relay.

The Beijing Olympics are simply too offensive to the sensibilities of free people around the world. The torch cannot withstand the massive protests surrounding its presence in Paris.

The mayor of Paris cancelled a ceremony due to mark the torch relay after activists hung a Tibetan flag from the city hall.

According to the BBC the ceremony was canceled after the torch had been extinguished three separate times by relay officials to avoid protesters. ESPN had broadcast a report saying the torch had actually been extinguished five separate times.

What has happened the last three days in Europe is a testament to the power people have when they exercise their right to speak freely and to assemble freely. These rights are absent in Tibet. The huge protests and the failures to keep the torch lit, despite thousands of police and a large detail of Chinese security forces running alongside the torch at all times is a mark of shame and disgrace on China and the Beijing Olympics – which is the exact opposite result China thought they would secure by hosting the Games.

I hope San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is watching the events in London and Paris. Now is the perfect time for him to cancel the torch run through San Francisco. It is tainted with blood and it does not belong on American soil.

Update: 

The Olympic torch is inside that van in Paris. I can’t tell if it is lit or not. Note that the final line of protection for the flame inside the van is the team of blue uniformed Chinese security forces. Can you smell the spirit of peace and freedom emanating from the Olympic torch? Me neither.

Breaking:

Paris–Two Tibet independence activists were detained this morning along the torch route after Melanie Raoul (25) and Phil Kirk (23) abseiled off of Pont Au Change, unfurling a banner reading “Pas de Flame au Tibet.” More than 60 pro-Tibet marchers spontaneously gathered round the team on surrounding bridges and streets, chanting free Tibet slogans. The banner hang was intended to draw attention to the killing of over a hundred Tibetans by Chinese forces as part of their ongoing crackdown on freedom protests inside Tibet. Thousands of Tibetans and supporters from across Europe lined the relay route with colorful placards and flags today in Paris, amidst a global outcry against the Chinese government’s ongoing and brutal crackdown inside Tibet. Yesterday in London, Tibetan protests overshadowed China’s controversial relay run. The climbers were taken off the bridge by over 20 police in 3 police boats

“Pas de Flame au Tibet” means “No flame in Tibet.” This daring banner hang happened before the remainder of the Paris Olympic torch relay and ceremony were canceled, though I don’t doubt it contributed to that decision. Way to rock hard Mel & Phil.