Coalition opposes ‘Genocide Games’  in Beijing at rally in DC

DHARAMSALA, 14 July: A coalition of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Southern Mongolians, Falun Gong, Chinese Christians, and Hong Kongers spoke on the atrocities committed by the Chinese Communist Party and called for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic games to be moved or boycotted at “Stop the 2022 Genocide Games in Beijing” rally in Washington, D.C.

Ngodup Tsering, the Representative of Office of Tibet, in DC stated in his address that 70 years ago, Communist China invaded Tibet and since then 1.2 million Tibetans died due to torture, starvation, and execution as he highlighted the Chinese brutality and repression in occupied Tibet and added that “in1960 the International Commission of Jurists(an international human rights non-governmental organization) reported that genocide has taken place in Tibet .”

“The dire situation continues till date and has in fact become worse,” he said and added: “The Olympic 2022 is a moment in history, and the International community must make China stop these egregious acts. If China were to enjoy the privilege of being a member of the International community, it must also respect the international rules and norms – pertaining to human rights, freedom, and justice.”

He further thanked the US Congress for passing historic legislation on Tibet, Uyghurs, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in recent times and concluded by urging “the international community to continue to stand in solidarity with us—Not just for our freedom and human rights, but for your freedom and democratic values.”  

Over twenty Tibetan activists took part in the rally in D.C organized by the Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC) and Women’s Rights Without Frontiers (WRWF) in coordination with the coalition is an advocacy side event to the first annual International Religious Freedom Summit(IRF Summit) hosted by the IRF Secretariat, former Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback and Katrina Lantos Swett, former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and daughter of the late Congressman Tom Lantos.

 The Committee states in its online potion that “We call for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be moved from China to any other country that honors the spirit of the Olympic Charter, which pledges to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” 

“Therefore, we call upon you to join us in insisting that the US and International Olympic Committees act promptly to ensure that next February will see the celebration of the ‘Freedom Olympics’ in a venue outside of China, instead of the ‘Genocide Games’ in Beijing.”

The Games are scheduled to begin on 4 Feb next year, but calls to boycott it continues to get steam with activists, rights groups NGOs with governments, and parliaments now adopting resolutions calling for a diplomatic boycott of the Games, here are the instances from the past where the Games were boycotted.

In 1976, When New Zealand’s rugby team broke the international sports embargo on Apartheid South Africa, 28 African boycotted the Montreal Olympics Olympics while the United States led a boycott of the Moscow Olympics to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan four years later and that the Soviet Union retaliated in 1984 by boycotting the Los Angeles Olympics. 

The last boycott of the Games was in 1988 when North Korea and its allies skipped the Seoul Olympics.

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