DHARAMSHALA, June 11: Activists from the Tibetan Youth Association of Europe disrupted a meeting of the Chinese government officials and Beijing Olympic Committee in Lausanne where the Chinese were presenting their case to be awarded the 2022 winter games on
The campaigners held a banner with five bullet holes representing the five Olympic rings while enacting Chinese police brutality through a street play. Activist dressed as Chinese police beat a Tibetan protestor holding a Tibetan national flag in her hands. “No more Bloody Games, Stop Beijing 2022,” the activists shouted inside the lobby of the hotel.
IOC members claimed that the Games would help to improve human rights in Tibet and China after it awarded the games to Beijing in 2008.
Among the protesters was Golok Jigme, arrested twice since 2008 for helping the Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen with his film “Leaving Fear Behind”. Jigme escaped into exile last year and has been living in Switzerland since January this year.
“I stand here today as a witness of Chinese repression in Tibet. But this is not only about me. Many Tibetan human rights defenders and protestors were jailed and killed in 2008,” said Golog Jigme. Furthermore, he urged the IOC President Thomas Bach to respect the digity and rights of the Tibetan people. “If the Olympic Games 2022 should be awarded to China again you will be co-responsible for such atrocities. If you cannot support us, don’t treat us like toys for the sake of flattering the Chinese Communist Party. We the Tibetan people are also citizens of this world and our dignity and rights must be respected,” Jigme said in an appeal to IOC President Thomas Bach.
The TYAE said the presence of Chinese Vice-Premier Liu Yandong in Laussane shows how important it is politically for China to win the bid to host the winter games.
Palmo Brunner, Vice-President of the TYAE, said, “Here in Switzerland we can express our views freely, something that is sadly not possible for our brothers and sisters inside Tibet due to Chinese oppression. Today Liu Yandong has no other choice than to face our protest and views here in a free country. We, the young Tibetans in Switzerland, will not sit by and quietly watch China being rewarded again for its repression in Tibet.”
In March, Tibet campaigners sent a report to the IOC and IOC members, outlining how the 2008 Beijing Olympics not only failed to bring any improvement in human rights in China and Tibet but also emboldened China to intensify its repressive crackdown.
