(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: IOC Selection of Host City for the 2008 Olympics A dozen opponents of “Beijing 2008”, including two representatives of Reporters without Borders, arrested by Russian police In an urgent letter addressed to the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Juan Antonio Samaranch, Reporters sans frontières […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
IOC Selection of Host City for the 2008 Olympics
A dozen opponents of “Beijing 2008”, including two representatives of Reporters without Borders, arrested by Russian police
In an urgent letter addressed to the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Juan Antonio Samaranch, Reporters sans frontières (RSF; Reporters without Borders) strongly protested against the arrest of its two representatives, Alexandre Levy and Vincent Brossel, by Russian police on the morning of 13 July in Moscow.
“Just in front of the International Olympic Committee’s building, defenders of human rights and their opinions were stifled by a police state. Is this just a dress-rehearsal for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when journalists and opponents of the Chinese regime who dare broach the human rights situation in China will be locked up?” asks Robert Ménard in his letter to Juan Antonio Samaranch. “We are also surprised that none of the letters we have sent you in recent weeks, drawing your attention to the seriousness of the human rights situation in China, have received the slightest response from you, and that the president of the committee in charge of promoting Olympic ideals apparently is so unconcerned about the concerns of those who defend individual liberties,” added Robert Ménard.
Russian police arrested 14 protesters on Friday 13 July, including two representatives of Reporters without Borders, Alexandre Levy and Vincent Brossel, who were demonstrating against the possible selection of Beijing as the host city for the 2008 Olympic Games. The demonstrators were attempting to unfurl a banner in front of the conference centre where the International Olympic Committee was meeting when they were arrested and dragged into a minibus by Russian OMON riot police. A Tibetan monk and several Russian human rights activists, including Alexandre Podriabinek, editor of the newspaper Khronika-Express, and Nikolaï Khramov, the coordinator of the “Russian Transradical Party”, were among the first nine people arrested. Five other demonstrators were arrested a few minutes later, after having their passports confiscated, and were then taken away from the site.
Previously, on 11 July, Moscow riot police arrested six exiled Tibetans and Maxim Marmur, a photographer with AP.
Representatives of RSF are currently in Moscow to express the organisation’s opinion, while Beijing is considered the front-runner for the selection as host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics.
RSF has organised a press and poster campaign against the possible selection of Beijing as host city for the 2008 Summer Olympics. “China: Gold medal for human rights violations,” says the RSF poster, beneath the image of handcuffs in the form of the Olympic rings. RSF, together with Solidarité Chine and the Comité de soutien au peuple tibétain, sent a report on human rights violations in China to all members of the IOC. RSF activists have also carried out several actions against Beijing’s candidacy, including one during the Lausanne track meet on 4 July 2001, and during a track meet at the Stade de France on 6 July.
For further information, contact Jean Christophe-Menet at RSF, 5, rue Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51, e-mail: europe@rsf.fr, Internet: http://www.rsf.fr
