THE GOVERNMENT should withdraw funding from the Olympic Council of Ireland if the Irish Olympic team chooses to participate in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, the Tibet Support Group Ireland told an Oireachtas committee meeting yesterday.
Neil Steedman, founder and chair of the Tibet Support Group, told members of the joint committee on foreign affairs that all members of the Dáil and Seanad should urge the Olympic Council of Ireland to boycott the opening ceremony in August.
"Government funding is withdrawn from any golf club that chooses not to accept women as full members - this must be the minimum response to any body that chooses to participate in a political propaganda event organised by the world's most repressive regime," Mr Steedman said, adding that no Government representative should attend the ceremony either.
The Government should be forthright in its response to China's treatment of Tibet, particularly in light of Beijing's recent crackdown on violent anti-government protests there, he told the committee.
"Silences of complicity, half-hearted declarations, and other capitulations to commercial, diplomatic or sporting interests, at the expense of fundamental principles of human rights, including the Tibetan people's right to self-determination, would be grossly inadequate and bring a loss of democratic credibility to Ireland," Mr Steedman said.
In an emotional presentation, Tsering Lhamo Gawathsang, who was born in Tibet, recounted the hardship of her life there before she fled at the age of 17. She too called for Ireland to boycott the opening ceremony in Beijing. "If you really respect human beings and human rights, you cannot go to this," she told the committee.
Members of the foreign affairs committee disagreed on whether Irish athletes should boycott the ceremony. Fine Gael's Billy Timmins said he opposed the idea and believed sport and politics should be kept separate. Fianna Fáil's Chris Andrews countered that China itself had already "clearly tried to politicise" the games, pointing out its insistence that the Olympic torch pass through the Tibetan capital Lhasa. A boycott, he said, would send a clear signal of "Ireland's disapproval of what is happening in Tibet".
Senator David Norris told the committee he had seen the results of China's policy for himself during a number of personal visits to Tibet.
He said China was guilty of "barbaric" actions there. Ireland would be "mad, cowardly and foolish" if it did not take this opportunity to boycott the opening ceremony, he added. "In the circumstances we can do no less."