Censure comparison of DOSB General Director is "arrogant”

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) called on the General Director of the German Olympic Sports Association (DOSB), Michael Vesper, on Wednesday to apologize for his "arrogant censure comparison” between China and Germany. "Vesper’s comparison borders on slander against recognized human rights organisations and is completely lacking in any foundation”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. The DOSB General Director had qualified the internet censure in China in a TV interview broadcast on 3.8.2008 of the ARD-Weltspiegel and compared it with the ban on internet appearances of right-wing extremist organisations in Germany.

"We protest energetically against our being compared with right-wing extremist organisations in Germany, whose internet appearances have been forbidden by legal German regulations”, says a fax of the GfbV to Vesper. Anyone placing the state of Germany, which is under the rule of law, on the same level as the unjust regime in China must not be surprised by massive criticism and must accept the charge of justifying serious violations of human rights. The homepage of the GfbV, which works for the rights of persecuted Tibetans, Uighurs and supporters of Falun Gong in China is the subject of censure in the People’s Republic and cannot be accessed.

Vesper’s unbearable comparison is however also a blow in the face for the operators of countless Chinese websites which have been struggling for human rights and democratisation in the People’s Republic and a reduction of the growing tensions between the various ethnic groups, wrote the GfbV. The human rights organisation regretted particularly in this connection that countless Uighur, Tibetan and Mongolian websites have been censored or forced to close by the authorities.

Also forbidden in June 2008 was the website "Uyghur Online”, which provides information in the Chinese language on the Uighurs. This website was particularly concerned to work for more understanding between Han-Chinese and Uighurs. "Anyone who arbitrarily closes such internet appearances is deliberately stirring up the tensions between the ethnic groups in a country with many peoples”, criticised Delius.