The struggle for freedom in Tibet douses Olympic flame

The countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics is on.

The handing of the torch to China starts the longest relay ever seen in Olympic history. It will visit over 20 countries and last 130 days, finishing back in Beijing on August 8.

If the recent protests in Tibet, Nepal and Greece are a mark of what’s to come, then China is in for a tough journey, both with the torch and with keeping their biggest ever public relations show, the Beijing Olympics, on track.

The games were awarded to Beijing back in 2001 with a promise coming from China that a more open and democratic society would be welcoming the world in 2008. Yet the world is still waiting.

The Chinese occupation of Tibet, which began in 1950, and their record on human rights abuses have always been subjects that the Communist Chinese Government has refused to discuss with the rest of the world. But the events over the last month have changed this.

Now the world’s spotlight is on China, and the Tibetans under the leadership of the exiled Dalai Lama look set to make sure that the illegal occupation of Tibet is a subject on everybody’s lips over the next 130 days.

Protests broke out in early March in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa when a group of Buddhist monks were arrested by the Chinese authorities. The protests that followed were brutally stamped out. No foreign media has been allowed into Tibet since, except for an offi cial tour given by the Chinese government. Websites such as YouTube, which has access to footage from the protesters in Tibet, has also been blocked within China.

Hundreds of arrests have been made and, according to offi cial Chinese figures, only 20 people have been killed. The exiled Tibetan Government that now sits in Dharamsala, Northern India, puts the figure at over 100.

The protests have spread quickly. Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu, along with the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Sichuan, have seen pro-Tibet activists riot over the last few weeks. The offi cial torch ceremony in Athens was also disrupted by protesters.

This is not the first disruption that these games have seen. In February Steven Spielberg stepped down from his role as artistic director for the opening and closing ceremonies. He said that China wasn’t doing enough to pressurise the Sudanese Government into stopping the war in Darfur.

China has invested heavily in Africa in the last ten years. The country is Sudan’s biggest arms supplier and imports two-thirds of all Sudanese oil.

The Beijing games are going to be big business. Companies that have been blocked from trading with China for years now have an opportunity to advertise their products to a Chinese population of over 1.3 billion as offi cial sponsors of the games.

Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Kodak, Samsung and Panasonic are just some of the brands that have signed on and they will all be investing heavily.

The broadcasting rights alone look set to bring in over €1 billion. The United States, Germany and the United Kingdom have all condemned the events of the last month but have said they will still be sending athletes to Beijing. President Nicolas Sarkozy has said he will consider boycotting the opening ceremony but will wait for events to develop.

So the world will have to wait and see.

But one thing is for sure - at 8.08pm, on the eight day, of the eight month of 2008, the opening ceremony will be taking place in Beijing. China will be there - who else is another question.