Parents of two Vancouverites said Tuesday evening they are very worried about the safety of the pair after the Chinese government seized six activitists who were protesting on the Great Wall against the Chinese presence in Tibet.

Two activists hang below a giant banner hung from the Great Wall of China Tuesday.
(Courtesy of Freya Putt)

The protesters unfurled a 42-square-metre banner reading "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008" in English and Chinese from the Great Wall.

"Chinese authorities removed the activists after two hours; their current whereabouts are unknown," the group Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) said in a news release on Tuesday.

The protesters include Sam Price and Melanie Raoul from Vancouver, along with one U.K resident and three from the U.S.

"To simply not know anything about his whereabouts or what's happening to him at this moment is very disturbing and very unsettling," Caroline Price, the mother of 32-year-old Sam Price, told CBC News.

Sam Price of Vancouver was one of six activists arrested Tuesday in China.
(Courtesy of Freya Putt)

Yvon Raoul, the father of 25-year-old Melanie Raoul, said his daughter was part of the protest organized by SFT.

"Sometime we wish that she hadn't done it," Raoul told CBC News. "But at the same time one has to accept as a parent that your child is an independent being, and she has a mind of her own."

A spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Department said on Tuesday they're still trying to determine the status of Price and Raoul and are waiting for answers from Chinese officials.

"This morning, six amazing people of conscience risked their lives to defend the Tibetan people," SFT executive director Lhadon Tethong said in her blog from Beijing.

The banner adds three words — "Free Tibet 2008" — to the official slogan of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Tuesday starts the one-year countdown to the Olympics.

Melanie Raoul of Vancouver was one of six activists arrested in China Tuesday.
(Courtesy of Freya Putt)

Advocates who want Tibet freed from China say the Chinese government is using the Games to gain international acceptance.

"By protesting at the Great Wall, the most recognizable symbol of Chinese nationhood, we're sending a clear message that China’s dream of international leadership cannot be realized as long as it continues its brutal occupation of Tibet," Tenzin Dorjee, spokesman for SFT, said in the release.

The group also wants the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to push the case for Tibetan freedom.

Tethong, a Tibetan, was trying to meet IOC president Jacques Rogge. She said on her blog that she went to his Beijing hotel and "confronted" him as he left, surrounded by heavy security.

"'Dr. Rogge! I'm Tibetan and I'd like to talk to you about Tibet, and human rights,'" she said.
 
"He looked at me with the most uninterested expression I have ever seen. He barely glanced up from his BlackBerry. And in a moment he was whisked out the door and into a minibus."
 
The media-savvy group is using the blog and YouTube, where they have posted a video of the banner being hung from the Great Wall, to attract worldwide attention.

China invaded Tibet in 1950, and in 1999 declared it to be an "inseparable part of China." In 2004, a government policy paper said Tibet had always been part of China, and before the Chinese imposed direct rule, Tibet was "even darker and more backward than medieval Europe."