Tibetan Activists Protest Beijing in 2008

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
Published: Feburary 25, 2006

TURIN, Italy (AP) -- Three Tibetan activists on Friday marked their 11th day on a hunger strike to oppose the choice of Beijing as the 2008 Olympic host.

The hunger strike was being led by 75-year-old Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan activist who said he spent 33 years in a Chinese prison for his involvement in the independence movement.

He is demanding China first end its ''military occupation'' of his homeland before it hosts the Olympics.

''I'm glad I'm able to contribute to the movement somehow,'' he said from a tent on the grounds of an 18th-century cemetery in downtown Turin.

Gyatso, who traveled to Turin from his self-imposed exile in India, claimed to have drank only water and eaten no food since the strike began. Visibly gaunt, he said he had lost 22 pounds since the strike began.

China claims Tibet has been part of its territory for at least seven centuries, but many Tibetans say they were an independent nation for most of that time.

Rights groups such as Amnesty International have accused China, which invaded Tibet in 1951, of widespread human rights abuses. Others accuse Chinese authorities in Tibet of carrying out executions without due process and engaging in torture and arbitrary arrest.

>> Read the complete article