Phill Bartell

Courtesy Photo

Four Tibet activists from Britain and the United States were detained in Beijing after unfurling Tibetan flags and two 140-square-foot banners outside the Olympic stadium.

Courtesy Photo

Four Tibet activists from Britain and the United States were detained in Beijing after unfurling Tibetan flags and two 140-square-foot banners outside the Olympic stadium. The first read, "One World, One Dream: Free Tibet" in English, and the second read, "Tibet Will Be Free" in English and "Free Tibet" in Chinese.

A Boulder man who was among four people detained and missing for a brief time after Chinese authorities broke up a protest Wednesday was deported from the Olympic host country and is back in the United States.

Two Americans, Boulder resident Phill Bartell and Oregon resident Tirian Mink, were released from custody in Beijing and deported following 12 hours of interrogation, Bartell said Thursday.

According to Students for a Free Tibet — which helped organize the demonstration against the Chinese occupation of the small country — two British citizens, Iain Thom and Lucy Marion, were deported to Frankfurt and then flew home to London.

Bartell arrived at San Francisco International Airport late Wednesday night, after he and his fellow activists were forced by Chinese officials to buy one-way tickets home.

“They obviously wanted to get us out as quickly as possible,” Bartell said by phone Thursday from San Francisco.

Bartell, 34, a practicing Buddhist who owns the Rising Tide Tattoo shop on Pearl Street, took part in a demonstration that called for an end to Chinese occupation of Tibet. The protest came two days before the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.

The four activists were detained by Chinese authorities after scaling two 120-foot-tall lampposts, unfurling Tibetan flags and two 140-square-foot banners, organizers said.

The first banner read, “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet” in English, and the second read, “Tibet Will Be Free” in English and “Free Tibet” in Chinese.

Bartell said he trained physically and mentally for the climb and that he knew he would cause trouble.

“We were a little surprised by the lack of security” near the main Olympic stadium where the demonstration took place, Bartell said. “Then, as soon as the first banner was deployed, the police started to show up and yell.”

For about an hour, Bartell said, the display slowed nearby traffic and curious onlookers. When fire trucks arrived with ladders, Bartell said, it was time to get down.

“We were taken to a detention center,” he said. “They kept saying, ‘You are going to be arrested.’ We knew what we were getting into.”

After being taken to what he described as a makeshift Chinese police station near the Olympic stadium, Bartell and the other demonstrators were escorted to the airport.

“They forced us to buy tickets out of the country,” he said. “We had to spend a lot of money to come back.”

The Boulder man is not sure whether he’s ever allowed back into China.

“They said, ‘If you ever come back to China, you must respect our laws.”

Bartell said he thinks the group got its point across.

“Now is the time for people of conscience around the world to stand up for human-rights issues,” he said. “We realized if any changes were going to happen in Tibet, it has to come from China ... .

“I think it was totally worth it.”