The ****trait of a Kidnapped IOC -- Olympic President Makes Rare
Criticism of China / The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/world/asia/11china.html
April 11, 2008
Olympic President Makes Rare Criticism of China
By ANDREW JACOBS
BEIJING ¡ª The president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques
Rogge, offered a rare criticism of the Chinese government on Thursday,
calling on the authorities to respect its ¡°moral engagement¡± to improve
human rights and to provide the news media with greater access to the
country ahead of the Beijing Games.
Mr. Rogge¡¯s comments on China, made at a news conference here during
which he described the protests that have dogged the torch relay as a
¡°crisis¡± for the organization, were a departure from his previous
statements that strenuously avoided any mention of politics.
The Chinese government immediately rejected Mr. Rogge¡¯s remarks, saying
they amounted to an unwelcome meddling in the country¡¯s domestic
affairs. ¡°I believe I.O.C. officials sup****t the Beijing Olympics and
adherence to the Olympic charter of not bringing in any irrelevant
political factors,¡± Jiang Yu, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, told
re****ters.
Despite the crisis, Mr. Rogge insisted that the skirmishes in London,
Paris and San Francisco would not derail the six-continent pageant
leading up to the Beijing Games in August.
¡°There is no scenario of interrupting or bringing the torch back to
Beijing,¡± he said.
The chaos that has interrupted the torch relay and rattled the
International Olympic Committee came as the authorities here announced
the discovery of what they described as a plan by terrorists from the
country¡¯s restive Xinjiang region to disrupt the games by kidnapping
foreign journalists, athletes and spectators at the Summer Games.
The authorities said they arrested 35 people and confiscated explosives
and detonators belonging to a jihadist group based in Urumqi, the
capital of Xinjiang, in the country¡¯s far west, long a source of unrest
among the region¡¯s majority Muslim population.
In the past, officials have announced the discovery of similar plots
without providing much evidence, including what they said last month was
a plan to hijack an airplane. Some analysts have suggested that such
crackdowns have been used as a distraction from internal unrest and a
means to justify the suppression of separatist Muslim Uighurs.
Speaking before a two-day meeting of the Olympic committee¡¯s executive
board, Mr. Rogge condemned the protesters who had hounded torch bearers,
but he also called on the Chinese authorities to honor their pledges to
improve human rights and to give foreign journalists unfettered access
to all parts of the country.
¡°We will do our best to have this be realized,¡± he said of a recent
Chinese regulation that guarantees re****ters the right to travel to all
parts of the country, including Tibet, where access has been restricted
since the outbreak of violence last month.
During the news conference, Mr. Rogge said he met with Prime Minister
Wen Jiabao of China for an hour on Wednesday, but he would not reveal
details of their conversation. Mr. Rogge has long avoided criticizing
China, saying that pressuring the government on Tibet and other human
rights issues was likely to backfire.
¡°China will close itself off from the rest of the world, which, don¡¯t
forget, it has done for some 2,000 years,¡± he said in an interview
broadcast Wednesday in his native Belgium.
Olympic committee members have been taken aback by the scope and
ferocity of the protests, which are marring what has traditionally been
a festive event involving 20,000 torch bearers. Although the protests in
San Francisco were not as violent or disruptive as in London and Paris,
the torch¡¯s sole North American visit was a disappointment to thousands
of spectators after the relay route was changed at the last minute in an
effort to avoid the kind of tussling between protesters and the police
that had characterized earlier ceremonies.
After officials moved the planned closing ceremony at the San Francisco
waterfront to another location on Wednesday, the Olympic flame was taken
aboard an airplane bound for Argentina, the next stop on its worldwide
tour.
The committee members who gathered at a hotel in central Beijing offered
harsh words for demonstrators who used the relay to publicize issues
ranging from Tibetan religious freedom to environmental concerns.
Gunilla Lindberg, a vice president of the committee, likened some of the
more vociferous protesters to terrorists and said they had emboldened
committee members to keep the relay going.
¡°We will never give into violence,¡± Ms. Lindberg said. ¡°These are not
the friendly demonstrators for a free Tibet, but professional
demonstrators, the ones who show up at G-8 conferences to be seen and
fight.¡±
Denis Oswald, a committee member from Switzerland, said those who
thought that interrupting the torch relay, or the Games themselves,
would push China to improve its human rights record were wrongheaded and
nai"ve. He noted that it took Europe several centuries to become truly
democratic and said it was unwise to expect China to do the same in a
few years.
¡°We have to give them time, and as long as they¡¯re moving in the right
direction we should be patient,¡± he said. He added that those who
disrupt the relay ¡°do not respect the freedom of people who want to
enjoy it.¡±
In announcing the disruption of what they described as a pair of
terrorist plots, Chinese officials from the Ministry of Public Security
said they had arrested leaders of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement,
who they said had confessed to planning attacks in Beijing, Shanghai and
other cities.
The authorities said they had seized 19 explosive devices, 4 kilograms
of explosive material, 7 detonators, and ¡°9 kinds of raw materials to be
used for waging a holy war.¡± They said the group was led by Aji Mai Mai
Ti, who had urged his fellow plotters to use ¡°poisonous meat,"
"poisonous gas" and remote-controlled explosives. Officials said they
had arrested the group¡¯s leaders but that other members were still being
sought.
Giselle Davies, a spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee,
said that the group was unaware of the plot and that it had learned
about the arrests only from Chinese television. Still, she said the
committee had full confidence that the police would guarantee security
at the games. ¡°We trust very much the authorities will handle that with
the right approach,¡± she said.
Despite the chaos along the torch relay route, Mr. Rogge said he
expected the Olympics to proceed without a hitch. He cited the murder of
11 Israeli athletes in Munich in 1972 and boycotts in 1976, 1980 and
1984 as far more disruptive and said he hoped the public would soon
focus on the essence of the Olympics: athletic competition and world
unity.
¡°It is a crisis, there is no doubt about that, but the I.O.C. has
weathered many bigger storms,¡± he said.
Asked if he had any regrets about awarding the games to Beijing, Mr.
Rogge remarked that the country¡¯s bid was not only the best among
nations that had vied for the Olympics but that he thought it was
especially compelling to have them held in a country with a fifth of the
world¡¯s population. ¡°It is very easy with hindsight to criticize the
decision,¡± he said. ¡°It¡¯s easy to say now that this was not a wise and
sound decision.¡±
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/11/world/asia/11china.html
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