By Klemens Ludwig (TiD)
Tuesday, 16 May 2006
Tibet Initiative Deutschland (TID) says No!
On May 10th, IOC-President Jacques Rogge was invited by the Global Ethic Foundation to give a lecture on sports and ethics in Tubingen, Germany. This is a very prestigious event which takes place once a year. The foundation invites personalities who represent “high ethic and moral values”. Among the previous lecturers were UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Prime Minister Tony Blair, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and Shirin Ebadi as a representative of a tolerant Islam.
TID strongly opposed such an honour for the IOC President, and it was the only organisation which criticized the invitation of Mr. Rogge. In a press-conference just before Mr. Rogge’s lecture, TID emphasized the position of the Tibet solidarity movement. While the IOC claims, the Olympics will bring the international public to Beijing and will therefore change the country, TID made it clear, that Beijing is still under full control of the media. The games in Beijing will be the first ones in the area of high technology without any live coverage. All events will be shown with10 seconds delay, so that any kind of protest can be faded out. It is not known, that the IOC and Mr. Rogge have any objections.
The two most important daily newspapers of the region covered our sight of the story.
After the press-conference, activists of TID unfolded a banner directly in front of the building where Mr. Rogge held his lecture. It said: “Olympics 2008 – free games with free Tibetans” and it gained a lot of public attention.
As the activities were really peaceful, the police also cooperated and allowed the banner to be shown when Mr. Rogge left together with his host, Prof. Küng, the president of the Global Ethic Foundation.
Although Mr. Rogge strictly avoided taking a look at the banner, there was no way to ignore it.
During the activities, signatures were collected on postcards, addressed to Mr. Rogge, claiming that the Olympics in Beijing are a betrayal of the Olympic idea. TID will deliver the postcards to the president of the IOC in autumn.
