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7.04.08: Olympic Torch protest outside the British Museum, London.
Where did the idea of snatching the Olympic torch come from? Is it possible that the idea was born from the video on “you tube” of the Tibetans lighting their peace torch in Greece. The scenes show the Greek police seizing the torch out of the hands of a peaceful Tibetan demonstrator, whilst also trying to disrupt the ceremony.
We decided on the day of the London Olympic Torch procession to demonstrate with the “Free Tibet” organisation near the British Museum. We were quite shocked at the shear amount of police presence that surrounded us and cordoned us both from the front and rear. We were boxed into a tiny space and left to chant our slogans in the falling snow.
What we couldn’t understand is why we were cordoned off by police, whilst a huge group of Pro Olympic Chinese were officially given the freedom of London only 30 seconds walk away from us.
Sadly we have to say that we were witness to the sight of small Tibetan man who had been arrested earlier. His hands were forced behind his back in police handcuffs as he bled.
Neither of us witnessed any physical violence and we came away feeling that ours had been a peaceful demonstration, even though we never got to see the Olympic flame as it had sped through our heavily guarded area on a bus!
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