April 04, 2008	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 26, 1429

BEIJING, April 3: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected charges on Thursday that the human rights situation is deteriorating in China and turned down appeals to intervene on Tibet and other issues.

Speaking after prominent activist Hu Jia was jailed earlier on Thursday for subversion, senior IOC member Hein Verbruggen said a report by Amnesty International asserting human rights were suffering because of the Games was “blatantly untrue.”

In the report released on Tuesday, Amnesty said China was using the Olympics to crack down on dissent ahead of the Aug 8-24 Games and that the rights situation was worsening as a result.

“To go that far, to say the Games contributed to a worsening situation of human rights (in China), I mean that I would call blatantly untrue,” said Verbruggen.

The IOC has argued that the Olympics will be a force for good in China, awarded the 2008 Games after insisting that the event would help promote human rights.

Verbruggen declined to comment on the jailing of Hu, a Chinese AIDS campaigner and prominent civil rights advocate sentenced to three-and-a-half years on charges of subversion.

“It is a matter of Chinese law and is not a matter for the Olympic Games or the IOC,” Verbruggen, head of the IOC’s Coordination Commission, which is advising Beijing on how to prepare for the Games in August, told reporters.

Verbruggen added that Beijing was preparing well for the Games, following three days of meetings between his commission and Olympic organising committee officials.

“There is every reason to believe that a gold medal performance is in their grasp and that the world will marvel at superb Olympic and Paralympic Games,” he said.

Activists pushing for improved human rights in China, an end to the crisis in Darfur and expressing concern about the Chinese crackdown on unrest in Tibet, have been attempting to use the Olympics as a way of pressuring the Chinese government.

But Verbruggen insisted that the IOC was a sporting organisation with no role in politics and that “there is a very thick, fat red line between the two.”

He acknowledged that the IOC position had been criticised, but said that it would not change.

China says Tibetan rioters killed 18 civilians and two policemen since unrest erupted on March 10. Tibetan exiles said 135-140 people were killed in the Chinese crackdown.

But Verbruggen chose to comment against some political leaders who have said they will boycott, or consider boycotting, the opening ceremony of the Games to protest the crackdown in Tibet.

“I have very little admiration for politicians that come here to sign big economic contracts and business contracts and three or four months later say, well, we might not come to the opening ceremony,” he expressed.

He added that athletes would have complete freedom of speech in Beijing during the Olympics, as long as they respected the Olympic charter, which outlaws political, religious or other propaganda at Games venues.

Also, the IOC confirmed that TV transmissions to the world from the Beijing Olympics would be live, with no delays.

Internet access, heavily restricted in China, would be free and unfettered for 30,000 journalists expected here to cover the Olympics, IOC officials added.—AFP