MORE than 180 organizations have called on governments to boycott Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic because of reported human rights abuses against ethnic minorities.
The World Uyghur Congress described the event as “a genocide olympics”.
Canadian Dick Pound – the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – said barring athletes from participating in the event would be “a gesture that we know will have no impact whatsoever.”
“The Games are not Chinese Games, the Games are the IOC Games,” he added.
Composed of groups representing Tibetans, Uighurs, residents of Hong Kong and others, the coalition of campaigners have issued a joint open letter calling for a boycott of the Winter Games to “ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese government’s appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent”.
Human rights groups say the Chinese government has gradually stripped away the religious and other freedoms of the Uighurs – a Muslim minority group which lives in Xinjiang – culminating in an oppressive system of mass surveillance, detention, indoctrination, and even forced sterilization.
China has consistently denied allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, insisting camps were not detention camps, but “vocational educational and training centers”.(BBC)
