The 2022 Winter Olympics should not be held in today's repressive China where gross human rights violations are taking place, said Tsering Tsampa, leader of the Global Alliance for Tibetans and Persecuted Minorities.
He made these remarks during an event in London on February 3.
In his scathing speech at an alternative opening ceremony on Thursday, Tsampa said the Olympics should not have been awarded to a regime that persecutes its own people, including the peaceful Falun Gong practitioners as well as all those in China's occupied Tibet and East Turkestan simply because they are different races from the Chinese ruling class.
He said the Communist Chinese regime is using this international sporting event for its own political gains, both within China and worldwide.
"This international sporting event should only be held in a place or a country, where people enjoy equality, where universal human rights are respected, where human dignity is preserved and where people can freely exercise their freedom of speech, without fear," the Tibetan leader added.
The 2022 Beijing Games officially launched today against a backdrop of Chinese government crimes against humanity targeting Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic communities.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said these Games--by which Beijing hopes to "sportswash" its abysmal rights record--reflect Xi Jinping's assault on human rights since coming to power: devastating independent civil society, erasing press freedom, expanding high-tech surveillance.
Several rights groups said that the International Olympic Committee and The Olympic Partners (TOP) corporate sponsors of these Games have not addressed questions whether their involvement would contribute to human rights violations, including concerns around forced labor.
Several governments have announced they would withhold sending high-level diplomatic representation to the Games in response to Beijing's ongoing abuses.
( With inputs from ANI )
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