Oly: Aussie protester believes action will lead to change

AAP General News (Australia)
08-16-2008
Oly: Aussie protester believes action will lead to change

By Charisse Ede

BEIJING, Aug 16 AAP - An Australian woman deported from China for unfurling a Free
Tibet banner in Beijing spent seven years planning her protest action at the Olympic Games.

Nicole Rycroft, a dual Australian-Canadian citizen, arrived home in Vancouver this
morning Australian time after being ejected from China yesterday afternoon.

The 41-year-old was among five activists who climbed on top of the China Central Television
(CCTV) headquarters early yesterday and dropped a banner reading "Free Tibet" in English
and Chinese.

An amateur rockclimber, she abseiled down the building to unfurl the banner over the
top of an Olympics billboard that says: "Beijing 2008".

She and her fellow Students for a Free Tibet (SFFT) activists - a Briton and three
Americans - were arrested about 30 minutes later by Chinese security officials and were
all deported.

Rycroft, a former state and national rower in Australia in the 1990s, said she decided
she would join any protest action in Beijing when the city was awarded the Games in 2001.

"I started to think about how I felt, as a former elite athlete, about how a country
like China, with an appalling human rights record, could get the Games of peace," she
told AAP soon after arriving home.

"I don't know how receptive the Chinese leadership is to that (Free Tibet message)
at the moment, but I felt I needed to do something.

"History shows that over time things do change. I'm under no illusion that there will
be an immediate change in Tibet ... but I hope that the situation and conditions really
improve."

Rycroft said she arrived in Beijing a week ago and she and her fellow activists had
to change their protest plans regularly.

"We arrived knowing what we generally wanted to achieve, and remained flexible," she said.

"We changed our plans to deal with the level of prohibition and security."

Rycroft, who has lived in Canada for 12 years, cycled into Tibet from Nepal in 1995
and said she "witnessed the suppression of Tibetan culture and religion as a result of
China's occupation of Tibet".

She said she hoped to speak with Australian cyclist and pro-Tibet support Cadel Evans
later today.

The Tour de France runner-up left China yesterday and spoke for the first time about
his views on Tibet.

"It's a sad situation and I think similar to what happened with the Australian Aborigines,"

Evans said.

Evans is believed to be on his way to visit the exiled Tibetan Olympic team in Switzerland.

"It's great to have an Olympian being so inspiring and taking a stand," Rycroft said.

"There's not a division between sports and human rights."

Olympic athletes have been advised to keep political statements out of the Games.

Rycroft realises she will no longer be welcome in China, but she says that won't stop
her continuing her campaign for a free Tibet.

AAP ce/

KEYWORD: OLY08 PROTEST AUST RYCROFT (FILE PIX AVAILABLE)

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