Beijing Olympic Games

Pro-Tibetan activists protest in Greece

ATHENS, Greece (AP)—A small group of pro-Tibetan activists protested Friday outside an Athens hotel where top IOC officials were meeting on the last of a three-day conference.

About seven protesters waved Tibetan flags and held banners with messages such as “Tibetans are dying” while chanting slogans. Police intervened, trying to grab the banners from the activists. No injuries were reported.

On Thursday, activists gathered outside the hotel chanting slogans urging the International Olympic Committee to cancel next week’s Tibetan leg of the Beijing torch relay and press China to allow foreign media access to Tibet.

China’s authoritarian government has promised a massive security presence at this summer’s Olympics in Beijing, which may include undercover agents dressed as volunteers. It has also tightened controls on visas and residence permits for foreigners—who are banned from entering Tibet.

China says 22 people died in anti-government violence in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa in March, while foreign Tibet supporters say many times that number were killed in the protests and a subsequent crackdown.

Students for a Free Tibet, which has organized the protests in Athens together with the Tibetan Youth Association Europe, has promised worldwide protests during the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, including in Beijing.