Rights Activists Urge Boycott Of Beijing Winter Olympics

By Associated Press
October 19, 2021

Human rights activists urged planetary governments, sponsors and athletes connected Tuesday to boycott what they called China's "genocide games" arsenic Greek officials handed implicit the Olympic occurrence to 2022 Beijing Winter Games organizers.

Activist groups, which besides disrupted the occurrence lighting ceremonial successful confederate Greece connected Monday, accused the International Olympic Committee of granting legitimacy to rights abuses successful China by allowing the Winter Games to spell up successful Beijing.

"We person yet again borne witnesser to the hypocrisy (of the IOC)," Mandie McKeown, the enforcement manager for the International Tibet Network, said astatine a quality league successful Athens. "They're handing implicit the Olympic torch to a big authorities that is truthful acold removed from holding immoderate of (the Olympic) ideals that it seems we're surviving successful a benignant of warped reality."

There has been planetary disapproval of China's attraction of Uyghur Muslims successful the northwest portion of Xinjiang, its crackdown connected protesters successful Hong Kong and its policies toward Tibet and Taiwan.

But the IOC, which antecedently held the 2008 Summer Olympics successful Beijing, has shied distant from the issue, saying it's retired of its remit.

In his code successful the past stadium of Olympia connected Monday, IOC President Thomas Bach stressed that the Games indispensable beryllium "respected arsenic politically neutral ground."

Activists connected Tuesday argued that quality rights successful the state person deteriorated since 2008, claiming that the Summer Games "emboldened" China.

Beijing launched a brutal crackdown astir 4 years agone that swept up to a cardinal oregon much Uyghurs and different mostly Muslim minorities into detention camps and prisons. Chinese authorities accidental their extremity is not to destruct the Uyghurs — a historically Muslim radical of 13 cardinal radical — but to integrate them.

"If this property league was to instrumentality spot successful China, I, arsenic an Uyghur, would extremity up successful a campy and possibly beryllium subjected to intersexual maltreatment and torture, arsenic millions of my chap Uyghurs are," said Zumretay Arkin, programme and advocacy manager for the World Uyghur Congress. "The Olympic Games are being handed implicit to a state actively committing a genocide."

President Joe Biden's medication has affirmed the U.S. presumption that China's repression of Uyghurs and different minorities was "genocide." At June's Group of Seven summit, Biden successfully pressed chap leaders to see circumstantial connection criticizing China's usage of forced labour and different quality rights abuses successful their associated statement.

Arkin urged G-7 governments to travel up connected that by boycotting the Beijing Games.

"We judge that we person a amended accidental contiguous up of the Games that governments perpetrate to a boycott ... than we had antecedently successful 2008," she said.

Pema Doma, the run manager for Students for a Free Tibet, said the IOC was making "a precise large mistake."

"How tin anyone deliberation that determination is not a reddish enactment anyplace successful the satellite for genocide?" said Doma, who was concisely detained by constabulary successful Ancient Olympia earlier Monday's protest.

The handover ceremonial was held without spectators astatine the renovated marble stadium successful Athens wherever the archetypal modern Olympics were held successful 1896.

Three activists were detained Monday aft sneaking into the strongly-guarded archaeological tract of Ancient Olympia during the occurrence lighting, waving a Tibetan emblem and a banner that work "No genocide games." Another 4 were detained extracurricular the site, portion 2 much protesters were detained successful Athens connected Sunday aft a protestation connected the Acropolis.

The second 7 person been released, but the archetypal 3 stay successful constabulary custody successful confederate Greece.

The Beijing Winter Olympics volition tally from Feb. 4-20. Only spectators from mainland China volition beryllium allowed to attend.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.