KEY POINTS:
With just over a year to go until the Beijing Olympics, human rights groups have slammed a growing crackdown on Chinese human rights activists and journalists as well as the continued use of 'laojiao' or 're-education through labour' and other forms of detention without trial.
Activists have also attacked the way in which people are being forced out of their homes in traditional hutong laneways to make way for Olympic developments, often without getting adequate compensation. And they say Beijing has failed to meet its promises on ensuring media freedom.
The one-year countdown starts today but the chorus of disapproval from human rights groups shows the huge public relations challenge the organisers face.
Amnesty International said in a report issued yesterday that while positive steps have been made, namely reform of the death penalty system and greater reporting freedom for foreign journalists, it remained concerned these were overshadowed by other negative developments.
"The image of the Olympics continues to be tarnished by ongoing reports of the 'house arrest', torture or unfair trial of Chinese activists and the extension of systems for detention without trial in Beijing as part of the city's 'clean-up' ahead of August 2008," Amnesty said in the report.
Amnesty's release came as six activists were detained yesterday after scaling down a part of the Great Wall with a large banner that read "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008", the London-based Free Tibet Campaign and Students for a Free Tibet said in an email statement.
And on Monday, police detained journalists at a rare protest in Beijing staged by a free-press advocacy group that accused the Chinese government of failing to meet pledges for greater media freedom. The detentions, which came during a visit to Beijing by International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, followed the unfurling of posters depicting the Olympic rings made from handcuffs by members of Reporters Without Borders on a pedestrian bridge outside the headquarters of the Beijing Olympics planning committee.
Rogge repeated his oft-cited mantra that the games would be a "significant force for good", but could hardly be expected to resolve all the issues facing the country. And he reiterated that the IOC was a sports organisation first and foremost.
"We are not a government, we are not the representative of all the NGOs of the world.
"We believe the Games are going to move ahead the agenda of the social and human rights as far as possible, the Games are going to be a force for good. But the Games are not a panacea."
He said it was "absolutely legitimate" for non-governmental organisations and human rights groups to bring attention to their causes both now and when the games take place.
But members of Reporters Without Borders said the authorities had "kidnapped" the event.
Wearing tee-shirts showing the Olympic rings turned into handcuffs, four activists from the media freedom group held an unauthorised news conference outside the organisers headquarters in Beijing.
"You cannot hold such a big sports event as the Olympic Games in the shadow of Chinese prisons," the group's secretary-general Robert Menard said.
"The authorities have kidnapped these games. The official slogan, 'One world, one dream,' sounds more and more hollow.
"This is not about spoiling the party, quite the contrary. But Beijing has not kept its promises to improve the human rights situation and yet continues cynically to refer to the Olympic spirit."
There was an example of censorship of foreign media at work yesterday when a CNN broadcast which referred to the issue of media freedom in China was blocked by censors.
A senior member of the Beijing organising committee, Jiang Xiaoyu, said he was unworried by the criticisms, and pointed to the positive response to regulations introduced at the start of the year to ease reporting restrictions for foreign journalists.
"We have already heard many different voices from many different sides, and we are mentally prepared for these voices to get louder and even reach a crescendo," he said.
"But we absolutely oppose the politicisation of the Olympics, as this does not accord with the Olympic spirit," said Mr Jiang.
Mr Rogge said his main concern was the environment and particularly air pollution in the Chinese capital, but he said he was confident that measures undertaken by the Beijing government to rid the city of pollution over the last few years and special measures in August next year would deliver clean air.
- INDEPENDENT
Amnesty says
* China continues to restrict press freedoms and lock up journalists, political dissidents and activists despite pledges to liberalise made when bidding to stage the games.
* China's frequent use of the death penalty remains shrouded in secrecy.
* Police are increasingly using their powers of detention without trial to deal with critics and undesirables, intensifying abuses against human rights activists, and harassing the lawyers and legal advisers who seek to protect them.
* The report's release comes a day after police detained journalists at a rare protest in Beijing staged by a free-press advocacy group that accused the Chinese government of failing to meet pledges for greater media freedom, and on the same day Chinese police detained six protesters who unveiled a banner on the Great Wall calling for a free Tibet.
