|
WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush said Thursday
he would attend the Beijing Olympics in August as a sports fan, but
vowed not to be “shy” about pushing China on human rights as
well as Darfur and Myanmar.
Bush also stopped short of saying
Olympic athletes should be able to publicly criticize President Hu
Jintao’s government, saying every country’s Olympic committee
would set the rules for their competitors.
“I’ve made it very clear
I’m going to the Olympics because it’s a sporting event,” Bush
told reporters at a White House press conference. “I’m looking
forward to seeing the athletic competition.”
“But that will not preclude me
from meeting with the Chinese president, expressing my deep concerns
about a variety of issues, just like I do every time I meet with the
president,” he stressed.
“A whole society, a healthy
society, a confident society is one that recognizes the value of
religious freedom. I’ll talk about Darfur and Iran and Burma,”
as Myanmar is called in the United States, said Bush.
Human rights groups and activists
have accused China of ramping up a campaign of repression against
dissidents to ensure they are silenced during the Games, which are
set to run August 8-24.
Beijing has also come under
pressure over its close ties to Myanmar’s ruling junta, amid
mounting global calls for democratic reforms there and with the
government in Khartoum, over the violence in Sudan’s Darfur
province.
China is one the closest allies
of the government in Sudan, which is locked in a years-long proxy
war with rebels in Darfur. UN estimates put the death toll at about
200,000, with more than two million driven from their homes.
--AFP
|
