Olympics-Tibetan groups play to protest Beijing Games

By N.Ananthanarayanan

NEW DELHI, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Buddhist monks in robes were among hundreds of Tibetans from India and Nepal at a soccer game on Saturday to protest against Chinese rule in their homeland ahead of the one-year countdown to the Beijing Olympics.

"Team Tibet" players, wearing black arm bands in support of hunger strikers marking the final 12 months of Olympic preparations, beat a side which also included Tibetans after some local players withdrew following restrictions on the venue.

Indian authorities refused permission to stage the match in New Delhi's biggest ground, which Tibetan groups said was due to Chinese pressure. The foreign ministry declined to comment on the decision earlier this week.

The match was finally played on a college pitch with scores of policemen keeping vigil. The Beijing Games begin a year on Wednesday.

"There is lot of excitement among the players representing Tibet in front of their own people," Tenzin Choedon, head of a Tibetan student group, told Reuters at the ground.

Around 2,000 Tibetans participated in a candlelit march around the ground after the game, singing traditional songs and waving Tibetan flags.

Tibetan groups have urged the International Olympic Committee to pressure China to fulfil the pledge on human rights it made when the Games were awarded, saying Beijing continued with rights violations in their homeland.

Chinese troops marched into Tibet in 1950 and Beijing has since left its mark on traditional Tibetan society, closing monasteries and restricting religious life.