OLYMPICS
Flame ceremony disrupted
Posted Tue, 25 Mar 2008

Three French activists from a media rights group who were arrested for staging an anti-China demonstration at the lighting of the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games were charged and released from custody late on Monday.

Three members of the Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reports Without Borders — RSF) group, who had unfurled a flag calling for a boycott of the Beijing Games, said they had been charged with an "offensive act." "Our trial has been set for May 29. We will be there to denounce again the corruption of Olympianism" at the Beijing Games, RSF president Robert Menard, one of those arrested, told AFP.

The charge against them of "an offensive act is not the same as a provocation," he said, and is subject to a maximum one-year prison term and/or a fine.

Menard and two other members of RSF staged their protest as the chief Chinese Olympics organiser, Liu Qi, made a speech before the flame was lit at the ancient Greek temple of Olympia.

One man unfurled a flag declaring "Boycott the country that tramples on human rights." Another tried to grab the microphone from Liu and shouted "freedom, freedom" at the official stand where International Olympic Committee chairman Jacques Rogge and other dignitaries were sat.

Security officers quickly dragged all three away.

The RSF activists were taken to the neighbouring city of Pyrgos before being brought before a prosecutor and charged.

RSF has made calls for international heads of state to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games on August 8.

"If the Olympic flame is sacred, human rights are even more so," RSF said in a statement released in Paris which announced the group's involvement in the protests.

"We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace, without denouncing the dramatic human rights situation in the country, less than five months from the start of the Olympic Games," said the statement.

Menard was presented with the Legion of Honour, France's top civilian award, by President Nicolas Sarkozy, on Sunday.

The statement condemned China's clampdown on reporting about a crackdown against protests in Tibet. The group said it would use every opportunity to protest against "grave violations of fundamental liberties" in China.

AFP