Keep torch out of Tibet, activists urge IOC

By Mark Ledsom

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Tibetan activists demonstrated outside the International Olympic Committee's headquarters on Tuesday, demanding the Himalayan region and three neighboring provinces be withdrawn from the Beijing Olympics torch relay.

Protesters handed over a letter from the International Tibet Support Network which also urged the IOC to "make a public statement about the discrepancy between China's promises to uphold human rights... and its violent crackdown in Tibet over the last five days."

"We are saddened and feel that the IOC has failed in its job of telling the Chinese people that this is not what the world expects," the president of Tibet's unofficial Olympic Committee Wangpo Tethong said as he handed over the letter, signed by 150 Tibetan organizations.

Around 600 pro-Tibet demonstrators gathered outside the building, carrying banners that accused the IOC and its president Jacques Rogge of tacitly encouraging the Chinese government's military crackdown.

One banner read "Mr Rogge, your silence is killing the Tibetans", while another asked "IOC, how can you accept the bloodshed in Tibet?"

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao earlier said the riots in the Himalayan region had been incited with the aim of sabotaging the August 8-24 Games and reiterated China's view that the Olympics should not be politicized.

Anti-China protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa turned ugly on Friday and threaten to overshadow the run-up to the Olympic Games, which Beijing hoped would project an image of a united and prosperous society.

The torch relay, which starts next Monday when the Olympic flame is lit in Ancient Olympia, Greece, is scheduled to go to Tibet twice.