ATHENS, March 10 – A group of Tibetans on Monday lit a symbolic flame at Olympia, birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games, to protest against their country’s occupation by China, host of this year’s Olympics.
“It was a five-minute ceremony by a group of ten Tibetans,” a staff member at the Olympia archaeological museum told AFP.
“They did not have permission to access the ancient stadium site, so they conducted it in a parking lot outside.”
Police halted the ceremony and a minor scuffle ensued but no arrests were made, local police director Athanassios Spyropoulos told AFP.
“We stopped them discreetly because such ceremonies are not allowed at an archaeological site,” he said.
“There was no chance that the Greek authorities would permit an event undercutting the actual Olympic flame ceremony,” the museum staffer added.
The Olympic flame ritual – which launches the Games torch relay – has been held in ancient Olympia since the 1936 Berlin Games.
The official ceremony for the Beijing Games will be held on March 24.
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