The shouting of demonstrators chanting, “Tibet, Tibet,” roared over the voice of Tsering Lama as she spoke to the Georgia Straight by phone from San Francisco’s UN Plaza.

Lama, a Tibetan UBC graduate and national director of Students for a Free Tibet Canada, was surrounded by approximately 1,000 people who had gathered to protest the North American leg of Beijing’s Olympic torch relay.

“If the Chinese government is allowed by the [International Olympic Committee] to have this torch go through Tibet,” Lama said, “that will be another opportunity for the Chinese government to crash down on Tibet and exacerbate a situation that is already very, very tense.”

SFT is not trying to end the Olympic torch relay, Lama said. Through the demonstrations, it hopes to pressure Chinese officials to change the route of the Olympic torch to omit Tibet, where the flame is scheduled to pass through sometime between May and August 2008.

The Olympic torch is scheduled to be carried through downtown San Francisco on April 9.

“What SFT and other organizations are organizing here is creative, nonviolent, direct action along the torch rally-route,” Lama told the Straight. She said that a strong turnout of San Francisco locals and Americans from across the country was expected for the parade of the torch.

A large contingent of Tibetans from all over North America, including Vancouver, had already assembled, she added.

Lama, 23, said she has never seen the birthplace of her parents, who left Tibet in the 1960s. It is very difficult for Tibetan ex-patriots to get travel visas for their homeland, she said.

Students for a Free Tibet has been a key player in pro-Tibet demonstrations at Olympic torch stops in Olympia, Paris, London, and now San Francisco.

Mel Raoul, a Vancouver resident and long-time SFT volunteer, spoke to the Straight from a quiet café in Paris.

“The Chinese government is using the torch, which is supposed to symbolize freedom and peace, as a tool to legitimize their occupation of Tibet,” Raoul said. “The international community, politicians, and the public in general see through that propaganda.”

On April 7, Beijing officials attempted to have athletes carry the Olympic torch from the Eiffel Tower to Paris’s City Hall. The parade route was cut short and the torch moved onto a bus after several attempts by activist to douse the flame or snatch it from its carrier.

As the torch was carried through the streets of Paris, Raoul helped hang a banner from the Pont au Change, a bridge that crosses the Seine River. The poster read ‘Pas de flamme au Tibet’, or ‘No flame in Tibet.’

“Everywhere you looked, there was a banner hung that was criticizing the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet,” Raoul said, describing the Paris demonstrations.

“It’s just great that now that Tibet is in the spotlight, the world is paying attention to a movement that has been nonviolent for half a century,” Raoul said.

See also:

China loses propaganda battle over 2008 Olympic torch relay
On Beijing Olympics, Harper's actions speak louder than words
Beijing's Olympic legacy threatened by rights abuses: AI