87. Tibetans protest China hosting 2008 games

CBS SportsLine.com wire reports - February 24, 2006

TURIN, Italy -- 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's demanding China 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 erected 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 10 kilograms (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. Though China had shown some leniency ahead of its selection as the 2008 host -- and has proposed Tibet be among the stops on its torch relay -- crackdowns on Tibetan independence activists continue. Earlier this month, a group of Buddhist nuns and monks were sentenced in western China to up to three years in prison for publicly demanding independence for Tibet. The five were arrested last May after protest letters were posted in markets, monasteries and other public places in traditionally ethnic Tibetan areas in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, according to the Free Tibet Campaign. Tibetan activists also staged protests at the Salt Lake City Winter Games and at the Summer Games in Athens. Gyatso said he was disappointed that the strike has received little attention, despite the presence of thousands of journalists in Turin for the Olympics. "But I'm not dieing," he said. "I can continue."