Chinese goods boycotted

RIGA- Union Latvia calls to boycott Chinese goods for two weeks inprotest against human rights violations in China and Tibet.

The union's spokeswoman Ieva Apsite told BNSthat the campaign"Don't Buy Chinese Goods" will be held to inform Latvian residentsthat "by buying each good made in China they morally and financially support human rightsviolations in China and its intolerant politics against residents of this country as wellas other nations and countries".

The union urges stores, cafes, clubs to putstickers in their windows, saying "We Don't Sell Chinese Goods".

Apsite said that the boycott of Chineseproducts also relates to the inferior quality of these goods, which have causedserious concerns not only in the US and European markets, but also in China itself.

The campaign will start on June 2 and willlast for two weeks.

The union said that music stores Randoms andUpe, club Melnais Kakis have already voiced their readiness to participate inthe campaign, while other stores and cafes are still considering it.

Similar boycott campaigns have also been heldin the US, Canada, the UK and France.

On March 14, hundreds of local residents,including Buddhist monks, went out on the streets of the Tibetan capital Lhasa to demonstrate against Beijing's rule in Tibet. In the following days Tibetans staged moredemonstrations that were violently quashed by Chinese authorities in what wasthe largest unrest in Tibet in about 20 years.

China occupied Tibet in 1951 and since has been frequently accused ofattempting to eradicate the Tibetan culture by political and religiousoppression as well as promoting Chinese migration to Tibet.

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama had toleave Tibet in 1959 after unsuccessful uprising against theChinese Communist regime. After the escape he formed Tibetan exile governmentin Dharamsala, India. There are presently over 200,000 Tibetan refugees living in India.