Rogge Says IOC Won't Push China on Tibet

[April 12, 2008]  BEIJING (AP) -- The International Olympic Committee will not intervene to pressure China on Tibet or other political issues in the countdown to the Beijing Games.

IOC president Jacques Rogge reiterated that stance Friday, saying it was not up to the Olympic body to get involved in the host country's political affairs.

"This is the line we do not have to cross," he said at the close of a two-day IOC executive board meeting in the Chinese capital.

China's recent crackdown in Tibet has fueled protests that have disrupted the global torch relay for the Beijing Games. Rogge has expressed hope for a peaceful resolution of the turmoil in the Himalayan region. But he said Thursday that he would not press China to open talks on Tibet, calling that a "political matter in which the IOC cannot enter."

"This is a sovereign matter for China to decide," he added.

Rogge, who met Wednesday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, described the talks as "very useful ... frank and open and candid."

"The IOC expressed its view to the prime minister concerning the preparation of the Olympic Games," he said. "It was definitely a good meeting for the outcome of the preparation of the Olympic Games."

Also Friday, China expressed indignation at a U.S. congressional resolution calling on Beijing to stop cracking down on Tibetan dissent and talk to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu labeled the resolution passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives anti-Chinese, saying it "twisted Tibet's history and modern reality ... seriously hurting the feelings of the Chinese people."

"The Chinese side expresses its strong indignation and resolute opposition toward this," Jiang said in a statement posted on the ministry's Web site.

The resolution sponsored by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on Beijing to "end its crackdown on nonviolent Tibetan protesters," along with cultural, religious, economic and linguistic "repression."

In Tibet, the recent demonstrations against 50 years of Chinese rule have been the largest and most sustained in almost two decades. The Dalai Lama said he has always supported China's hosting of the Olympics, but Beijing cannot suppress protests in Tibet with violence.

Despite the torch protests, the Olympic relay will go through Tibet as planned, Rogge said. The flame is scheduled to be taken to the summit of Mount Everest in May and return in June to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

"We have agreed to a route for the torch that goes through Tibet," Rogge said. "This is a position that the IOC confirmed yesterday."

Rogge appeared more upbeat than on Thursday, when he declared the Olympics were in "crisis" because of the torch relay disruptions and politically charged buildup to the Aug. 8-24 games.

Asked when the crisis would end, he smiled and said, "I have no crystal ball but I'm optimistic the games will be a great success."

The relay encountered anti-China protests in London, Paris, San Francisco and elsewhere. The torch was carried through Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Friday amid heavy security.

Rogge said the protests were driven by the media attention attached to the Olympics.

"It is clear that it is the importance of the Olympic Games that attracts the events we are seeing now," he said. "In the lead-up of the games, you have a very increased media attention. Today, I'm quite sure I can say that no one is attacking the games, but some are using the games."

Rogge said he has asked Chinese leaders to fulfill the "moral pledges" they made during their winning bid for the games seven years ago, including progress on human rights.

Rogge played down the prospect of world leaders skipping or boycotting the opening ceremony in a show of protest against China's policies.

"If that eventually would happen - and I repeat wait and see - I think that the athletes will be disappointed because the athletes of a particular nation would not have their political leaders applauding them," he said. "But even that would not harm the quality and success of the games for the games are about the athletes."

There has been no push for a sports boycott.

"The sport movement says no to a boycott," Rogge said. "I'm saying adamantly that public opinion around the world does not want a boycott. They are against a boycott because they know that the only victims are the athletes themselves and the athletes are innocent."

Rogge spoke a day after the Chinese government said police uncovered a criminal ring in the western Xinjiang region that planned to kidnap athletes, foreign journalists and others at the Beijing Games.

Rogge had no comment on that specific case, but added, "We have received reassurances from BOCOG and the authorities that there will be the necessary and appropriate level of security for the games."

Chinese state media, meanwhile, labeled a group linked to the Dalai Lama's India-based government-in-exile a "terrorist organization" - building on claims that recent anti-Chinese protests were part of a violent campaign to overthrow Chinese rule and sabotage the Olympics.

The congress organized recent protests in India and elsewhere overseas coinciding with demonstrations inside Tibet that began peacefully on March 10 among Buddhist monks in Lhasa before spiraling into violence four days later.

Scholars say the Chinese accusations help the government justify its crackdown and demonize the opposition, while driving a wedge between the government-in-exile and groups like the Tibetan Youth Congress that have challenged the Dalai Lama's policy of nonviolence.

TYC Vice President Dhondup Dorji said China had no evidence for the claim.

"The Chinese officials, after seeing that the Tibetan Youth Congress is the most potential force today in the peaceful movement in exile, have been trying to brand it as a terrorist organization for many years without any basis," he told The Associated Press.

[Associated Press; By STEPHEN WILSON]

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