In San Francisco, thousands of people gathered Tuesday to protest China’s treatment of the Tibetan struggle. The vigil came hours before the Olympic flame of this summer’s Beijing Olympics arrived in town for its only North American stop. At a news conference, the former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu said he does not support an Olympic boycott but urged world leaders not to attend the opening ceremony.

Desmond Tutu: “We are not at the moment calling for a boycott of the games because the athletes have spent a lot of time preparing, and you don’t want to penalize them unnecessarily, but I am certainly calling on heads of state not to attend the opening ceremony, to register their disapproval, their disgust really.”

Several human rights groups have mobilized in San Francisco this week to also call attention to China’s policies in Burma and Darfur. The actor Richard Gere also spoke.

Richard Gere: “This all started on March 10, and it didn’t start about the Olympics. There was a simple demonstration in front of the Jokhang Cathedral, and a vortex opened up, and an enormous amount of energy came out of that, and it’s played into this moment obviously around the Olympics. But I think what is so extraordinary is it was so spontaneous. It was an expression of a people who finally couldn’t take it anymore.”

Tibet has been under military lockdown for the past month since Buddhist monks began protesting Chinese occupation.