ASIA-PACIFIC 
Tutu urges opening ceremony boycott
Monday, 28 April, 2008
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Getty)
Archbishop Desmond Tutu has challenged world leaders to stay away from the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in protest at human rights abuses in China.
"Leaders of the free world, for goodness sake, don't attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games until it is quite clear that they [the Chinese] mean business and that they will stop the violence against the Tibetans," Mr Tutu said.
"Let us make China know this is a moral universe," the Nobel Peace Laureate told participants at a Cape Town ceremony for an alternative 'Tibetan' Olympic torch.
The archbishop lit a 'Tibetan' flame, which was kindled in Delhi on January 30 and will travel to cities on five continents before arriving in May back in Dharamsala, India, where Tibet's parliament-in-exile is based.
Protesters have followed the official Olympic flame as it travels around the world to highlight China's human rights record in Tibet ahead of the Games, which begin on August 8.
'Meaningful negotiations'
"We must tell them 'watch out' because there is no way in which wrong will prevail forever. There is no way that injustice will prevail forever.
We must tell all those oppressors, let us whisper in the ear of [Zimbabwean President Robert] Mugabe 'you have already lost'," he said to applause.
Zimbabwe has been criticised for failing to release the results of a March 29 presidential election, which the opposition insists it won.
Asked about China's announcement of planned talks with aides of Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Tutu said he hoped they would be "meaningful negotiations".
"We pray that the Chinese will know that it is in their best interests to do that," Mr Tutu, a close friend of the Dalai Lama, told journalists.
Source: SBS/Reuters
"Leaders of the free world, for goodness sake, don't attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games until it is quite clear that they [the Chinese] mean business and that they will stop the violence against the Tibetans," Mr Tutu said.
"Let us make China know this is a moral universe," the Nobel Peace Laureate told participants at a Cape Town ceremony for an alternative 'Tibetan' Olympic torch.
The archbishop lit a 'Tibetan' flame, which was kindled in Delhi on January 30 and will travel to cities on five continents before arriving in May back in Dharamsala, India, where Tibet's parliament-in-exile is based.
Protesters have followed the official Olympic flame as it travels around the world to highlight China's human rights record in Tibet ahead of the Games, which begin on August 8.
'Meaningful negotiations'
"We must tell them 'watch out' because there is no way in which wrong will prevail forever. There is no way that injustice will prevail forever.
We must tell all those oppressors, let us whisper in the ear of [Zimbabwean President Robert] Mugabe 'you have already lost'," he said to applause.
Zimbabwe has been criticised for failing to release the results of a March 29 presidential election, which the opposition insists it won.
Asked about China's announcement of planned talks with aides of Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, Tutu said he hoped they would be "meaningful negotiations".
"We pray that the Chinese will know that it is in their best interests to do that," Mr Tutu, a close friend of the Dalai Lama, told journalists.
Source: SBS/Reuters
