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ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece : Rights activists and Tibetan protesters breached tight security to stage anti-Chinese demonstrations on Monday at the lighting of the Olympic flame for the Beijing Games.
Three members of the Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reports Without Borders - RSF) group unfurled a flag calling for a boycott of the Beijing Games during the ceremony.
Afterwards, about 10 Tibetan activists, including a girl whose face was covered in red paint to simulate blood, marched out of a hotel in Olympia and lay in the town's main street, shouting slogans against Chinese rule in Tibet.
Police detained the three RSF members, including its chief Robert Menard, and some of the Tibetan activists.
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 dignatories were sat.
Security officers quickly dragged all three away.
The RSF activists have been taken to the neighbouring city of Pyrgos but police have not yet decided whether to formally arrest them and bring them before a prosecutor to face charges, another RSF member told AFP.
Meanwhile, the police station in Olympia said they had "five or six people detained" who had not been formally arrested. No nationalities were given.
"I think it's always sad when there are protests, but they were not violent and that's the most important thing," Rogge told reporters after the incident.
Greek police had imposed heavy security around the site, which included armed police watching down from nearby hills. Chinese intelligence was also involved in the security operation.
Several thousand people were at the ceremony but all were meant to have special accreditation.
Greek and Chinese state television quickly cut their live broadcasts to an image away from the protesters when the incident started.
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.
RSF secretary general 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 on 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/ac/de
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