China deports 10 foreign pro-Tibet activists: diplomats

Monday, August 25, 2008

BEIJING (AFP) — China deported a group of foreign pro-Tibet activists as the Olympics ended, in what a campaign group described Monday as a bid to prevent their plight from blemishing the last day of the Games.

Activists unfurled a ''Free Tibet'' banner and Tibetan flags Friday in Beijing on top of an Olympics billboard. (Oded Balilty/Associated Press)

Eight Americans, one Tibetan-German and one Briton were quietly flown out of Beijing as a world television audience was watching the spectacular Olympic closing ceremony in the Chinese capital.

"Chinese authorities informed us last night that the eight (American) individuals, detained August 20 and 21 respectively, were deported by Chinese authorities," a US embassy spokeswoman told AFP.

The spokeswoman said they were flown out Sunday night aboard an Air China flight to Los Angeles.

"We urge China to take positive steps to address international and domestic concerns about its record on human rights and religious freedoms," she said.

The Tibetan-German, Florian Norbu Gyanatshang, was also deported and arrived in Frankfurt early Monday, according to the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe.

Meanwhile, the British embassy in Beijing confirmed that the Briton among the 10, Mandy McKeown, had also been released.

"She has been deported. As we speak, she is flying back to Europe," an embassy spokesman told AFP.

At least six of the 10 had been given 10-day detention sentences for carrying out pro-Tibet protests in Beijing, but they were deported before completing the terms.

The detentions had triggered high-level pressure for their release, with US Ambassador Clark Randt intervening personally on behalf of the eight Americans.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown used a visit to Beijing for the Olympic closing ceremony to intervene personally to secure McKeown's release, an official from his Downing Street office said.

Activist group Students for a Free Tibet welcomed the release of the eight Americans, but suggested China had freed them merely to avoid tarnishing the closing ceremony.

"After two days of negative publicity over its extrajudicial detention of 10 Tibet supporters, the Chinese government is seeking to suppress a story that would have cast a shadow over the closing ceremony of these Olympic Games," said Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet.

The activists were handed the 10-day terms under a controversial rule that permits Chinese police to sentence people to up to three years in detention without going through the courts.

Pro-Tibet campaigners carried out at least eight stunts and small-scale protests in Beijing in the run-up to the Olympics and during the Games, despite tight security.

The authorities expelled most of the foreign activists within a day or two after the early protests, but this week they appeared to toughen their approach by announcing punishments of 10 days in detention.

"The Beijing Olympics have become synonymous with overt Chinese government propaganda, heavy-handed security and intolerance of any form of protest or dissent," said Tom Grant, one of the eight Americans, in a statement issued by Students for a Free Tibet.

Beijing police headquarters and the Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.