Dear madams and sirs,
The last couple of months media publicized worldwide some harrowing articles about Chinese citizens who are being evicted from their houses, who were expropriated or farmers who lost their lands in preparation of the upcoming Olympic Games of 2008. With every call for justice from these people social stability for the Games was used as an excuse to suppress them. Many of them were beaten, locked up and sentenced. Family members were being persecuted until death.
There were made some promises by the Chinese regime that the restrictions on inland and foreign press would be made easier. Little is being noticed in this area. To give an example, the foreign press is regularly being refused to attend sensible cases (a while back the access was being refused to Associated Press to attend a case of an environment activist.)
In addition there is the ongoing persecution of the Tibetans for years now, the Uighur community and Falun Gong practitioners. This last group of people encounters perhaps the most serious persecution : the illegal trade of harvested organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. This practice would also be widespread. Hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are being imprisoned in labour camps, prisons etc. Official numbers are mentioning more than 3000 people who are being killed due to the persecution. According to insiders among the Chinese state officials the real number should be much higher.
I fear that awarding the Olympic Games to the Chinese communist regime is a conformation of the constant human rights violations, which are being described as a real human rights disaster by many Chinese citizens. We can also not forget that with awarding the Chinese regime with the Olympic Games they made a promise to improve their human rights situation. It is not unimagineable that they have the following notion “The international community as a whole doesn’t react to these atrocities, on the contrary, foreign companies keep investing in our country and on top of that we are being awarded with the Olympic Games”.
That’s why I am worrying myself for some time now – and the longer the more – to the lack of criticism and mChineseere moneymaking approach of the west and our country towards China, the new so called “promised land”, whereby it hardly ever pays attention to human rights.
These Olympic Games stress mainly the benefits of the Chinese party. For the Chinese citizens there is no single form of democracy. We can justly wonder what goal the Olympic Games aims at.
Similar stories remind me with disturbance to the Olympic Games in 1936. Back then it was Hitler who organised the Games as a glorification of his own regime, and not because it would advantage the population.
I also learnt that already 11 000 Chinese citizens are supporting this initiative of the Human Rights Torch, which I can only applaud. An authoritative communist regime that destroys the lives of millions of people and that uses the Games as a glorification for its own lust for power, doesn’t deserve to be the host of the Olympic Games.
Pitifully I cannot be there with you today, but nevertheless I wish the Human Rights Torch in Berlin,Munich, and Belgium, Brussels, Antwerp, Oostende, Sint-Niklaas great success.
Jan Loones
Flemish member of Parliament
Member of CIPFG (Coalition
to Investigate the
Persecution of Falun Gong).
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