Two Tibetan students on Saturday chained themselves to the Olympic rings outside the Swiss headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to call for an international boycott of the Winter Games.
The pair were part of the latest protest against the Beijing Olympic Games over China’s human rights abuses and its treatment of minorities.
Members of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe (TYAE) and Students for a Free Tibet held a sit-in at the IOC building in Lausanne, as officials gathered for a meeting.
Photo: AFP
The protesters demanded that countries withdraw from the event they have called the “Genocide Games,” which they say are being used to burnish China’s reputation.
Two protesters unfurled a banner over the entry to the building reading: “No Beijing 2022,” while five students entered the building and held a sit-in protest.
“Despite mounting international criticism of the IOC and China, the Chinese regime’s human rights abuses in Tibet, East Turkestan [Xinjiang] and Hong Kong continue unabated,” TYAE campaign director Tenzing Dhokhar said.
“By collaborating with China, the IOC is making itself an accomplice of the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes, which will be sports-washed by the Beijing Olympics,” he added.
Police started removing the campaigners after three hours of protests.
Organizers and a Reuters eyewitness described the protest as peaceful, but the IOC said one of its security guards was injured.
“The IOC always listens to all concerns that are directly related to the Olympic Games. We have engaged multiple times with peaceful protesters and explained our position, but we will not engage with violent protesters who used force to enter the IOC building and injured a security guard by doing so,” the IOC said in a statement.
The organization has previously said it is a force for good and cannot have any influence over sovereign states.
Chinese authorities have been accused of facilitating forced labor by detaining about 1 million Uighurs in camps since 2016.
China denies any wrongdoing.
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