UNPO Races for Tibet

As the final countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing gets underway, UNPO has joined the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) in reminding the world that time is running out if China is to keep its promises to the Tibetan people.

Hague, 8 August: Celebrations in Tiananmen Square today marked the start of the final count-down to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) chose however to join the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) as they seized this opportunity to promote their “Race for Tibet,” a campaign calling for an end to human rights abuses in China and for a serious Chinese commitments to ongoing negotiating with H.H. the Dalai Lama. As part of this campaign, signatures are being collected in the Netherlands for a petition to be presented to Prime Minister Balkenende, calling upon the Dutch government to pressure China for improvements in their human rights record.

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UNPO joined member and supporters of ICT in The Hague, as they publicised the “Race for Tibet” campaign from decorated bicycles, riding along popular and crowded areas, reminding the general public that time is running out for China to keep its Olympic promises. A similar scene unfolded in three other major cities in the Netherlands; Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Utrecht, where more flyers advertised the Tibetan cause and additional signatures of support were gathered.

UNPO General Secretary Mr. Marino Busdachin underlined the importance of such activities, stressing his solidarity with the Tibetan people, a founding member of the organisation. “UNPO supports every effort to ensure the international community is reminded of the realities of life within the People’s Republic of China. Despite its promises, the universal respect for principles of human rights, democracy, and individual freedom remain distant prospects for the people of China, and in particular for its many religious and ethnic minorities. Time is running out if we are to pressure China to keep its promises, and so it is in very real terms that we are partaking in a race.”

Various other activities have been organised by the International Campaign for Tibet to mark the one year countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games.

Before the campaign’s official launch, a friendly soccer match between Team Tibet and the Delhi eleven took place last Saturday [04 August 2007] in the Indian capital. Tibetan activists have decided to go on the sports field as well to raise awareness on the appalling situation of minorities in China. In an open letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International ICT regretted that despite the IOC’s hopes “that awarding Beijing the 2008 Games [would] improve human rights in China, […] as time passes, these assurances have not turned into concrete results.”


UNPO 9 August 2007

Protests in Paris, New York, Beijing and Montreal one year before start of 2008 Olympics

A 100-square metre flag is unfuried on a Paris bridge

Reporters Without Borders staged events around the world to denounce the appalling human rights situation in China as the organisers of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the International Olympic Committee today gathered in Tiananmen Square in a ceremony exactly one year ahead of the opening of the games.

In Paris, a 100-square-metre flag showing the Olympic rings transformed into handcuffs was unfurled today by Reporters Without Borders activists along one of the bridges over the Seine. This graphic, together with the words “Beijing 2008,” was also displayed on an advertising truck and bicycles* that circulated the city all day. And the organisation’s activists distributed thousands of postcards with the graphic to Parisians and tourists attending the “Paris Beach” events along the Seine.

At the same time, a total of 30,000 posters (60 cm x 80 cm) with the same handcuffs image have been put up all over France.

In New York, bicycles displaying the “Beijing 2008" handcuffs graphic rode through the streets of Manhattan, and leaflets about the human rights situation in China were distributed to passers-by.

In Beijing, on 6 August, four Reporters Without Borders representatives including its president, Fernando Castello, its vice-president, Rubina Möhring, and its secretary-general, Robert Ménard, gave a news conference yesterday outside the building that houses the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG).

In Montreal, Reporters Without Borders took part with Amnesty International in a news conference yesterday at the Olympic stadium that hosted the 1976 games.

The press freedom organisation also offered leading daily newspapers an op-ed piece on the poor situation of press freedom in China. It is being published by newspapers in Austria (Der Standard), Belgium (Le Soir), Brazil (O Globo), Canada (National post, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun), France (Libération), Great Britain (The Independent) and Spain (El Mundo).

T-shirts with the “Beijing 2008" handcuffs image can be bought on the Internet at the Fruit of the Boom website (www.fruitoftheboom.com).

Reporters Without Borders is calling for the release of the approximately 100 journalists, cyber-dissidents and free speech activists currently held in China, and an end to censorship of the news media and Internet. At least 12 websites were closed or blocked in July alone.

The graphic is available in a high-definition version (EPS, 300 DPI, CMJN) in six languages from the Media Downloads section of the Reporters Without Borders website (www.rsf.org). Web banners are also available in various formats in French, English and Spanish.

* Thanks to the help of Chac’n Chak, a company that was our partner in this operation.

Reporters Without Borders, 7 August 2007