Swiss police on Sunday detained 32 Tibetans and Swiss nationals protesting against a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), a spokesman said.
Swiss authorities had limited the duration of the protest in the center of Bern to two hours before noon to avoid the kind of confrontation that marked the previous visit by a Chinese president 18 years ago.
Several people near a security zone set up for the state visit failed to comply with police instructions, Bern police said in a statement.
Photo: Keystone via AP
“Thirty-two people were detained to secure safety,” a spokesman said.
At noon, police prevented a man from setting himself on fire, according to the statement. The man was taken care of by doctors.
Fourteen activists were detained near the Swiss parliament building in the afternoon as they continued to protest past the time restriction, waving posters saying “Free Tibet” and “Don’t Deal With Killers,” the association of Tibetan Youth in Europe said.
“The situation inside Tibet is getting worse day by day. Our people are being oppressed, our people are being imprisoned,” group spokeswoman Migmar Dhakyel said.
“We are really concerned [about] how our government, our own government treats us, doesn’t permit us to demonstrate,” she said.
Between 700 and 800 Tibetans and Swiss had gathered in the city center and protested peacefully against the Tibet policies of China, Tibetan Community in Switzerland and Liechtenstein president Tenzin Nyingbu said.
Most of them left before noon as agreed with Bern municipal security, Nyingbu said.
The Chinese leader arrived in the Swiss capital for a gala dinner on Sunday afternoon.
After holding talks with Swiss officials yesterday, he is to attend the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos today, a first for a Chinese president.
In 1999, demonstrators took to roofs overlooking the Swiss parliament with banners demanding “Free Tibet” during a visit by then-Chinese president Jiang Zemin (江澤民).
Police intervened when people tried to throw eggs at the Chinese delegation. Jiang questioned Swiss leaders’ control over their country and remarked that they risked “losing a good friend.”
China and Switzerland forged a free-trade pact in 2014 and Swiss companies count China among their most important markets.
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