Carrying the torch for Tibet
p2pnet news | Freedom:- The whole point of the Olympic torch relay is to generate enthusiasm and publicity for the main event.
But with every step, it becomes even more of a political nightmare for China.
Torch carrying processions in Paris, London, and the US were rallying points for people protesting China’s attacks on Tibet and in San Francisco, torch runner Michael Andrew wore a Free Tibet patch in his sleeve.
And instead of being greeted by cheering crowds in Buenos Aires, Argentina, its latest stop, the Olympic flame arrived, “amid cloak-and-dagger secrecy,” says the Associated Press.
“Argentina is billing Friday’s Olympic torch run as an easygoing street fiesta launched by a tango orchestra. But officials are worried enough about anti-China protests to mobilize thousands of police after protesters warned of a Buenos Aires ’surprise’,” says a story.
Now IOC president Jacques Rogge has threatened the athletes.
Admitting the Games are in “crisis” after pro-Tibet protests, “engulfed the Olympic torch relay,” he says athletes are free to express their political views, but face sanctions if they indulged in propaganda, says Times Online.
“Athletes who display Tibetan flags at Olympic venues – including in their own rooms – could be expelled from this summer’s Games in Beijing under anti-propaganda rules,” the story has Rogge saying.
The International Olympic Committee and China clashed yesterday over human rights and the protest-plagued Olympic torch relay, says the Globe & Mail.
Rogge, “pleaded with China to respect its promises on human rights, but, “China immediately lashed back, demanding that the IOC refrain from ‘irrelevant political factors’,” says the story, going on:
“It also extended its security crackdown, arresting dozens of people in an alleged plot to kidnap foreigners and disrupt the Olympics.”
It was a, “dramatic escalation in tensions between Beijing and the IOC, which had patiently avoided any direct criticism of China despite weeks of turmoil in Tibet and on the Olympic torch relay route.
“The comments by Mr. Rogge, who was in China to meet with Premier Wen Jiabao to discuss preparations for the Beijing Games, were his strongest since the wave of Tibetan protests began last month. Up to that point, in fact, he had insisted that the IOC was powerless to exert any influence over China.
“Yesterday, for the first time, Mr. Rogge referred explicitly to China’s unofficial promises in 2001, when its leaders proclaimed that its human-rights record would improve if it won the right to hold the Olympics. ‘We definitely ask China to respect this moral engagement,’ he told reporters in Beijing.”
Meanwhile, a resolution sponsored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and passed on Wednesday called on Beijing to “end its crackdown on nonviolent Tibetan protesters” and put a stop to cultural, religious, economic and linguistic “repression,” says Associated Press.
The US, “seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” when Congress passed the resolution, said an “indignant China” today, according to the story.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu labeled the resolution anti-Chinese, saying it misrepresented Tibet’s “history and modern reality” and, “The Chinese side expresses its strong indignation and resolute opposition toward this,” she said in a statement on the ministry’s Web site.
Associated Press – Olympic Torch Makes Latin American Stop, April 11, 2008
Times Online – Athletes who take Tibet stand ‘face Olympic cut’, April 11, 2008
Globe & Mail – IOC, China clash over human rights, April 11, 2008
Associated Press – China outraged by US-Tibet resolution, April 11, 2008
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April 11th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Well now we know for sure. China considers human rights to be “irrelevant political factors.”