The Beijing 2008 Olympics will be a grand stage on which the world's best athletes look to fulfill lifelong dreams. Tibetans around the world hope the games will also bring a global media spotlight to the brutal crackdowns that have taken place since protest broke out in March and their calls for greater autonomy from China.
On Saturday afternoon, local supporters of Tibet, along with others from San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, gathered at the University and marched to downtown Eugene to bring attention to their cause.
Supporters say monasteries and schools have been under lockdown, and thousands have been detained without a fair trial since Tibetans in Tibet started protesting the Olympics in March.
"For Tibetans and their supporters everywhere, the Olympics raised a huge opportunity to raise awareness," Han Shan said. Shan, the Olympics campaign coordinator for Students for a Free Tibet, came from the organization's New York headquarters to organize around the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials.
Shan wants the attention of the public and the press, but Eugene currently offers the organization a most-prized target audience: potential Olympic athletes.
"In every Olympics there is an athlete who inspires the world," Shan said. This time such inspiration could come not only from athletic prowess, but also from a public endorsement for a greater freedom for Tibet.
"It could be talking about Tibet in media interviews, to holding the Tibetan flag in Beijing, or anything in between," Shan said. He added: "It's something the Chinese government is very worried about right now."
Thupten Tsering, a San Francisco-based organizer for Students for a Free Tibet, said he brought about 30 people to Eugene, including many college students, to distribute T-shirts and literature and to educate athletes about Tibet.
"None of us are given visas to go to Beijing during the games," Tsering said. He said he would like to see an action from an athlete similar to the 1968 Black Power salute of runners Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
"I would love to (go), but our visas got denied," he said. "They never explain why your visas get denied. They just stamp it on your passport, and that's pretty much it."
Tsering, who said he was born in Katmandu and educated in India, last visited Tibet in 1997 when he was making a feature-length film about "contemporary Tibetan lifestyle under Chinese occupation" called "Windhorse."
Kyizom Wangmo, a Eugene resident from the local chapter of Tibetan Youth Congress, said Saturday night's candlelight vigil was to pray "that the Communist government get the wisdom to do the right thing."
"The wisdom to speak with the exile government and give us the meaningful autonomy we've been asking for," Wangmo said. "That's what they've been telling us for a long time, that we have autonomy. But we don't have autonomy."
Tsering Palden, president of the Tibetan Youth Council of New York and New Jersey, came to Eugene for the Trials.
"I was able to give shirts to two athletes today," he said. "My work here is done."
IN
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-- Grupo de Apoio ao Tibetehttp://grupodeapoioaotibete.blogspot.com/