|
SYDNEY: Calls to boycott the Olympics in China over violence in
Tibet have been widely rebuffed, with Games chiefs even hoping to
parade the Olympic flame through the troubled region later this
year.
The international community has urged China to
exercise restraint in Tibet but shied away for a boycott similar to
the one Western nations organized for the 1980 Moscow Games
following the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
“In our view, such a boycott would not be the
appropriate way to address the work for respect of the human rights,
which means the ethnic and religious rights of Tibetans,” European
Commission (EC) spokeswoman Christiane Hohmann said.
The EC and countries including France and
Australia argued that engaging with China through the Olympics would
help persuade the emerging economic giant to improve human rights.
“They [China] have to evolve and they have
made some progress in that direction, it may not be enough for us
but the Olympic Games will oblige them to open up further,” French
Sports Minister Bernard Laporte said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) called
for “a peaceful solution to the event of recent days in Tibet”
and said it hoped the Olympic flame would still be able to travel to
the Tibetan capital Lhasa on its way to Beijing.
The Olympic flame is due to be lit at Olympia,
Greece, on March 24, and will then criss-cross China, with a
scheduled stop in Lhasa, where Tibetan exiles say at least 100
people were killed in the crackdown on demonstrators.
“The Olympic flame, which is due in Lhasa in
June, is a powerful symbol which brings the people of the world
together to overcome their difference,” the IOC said in a
statement.
“The IOC hopes the flame will be able to
continue along its route as scheduled.”
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said
Canberra’s efforts to organize a boycott of the 1980 Games was
unsuccessful and the events in Tibet should not jeopardize the
world’s biggest sporting event.
Germany said a boycott would punish athletes and
would do little for rights.
French Sports Minister Bernard Laporte said
“by not taking part in the Olympics, it would open up China,
improve human rights and solve all the problems there is pure
wishful thinking, just a dream.”
British Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown,
while not supporting a boycott, warned China that its response to
the Tibetan unrest risked tarnishing its international reputation
ahead of the Games.
-- AFP
|
