奥运选手应表达道德立场 Beijing athletes urged to speak out on human rights

奥运选手应表达道德立场 Beijing athletes urged to speak out on human rights

Paul Kelso The Guardian, Saturday May 31 2008 Article history

Athletes in the Beijing Olympics should use the platform they provide to speak out against China's continued human rights abuses, according to John Amaechi, an ambassador for London's successful 2012 bid who today takes on a similar role with Amnesty International.

Amaechi, who was raised in Stockport but made his name at the pinnacle of American sport in the National Basketball Association, will travel to Beijing as Amnesty's official sporting ambassador.

He will attempt to highlight what Amnesty claims is China's failure to deliver on the human rights reforms promised when bidding for the games, and will press athletes to do likewise. Amaechi is also scheduled to provide commentary for the BBC while in Beijing, a platform that may allow him to speak out.

Speaking to the Guardian, Amaechi said that athletes with any doubts about the Chinese regime had a duty as Olympians to raise their concerns publicly.

"I would encourage athletes not to distract themselves by burying themselves in the nuance and facts and figures and legislation of China, but simply to acknowledge that being an ambassador for human rights in China is the most Olympian thing to do. Anything less than that is not being a true Olympian, no matter the colour of the medal that you hold up," he said.

The International Olympic Committee is acutely concerned about the prospect of athletes criticising China and will remind all teams of their responsibilities under the Olympic charter, which outlaws "propaganda". Earlier this year the British Olympic Association was forced to abandon a clause in its athletes contract that would have prevented competitors from speaking about political issues.

Amaechi, who last year became the first NBA star to come out as gay, contends that the Olympic charter compels athletes to take a moral stance. "I've read the Olympic charter and when you read it, it is quite clear that it expects from athletes something more than being hugely talented beasts of burden," he said.

"It expects that sport be more than entertainment of the masses. It demands that they are intended to be a tool for wholesale change in the lives of individuals and groups." He called on the IOC to do more to pressure China into reform. "If you have the power to make the world better then that's something you should do, particularly when it is directly in line with your charter. To ignore those ideals so as not to embarrass a host compromises the movement."

Amaechi's appointment as a sporting ambassador is a coup for Amnesty, which maintains that China has failed to deliver promised reforms to the use of the death penalty, the justice system, media freedoms and the right of ordinary Chinese to express dissent.

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: "Amnesty International is delighted John Amaechi has chosen to work with us. We hope John's involvement will help encourage fellow sportsmen, the Olympic authorities and the thousands of press due to descend on the games to take a closer look at the appalling human rights record of the Chinese authorities. It is only through public scrutiny that we can hope to achieve a lasting legacy of human rights for the people of China."

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前中国国家男篮球星期待北京奥运焦距中国党政非法罪犯性质 Ex-China basketball star says Olympics are platform for change

Feb 16, 2008

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Olympians who speak freely about politics and human rights while in China for the Beijing Games may be doing their Chinese counterparts a favour, says a former national basketball team member.

"People should remind the Chinese athletes that they are being brainwashed," said Chen Kai, a member of China's men's basketball team in the 1970s. "The Chinese athletes are nothing but tools and lackeys of the state."

Chen has made trips to Taiwan and Germany in recent months to get his message across, speaking to sports associations about the ritualized conformity of China's secretive national sports programme.

Chen, who took part in anti-government protests in Tiananmen Square, competed for China at the 1978 World Basketball Championships in Manila but missed out on the 1980 Olympics when China boycotted the Moscow Games.

He is the first Chinese athlete to give a rare glimpse into the secretive world of China's elite athletic establishment.

"Inside China nobody knows about Tiananmen Square unless they lived through it," Chen said. "These athletes are all too young to remember it and nobody talks about it."

Chen has tried to use his platform as a former athlete to open dialogue on matters such as the Tiananmen Square massacre. The former officer in the People's Liberation Army recently published a book 'One in a Billion: Journey Toward Freedom - Story of a Pro Basketball Player in China'.

He said the latest controversy involving the British Olympic Association's plan to prevent all British competitors from commenting on "politically sensitive issues" during the August 8-24 Beijing Games plays into the hands of China's authoritarian regime.

"There will be huge political and financial earthquakes during the Olympics," Chen predicted.(Back then I never thought there would be a real earthquake as what happened three months after I uttered those words.-- Kai Chen)

Chen launched the Olympic Freedom T-shirt Global Movement last summer and boasts that some of his anti-Chinese Government T-shirts have already been smuggled into mainland China.

The shirts feature the words 'Beijing 1989 Tiananmen, Beijing 2008 Olympics' with blood dripping from the letters. They are exactly the kind of attire that might get any athlete caught wearing one during the games, a flight on the next plane home.

United States Olympic Committee spokesman Darryl Seibel said American athletes aren't going to be censored but they should follow the Olympic Charter's rule 51 which deals with protests on official Olympic sites and venues.

"We are not imposing any restrictions or prohibitions on free speech," Seibel told AFP.

"For every Olympic Games we provide our athletes with a basic understanding of history and culture of the host country. In this case it is China.

"We don't go as far as to tell them how they should answer questions."

Chris Rudge, chief executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee, said Canadian athletes won't be asked to sign any documents restricting speech but they are expected to use common sense in Beijing.

"We are certainly not going to give them a check list with don't say this or don't say that," Rudge told AFP on Friday.

"We think they will conduct themselves appropriately."

Canadian Olympians are informed before every Summer and Winter Games on the host country's history and traditions, Rudge said.

"Every country has its local challenges," Rudge said. "We will brief our athletes before and the during the Games on culture and safety."