Several overseas Uyghur, Southern Mongolian and Tibetan human rights organizations held a rally in Nagano, Japan, to oppose China’s hosting of the Winter Olympics in 2022 and urge countries around the world and civil society organizations to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics.
On Saturday, about a hundred people from Uighur, Tibetan and Southern Mongolian human rights organizations from across Japan gathered in Nagano to jointly hold a protest urging the Japanese government to boycott next year’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. One of the participants, the secretary-general of the Great Huraltai of Southern Mongolia, Deychen, told Radio Free Asia that the event involved several organizations.
“On April 25, the Southern Mongolian Great Khuraltai, the World Uyghur Congress, the Tibetan Association in Japan and some organizations in Hong Kong co-organized the event. The event was divided into two components: a prayer for those who were victims and sacrificed by the Chinese Communist Party’s repression in the Zenko Temple in Nagano Prefecture; and a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.”
Timurun, an ethnic Mongolian now living in Japan, told the station that they held a protest at the Nagano Olympic Park.
“An event against the 2022 Winter Olympics in China was held at the Olympic Park. The event was held by the Southern Mongolian Great Hural and the World Southern Mongolian Union and Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers and Japanese, who held a march.”
Pictures and video from the scene show Uyghurs, Mongolians and Tibetans walking in the front row of the march in that order, chanting slogans along the way.
Timurun said, “The slogan of this march is that the Chinese government is not qualified to hold the 2022 Winter Olympics because of the suppression of human rights, the destruction of Hong Kong, the policy of cultural clan genocide against Southern Mongolia and the genocidal policy practiced in Tibet and Xinjiang.”
Azhcha, who followed the demonstration, told the station that nearly one hundred people participated in the event.
“Seventy to eighty people participated in this event against the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, and the event at Zenkoji Temple was a memorial puja for dissidents who were persecuted to death by the Chinese Communist Party. Zenkoji Temple is known as the starting point for the Olympic flame relay in Japan.”
On April 18, 2008, on the eve of the Beijing Olympic flame relay event, Zenkoji Temple announced its withdrawal from the Olympic flame relay event.26 On the 26th, there was a clash between Tibetan independence supporters and Japanese nationalists and Chinese students supporting the Beijing Olympics, resulting in four Chinese people being injured.
China breaks its promise to the international community after the Beijing Olympics
Several groups that initiated the event issued a statement on Saturday saying that thirteen years ago the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Beijing was supposed to abide by the spirit of the Olympic Charter, but the Chinese government broke its promise to the international community by using repressive tactics against Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongolians and people seeking democracy to silence criticism.
The statement noted that the Olympic spirit would be undermined if the Games were allowed to be held in Beijing again in 2022, and that in order to preserve the Olympic spirit, China will continue to boycott the Beijing Winter Olympics unless they stop persecuting minorities and dissidents in the country.
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