Tibet : Le ministère des affaires étrangères répond à Sensitif

Bonjour, Nous avons bien reçu votre message qui a retenu toute notre attention et nous vous remercions d'avoir exprimé votre opinion. « Sur le Tibet, le ministre des Affaires étrangères et européennes s'est exprimé avec promptitude et fermeté : il a condamné l'usage de la force lors des manifestations, a déploré les victimes de ces affrontements, et appelé les autorités chinoises à cesser la répression et à traiter les personnes arrêtées conformément aux standards internationaux.

 

Delanoë souhaite honorer le dalaï-lama

LEXPRESS.fr

Lundi prochain, le Conseil de Paris se réunira pour la première fois depuis la réélection de Bertrand Delanoë. Le maire socialiste a annoncé qu'il proposerait à cette assemblée d'attribuer le titre de citoyen d'honneur de la ville au dalaï-lama pour affirmer le soutien des Parisiens à la cause tibétaine.

Les images contenues dans cette page ont été réalisées bénévolement pour soutenir la cause tibétaine.
Elles sont toutes © leurs auteurs.

http://freetibet.fr/salle54.htm

http://janusblog.hautetfort.com/archive/2008/04/18/tibet-le-ministere-des-affaires-etrangeres.html

Parcours modifié et tronqué pour la flamme olympique à San Francisco

La flamme olympique a débuté sous haute surveillance son parcours à San Francisco: son itinéraire a été modifié et écourté, provoquant un sentiment de confusion et éloignant la torche de milliers de spectateurs et de manifestants qui s'étaient massés sur les quais en prévision de son passage.

Les autorités ont un peu plus tard annoncé que la cérémonie de clôture qui devait être initialement organisée sur la Justin Herman Plaza avait été annulée. Le maire de San Francisco Gavin Newson a expliqué à l'Associated Press que la cérémonie de clôture serait maintenue mais aurait lieu dans un endroit qu'il n'a pas dévoilé.

Ces changements ont été dictés par les inquiétudes liées aux scènes de chaos qui ont accompagné la flamme depuis son départ de Grèce, notamment lors de son étape à Paris. Les forces de sécurité étaient mobilisées en nombre pour éviter toute répétition des incidents pour la seule étape de la torche en Amérique du Nord avant le coup d'envoi des JO de Pékin en août prochain.

A la cérémonie d'ouverture mercredi après-midi à McCovey Cove près du stade de baseball de San Francisco, le premier porteur de la flamme a tenu la torche en l'air avant de partir rapidement vers un entrepôt. La flamme a ensuite disparu des yeux du public pendant environ une demi-heure, le temps d'emprunter, cachée, un itinéraire différent de celui qui était initialement prévu. Elle a réapparu loin des foules et a été remise à deux personnes qui ont entamé le relais.

La confusion entourant le parcours de la flamme avait commencé un peu plus tôt lorsque les autorités avaient annoncé que l'itinéraire d'une dizaine de kilomètres serait réduit de près de moitié.

Des tensions étaient perceptibles avant le début du relais. Des milliers de personnes brandissant des drapeaux chinois et tibétains avaient afflué dans la ville en prévision du passage de la flamme. AP

 

Chinois frappant un pro tibetain a san francisco.

San Francisco officials say they are confident the city will host a successful Olympic torch run Wednesday and avoid a repeat of the chaos that engulfed the relay in Paris, where police were forced to extinguish torches and carry the flame in a bus.

But Mayor Gavin Newsom said the protests that disrupted the torch run through Paris on Monday, as well as large protests during the relay in London on Sunday, would result in changes in San Francisco's plans for the flame when 80 runners carry it through the city's streets.

Newsom said the planned 6-mile torch route along the central waterfront and around Fisherman's Wharf could change up to and even during the relay. Police said security plans would include having officers run alongside torchbearers to protect them and the flame from any protesters who might try to disrupt the run.

Scenes in Paris and London of demonstrators trying to grab torches from runners and put out the flame with fire extinguishers "obviously play a part in our security approach and will play a part in terms of our making any final decisions," Newsom said.

"I have great expectations that it is going to be a successful event, but I am not naive to the realities of hosting an event where people are very intense on both sides," said Newsom, who did not reveal any specific details of the changes.

China's ambassador to the United States, Zhou Wenzhong, met with the mayor at City Hall for 45 minutes Monday evening to discuss security. San Francisco police officers and sheriff's deputies formed a line between the ambassador and reporters, and officers whisked him out of City Hall.

Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said Wenzhong had expressed concern about the London and Paris protests and asked Newsom how they could be avoided in San Francisco.

Protest on bridge cables

The depth of local protesters' feelings was underscored Monday when three people scaled suspension cables near the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled banners supporting Tibetan independence 150 feet over the roadway. The three spent almost three hours on the cables before the approach of bridge ironworkers caused them to rappel down, where they were arrested by the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP said the three - Mac Sutherlin, 30, and Duane Martinez, 27, both of Sausalito, and Hannah Strange, 29, of Oakland - were booked on suspicion of felony conspiracy and other, misdemeanor charges. Four other protesters on the bridge who did not climb the cables also were arrested, the CHP said.

Groups upset with Beijing's rule in Tibet and other Chinese policies are planning more actions before and during Wednesday afternoon's torch relay. Some activists organizing protests along the relay route said they planned to engage in civil disobedience when the flame passes by.

More than 500 police officers will be involved in securing the flame when it arrives early this morning at San Francisco International Airport, spends the day in an undisclosed location and then is passed from torch to torch on Wednesday.

