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EU MP: Make mayhem in Beijing
26/03/2008 20:24 - (SA)
Paris - A prominent European MP called on Wednesday for "mayhem in Beijing" during the Olympic Games, with a boycott of the opening ceremony and high-profile protests over the Chinese crackdown in Tibet.
"We have to make the Chinese Communists truly regret wanting to organise the Games," Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a Green member of the European Parliament and a leader of the 1968 French student uprising, said on France 2 television.
"All European Union countries should boycott the opening of the Olympic Games" on August 8, he added.
"In the words of May 1968, we have to 'cause mayhem in Beijing'," he said, in protest at the Chinese crackdown in Tibet which, according to Tibetan exile groups, has left at least 140 dead in the past 10 days.
"That means that during the Games we run, jump and swim, but at the same time we have civic-minded athletes showing their solidarity with Tibet with orange armbands and headscarves," Cohn-Bendit said.
"We need civic-minded journalists who not only cover the Olympic Games but also go and talk to dissidents."
"I hear access to Tiananmen Square will be banned during the Olympic Games," he added. "Let's occupy Tiananmen Square. We'll see if the Chinese army tanks" intervene.
Cohn-Bendit also attacked the decision to award the Games to China: "You do not give the Olympics to totalitarian countries as is the case here, because you will always end up with the same problem."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday he would consider boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympics if China refuses to enter into a dialogue with the Dalai Lama on Tibet, though other world leaders are vowing to attend.
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