Human rights groups ask IOC to move Olympics from China
TOKYO (AP) China's repression in Tibet, the status of the exiled Dalai Lama, and its treatment of ethnic minorities spurred violent protests ahead of Beijing's 2008 Olympics.
It could happen again.
China is host to the 2022 Winter Olympics with rumblings of a boycott and calls to move the games from Beijing because of alleged human rights violations.
International Olympic President Thomas Bach was presented with that demand ahead of the body's executive board meeting in Switzerland on Wednesday by a coalition of human-rights groups representing Tibet, Uighurs in China's Xinjiang region, Hong Kong and others. In a letter, the group asked the IOC to reverse its mistake in awarding Beijing the honor of hosting the Winter Olympic Games in 2022.
The letter said that the 2008 Olympics had failed to improve China's human rights record, and that since then, it has built an Orwellian surveillance network in Tibet and incarcerated more than a million Uighurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group. It listed a litany of other alleged abuses from Hong Kong to the Inner Mongolia region, as well as intimidation of Taiwan.
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