China urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) yesterday to keep “irrelevant political factors” away from the Beijing Games, after IOC president Jacques Rogge called on it to improve human rights.
“I believe IOC officials support the Beijing Olympics and adherence to the Olympic charter of not bringing in any irrelevant political factors,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu (姜瑜) told reporters. “I hope IOC officials continue to adhere to principles of the Olympic charter.”
Jiang was responding to comments by Rogge earlier in the day in which he urged China to respect its commitment to improve human rights ahead of the Beijing Games.
Rogge emphasized that Chinese officials had promised when they made their bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics that being awarded the Games would “advance the social agenda of China, including human rights.”
“This is what I would call a moral engagement rather than a juridical [legal] one,” he told a press conference. “We definitely ask China to respect this moral engagement.”
In a separate address, Rogge also said a week of protests targeting the Olympic torch relay by groups critical of China’s human-rights record had thrown the Beijing Games into “crisis.”
Rogge told heads of 205 National Olympic Committees at the end of their three-day general assembly here to return to their own countries to reassure athletes that the Beijing Games would be a success.
“Tell them that whatever they have seen and heard, the Games will be very well-organized,” he said. “Tell them that we will rebound from this current crisis.”
Jiang gave a non-committal response to Rogge’s crisis comment.
“Maybe he said some remarks that were ... exaggerated or distorted by certain people,” she said.
Meanwhile, a group of UN rights experts expressed concern yesterday at China’s crackdown in Tibet and called for journalists and independent observers to be given full access to the region.
The experts “urge restraint and non-violence by all parties, greater and unfettered access to the regions concerned for journalists and independent observers, and full implementation of international standards in regard to the treatment of protesters,” they said in a statement.
In related news, a US-based Tibetan rights group said that China would not reopen the restive mountain region of Tibet to foreigners until after the August Olympics, scrapping plans to try to let tourists back in early next month.
China’s National Tourism Administration as well as the Tibet government and tourism authority had no immediate comment.
A decision to delay the reopening might indicate that Beijing was still worried that Tibet was unstable and would remain so for months after a series of protests and a riot in Lhasa on March 14 rocked the region and neighboring areas.
Normally, travel to Tibet is restricted. Foreigners must obtain special permits and travel in tour groups to visit, and foreign reporters living in China are not allowed into the Himalayan region without special permission.
After the outburst of violence in Lhasa, the government stopped issuing permits, citing safety concerns. State media said Tibet would be reopened to foreign travelers from May 1.
“But according to reliable reports it seems that reopening may now not be until after the Olympics,” the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.
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