Tibetan activists protested for a “free Tibet” during a female football friend between the United States and China this weekend-and won the support of other spectators who have hooked when they were briefly expelled from their seats.
The members of the Chinese team and the support staff confronted the eight activists who were sitting near them in the international friendly match on Saturday at the Allianz stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota, that the United States won 3-0.
The activists, dressed in white t-shirts, had shouted slogans and raised white banners who read “free Tibet” during the second half of the game.
Members of the Chinese team asked for their withdrawal from the stands, and the activists were invited to leave the stadium by security guards. It prompted the hoots of other spectators who shouted: “Let them stay!” And sang “freedom of expression!”
Shortly after, stadium officials allowed activists to return to their seats but confiscated their white banners. The activists watched the rest of the match by holding the Tibetan national flag which is prohibited by China inside Tibet. They also wore their “free Tibet” t-shirts.
“The biggest point to remember (from this campaign) is that if the Tibetans get up, raise our voice and act for our own cause, then the inhabitants of the world automatically stand up in support,” one of the demonstrators, Tenzin Palsang, Free Asia said on Tuesday.
“China is not only playing football. They also play games with human rights,” said Palsang, president of the Minnesota section of the Tibetan Regional Youth Congress.
She cited difficult conditions inside Tibet, where she said that children suffered from “colonial pension policies”, referring to Chinese schools managed by the government where Tibetan children, aged 6 to 17, would have been held under “prison” conditions and forced to study a program of mandarin patriots which promotes the loyalty of parties or a ” the state ”. ».
According to the Freedom in the annual freedom annual report by Freedom House, Tibet, Tibet has received a score of 0, on the basis of an analysis of political and civil freedoms, which makes it one of the least free places in the world. China annexed Tibet in 1950 and has since ruled the territory with an oppressed heavy hand while seeking to erase Tibetan culture and identity.
Beijing denies that it represses Tibet or seeks to erase its cultural traditions, rather indicating economic development in the region as proof of its positive impacts on the population of around 6 million Tibetans.
Edited by Mat Pennington.
