Pressure grows around world for Beijing to avoid another Tiananmen Square

Tibet activists around the world urged China last night to show restraint, saying they feared a repeat of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

They fell short of calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics but urged public figures to reconsider their attendance and threatened a boycott if China used excessive force.

"Restraint, restraint, restraint," said Anne Holmes, acting director of the London-based Free Tibet Campaign, which claims 10,000 full members and another 10,000 supporters.

She said their message to Beijing was: "The world is watching. You will be condemned if blood is shed."

She said that her group had written to Gordon Brown yesterday to ask him to back calls from the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, for UN observers to be sent to Lhasa, the Tibetan capital. It also asked the Prime Minister to send a representative from the British Embassy in Beijing to ensure that Chinese authorities did not use excessive force in the absence of foreign reporters and tourists.

"There’s every possibility of something as bloody as Tiananmen Square in Tibet tomorrow," she said. "The Chinese authorities are doing everything in their power to get all foreigners out. We have deep concerns that the reaction is going to be bloody."

Similar fears were voiced by activists across Europe, Asia and the United States, highlighting the global following that the Dalai Lama has attracted to his cause since fleeing his homeland in 1959.

Among his most vocal supporters are celebrities who have embraced Tibetan Buddhism, including the Hollywood actors Harrison Ford, Uma Thurman and Richard Gere. "I have not been pro-boycott but I think if this is not handled correctly, yes we should boycott, everyone should boycott," said Gere, who has followed Tibetan Buddhism for 25 years.

"As educated, as sensitive as the Chinese are, why they’ve misread the Tibetan situation from the very beginning is beyond me. It’s just so foolish and short-sighted. Everything that they want is destroyed in moments like this."

Other prominent figures believed to support the Dalai Lama include the Prince of Wales and Stephen Spielberg. .

Gere said that his comments reflected his personal views rather than that of the New York-based International Campaign for Tibet, of which he is chairman. The ICT does not support an Olympic boycott but is urging the international community to press the Chinese Government to show restraint.

Meanwhile, the International Tibet Support Network has written to the International Olympic Committee demanding that it remove Tibet from the Beijing Olympic Torch Relay route.