Tibetan exiles are to go on a hunger strike during the Turin Winter Games to protest the Chinese government, hosts of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
The exiles staged a peaceful protest in Turin’s Piazza Palazzo di Citta on Saturday and said they would fast from February 10 to 26, the duration of the Games.
Choephel Tamding, one of the hunger strikers, told Reuters, “this protest is not against the people of China but against the policies of the Chinese government. We want to say ‘no’ to the Olympics in China until China respects human rights. We want freedom of speech, freedom of religion…we want the International Olympic Committee to know we don’t agree with the 2008 Games being in China the way it is today.
“If we don’t get any response from the International Olympic Committee we will continue the hunger strike”, he added.
More than 100 supporters gathered in the square to chant and bang drums as police watched. In the background police inspected manhole covers before workmen sealed them up, smelting them with blowtorches as security was tightened ahead of the Games.
Guenther Cologna, President of the Italian Tibet Association, said the group would organize a series of demonstrations during the Games to demand respect for human rights in Tibet, which has been occupied by China for about 50 years.
