Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has obtained an International Olympic Committee internal memo on how they should respond to recent protests and crackdown in Tibet, as well as talk of a boycott. The RSF release on the memo notes:

“As the Olympic movement meets in Beijing, we were hoping the IOC would finally pluck up the courage to ask the Chinese authorities to stop the violence in Tibet and human rights violations in China,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard said. “Instead the IOC has sent its members a memo minimising China’s abuses and reiterating the position that the Olympic movement does not meddle in politics.”

A good example of this comes later on:

The memo repeats several times that the Olympic Games are serving as a “catalyst” for a dialogue on Tibet and its independence but rules out IOC involvement in the resolution of the “complex” crisis. The message that Rogge wants to get across is that “The IOC shares the world’s desire for the Chinese government to bring about a peaceful resolution as quickly as possible.” But the memo adds on the next page that the IOC does not raise such matters with countries that host the games.

Jacques Rogge is involved in an international game of wanting to eat his cake and have it too. The IOC remarkably seeks to claim credit for political progress if and when China makes substantive or illusory improvements in human rights. But if the outside world, seeing the clear connection between the Olympic Games and politics, asks Rogge to speak out himself or use the host role as a stick to get China to stop a military crackdown in Tibet, the IOC pleads that they are only a sporting organization and gently chides those of us with principles for confounding sports and politics.

What’s even more offensive is that this organization has used its international clout and billions of sponsorship and advertising dollars to elevate China’s status on the world stage while human rights groups and NGOs repeatedly made clear that China has massive human rights and democracy problems. For eight years the IOC has refused to make Tibet part of the discussion when it comes to the Beijing Olympics. Subsequently these Games have been seen by China as a means of solidifying their rule of Tibet and effectively ending the Tibet question in the eyes of the international community. That this organization, so consistently and stoicly opposed to standing up for Tibetans now will try to brand itself as “a “catalyst” for a dialogue on Tibet and its independence” strikes me as offensive at the most elemental levels of my sentiments.

Tibetans inside Tibet are rising up against China’s military occupation. For their courageous pursuit of freedom, these Tibetans are being killed, tortured, thrown in prison, and subject to brainwashing patriotic reeducation. But it is the IOC that seeks credit for “serving as a “catalyst” for a dialogue on Tibet and its independence“. Disgusting. Simply disgusting. Has the IOC no shame? Has Jacques Rogge no shame?

The IOC could be a catalyst for change in China and freedom for Tibet. But they have refused that role year after year. Their attempt to claim credit for what has happened in Tibet and in response around the world in the last month is as dishonest and disingenuous a pursuit of historical revisionism as I have ever seen. Rogge and his partners at the IOC are collaborationists in the repression of Tibet. Attempts to claim otherwise at this point are laughable. Only the IOC’s actions can change this assessment and internal messaging memos instructing their surrogates to lie about what they have done does not improve their chances for being written about favorably by posterity.