A dozen people held a rally outside the Chinese Embassy in Vilnius on Friday, urging Lithuanian athletes to raise the issue of human rights violations during the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing.
“How will our athletes feel in China when they compete in the Winter Olympics and know that millions of Uighurs are in concentration camps?” said Robertas Mažeika, one of the organisers and member of the NGO Tibet Support Group. “I would suggest that they think about it and make public statements.”
Read more: Lithuanian athletes to go to Beijing Olympics despite boycott calls – minister
He said the Olympics were “inherently incompatible” with China's “criminal policies” against Tibetans, Uighurs, Hong Kong democracy supporters and other minorities.
Education, Science and Sports Minister Jurgita Šiugždinienė said earlier this month that she or other ministers would not go to China for the Games.
The United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada have announced diplomatic boycotts of the Games.
Read more: Lithuania's Olympic committee rules out boycotting Beijing Games
The participants of Friday's picket outside the Chinese embassy waved Tibetan flags and held placards calling for respect for human rights, independence for Tibet and a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.
The XXIV Olympic Winter Games are due to be held in Beijing and neighbouring Hebei Province on February 4 through 20.
Up to 14 Lithuanian athletes are expected to compete in the Games, with the final list to be announced in January.
Tibet lost its autonomy from China back in 1951 after the Chinese army invaded the territory that had declared independence.
Lithuania officially considers the Himalayan region of Tibet to be a part of China, but, along with other EU member countries, calls for peaceful regulation of relations between the Chinese administration and Tibetans.
Recently, China has been facing mounting criticism from around the world over its treatment of the mostly Muslim Uighur population in the north-western region of Xinjiang.
Human rights groups say at least a million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims are being held in the so-called re-education camps in Xinjiang.
Observers say such facilities are part of a government campaign to forcibly assimilate ethnic minorities, sometimes using torture and forced labour. Mass rapes and forced sterilisation of women are also alleged to have taken place in the camps.
China initially denied the existence of the camps, but it now describes them as vocational education and training centres aimed at countering Muslim radicalism and separatist tendencies.
Beijing says people attend the centres voluntarily in order to improve their employment prospects.
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