I Support the Boycott of the Beijing Olympics

I have already sent a formal letter of protest to the Government of the People's Republic of China and signed the petition of the Human Rights First on the complicity of China in the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. China sold over $55 million worth of arms to Sudan from 2003-2006. China supplied the assault rifles, heavy machine guns, anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank weapons, and mortars used by the ruthless Sudanese military and the Janjaweed in Darfur.

For decades, hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested and incarcerated for their dissenting opinions and religious beliefs. Tibetan nuns have been raped in detention and in 1994, a Tibetan nun was tortured to death. The recent attacks on Tibet have only made things worse and I am now calling for the boycott of the Beijing Olympics by all people of conscience.

We must petition the International Association of Athletics Federations, IAAF, to support the boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

There is no guarantee of the safety and security of lives and properties and the athletes would be at risk.

We must not let the oppressive and repressive regime of the Chinese government use the 2008 Beijing Olympics for image laundering and continue to perpetrate crimes against the civil liberites of the citizens and the independence of Tibet.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon (반기문/潘基文) has been hypocritical in addressing the atrocities of China. The new United Nations’ (UN) Special Representative for Sports, Mr. Willi Lemke, said he will visit China "as soon as possible". What an excuse! He said Ban Ki-moon wants to be informed on how the Olympic Games can be used as a platform for peace. That is another lame excuse to overlook the dangers in Beijing.

Mr. Lemke has already insisted that he is not in favour of a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. "I know I will go to Beijing without heavy armament, I have only the power of words," Mr. Lemke said.

Words will not be enough to stop the ruthless Chinese government from commtting more atrocities after attacking the Tibetan capital of Lhasa where over 13 people have been killed since the Chinese authorities disrupted the peaceful demonstrations of the human rights activists in Tibet.

US Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi said the Chinese attacks on human rights activists in Tibet is "a challenge to the conscience of the world."

"As a freedom-loving people, if we don’t speak out about the Chinese oppression, then we have lost our right to speak on human rights."
~ US Speaker Nancy Pelosi, during a meeting with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama and other leaders of the exiled Tibetan government in Dharamsala, India, on Friday March 21, 2008.