RIA Novosti
Brussels, March 26 (RIA Novosti) The European Union may boycott the Beijing Olympics over “cultural genocide” in Tibet, the European Parliament’s president has said. China launched a crackdown earlier this month against anti-Chinese protesters in Tibet.

Two more deaths were reported Tuesday in the Sichuan Province’s Ganzi Tibetan Prefecture, as protests continued to spread, according to reports.

“If there are no signals of compromise, then I believe the boycott measures would be justified,” President Hans-Gert Pottering said in an interview with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag Tuesday.

“We must not exclude the possibility of a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. We want them (the Games) to be a success, but not at the expense of the cultural genocide of Tibetans,” the official added.

China has accused the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of attempting to sabotage the Beijing games by orchestrating protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and elsewhere.

Protests began March 10 to mark the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has dismissed the allegations, saying he supports Beijing as a host city for the Olympics.
RIA Novosti

• Hans "Hasse" Alfredson