Three activists protesting human rights violations in China infiltrated Greece’s archaeological site, where the rite of lighting the flames of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics was being held on Monday and ran to the newly lit torch holding a Tibetan flag and a banner that read “No to genocide games. “
The demonstrators controlled to enter the box and tried to succeed in the Temple of Hera, where the rite was performed, were thrown to the ground by the police and arrested.
“How can Beijing be allowed to host the Olympics given that they are committing genocide opposed to the Uighurs?” one protester said, referring to the remedy of Uighur Muslims in China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang.
The flame was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece under maximum police surveillance.
With the public excluded amid pandemic protection measures and clear skies over the green site of ancient Olympia, the flame was ceremoniously lit by the sun’s rays before being swept away by a mini-torch relay.
Previously, other protesters had been arrested by Greek police before they could succeed at the site. Pro-democracy protests also erupted in the rite of enlightenment of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
Despite widespread foreign complaints about China’s human rights record, the International Olympic Committee has distanced itself from the issue, saying it is outside its competence.
SEE | The IOC calls amid protests to boycott the Beijing Olympics:
In his speech at the former Olympic Stadium, where in ancient times male athletes competed naked during a special truce between their war-torn cities, IOC President Thomas Bach pressed for the fashionable Games to have to be “respected as a politically impartial terrain. “.
“Only this political neutrality ensures that the Olympics can triumph over the political differences that exist in our time,” he said. “The Olympic Games meet all the demanding situations of our global. But they are an example of a global where everyone follows the same regulations and each other. “
Tibetan human rights activists said in a press release that China seeks to “steer away from sport” its human rights violations “with the glamour and appearance of respectability that the Olympic Games bring. “
Commenting on the occasion, the Greek National Olympic Committee said that while it respects freedom of speech, “it is disappointing that this classic cultural occasion has been used through a few Americans for other purposes. “
Beijing will be the first city to host the Winter and Summer Olympics.
Soon after, in a highly choreographed performance, a Greek actress playing the role of a pagan priestess knelt down to appease the Olympic flame, a bowl-shaped mirror to concentrate the sun’s rays on a torch filled with fuel.
Standing in front of the few remaining columns of the ruined 2,600-year-old temple of Hera, he presented a symbolic prayer to the ancient Greek god of the gentile Apollo, to appease the flame.
“The mountains are silent, the birds’ singing stops,” he sang as a TV drone buzzed over his head and rows of photographers closed the shutters.
Soon after, the screams of the protesters are heard.
Yu Zaiqing, vice chairman of the Beijing Organizing Committee, said the Games had brought “confidence, warmth and hope” to the pandemic, which first made its impression on China.
“We can and will deliver a splendid and optimised Olympic Games globally,” he said.
The police were very attentive in the surroundings of the archaeological zone where the Ancient Games took place from 776 BC. C. y for more than 1,000 years, until the Christians crushed them.
Anyone who visits it had to have accreditation and pass checkpoints and steel detectors.
On Sunday, two protesters were arrested on the Acropolis in Athens as they tried to raise a banner to draw attention to human rights violations in China.
The Olympic flame will be transported to Athens and delivered to Beijing organizers on Tuesday at the renovated stadium where the first Olympic Games were held in 1896.
The Beijing Winter Games will take place from February 20 and will only be attended by spectators from mainland China.
Everyone at the Olympics, adding the athletes, will want to get vaccinated or will have to spend 21 days in quarantine.
Public Relations, CBC P. O. C. P. 500 Station A Toronto, ON Canada, M5W 1E6
Loose toll (Canada only): 1-866-306-4636
TTY Writer / Teletype: 1-866-220-6045
It is a priority for CBC to create a system that is available to all Canadians, adding other people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive problems.
Closed captions and described videos can be had for many CBC systems presented in CBC Gem.