Officers to guard flame

Officers from the California Highway Patrol, the San Francisco Sheriff's Department, the U.S. State Department and other agencies also will guard the flame.

Newsom noted that the torch route already has been simplified and reduced from 8 miles to 6 miles and that the opening and closing ceremonies have been whittled down to less than 20 minutes each. Those changes were made before the flame passed through London and Paris.

As the flame's only North American stop, San Francisco is attracting protesters from around the country who want to advocate for a range of causes, most notably China's human rights record toward Tibet and Falun Gong practitioners and Beijing's policies toward Burma and the Darfur region of Sudan.

Nyung Than, president of the Burmese American Democratic Alliance, said members of his organization planned to line the narrower streets of the relay route, near Aquatic Park, and engage in some type of "direct action" there.

"We have many options on the table," Than said. "Whatever we do will be nonviolent, but we will do nonviolent civil disobedience."

The group that organized Monday's protest on the Golden Gate Bridge, Students for a Free Tibet, said it was planning other such actions over the next few days. The organization is not planning to disrupt the relay, but "we cannot stop any individual who wants to do that. It's up to them," said Thupten Tsering, the group's Northern California coordinator.

Other groups said categorically they would not disrupt the relay.

"In fact, we're going to actively discourage anyone from doing anything that could be interpreted as disruptive," said Allyn Brooks-LaSure, spokesman for the Save Darfur Coalition.

Amnesty International members also are organizing protests but are instructing people who join them not to break the law.

United States Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth issued a statement late Monday that said, "The world will learn a great deal about San Francisco during the next two days ...

"When it accepted the honor of hosting the Olympic Flame, San Francisco also accepted two important responsibilities. It must provide a proper forum for the peaceful expression of opinions and dissent. And it must safely and respectfully welcome the flame and honor the U.S. athletes and other participants who will carry the torch."

The 80 people selected to carry the torch will gather for the first time today to meet with organizers and learn more about how the relay will work. As of Monday afternoon, torchbearers still had not been told which portion of the route they will run or given details about security.

Despite the protests in Paris and London, none of the San Francisco torchbearers has backed out.

"I'm really putting my trust in the Olympic committee and the Chinese government, the Secret Service and the San Francisco police. I think they'll do their best," said Sister Patricia Rayburn, a 64-year-old Franciscan nun from Redwood City who will carry the torch.

She said protesters denouncing China's human rights record should know that "there are torchbearers who have similar sentiments," and she said she hopes they spread their message nonviolently.

"I'm praying and hoping that we can respect one another and do it peacefully," Rayburn said.

Footage from London and Paris showing protesters tackling torchbearers and storming the relay routes concerned David Drabkin, but not enough to make the 23-year-old salesman of organic produce want to walk away from what he said was a childhood dream of being an Olympic torchbearer.

The Haight-Ashbury resident broke his leg in February and is hoping to leave his crutches at home Wednesday. But he will definitely be limping, and that, he said, makes him easy target for protesters looking to snuff out the flame.

"I'll be easily identifiable," Drabkin said. "But I think I can defend myself if I have to. If I really stare a protester in the eye, and we really look at each other, I can't imagine them trying to tackle me and take my flame. I hope it would be more civilized than that."

Olympic torch events

Today

-- The Beijing Olympic torch will arrive at San Francisco International Airport at 4 a.m.

-- A protest against China's Olympic torch and a celebration of the Tibetan Freedom Torch will start at 11 a.m. at United Nations Plaza, at Market and Hyde streets, near the BART Civic Center Station.

-- Richard Gere, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Tibetan leaders will attend the Candle Lights for Human Rights vigil, which will start at 6 p.m. at United Nations Plaza. www.sfteamtibet.org.

La Chine tente de faire bonne figure, mais la multiplication des incidents l’inquiète. «Le gouvernement chinois perçoit bien le danger que cette contestation peut avoir en interne, estime Hélène Le Bail, chercheuse à l’Institut français de relations internationales. Les autorités redoutent un effet domino sur d’autres mouvements indépendantistes ou religieux. Plus il y aura de protestations et plus il sera difficile d’enrayer le mouvement. Elles vont tout faire pour étouffer l’histoire.»

Hier, les chaînes d’information étrangères diffusées en Chine, comme CNN et BBC, ont été censurées à propos des incidents de Paris. Mais le journal de la nuit de la télévision centrale, CCTV1, a indiqué qu’un petit nombre de personnes avaient tenté de perturber le passage de la flamme, sans mentionner l’ampleur de ces incidents. Les médias officiels chinois ont imputé hier les «graves troubles» de Londres aux «quelques indépendantistes tibétains», les accusant de «violation grave de l’esprit olympique».

«Torche sanglante». Demain, la flamme est attendue de pied ferme à San Francisco par plusieurs centaines de manifestants mobilisés par des membres de la secte Falungong, interdite en Chine, et par des associations de défense des droits de l’homme et des indépendantistes tibétains. Des affiches sur lesquelles on peut lire «Non à la torche sanglante», «Mobilisons-nous pour le Tibet», sont déjà en place. L’archevêque sud-africain Desmond Tutu et l’acteur Richard Gere devaient mener une manifestation brandissant une «torche tibétaine de la liberté».

La représentante de San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi, qui est également «speaker» de la Chambre des représentants, a rendu visite au dalaï-lama en Inde fin mars, et demandé au président Bush de boycotter les cérémonies d’ouverture des J.O. à Pékin. Il a refusé....