China's Human Rights Record Under Attack

Human Rights activist around the world are mobilizing their best efforts against the Chinese Government's poor human rights record. They want the international community to hold the Chinese government accountable and to force it to make changes to its human rights policy and particularly to stop its attack on the Tibetan people who are clamoring for their independence or autonomy.

The Chinese government vows never to free the Tibetans claiming that Tibet is a part of China. They blame His Holiness, the Dalai Lama for instigating the Tibetans to violence and for trying to sabotage the Olympics game. This accusation has troubled the peace loving, nonviolent leader that he threatened to resign from his position as leader of his people. In fact he has called on his people to refrain from violence. The younger generation of Tibetans seem tired of waiting and nonviolence because they have not seen any results from this course of action.

It reminds me of the Soweto youths who defied their elders and took matters into their own hands and confronted police fighting with rocks and stones against police guns and bullets. Many youths were brutally killed but not in vain. They were the sacrificial lamb that brought the world's attention to the cruelties of the apartheid regime. That was the beginning of the end of the Boer's hegemony in that country. The fact is although the Dalai Lama may be a man of peace and nonviolence the younger generation may not be as patient and may be prepared to pay the ultimate price for freedom.

Protestors are calling for a boycott of the Olympics in Beijing and some athletes and athletic associations are speaking out against this line of action.

I think that boycotting the Olympics is a poor choice of action. Who will this benefit? This certainly will not trigger a change in the Chinese government's actions. It may embarrass the government but that's all. On the other hand it would have created a lot of disappointment to many athletes who have trained so hard and faithfully for this day.

Boycotting the Olympics, I believe is the path of least sacrifice. The more effective boycott would be to boycott Chinese products, to stop buying cheap food and useless articles from China and perhaps that will produce the benefits we seek instead of the one time act of boycotting the Olympics.

The Dalai Lama has said on national television that he supports the Olympics and is not in favor of its boycott. The Dalai Lama also has made it clear that he is not seeking independence just autonomy. However, the Chinese government appears bent on casting a dark shadow over the Dalai Lama accusing him of trying to sabotage the Olympics.

As a caller on a CBC show on Sunday pointed out the Tibetan's fight for autonomy has been at issue for the past thousand years and did not believe that the Olympics should be used in this way. He called for a more diplomatic approach but did not hold out much hope that China would bow to foreign pressure.

My hope is people will attack the Chinese government where it would hurt the most, that is, their economy. By boycotting Chinese products the government