Still waiting (updating below) for more details, but Qik.com vlogger Noel Hidalgo is at the scene and giving updates via Twitter. Here's a video he took just a few minutes ago not far from the Olympic bird's nest:
Noel has just finished uploading a second video, in which he reports that Chinese firemen have taken down one protester and one appears to be coming down the other pole; no sign of the third protester who was stationed on the ground as seen in the clip above:
Tweet timeline (Beijing time):
6:38am @noneck:
Shoeed west away from tibetan protesters climbing polls outside of nest
6:42am @noneck:
There is now a tibetan protester climbing a western poll. Moving to att pim for qik
7:14am @noneck:
Wow! The locals are hot and bothered. Heading back to the hotel.
7:28am @noneck:
Now i'm being followed by a little old lady who told the last cab driver to kick me out. On foot looking for other followers.
7:33 @noneck:
Found a cab and now i'm heading for some coffee to chill for a bit.
67 comments
Unless you want hundreds of angry Chinese youth posting outrageous outraged comments on Global Voices, let’s be careful with the choice of words here. Are they really “Tibetan protesters” or are they actually foreigners protesting about Tibet.
I suspect it’s the latter, as seen previously at Everest Base Camp as well as at the Great Wall.
I was right; the protesters were foreigners, not Tibetans.
This just in from Reuters:
BEIJING, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Four foreign protesters displaying a “Free Tibet” banner in the Chinese capital were held by police on Wednesday, state media reported, as the Olympic Games torch made its way through the city.
They were “displaying a pro-Tibet independence banner in English,” said the brief report from the Xinhua news agency. It did not describe their nationality.
The three men and one woman gathered near the main Bird’s Nest Stadium, where the Games will open, and two of the men climbed electricity poles to unfurl the banner, said Xinhua.
Police rushed to the scene after 12 minutes and took them away, the report said.
Now here is a possible “Tibetan protest” in Beijing, judging from the press release currently circulating on the Internet (Tibet film screening in Beijing):
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2008/06/c9929.html
China must stop persecuting, terrorising and imprisoning Tibetan people for peacefully going about their lives.
Chinese authorities should let UN human rights experts and independent observers into Tibet to investigate the human rights situation. If they have nothing to hide then why not?
http://uncensor.com.au/
Update to second pending comment:
The following article from Scottish media names the 2 Brits and 2 Yanks who were detained this morning at the protest filmed by Noel Hidalgo:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2418440.0.protibet_britons_detained_in_beijing.php