July 25, 2001
While athletes are already looking ahead to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, a small group of Czech politicians is determined to boycott the games if China fails to improve its record on human rights.
The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) July 13 decision to award the Games to China for the first time was roundly criticized by international rights groups who consider the country's [party' name omitted] leadership cruel and repressive.
But in the Czech Republic, where memories of communism remain vivid, it was high government officials who opposed the decision most vocally.
"Were the Games to take place in Beijing now, we would consider it a travesty of the Olympic ideal," said Senate Deputy Chairman Jan Ruml at a press conference July 19.
He was joined by Michael Zantovsky, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, and Karel Schwarzenberg, a nobleman who was President Havel's first chief of staff, in calling for close monitoring of democratic reform in China over the next five years.
They said that a new organization, the Committee for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in a Free and Democratic Country, will work closely with other international groups to follow the progress of human-rights issues in China.
Ruml and Zantovsky are both members of the center-right Quad Coalition, among the favorites to show well in next year's crucial parliamentary elections. Schwarzenberg has hinted he may form a political party of his own.
If the human-rights situation in China does not drastically improve, they say, the IOC should stage the games elsewhere. If it fails to do so, the local group will call on respective national Olympic committees to boycott the games.
While officials at the U.S. State Department, the European Parliament and the French National Assembly have issued similar statements, Ruml and the others -- who did not speak on behalf of the government or political parties -- said they were the first to call for a possible boycott.
"Those of us who know firsthand what an undemocratic regime is capable of have a greater responsibility to take action," Schwarzenberg said.
The decision to hold the Games in Beijing is seen by many as an opportunity to pressure China into developing democratic reforms. Rights groups estimate the regime has executed 1,700 of its citizens since April.
China had bid for the 2000 Olympics but lost out to Sydney in the wake of the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in which pro-democracy protesters were fired on by troops. Media accounts put the death toll at more than 500.
"There is hope that because of these Olympics, China will at last open itself to the world," said Daniela Kralova, press spokesperson for Amnesty International's Prague office.
She said her organization welcomes the announcement by Ruml and the others. "If China sees that others are watching," she said, "it could help."
But in Beijing, where the IOC's decision was met with jubilant celebrations, there were indications that at least some Chinese officials viewed receiving the Games as an acceptance of current policies.
On July 17, Chinese Deputy Premier Li Lanqing called winning the Olympics bid "the international community's affirmation of our country's social stability, social progress, economic prosperity and the people's healthy lives."
The current controversy reminded some Olympics officials of the Cold War, when political standoffs twice marred the Games.
In 1980, the United States and 61 other Western nations boycotted the Winter Games in Moscow following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. Then in 1984, the Soviets struck back by refusing to attend the Los Angeles Summer Games.
"We are very concerned," said Milan Jirasek, president of the Czech Olympics Committee. "But the decision [to hold the games in Beijing] was made and now we are obliged to push China in the right direction."
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A political prisoner under communism, Ruml is skeptical of China's willingness to reform.
"Only China itself will decide whether the fears, or alternately the hopes, associated with this decision materialize," he said. "For the rest of us, the task will be to follow the developments of the next seven years."
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