China urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday to keep “irrelevant political factors” away from the Beijing Games, after IOC president Jacques Rogge called on it to improve human rights.
“I believe IOC officials support the Beijing Olympics and adherence to the Olympic charter of not bringing in any irrelevant political factors,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) told reporters. “I hope IOC officials continue to adhere to principles of the Olympic charter.”
Jiang was responding to comments by Rogge earlier in the day in which he urged China to respect its commitment to improve human rights ahead of the Beijing Games.
Rogge emphasized that Chinese officials had promised when they made their bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics that being awarded the Games would “advance the social agenda of China, including human rights.”
“This is what I would call a moral engagement rather than a juridical [legal] one,” he told a press conference. “We definitely ask China to respect this moral engagement.”
In a separate address, Rogge also said a week of protests targeting the Olympic torch relay by groups critical of China’s human-rights record had thrown the Beijing Games into “crisis.”
Rogge told heads of 205 National Olympic Committees at the end of their three-day general assembly here to return to their own countries to reassure athletes that the Beijing Games would be a success.
“Tell them that whatever they have seen and heard, the Games will be very well-organized,” he said. “Tell them that we will rebound from this current crisis.”
Jiang gave a non-committal response to Rogge’s crisis comment.
“Maybe he said some remarks that were ... exaggerated or distorted by certain people,” she said.
Meanwhile, a group of UN rights experts expressed concern yesterday at China’s crackdown in Tibet and called for journalists and independent observers to be given full access to the region.
The experts “urge restraint and non-violence by all parties, greater and unfettered access to the regions concerned for journalists and independent observers, and full implementation of international standards in regard to the treatment of protesters,” they said in a statement.
In related news, a US-based Tibetan rights group said that China would not reopen the restive mountain region of Tibet to foreigners until after the August Olympics, scrapping plans to try to let tourists back in early next month.
China’s National Tourism Administration as well as the Tibet government and tourism authority had no immediate comment.
A decision to delay the reopening might indicate that Beijing was still worried that Tibet was unstable and would remain so for months after a series of protests and a riot in Lhasa on March 14 rocked the region and neighboring areas.
Normally, travel to Tibet is restricted. Foreigners must obtain special permits and travel in tour groups to visit, and foreign reporters living in China are not allowed into the Himalayan region without special permission.
After the outburst of violence in Lhasa, the government stopped issuing permits, citing safety concerns. State media said Tibet would be reopened to foreign travelers from May 1.
“But according to reliable reports it seems that reopening may now not be until after the Olympics,” the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS