Or is it they'll walk big carrying a drowned spic?
Whatever.
Olympic International Committee President Jacques Rogge (pronounced
"jock-a-roogie") has put China on notice that each athlete at the
Games will be issued a quality,reliable Japanese-made ****table
microphone-speaker system to broadcast their opinions of the
competition and their slants on China and its highly professional
police squads that are to accompany each competitor throughout the
Games. Even to the restrooms.
Especially to the restrooms.
"We don't like the way China stifles free speech," Rogge told a
visiting group of Burmese journalists. "But we do expect that they
will not beat up any athlete who is overcome with the urgent,
uncontrollable need to criticize President Hu Jintao or Prime Minister
Wen Jiabao, or even Minister of Spies Charlie Chan."
Raising himself to his full height of 4'10", a suddenly energized
Rogge thrust his chest out and thundered, "These god-damned Chinese
shall not press down upon the brow of pole vaulters a crown of chop
sticks!"
As he was knocked to the ground by three large, acne-scarred, baton-
wielding blue-uniformed policemen, Rogge, bleeding from the ear and
nose mumbled, "What hath god wrought?"
Actually, it came out, "Wath thath goth wout?"
---------------------------
"Olympic Chief Vows Free Speech Defense"
"China to Keep Tibet Closed to Foreigners"
By Maureen Fan
Wa****ngton Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 11, 2008; A12
BEIJING, April 10 -- Calling freedom of expression an absolute human
right, the president of the International Olympic Committee said that
athletes at the Summer Games in Beijing would be allowed to speak
without restriction at some Olympic sites and that he had insisted
that Chinese officials begin fully enforcing a new media law that
promises journalists full access in China.
China, meanwhile, canceled plans to reopen the Tibet Autonomous Region
to foreigners May 1, after its closure over anti-Chinese protests. It
also said that arrests in January and March had uncovered a plot by
radical Islamists to kidnap foreigners, including journalists, to bomb
hotels and government buildings, and to poison food in Beijing and
Shanghai.
The announcements come amid a wave of international protests against
China's crackdown against Tibetans. The uproar is undermining the
government's plans to use the Olympics to showcase friendly relations
with foreign countries as well as with domestic ethnic groups in
China.
A new Chinese law in theory allows journalists to travel freely
throughout the country this year and to interview any willing subject
without advance permission, apart from special permits needed for
travel to Tibet. But the law has not been enforced. Foreign
journalists continue to be detained while covering sensitive stories
and in most cases cannot get permission to visit Tibet.
"For us, freedom of expression is something that is absolute. It's a
human right," IOC President Jacques Rogge told re****ters at a Beijing
news conference, where he faced repeated questions about human rights,
politics and disruptions this week in Europe and San Francisco of the
traditional Olympic torch relay.
"There are small restrictions in not making propaganda or
demonstrations in Olympic venues, like on the podium. . . . We are a
movement of 205 nationalities, and many of these nationalities are in
conflict with each other," Rogge said. The IOC will provide athletes
with guidance on what constitutes propaganda, he added, "and we'll do
this with a lot of common sense."
Athletes will be allowed to speak freely in on-site media interviews
after their competitions, even on the grounds of Olympic venues, where
the Olympic Charter bans political protests.
His comments follow attempts by members of a Chinese police unit who
escorted the torch in Paris to stop runners there from wearing small
badges that said "For a better world."
Asked what would happen if an athlete took a victory lap carrying the
banned flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile, a symbol of
independence, Rogge said many athletes had displayed multiple flags.
"It is clear that it is perfectly legitimate for a Spanish athlete to
carry the flag of his own province . . . and of course the national
flag. If you have the combination of a foreign flag with the national
flag, then we will have to make an interpretation if this is
propaganda or a demonstration," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Jiang Yu, said
Thursday that she hoped the IOC would stick with its policy of "not
bringing in any irrelevant political factors."
On restrictions on travel to Tibet, Rogge said, "I have asked the
authorities to implement the media law in full. We know that today it
is not yet fully implemented. And I have insisted that this be done as
soon as possible."
Rogge said he would convey to Chinese authorities the concerns of
journalists worried that they would not be able to cover the torch
relay during its scheduled segments in Tibet in May and June. Chinese
officials have defended limitations on journalists in part as
necessary to ensure their personal safety.
The Public Security Bureau said Thursday that it had broken up two
terrorist cells made up of ethnic Uighur separatists. Chinese
officials said the separatists had been trained abroad and were
operating under orders from the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement,
which has been classified as a terrorist organization by the United
Nations as well as the Chinese and U.S. governments.
The Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic group numbering about 16 million, have
long chafed under the Han Chinese-dominated government in Beijing.
The alleged plotting "clearly shows that today the Eastern Turkistan
Islamic Movement's separatist forces group within Chinese borders is
planning to carry out criminal terrorist activities with a goal of
damaging the 2008 Beijing Olympics," a statement from the Chinese
government's Public Security Bureau said.
Chinese security officials regularly say they have discovered
underground separatist plots. But the details offered Thursday of
explosive vests, poison and kidnapping plans against foreigners --
including, they said, foreign journalists -- were unusual. If
confirmed, the discovery of the vests might indicate plans for suicide
bombings, a tactic that so far the group is not known to have used in
China.
The Tibetan government, meanwhile, has canceled plans to reopen the
region to tourists May 1. Wu Yuqun at the China Tibet Tourist Agency
in Lhasa said she received an oral notice this week that tourism was
on hold until further notice.
[Correspondent Edward Cody contributed to this re****t.]
http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/10/AR2008041001591.html
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