OLYMPIC OPENING CEREMONY SHAME
Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales
Date: Tuesday 5th August 2008 - for immediate release
Plaid Cymru, The Party of Wales, Westminster Parliamentary Candidate for Monmouth Constituency, Jonathan T Clark has called for a political and diplomatic boycott of the Olympic Games opening ceremony in protest at the Chinese Government's well documented on on-going oppressive activities and human rights violations in Tibet and East Turkestan (the Chinese Province of Xinxiang) and its continued attacks on press and religious freedoms.
Jonathan T Clark said:
"The eyes of much of the world free and otherwise should be sharply focused on China’s truly appalling and well documented human rights record, yet Western leaders who are desperately anxious to chase Chinese markets, are largely turning a blind eye to the scale of Chinese repression. While there are some very disturbing parallels between the 2008 Olympic Games and the 1936 Olympic Games, there is one clear difference; no one today can blind themselves to the repressive nature of the Chinese state towards its own citizens and towards ethnic and religious minorities under its control in Tibet, East Turkestan and elsewhere and say that they did not know. ”
Jonathan continued:
“Any suggestion that, as some apologist western leaders have suggested, that relative economic liberalism and the free market will lead to a more tolerant, open, free and democratic China is farcical – tell that to the dead of Tiamanen Square or those who are rotting in the labour camps and prison factories. The reality that Beijing is using the revenue and monies generated by economic growth and trade with the rest of the world to merely to retool and rearm it’s forces of oppression and to fund settlement programmes in Tibet and East Turkestan.”
Jonathan T Clark concluded:
“A real opportunity has been lost in the run-up to the games as China’s desire to trade with the rest of the world, meant that an organised diplomatic and political boycott of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony could have been used as an opportunity for the rest of the world to let China know how it feels human rights violations in China. It is still not to late for an organised political and diplomatic boycott of the opening ceremony, which would send a powerful message that even the Chinese Government in the short-term would find difficult to ignore; that repressive conduct and human rights violations in Tibet and East Turkestan and its own people are entirely unacceptable."
Diwedd / Ends
Notes to Editors
Unrecognised Nations and Peoples Organization
Press release Monmouth / Mynwy No: 58 05/08/2008
Published and promoted by and on behalf of Jonathan T Clark, Parliamentary candidate for Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales for Monmouth Constituency
Published by Huw Evans, Llanelen, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
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