(TibetanReview.net, Dec12’21) – Several countries have announced a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics which will start in Feb 2022, nauseated by the Chinese government’s unconscionable human rights practices, particularly in Xinjiang. However, activists, especially Tibetans, are not satisfied and calling for nothing less than a Games boycott. On Dec 11, two Tibetan students sought to make this clear by chaining themselves to the Olympic rings outside the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland. Some Tibetan protesters were held, but released afterwards.
The two chained themselves after being ordered to leave the IOC premises by police.
Two activists unfurled a banner reading, “No Beijing 2022,” over the building’s entrance, while five students got inside and held a sit-in protest, reported Reuters Dec 12.
It was part of the latest protest against the Games over Beijing’s abuse of human rights and its treatment of minorities, the report noted.
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The occasion saw members of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe (TYAE) and Students for a Free Tibet hold a sit-in at the IOC building as officials gathered for a meeting.
The report said police started removing the protesters after three hours. The protesters who had chained to the Olympic rings outside the IOC building voluntarily removed themselves after the meeting ended at around 12:50 pm Swiss time and had not been detained by the police, said the TYAE in a Facebook post.
It also said in other posts that 21-year-old Ms Uma Lobsang and Mr Sonam Marsen were being held handcuffed inside a police vehicle after being extracted from the IOC building. It also said in another post that all the detained Tibetans were released after four hours.
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Calling the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics “Genocide Games,” the activists demanded that countries withdraw from the event, saying it was being used to burnish China’s image.
“Despite mounting international criticism of the IOC and China, the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses in Tibet, East Turkestan, and Hong Kong continue unabated,” protester Tenzing Dhokhar, campaigns director of TYAE, has said.
“By collaborating with China, the IOC is making itself an accomplice of the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes, which will be sports-washed by the Beijing Olympics.”
The IOC has previously called itself a force for good while denying having any influence over sovereign states.
