Free Tibet groups urge IOC to drop Beijing 2022 bid

BERLIN (Reuters) - A coalition of Free Tibet groups urged the International Olympic Committee on Thursday to drop a bid from Beijing for the 2022 winter Games over its human rights record in the region.





A group of 175 organisations will be handing in a report to the IOC later in the day on what it claims is a deterioration of the human rights situation after the Chinese capital hosted the 2008 summer Games.

Supporters of autonomy for Tibet, a remote Himalayan region ruled by the China since its troops marched in in 1950, say human rights had not improved as was expected while repression increased.

"The old saying goes ‘fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me’," Alistair Currie of the Free Tibet organisation, who co-authored the report, said in a statement.

"The IOC wanted to believe that China would get all dewy-eyed and idealistic under the influence of the 2008 Games. The reality was that instead of increased sensitivity to human rights in Beijing, we saw increased self-confidence that abusing human rights was no problem on the world stage."

Beijing is campaigning to land the winter edition of the Olympics, with Kazakhstan's Almaty the only other candidate. The IOC will elect the winner in July.

Free Tibet and human rights activists disrupted the 2008 Olympic torch relay at several international stops while also protesting during the torch lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece.

The IOC has since dropped international legs from its Olympic Games torch relays.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said in December the Chinese government was holding back President Xi Jinping from granting genuine autonomy to Tibet.





(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Pritha Sarkar)


Share

2 min read

Published

Updated

Source: Reuters


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world