Former Swedish minister calls for Olympic boycott
Sweden’s athletically-inclined former Minister of Justice Thomas Bodström has called for Sweden to boycott all ceremonial proceedings during the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.
“I think that it sends a very clear message if Sweden, which is known for its work on human rights, does this,” he said on the Sveriges Television news program Rapport.
Bodström, a former professional football player who continues his athletic pursuits by playing ice hockey twice a week, sees the recent crackdown on Tibetan monks by Chinese authorities as comparable to actions taken by the regime in Burma last autumn.
As a result, Bodström believes Sweden should boycott all ceremonies associated with the Olympics and restrict participation to athletic events only.
“We go there and take a few gold medals but we don’t need to participate in the entire spectacle which we know is a major propaganda exercise for a regime which executes lots of people and which violates numerous human rights on a daily basis,” he said.
He went on to state that skipping the Opening Ceremonies would deprive China of the public relations success which Hitler achieved for Nazi Germany during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
“It doesn’t hurt any individual athlete who has trained for this their whole life [to skip the ceremonies], but athletics and politics belong to one another,” he said.
Comments
See Also
“I think that it sends a very clear message if Sweden, which is known for its work on human rights, does this,” he said on the Sveriges Television news program Rapport.
Bodström, a former professional football player who continues his athletic pursuits by playing ice hockey twice a week, sees the recent crackdown on Tibetan monks by Chinese authorities as comparable to actions taken by the regime in Burma last autumn.
As a result, Bodström believes Sweden should boycott all ceremonies associated with the Olympics and restrict participation to athletic events only.
“We go there and take a few gold medals but we don’t need to participate in the entire spectacle which we know is a major propaganda exercise for a regime which executes lots of people and which violates numerous human rights on a daily basis,” he said.
He went on to state that skipping the Opening Ceremonies would deprive China of the public relations success which Hitler achieved for Nazi Germany during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
“It doesn’t hurt any individual athlete who has trained for this their whole life [to skip the ceremonies], but athletics and politics belong to one another,” he said.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.