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IOC president, Wen discuss Games as protests dog relay

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge met Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) yesterday to discuss preparations for the Beijing Games, which have been overshadowed by protests over China’s human-rights record and disruptions of the torch relay.

“It was a good meeting where a range of games topics were discussed between both parties,” the IOC said in a statement.

The meeting lasted about an hour.

The IOC said Rogge would brief his executive board today and give more details at a news conference tomorrow.

Rogge has refrained from criticizing China, saying he prefers to engage in “silent diplomacy” with the Chinese.

In an interview broadcast yesterday on the VRT television network in his native Belgium, Rogge warned that pushing China too hard on Tibet and human rights would be counterproductive, causing China to “close itself off from the rest of the world, which, don’t forget it, it has done for some 2,000 years,” he said.

The meeting came amid heightened concern over the torch relay, which has been hit by chaotic protests by activists opposed to China’s crackdown in Tibet and other policies.

Meanwhile, the sensitivity of the Tibet issue was underlined when the Association of National Olympic Committees — which oversees the world’s 205 national Olympic bodies — softened a statement that had urged China to resolve the conflict in Tibet.

The group’s original draft on Monday urged China to find “a fair and reasonable solution to the internal conflict that affects the Tibet region.”

The final version changed the wording and dropped “the Tibet region.”

In related news, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd charmed a Chinese audience with his fluent Mandarin yesterday, but also delivered a serious message: there are major human rights problems in Tibet.

He told an audience at the elite Beijing University yesterday that despite the concern over human rights, he was against boycotting the Beijing Olympics over such issues.

“It is necessary to recognize that there are significant human rights problems in Tibet. As a long-standing friend of China, I intend to have a straightforward discussion with China’s leaders on this,” Rudd said.

Stressing his links with China, where he served as a diplomat, Rudd won over the university students and local media, who hailed his language skills.

“We recognize the need for all parties to avoid violence and find a solution,” he said.

In Europe, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday that he would raise the issue of Tibet during a visit to China later this month.

“I want to show the contradiction that exists between organizing a great event like the Olympic Games and a situation of repression and tensions,” he said in Brussels.

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