By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Sept. 9: Five Dharamshala-based Tibetan organizations, held a press conference on Wednesday to urge the International Olympic Committee to reverse their decision to let China host the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), Gu-Chu-Sum Movement Association of Tibet, National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT), Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) coordinated by International Tibet Network (ITN) said they delivered a joint letter to the IOC to disallow China to host another Olympics after the massive political campaign during the 2008 summer Olympic Games. The coalition highlighted the increase in the assault on communities living under its rule after China was emboldened by the “prestige of holding the Olympic Games”.
The representatives of the NGOs told the press that a notice was sent to the committee ahead of IOC’s Executive Board meeting on Sept. 9, signed by 165 global organizations and allies. The letter was written by ITN Campaigns Coordinator Mandie Mckeown to the IOC President Thomas Bach stated, “We implore the Committee to reverse its past mistakes and to urgently demonstrate that it has the political will to abide by the Olympic Charter’s core principles about ‘human dignity’. The IOC must not allow its moral compass to be put in jeopardy again.”
The coalition also announced the ‘Resist CCP: Global Day of Action’ to be observed on Oct. 1 on the occasion of the founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Over a hundred movement-based activist groups or organizations are to observe the call for action next month being led by a “dynamic coalition of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, Chinese and other peoples resisting CCP’s tyranny.” These actions will be observed on the PRC anniversary through street and online protests to take place across 5 continents and 50 countries.
The call for action urges world governments to design strong multilateral action to effectively challenge the CCP regime to end the ‘One-China’ policy. It also calls for the international community to implement economic sanctions and put political pressure on China for systematic change. Tibet activist groups leading the campaign specifically urged China and other governments to recognize Tibet as “a separate, historical independent country” suffering under China’s illegal occupation.
