Contact: Matt Whitticase, (0)7515 788456, matt@freetibet.org; Anne Holmes, anne@freetibet.org; both for Free Tibet Campaign, +44 20 7324 4605, +44 (0)7904 063746 out of office hours
LONDON, April 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- Reuters has cited Chinese state media reports on the identity of the Olympic torch protectors who were seen in blue tracksuits during the Paris and London legs of the Olympic Torch Relay.
Photo: Olympic torch protectors, addition photos available
According to Chinese state media the men in tracksuits are employed by BOCOG (the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee) and were handpicked from the People's Armed Police (PAP) to form the "flame protection squad" last August. The squad is responsible for protection of the Olympic Torch during the Torch Relay.
The squad has generated huge controversy due to their heavy-handed tactics. One of the London torch-bearers, Konnie Huq, has said that she saw them pushing around British policemen during the London leg. Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London 2012 Games Organizing Committee, described them as "thugs" according to the British media.
The People's Armed Police is a security force unit of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). It has been very active in putting down recent protests in Tibet. Free Tibet Campaign has received eyewitness accounts that the PAP have been involved in cases of brutality during the recent protests, including firing live ammunition into crowds of Tibetan protesters on April 3 in Grdze county in Sichuan province.
Matt Whitticase of Free Tibet Campaign said: "It beggars belief that personnel from the PAP were allowed on to the streets of London at all, let alone that they were allowed to push Metropolitan Police around. They come from the same unit that shot dead in cold blood a Tibetan woman on the Nangpa-la Pass in September 2006 and the PAP has been very active in brutally putting down recent Tibetan protests inside Tibet, according to eyewitness statements received by Free Tibet Campaign. The British government must explain immediately who authorized this unit to scuffle with our own police, and whether the government knew that they came from the PAP when they were authorized to escort the flame on London's streets."
