SFT UK rocks the G8 (and DAMN, Iain is hardcore)!

Students for a Free Tibet UK join G8 protests on Dalai Lama’s Birthday

For Immediate Release

Wednesday 6 July 2005

Contact: Iain Thom on 07730 609 317

Activists from Students for a Free Tibet UK (SFT-UK) joined thousands of protestors on the opening day of the G8 Summit being held at Gleneagles, Scotland. China, which has occupied Tibet since 1949, is present at the meeting of the G8 group of major-industrialised states.

While protests took place at the Gleneagles Hotel and across Scotland, SFT-UK focused on the capital, Edinburgh. Tibet campaigners joined protests early on Wednesday morning at the Sheraton Hotel, as delegates were leaving for the Summit.

The first day of the G8 Summit coincided with the 70th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, who has lived in exile in India since 1959.

With the world’s media focussed on Scotland, SFT-UK campaigners marked the Dalai Lama’s birthday by displaying a banner reading “Don’t Forget Tibet� to delegates and the assembled crowds. Whilst a strong police presence restricted anti-G8 activists blockading the hotel, the SFT activists from across the UK successfully displayed Tibetan flags and engaged with the press.

This action was part of a week of protests surrounding the G8 summit, and SFT-UK also had a presence at the ‘Make Poverty History’ rally on Saturday 2^nd July, which was attended by 225,000 people including a group of anti-Chinese Communist Party protesters.

Whist the G8 agenda both inside and outside the Summit may be dominated by the issues of climate change and poverty, SFT-UK hoped to flag the issue of Tibet within this greater agenda to ensure that Tibet is not forgotten.