http://wa****ngtonindependent.com/view/calls-for-olympic
Calls for Olympic Boycott Intensify
Bush Still Plans to Attend the Games' Opening Ceremony
By MIKE LILLIS 05/01/2008
With 99 days to the launch of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, the
congressional pressure on the Bush administration to boycott the games
over China's many human rights abuses is swelling. But similar abuses
at the hands of the U.S. government in recent years -- while not at
the level or scale of China's -- have diminished America's stature as
an authoritative voice on human rights, civil liberties groups say.
Torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, combined with
the recent revelation that top Bush administration officials approved
those brutal methods, leave the White House with little leverage to
criticize other governments over their own abusive tactics, advocates
argue. The result, they say, is that the United States has less
influence over the international human rights debate.
"Since the 'war on terror' policies have gone into effect," said
Sharon Singh, spokeswoman for Amnesty International, "the U.S.
government has lost its moral authority abroad."
The issue has resurfaced as a number of China's critics are urging
President George W. Bush to boycott the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies in
Beijing. At a press event near the Capitol on Thursday, lawmakers from
both parties joined scores of human rights advocates in blasting China
for its role in supplying arms to Burma and Sudan, cracking down on
pro-Democracy protests in Tibet and stifling free speech within its
own borders.
"China today is the worst human rights violator in the world," said
Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.). "No one else is even close."
Human Rights First, an international advocacy group, issued a re****t
in March revealing that China sold $55 million in small arms to Sudan
between 2003 and 2006. "This was the period when violence was
increasing in Darfur," said Julia Fromholz, advocacy counsel for the
group.
Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) said China's actions have detracted from
the harmony of the games to create instead "an Olympics of
oppression."
Brownback also accused Beijing of conspiring to spy on visitors
staying in the city's hotels. "American hotels have been ordered by
the Chinese government to place monitors and filters on their Internet
piping to facilitate spying on international guests and visitors,"
Brownback said. "This is wrong, it's against international convention,
[and] it's certainly against the Olympic spirit."
Bush accepted an invitation last summer to attend the August opening
ceremonies in Beijing. Since then, riots erupted in Tibet after a
group of Buddhist monks launched a march for religious freedom. The
response from Chinese military police killed dozens of protesters.
Hundreds of others were imprisoned, civil liberties groups contend.
China defended its actions, accusing the western media of pursuing a
smear campaign and calling one Tibet sup****ter, House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-Cal.), a "muckraker of her own hypocrisy."
"Finding a leverage to tarnish China," the state press wrote in March,
"'human rights police' like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and
ungenerous when it comes to China, refusing to check their facts and
find out the truth of the case - who is it who is really trampling on
human rights? China or the rioters?"
Still, the high-profile conflagration prompted several European
leaders -- most notably French President Nicolas Sarkozy -- to push
for a boycott of the ceremonies. Democratic presidential hopefuls
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have also urged Bush to skip
the games' launch.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday that Bush still
plans to attend. "[I'm] still where I was before," Perino told
re****ters, "which is the President has said he's going to the
Olympics. We haven't announced any final schedules."
The saga highlights a dilemma facing human rights groups,
international aid organizations and even congressional lawmakers as
they push China and other nation's to improve their records on civil
rights. Even if Bush does decide to boycott the games to highlight
China's abuses, the administration's own history dulls much of the
effect.
Smith said there are fundamental differences between China's rights'
record and that of the United States -- not least that the U.S. has
democratically elected lawmakers who can react to set things right.
Still, rights groups say that their work has become much tougher under
the Bush White House.
"It's quite a challenge for us to do the work that we do in this
political climate given many of the policies, both foreign and
domestic, that the Bush administration has pursued," said Fromholz.
"The United States simply has much less leverage than it used to."
The latest human rights re****t from Amnesty International summarizes
much of the recent criticisms against the United States, blasting the
Bush administration for keeping detainees without charges and pursuing
secret renditions.
"There was a continued failure to hold senior government officials
accountable for torture and other ill-treatment of 'war on terror'
detainees despite evidence that abuses had been systematic," the
re****t states.
The practical and political implications of such tactics, advocates
argue, are tangible. Singh said that Amnesty officials pu****ng for
humanitarian changes in Sudan, for example, met with raised eyebrows
from Sudanese officials, who noted, "Look what the United States does
in Guantanamo."
"It is a global icon for everything that's wrong with the Bush
administration's policies," Singh said of military's detention
facility. "Clearly, it's been thrown back in the United States
government's face."
Neither Amnesty International nor Human Rights First sup****t the
Olympic boycott, arguing that Bush and other world leaders have more
effective methods of influence at their disposal.
Other civil liberties advocates noted the im****tance of continuing to
push for change regardless of Wa****ngton's political climate.
"Is the U.S. authority on human rights diminished? -- I'd say yes,"
said Jeremy Woodrum, campaign director at U.S. Campaign for Burma.
"But the worst thing we could do is let that be a reason not to speak
out ... We believe in people power."
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