China deports pro-Tibet activists

14 August 2008 /Beijing/Phayul/TibetPress

Beijing, August 14 - Eight pro-Tibet activists who staged a protest near Beijing's main Olympic venues have been deported, a spokeswoman for the group Students for a Free Tibet says. The group unfurled pro-Tibet banners and blocked the entrance to a park on Wednesday (local time), causing a scuffle with police that saw a British television crew roughed up and prevented from reporting the demonstration. Students for a Free Tibet, who have organised a number of protests around Olympic venues over the past week, says their activists detained were seven Americans and a Japanese national. "The seven Americans were sent back to Los Angeles and should be arriving shortly," Brianna Cotter said. Pema Yoko, a Tibetan with Japanese citizenship, was sent to Frankfurt and is taking a flight back to London on Thursday (local time), Ms Cotter said. Ms Yoko, 25, was born in London to a Tibetan father and Japanese mother. "I feel a strong sense of commitment to defending Tibetan identity and speaking out against the Chinese Government's brutal regime which is destroying my father's homeland," she said in a statement.