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| Tibetan activists mock the IOC over the Beijing Olympic Games with mock funerals at the mock festival. Tibetan activists are mocking my participation in the mocking ceremonies during Beijing Games (Photo from list23 news website) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] LAUSANNE, Switzerland: A handful of Tibetan activists on Friday (Nov 26) staged a mock funeral for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in front of its headquarters to protest against next year's Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics in China, Reuters reported.
The protesters held a mock black coffin bearing the Olympic rings and the dates 1894, the year the IOC was founded, and 2021, and unfurled Tibetan flags and a banner that read "Boycott Beijing 2022". "IOC you're dead to us today because of what you have done repeatedly," said Chemi Lhamo, a Tibetan-Canadian activist who’s arrested in October for disrupting Beijing 2022's torch lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece. "Tibetans have been asking for you to fix your actions and yet you have not changed, so from now onwards we no longer want to do anything with you and now we call upon the international governments to call for a boycott."
The IOC has long been criticized by human rights groups for awarding the Games to Beijing - the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Games, due to China's treatment of Tibet, Uyghur Muslims, and Hong Kong. The IOC has said it’s a force for good and cannot have any influence over sovereign states. Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden earlier this month said his country was considering a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics.
