Royal family won’t
boycott Olympics
Despite Prince Charles of England joining in the growing boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing, the Norwegian Royal Family has no plans to cancel its trip to China this summer. Prince Charles has long shown sympathy for Tibetan human rights and has decided to stay away from the Olympic Games in China. PHOTO: AP/MATT DUNHAM |
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Earlier this week, it was revealed that Prince Charles would stay away from the Beijing Olympics this summer, reportedly as a demonstration of his concern for the human rights situation in Tibet and China.
Tibetan rights organizations have been pressuring the Norwegians to drop the Olympic Games as well, but Aftenposten.no reports that King Harald, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon will attend the summer games.
"The Royal Highnesses, the King and Queen, and the Crown Prince will represent Norway at the Olympic Games in Beijing, but the programme is not set yet," said an e-mail sent to Aftenposten.no from the Royal Palace.
"Respect for Human Rights is important, and the Norwegian authorities are dealing with the problem through an ongoing dialogue with the Chinese," it continued.
The leader of the Norwegian Tibet Committee, Chungdak Koren, responded with an appeal to the Royal House to follow suit after Prince Charles.
Koren said he was "disappointed", and urged the Royal family to stay way from the opening ceremony.
He also expressed his extreme disappointment that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will not allow Tibet to send its own athletes to the games.
"We’ve done all the formalities correctly and cannot understand why the IOC won’t let Tibet participate with its own athletes, along the same lines as Palestine, Taiwan and Hong Kong," Koren said.
Tibet has been under Chinese control since 1951.
Tibet’s spiritual leader, the exiled Dalai Lama, received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1989.
Joacim Lund
Aftenposten English Web Desk
Catherine Stein
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