this will surely stir up some debate…
BEIJING (AFP) - International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge insisted Wednesday the Olympics are a force for good despite boycott calls and protests over China’s hosting of next year’s Games.
“We believe that the Olympic Games will have definitely a positive, lasting effect on Chinese society and this has been recognised by our Chinese friends and their partners,” Rogge told a press conference here.
“So definitely we believe the Games are a force for the good in every country in which they are held.”
He was speaking after four Americans were arrested at Mount Everest base camp on Wednesday for protesting plans to run the 2008 Olympic torch relay over Tibet.
The Tibetan independence activists erected a banner that read “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008,” the New York-based Students For A Free Tibet organisation said in a statement.
“One world, one dream,” is an official Beijing Olympic slogan. Other similar banners in Chinese and Tibetan were also unfurled by the protestors, while one wore a shirt that said “No torch through Tibet.”
China has ruled Tibet since sending troops in to “liberate” the region in 1951.
Tibet’s spiritual ruler, the Dalai Lama, later fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising and established a government-in-exile in Dharamsala.
The route for the torch relay will be announced here on Thursday but the Beijing Olympic organising committee has already revealed that it will pass over Mount Everest and through Tibet.
Beijing also says the torch relay will include a controversial leg through Taiwan, the self-ruled island which is claimed by China, though officials in Taipei deny they have agreed to host the relay.
The 2008 Olympics have also been hit by boycott calls over China’s links to the government of Sudan, accused of abetting genocide in the Darfur region.
Last month US actress and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow said in a newspaper commentary that the Beijing Games risked going down in history as the “Genocide Olympics” due to China’s support for Sudan’s government.
Francois Bayrou also called during his failed run at the French presidency for a boycott of the Games over Beijing’s support for Khartoum, which is a major oil supplier for China.
Hein Verbruggen, a top International Olympic Committee member, speaking during a three-day meeting of the IOC’s ruling executive board, said here Wednesday that organisers of the 2008 Beijing Games were expecting more protests of this kind as the Games opening ceremony approached.
However, he echoed Rogge’s words that the Games would be a force for good for China and said that the IOC, a sporting organisation, should not be drawn into political and diplomatic disputes.
“We, as the IOC, don’t want to be involved in any political issues, this is not our task,” he said.
“The question everybody should ask themselves is would any political situation be better here (in China) if we were not coming with the Games to China and I think the answer would be obviously that certainly would not be the case.”