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Tibetan youth demonstrate against bid
NEW DELHI, India (AP) -- A Tibetan youth group on Wednesday sought support from human rights activists to oppose China's bid for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. "All those people who value human rights should join us in opposing China's bid to stage the Olympics," said Tibetan Youth Congress spokesman Tenzin Samphel. "The violation of human rights has deteriorated in China and it must not be allowed to polish its image by hosting the Olympic Games," Samphel said as he led several hundred Tibetans youths during a protest march on New Delhi's Parliament Street. Demonstrators marching behind Samphel wore T-shirts saying, "No Olympics 2000 in China". "We're appealing to members of the International Olympic Committee to look at China's repressive record before they vote to pick the venue for the 2008 Olympics ... They'll be convinced that China does not deserve the Games," Samphel said. India is home to about 100,000 Tibetan exiles, who fled after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 -- nine years after China occupied Tibet. Beijing is considered the front-runner in the race for the 2008 Olympics, ahead of main challengers Toronto and Paris. Beijing lost its bid to stage the 2000 Olympics to Sydney by two votes amid criticism of China's human rights record. "The situation has not changed ... The repression has increased over the years," said Samphel. "A vote for Beijing will amount to a vote for repression of human rights," he said. The vote to decide the 2008 Olympic venue will be held in Russian capital, Moscow, on July 13. Samphel said "exiled" Tibetans and other human rights activists will converge on Moscow and stage a peaceful demonstration there. "We hope to remind the IOC members about the ideal of fair play, which Beijing does not practice," he said. In May, the TYC accused China of trying to malign its peaceful struggle by planting a "fake" letter threatening violence to IOC members who back Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympics. The TYC has disavowed the letter, which was faxed to IOC members around the world and to IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. "China's track record shows that it will be encouraged to increase the violation of human rights if it wins the vote for the Olympics ... That's why it must not get the Games," Samphel said.
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