US legislators propose Beijing Olympics boycott over rights

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US legislators introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing unless China stops "support serious human rights abuses," Congressional aides said.

Backed initially by eight lawmakers from President George W. Bush's Republican party, the resolution also calls on Beijing to "stop supporting serious human rights abuses by the governments" of Sudan, Myanmar and North Korea, the aides said Tuesday.

The resolution, a copy of which was made available to AFP, is expected to be debated by the House foreign affairs committee when lawmakers return from recess in early September.

Comparing the 2008 games to the Berlin 1936 Olympics, which occurred at the time of the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany, the resolution said "the integrity of the host country is of the utmost importance so as not to stain the participating athletes or the character of the games."

It said "the Chinese regime regularly denies the right to freedom of conscience, expression, religion, and association," and that it has held thousands of political prisoners without charge or trial.

The resolution was sponsored by a top China critic in the House, Dana Rohrabacher, and co-sponsored by, among seven others, ranking Republican lawmaker Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

It is expected to receive support from lawmakers from the Democratic party, which has also been pushing for rights reforms in China.

News on the resolution came on the eve of China's bid to mark on Wednesday the one-year countdown to the Beijing Games, which start on August 8, 2008.

China is planning a huge party on Wednesday on Tiananmen Square, where the military crushed democracy protests in 1989, killing hundreds if not thousands of people.

"The test of whether the Olympics change China will come over human rights and responsible foreign policy, particularly in Africa," said Victor Cha, a former White House Asia adviser in an opinion piece in the Washington Post on Wednesday.

"The question is: Will the 2008 Games be like the 1936 Games in Berlin, where the goal was to validate a flawed domestic system before the world?

"Or, in the coming year, will we see whether Beijing is ready to mark the Games as a watershed for China's constructive role in the community of nations?" Cha wrote.

Rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday challenged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to live up to a reported pledge to act against China over human rights concerns.

After Beijing won the right to host the games in 2001, IOC chief Jacques Rogge had warned the Chinese government of action if it failed to enhance security and improve the human rights situation, Amnesty said.

"IOC, you have a duty and responsibility to act now," said T. Kumar, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific advocacy director, at a Washington forum, citing Rogge's pledge which he said was made in April 2002.

Kumar said the Chinese government itself promised to "enhance social conditions, including education, health and human rights" when it bid to host the Olympics.

"The IOC and the Chinese government are on trial today for the promises they gave," he said.

Rogge, in comments emailed to AFP in Beijing, said it was not within the Olympic movement's power to pressure China.

Kumar also challenged the United States, as a traditional champion of human rights, to explain its policy on the human rights record of Olympic host nations.

"It is time for the US to come clean on the Olympics and human rights," he said.