China fouls its own Olympics
THE INTERNATIONAL Olympic Committee took a gamble when it selected China as host for the 2008 Summer Games. The IOC was betting that the Olympic spotlight would oblige China to act like a responsible member of the international community and show a modicum of respect for human rights.
But the communist regime's violent crackdown on Tibetans in recent days shows that the IOC misjudged China's leaders. It is too late to retract the selection of Beijing as site for this summer's Games, and a boycott of the Games would unfairly punish athletes who have trained for years to compete on the Olympic stage. But the IOC president, Jacques Rogge of Belgium, could at least call on Chinese authorities to end their violent assaults on the Tibetans, as 150 Tibet support groups from different countries have asked him to do in a recent letter.
Tibetans have also asked the IOC not to bring the Olympic torch into Tibet and Tibetan areas in Chinese provinces. This would only serve Chinese propaganda.
The inclusion of Tibetan stages on the route of the torch is meant to symbolize the finality of China's absorption of Tibet. It is the communists' way of making the international community complicit in their rejection of all requests for genuine autonomy for Tibet. Such autonomy has been a longstanding goal of the Dalai Lama, who has said repeatedly that he is not seeking independence for Tibet. Knowing this, Chinese government officials still call him a liar and accuse him of fomenting "splittism."
Even more effective than altering the path of the Olympic torch relay would be a boycott - not of the Games, but of the opening ceremony. This is gesture that French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, founder of Doctors Without Borders, originally broached this week.
The idea originated with the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders. It has the virtue of sparing the athletes but depriving Beijing of the propaganda triumph it seeks. A boycott of the ceremonies on Aug. 8 would also be greeted with gratitude by the people of neighboring Burma. They too have seen their Buddhist monks tortured and murdered by a repressive regime, a junta that boasts Beijing as its primary commercial partner and arms supplier. It was 20 years ago, on the numerologically significant 8/8/88, that Burma's generals massacred civilians demonstrating for democracy.
The IOC wants to avoid politics. But its choice of China as host for the Games made a political dimension unavoidable. The least it can do now is to free itself of symbolic collusion with the regime that has been killing and maiming Tibetans. 