Greek police have arrested activists who demonstrated in Athens against the Beijing Olympic Games. They chanted slogans such as “Boycott Beijing 2022” and “Tibet must be liberated” at the Acropolis, according to the Students for a Free Tibet organization.
Greek police said they arrested two women and a man. The officers also confiscated flags from the historic building. The Tibetan flag was a flag used by activists in Hong Kong.
And in Greece, the Olympic flame will be handed over to Chinese organizers next week. Critics of Beijing’s Communist rulers say it is a shame that China is allowed to stage such a prestigious international sporting event.
The protest was joined by activists from Tibet and Hong Kong, two regions that are now part of the People’s Republic of China, according to the New York-based organization Students for a Free Tibet. It annexed Tibet in 1951 and was accused by Tibetans in exile of dismantling the region’s cultural identity.
Hong Kong has been a British Crown colony for a long time, but has been part of China since 1997. At the time, it promised to give the city special status for another half-century, but according to critics, residents’ freedoms are increasingly curtailed in practice.
The “Hong Kong Watch” human rights organization called on the Greek authorities not to respond to any call from China to extradite the activists. The organization wants to give the detained protesters the opportunity to return to the United States.
