BREAKING NEWS! Olympic Torch Protesters Scale Golden Gate Bridge

Update… here’s some of the press release and more high-res photos

TIBET ACTIVISTS SCALE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
TO PROTEST CHINA’S TORCH RELAY
High Profile Action Demands ‘No Torch in Tibet’

San Francisco – Seven Tibet independence activists were detained this
afternoon after three of them scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled a
large protest banner reading “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 08.” The
three climbers remained on the bridge for about 2 hours before coming down
voluntarily. Upon their descent they were met and arrested by officers of
the California Highway Patrol. The daring action comes two days before
China’s torch relay is expected to be greeted by thousands of Tibet
protesters from across North America when it arrives in San Francisco.

Exclusive video shot by friends of SFT

Photos below
Taken by Timo

Full press release below:

STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2008
Photos and video footage will be available at: http://drop.io/sfapril7

Contacts in San Francisco: Lhadon Tethong, +917 418 4181
Kate Woznow, +917 601 0069
Alma David, +646 202 0704

TIBET ACTIVISTS SCALE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
TO PROTEST CHINA’S TORCH RELAY
High Profile Action Demands ‘No Torch in Tibet’

San Francisco – Seven Tibet independence activists were detained this
afternoon after three of them scaled the Golden Gate Bridge and unfurled a
large protest banner reading “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 08.” The
three climbers remained on the bridge for about 2 hours before coming down
voluntarily. Upon their descent they were met and arrested by officers of
the California Highway Patrol. The daring action comes two days before
China’s torch relay is expected to be greeted by thousands of Tibet
protesters from across North America when it arrives in San Francisco.
Already, the torch’s so-called ‘Journey of Harmony,’ which China’s
leadership hoped would improve its global image and divert attention from
its ongoing occupation of Tibet, has been overshadowed by boisterous
protests in Olympia, Istanbul, London and Paris. In all these cities,
Tibet campaigners have engaged in dramatic actions to highlight China’s
ongoing brutal crackdown on freedom protests inside Tibet.

“In two days, the Chinese government is bringing the Olympic torch to San
Francisco, while inside Tibet it continues its brutal and violent
crackdown on Tibetans crying out for freedom,” said Tashi Sharzur,
spokesperson for Students for a Free Tibet and one of the activists
detained in today’s action. “The International Olympic Committee must
immediately withdraw Tibet from the Torch Relay route. Carrying the
Olympic torch through Tibet would exacerbate the crisis and cause yet more
suffering for the Tibetan people.”

“San Francisco has a long, proud history of standing up for human rights
and freedom, and we will not allow China’s government to make a mockery of
everything this city stands for,” said Laurel Sutherlin, one of the
climbers and a spokesperson for Students for a Free Tibet. “Gavin Newsom
has privately agreed to express his concern with the IOC over China’s
torch going through Tibet. Mayor Newsom must now publicly follow up on
this promise and call for Tibet to be removed from the torch route.”

Tibetans and supporters from New York, Washington DC, Toronto, Minnesota,
Santa Fe, Salt Lake City, Portland, Calgary, Seattle, Los Angeles,
Vancouver and other cities in North America are converging in San
Francisco for mass protests on Tuesday and Wednesday to demand Tibet be
removed from the torch relay route.

China’s latest deadly attack on Tibetans came in in Tongkor Township
(Kardze County), in southeastern Tibet on April 3rd after Chinese
authorities detained two monks for possessing photos of the Dalai Lama.
Following a raid by over 3,000 armed police at Tongkor monastery, the
police opened fire on the crowd of over 700 people - nearly half of whom
were monks - gathered to protest the arrests. All Tibetan areas remain
closed off to independent media, but eyewitness reports from all across
Tibet describe severe beatings, suicide attempts by monks locked inside
their monasteries, house-to-house searches and, in one instance, a large
group of Tibetans being boarded onto a train to an unknown destination at
Lhasa’s new railway station.