April 06, 2008	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1429

SINGAPORE, April 5: President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge on Saturday insisted he had no regrets about awarding the Games to China and said he saw no momentum for a boycott of the event.

However, the IOC supremo acknowledged an Amnesty International report suggesting China’s human rights record was worsening and said it would be discussed at meetings in Beijing next week.

“I have said many times that the IOC considers it is a wise choice in awarding the Games to Beijing and we have no regrets,” he said in Singapore, which will host the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.

Rogge pointed to Beijing having an excellent bid and to the added value of bringing sport and the Olympics to one fifth of mankind.

“So for all of these reasons we believe we had to award the Games to Beijing,” he said.

The IOC has long argued that the Olympics will be a force for good in China and that the event would help promote human rights.

But recent events, including an (alleged) crackdown by China in Tibet and the jailing of prominent dissidents, have caused outrage internationally, sparking calls for a boycott of the August Olympics, or at least the opening ceremony.

Rogge did not specifically refer to Tibet or the jailing last week of Hu Jia, a Chinese AIDS campaigner and prominent civil rights advocate, but said protests and the freedom of expression must be respected.

“We would prefer not to have protests but we respect them,” he said. “We are for freedom of expression, as long as it is non-violent, as long as it is dignified.”

He added that he was aware of the growing calls to boycott the Games, but believed they had no momentum.

“We know that there is a discussion on boycotts, but we do not see a real momentum on boycotts by governments,” he stated. “There are talks of a potential boycott of the opening ceremony. I would not want to comment specifically on that.

“It is up to the heads of government to decide whether they want to come to Beijing or not. It is not something in which the IOC would intervene.”

One of the most prominent absentees could be French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

French Secretary of State for Human Rights Rama Yade told Le Monde newspaper on Saturday that Sarkozy would boycott the opening ceremony unless China opens dialogue with Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and frees political prisoners.

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

“We are happy with the state of preparations in Beijing,” he expressed. “We just had the visit of the coordination commission and now four months out we are pleased by what the organising committee, BOCOG, has done.”

Rogge further said pollution in Beijing will not endanger the health of athletes, although their Olympic performance might suffer.

Meanwhile, former pole vaulting great and IOC executive board member Sergei Bubka warned against any move towards boycotting the Beijing Olympics.

Bubka cautioned against any prevention of athlete participation, speaking from his personal experience of 1984 when the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Olympics as payback for the US doing the same at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.—Agencies