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 A group of 175 organizations will be handing in a report to the IOC
later in the day on what it claims is a deterioration of the human
rights situation after the Chinese capital hosted the 2008 summer
Games.
Supporters of autonomy for Tibet, a remote Himalayan region ruled by
the China since its troops marched in 1950, say human rights had not
improved as was expected while repression increased.
"The old saying goes ‘fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice,
shame on me’," Alistair Currie of the Free Tibet organization, who
co-authored the report, said in a statement.
"The IOC wanted to believe that China would get all dewy-eyed and
idealistic under the influence of the 2008 Games. The reality was
that instead of increased sensitivity to human rights in Beijing, we
saw increased self-confidence that abusing human rights was no
problem on the world stage."
Beijing is campaigning to land the winter edition of the Olympics,
with Kazakhstan's Almaty the only other candidate. The IOC will
elect the winner in July.
Free Tibet and human rights activists disrupted the 2008 Olympic
torch relay at several international stops while also protesting
during the torch lighting ceremony in Olympia, Greece.
The IOC has since dropped international legs from its Olympic Games
torch relays.
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Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said in December
the Chinese government was holding back President Xi Jinping from
granting genuine autonomy to Tibet.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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