The Australia Tibet Council today appealed to Australian Olympics Committee President John Coates to do everything in his power to have the Tibetan leg of the Olympic torch relay cancelled.

With the world’s eyes on Tibet and Kevin Rudd heading to China for meetings with the Chinese leadership, Tibetans and Tibet supporters in Australia will be joining thousands around the world on Monday in a Global Day of Action for Tibet.

As China continued to keep Tibet on military lockdown, the Beijing Olympic Torch was lit in Olympia, Greece today, launching the four and a half month relay. The relay organizers plan to take the torch through the Tibet Autonomous Region and the Tibetan provinces of Amdo and Kham, now annexed into China’s Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Gansu provinces. Tibetans warn that the torch is likely to provoke more unrest inside Tibet, leading to more heavy-handed suppression by Chinese authorities and further imprisonment, torture and loss of life for Tibetans. They are calling for the planned Tibet section of the route to be cancelled.

The Australia Tibet Council said this afternoon that it understood the anguish felt by Tibetan exiles protesting at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney today, while not necessarily agreeing with all the tactics used.

While ‘Cardboard Kevin’ may have been banished from Parliament, the Australian Government still appears paper thin on human rights, particularly when it comes to China and Tibet.

British Olympic chiefs have backed away from a plan requiring all British athletes heading to the Beijing Olympics to keep quiet about China’s human rights record.