THE OLYMPIC TORCH: WILL IT SHINE FOR TIBET

By Paul Bourke

Executive Officer of the Australia Tibet Council

On April 24, the Olympic Torch will visit Canberra for its one and only stopover in Australia.  As in other cities around the world which the Torch has visited, the Canberra leg of the relay will attract protests by Tibetans and their supporters.

Australia Tibet Council was one of many Tibet support groups which opposed the decision by the International Olympic Committee in 2001 to give Beijing the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. We argued that China should not be given such an honour when it continued to deny its citizens, most particularly Tibetans, the most basic human rights, such as the freedom to practise their religion freely, to express their views, and to have access to a free media.  Members of the IOC and their supporters argued that granting the Olympics to China would lead to an improvement in the human rights situation in China.

For the past seven years, we have waited in vain for this improvement. We sent many reports and letters to the IOC, pointing out that time was passing, but that Tibetans continued to face imprisonment, torture and even execution for attempting to peacefully express their political opinions. Attempts by the Dalai Lama to open up genuine negotiations with the Chinese government in order to achieve genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people failed. 

In early March, a wave of protests broke out in Tibet.  The Chinese government’s reaction was to deploy massive troop reinforcements and close all Tibetan areas to tourists and journalists, so that no-one is able to investigate and witness what is happening there. This has been done in direct contravention of a promise the Chinese government gave the IOC that international media would be allowed to travel to all parts of China to report freely in the run-up to the Olympics. 

Despite this deplorable situation, and contrary to many reports, we are not calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, or of the Torch Relay. We did ask the IOC to cancel the Tibetan leg of the Torch Relay, because we believe it is a travesty of the Olympic spirit to send the Olympic Torch through areas where a complete military lockdown is in place and where there is no independent reporting or monitoring allowed. It is also highly provocative, and can only be intended to demonstrate to the Tibetan people that they are completely subject to the whim of the Chinese regime. Unfortunately, the IOC has announced it intends to proceed with the Tibetan section of the Torch Relay.

This is why the Australia Tibet Council will be participating in protests in Canberra on April 24 to coincide with the Torch Relay. We will not be attempting to disrupt the Relay in any way. We will aim to draw attention to the critical situation in Tibet, and the urgent need for China to meet its human rights obligations and begin serious discussions with the Dalai Lama before the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.  Otherwise, August 8 2008 will go down in history as a day of shame in the history of the modern Olympic movement.

 For more information see.www.atc.org.au