IOC Evaluating Tibet Torch Route
AP:
Proposals to take the torch relay through Taiwan and Tibet for the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be evaluated this month by the IOC, a run that would take the race through politically charged territory.
Beijing organizers will present the proposed route to the International Olympic Committee at meetings in Beijing over the next 10 days. Beijing officials say the IOC is expected to announce the route on the final day of talks on April 26.
For China, the torch relay route could be used to underscore Chinese claims to Tibet, a Himalayan region under Beijing’s control since 1950, and Taiwan, the self-ruled island that split from the mainland in 1949.
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The Tibet route takes the torch to the top of Mount Everest. Three months ago, officials said climbers were in training to carry a specially designed torch which burns in the low-oxygen air at Everest’s summit. Some environmentalists have opposed the venture.
The International Olympic Committee is taking their time with this decision because they know the ramifications of sending the Olympic torch through Tibet. To do so would be to give a mark of approval on China’s ongoing military occupation of Tibet. The IOC has a moral obligation to withhold this mark of approval. Nothing in the mission of the Olympic Games includes validating China’s occupation of Tibet.
Students for a Free Tibet calls on the IOC to not approve of China’s plan to run the Olympic torch over Mount Everest and through Tibet.
The IOC has nine days to make the right decision and to keep the Olympic torch out of this “politically charged territory.” They have no business helping China strengthen their claims to Tibet. They cannot let the Olympic Games become a means to legitimize China’s occupation of Tibet.
This is not a hard decision for the IOC to make. Draw a line in the sand and refuse to cross it. The IOC needs to show that it still has some remnants of a spine and that they will rely on whatever backbone they have to tell China that they will not let their Games become the vehicle for China’s imperialistic occupation of Tibet.
Technorati Tags: Beijing Olympics, China, Olympics, Tibet
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[...] Cross posted at Tibet Will Be Free [...]
[...] The Ghetto Fashionista wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptAP:. Proposals to take the torch relay through Taiwan and Tibet for the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be evaluated this month by the IOC, a run that would take the race through politically charged territory. Beijing organizers will present … [...]
[...] The protest was held on the eve of the International Olympic Committee’s announcement of the final Beijing 2008 Olympic torch relay route and as a Chinese team of climbers prepared a trial ascent of the mountain with the Olympic torch. The last reports were that the activists were in detention but had sent a text by phone to say they were safe. Dramatic video of the action will be available here soon. [...]
[...] The protest was held on the eve of the International Olympic Committee’s announcement of the final Beijing 2008 Olympic torch relay route and as a Chinese team of climbers prepared a trial ascent of the mountain with the Olympic torch. The last reports were that the activists were in detention but had sent a text by phone to say they were safe. Dramatic video of the action will be available here soon. [...]