Tibetan refugees protest globally as Olympics near

By Abhishek Madhukar

DHARAMSALA, India (Reuters) - Tibetan refugees protested across the world on Monday to mark the 49th anniversary of an uprising against Chinese rule and press their demand for independence ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

In Nepal, many people were hurt when police used batons to break up a march on the Chinese embassy, while in neighbouring India 101 refugees set off on a five-month march to Tibet accompanied by thousands of well-wishers.

In Greece, a dozen Tibetans lit a torch outside Olympia, site of the ancient Olympic Games, to launch a global torch relay which they hope will be taken to more than 20 countries and end at Tibet's border just as the Beijing Olympics start on Aug. 8.

As the Olympics approach, Tibetans are trying to reinvigorate their freedom movement and protest against what they see as China's illegal occupation of their homeland.

In India, several thousand people, Tibetans, Indians and Westerners, accompanied the marchers as they set off from the town of Dharamsala, home to Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the refugees' "government-in-exile".

"Everybody is pumped up," Tsewang Rigzin, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress told Reuters. "Many people were in tears as they said goodbye to the marchers.

"As refugees we have a right to return to our homeland," he said, but Indian officials said the marchers would not be allowed to cross the border.

The marchers, red-robed Buddhist monks and nuns and young people born in exile, carried Tibetan flags and pictures of the Dalai Lama and Indian independence leader and advocate of non-violent civil disobedience Mahatma Gandhi.