Posted on 10/19/21
| News Source: i24
In July, several US lawmakers called on the IOC to either postpone or relocate the Olympics
Activists are calling for a boycott of China’s upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics, citing Beijing’s treatment of minorities.
Representatives from the World Uyghur Congress, a group advocating for Uighur rights, and several Tibetan agencies delivered a press conference from Athens, Greece on Tuesday to protest the upcoming games.
“The Olympic Torch is supposed to represent peace and hope, but for our people who are living under the brutal Chinese Communist Party this represents global complicity in China's extreme repression,” Uighur activist Zumretay Arkin explained, according to Reuters.
“We are in Athens to tell the international community that the Olympic Games are being handed over to a country actively committing a genocide.”
On Monday, demonstrators snuck into the Ancient Olympia archaeological site during a flame lighting ceremony for the Olympics, holding a banner reading “No genocide games,” the Associated Press reported
The protestors, also holding a Tibetan flag, were later detained by police.
In July, a group of United States legislators from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China also called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to either delay or move the event over Beijing’s treatment of minorities.
“The IOC is on course to set a dark precedent where the behavior of future Olympic host governments is unconstrained by the international spotlight provided by the Olympic Games,” the lawmakers explained, according to Reuters.