By IRNA
Berlin : The German government opposes US calls for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, China, over the human rights in that country.
Asked about his reaction to demands by the US Congress to boycott the Chinese Olympics, the human rights coordinator of the German government, Guenter Nooke told the Hamburg-based Welt newspaper on Thursday, “I think nothing of it at all.”
The German official stressed China had fulfilled the criteria of the International Olympic Committee (OIC) to host the Olympics.
US legislators have introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for a boycott of the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing unless it “stops engaging in serious human rights abuses,” American news reports said Tuesday.
Supported initially by eight lawmakers from President George W Bush’s Republican party, the resolution also urges China to “stop supporting serious human rights abuses by the governments’ of Sudan, Myanmar and North Korea.
The resolution is slated to be discussed by the House foreign affairs committee when legislators return from their summer break in early September.
Comparing the 2008 games to the Berlin 1936 Olympics, which took place at the time of the peak of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, the resolution said “the integrity of the host country is of the utmost importance so as not to stain the participating athletes or the character of the games.”
The Beijing Games will kick off on August 8, 2008.