China reneging on rights pledge, group says

BEIJING -- China's human rights record has deteriorated in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, with thousands of people being executed after unfair trials, Amnesty International said yesterday.

The human rights watchdog sent its latest findings to the International Olympic Committee and said Chinese authorities would have to act quickly if they were to fulfill their pledges to improve matters.

``The serious human rights abuses that continue to be reported every day across the country fly in the face of the promises the Chinese government made when it was bidding for the Olympics," Amnesty's Catherine Baber said in a statement.

Beijing's campaign to host the 2008 Olympics was shadowed by criticism of its rights record from international groups and Western capitals. The Beijing committee pledged that by allowing the city to host the Games, the International Olympic Committee would help advance human rights in China.

Amnesty said that was not happening.

With less than two years to go before the Games, Amnesty said in a report, the Chinese government needed to work fast to make good on its promises.

China called Amnesty's charges biased and groundless and said the group had ulterior motives.

``China is fulfilling its commitments made during the bid. We are confident we have the capacity to build a successful Games," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news briefing.

It was too narrow to understand China's efforts to improve human rights and rule of law only in the context of the Olympics, Qin added.

Amnesty said, however, that the nation had renewed a crackdown on journalists and Internet users, undermining pledges by Beijing's bid committee to give reporters full freedom.

It also said grass-roots activists, including those working with residents forcibly evicted from buildings on Olympic construction sites, were imprisoned.

It said reform of China's system of ``re-education through labor" -- a kind of imprisonment without trial that Chinese legal reformers say should be scrapped -- might actually be hindered by Beijing's preparations for the event.

``The forthcoming Olympic Games may be acting as an incentive for the authorities to retain the system in the name of maintaining public order in Beijing," the report said.

Amnesty called on the IOC to use its sway to hasten change before 2008, but the committee said it was not its place to pressure governments.

``It is unrealistic to expect the IOC to pressure on such complex matters," said its communications director, Giselle Davies.