German Olympia Sports Association glosses over the human rights situation in China

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) accused the German Olympia Sports Association (DOSB) on Friday of glossing over the human rights situation in China. "When the DOSB director general, Michael Vesper, speaks, in spite of constant new arrests and arbitrary death sentences, of ‘clear progress in human rights in China’ this is nothing but whitewashing” said the GfbV Asia expert, Ulrich Delius. Vesper is with his controversial statements of 15th February 2008 going back on the previous critical attitude of the DOSB towards the human rights situation in the People’s Republic. The DOSB director general praised freer work facilities for journalists.

"Anyone who celebrates human rights which are granted for a limited time as a break-through must be prepared to answer the question as to whether the DOSB is really interested in an improvement in the human rights situation in China or whether is it only concerned with just getting on with the Olympic Games”, said Delius. The freedom of the press, which has been granted for foreign journalists from January is a farce since it is expressed limited to the 1st October. "As long as China’s journalists are being silenced and there is no freedom of information on the internet there is not much won by the fact that foreign journalists are being arrested less frequently.”

In spite of these so-called new freedoms for foreign journalists in the first six months of the year 2007 157 infringements of the liberty of foreign journalists and their informants were recorded by the Association of Foreign Journalists, criticised Delius. Foreign reporters travelling to Tibet have soon come face to face with these limits to "temporary human rights” and have been taken up by the authorities.

The statement of the DOSB President, Thomas Bach, is likewise incomprehensible that the opening of China has begun. Instead of a liberalisation in the run-up to the Games the persecution of Tibetans, Uyghurs, Falun-Gong followers and Chinese human rights workers and migrant workers has increased. The freedom of movement for Buddhist monks in Tibet has been further restricted and there have been new death sentences or illegal executions of Uyghurs. The personal documents of leaders of this Turkic people, who are for the most part Moslems, have been withdrawn to prevent them from travelling to the Olympic Games in Peking. Schools of the children of migrant workers have been closed in recent weeks and more than 4,000 Peking residents have been compulsorily rehoused on account of the preparations for the Games. Anyone protesting against the expulsions is arrested. Hundreds of Falun-Gong followers have been arrested. 3,100 of them have suffered a violent death in police custody since 1999.