MB Civic

TEAM TIBET: Bring Tibet to the 2008 Games!
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ITSN
July 10, 2007

On August 8, 2008, the eyes of the world
will be on China when the opening
ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics take
place. it also offers the Tibet movement
one of the most powerful opportunities we
have ever had to tell the truth about the
situation in Tibet and to press for real
change.

From now to August 2008, the Tibet
movement can use the global interest in
the Beijing Games to focus attention on the
realities of occupied Tibet today and build
pressure on the Chinese leadership. With
this in mind, the 5th International Tibet
Support Groups (TSG) Conference held in
Brussels this May and attended by 315
representatives of Tibet groups, including
Tibetan Associations, from 56 countries and
six continents, determined that the
Olympics would be the priority campaign
for the global Tibet movement.

The conference further resolved “to use
the opportunity of the Beijing Olympics in
2008 to launch a major campaign that puts
Tibet firmly into mass global awareness’
under the over-arching concept of ‘Team
Tibet'”.

What is “Team Tibet”?

The goal of the Team Tibet campaign is to
use the 2008 Games as a platform for the
Tibet movement to create unprecedented
pressure on the Chinese government to
engage the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan
government in exile to resolve the
occupation of Tibet, fundamentally
changing the political and human rights
conditions in Tibet. The campaign will be
implemented by Tibetan NGOs and Tibet
Support Groups globally and co-ordinated
by the International Tibet Support
Network (ITSN).

Team Tibet is designed to serve as a
gateway to reach out, in our efforts for
Tibet, beyond our immediate circle of
political supporters and activists to a wider
global audience who may not necessarily
be receptive to an overtly political
campaign. This wider global audience will
include former and current Olympic
athletes, other sportspeople, celebrities,
and the general public.

It is for this very important reason that we
are not calling for a boycott of the Games.
While many organisations opposed the
International Olympic Committee’s decision
to award the Games to Beijing in the first
place, we believe that our greatest
opportunity now is to use the global
attention surrounding the Olympics to
press China to resolve the occupation. With
the eyes of the world focused on Beijing,
the Chinese government is more sensitive
than ever before. If there are any athletes
that have doubts, on either ethical or
political grounds, about whether they
should participate in the Beijing Olympics,
our advice to them is: Go to Beijing but
voice your concerns for Tibet and those
who advocate human rights and democracy
in China.

The campaign does seek to engage people
with a positive message and to use the
spotlight of the Olympics as a catalyst for
change. We want to see events and media
reports about Tibet all over the world in
relation to the Beijing Olympics.

How can you participate in this Campaign?

One element of Team Tibet is an actual
team of Tibetan athletes who want to
represent Tibet at the 2008 Games; they
dream of flying the Tibetan flag alongside
other nations as they walk into the Beijing
Olympic stadium on August 8, 2008. We ask
all Tibetans and Tibet Support Groups to
recruit and enlist Tibetan athletes to join
Team Tibet. These athletes should be
seriously committed to their sport, and
they will need to provide us with basic
personal information, a photo, and to
make a short statement about why they
wish to join the team. The statements and
photos will be published on
www.SupportTeamTibet.org.  You can see
the Tibetan athletes that have already
signed up as members by visiting the Team
Tibet website.

Names of further Tibetan athletes that
have agreed to become members of this
team, including the members of the
Tibetan National Football Team, will be
added to the website soon. The Team Tibet
campaign is supported and fully endorsed
by the Tibetan National Sports Association
based in Dharamsala, India.

In addition to the Tibetan athletes, Team
Tibet is also made up of honorary
members, individuals everywhere,
including celebrities, who support the aims
of the Team Tibet campaign. By joining
Team Tibet as supporters, these people will
help symbolically to “Bring Tibet to the
2008 Games”. Team Tibet is, therefore, a
movement of people, both Tibetans and
supporters, from around the world calling
on the Chinese government, in the spirit of
the Olympic Games, to engage in
meaningful efforts to resolve the issue of
Tibet.

We urge you all to become involved in this
campaign as either a member of Team
Tibet, if you are a Tibetan athlete, or as
honorary members of Team Tibet by
visiting the ‘Supporter’ section of the
website and adding your name alongside
those that have already joined.

Keeping yourself updated about this
campaign

A key upcoming date for this campaign is
the one-year countdown to the start of the
Beijing Games. A global “Day of Action” will
be held on August 8, 2007 to mark this
countdown by Tibet groups worldwide. You
can participate by contacting the Tibet
group nearest to you. As well, some groups
are holding events on August 4th to build
momentum and awareness for the 8th.
Tibetans NGOs in India are planning a year-
long campaign in support of Team Tibet in
the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
There will be a mass “PEOPLE’S
MOVEMENT” in Delhi on August 4th, 2007,
organised by four organisations: Tibetan
Women’s Association, GuChuSum
Movement, National Democratic Party of
Tibet, and Students for a Free Tibet (India
Chapter).

Indian TSGs will also be approached to
support this campaign. We anticipate mass
participation from Tibetans and Indian
supporters to make this a huge success.

Further information on the campaign will
be made available on the Team Tibet
website or, contact Freya Putt, ITSN
Olympics Campaign Co-coordinator at
olympics@tibetnetwork.org