By AFP
Beijing : International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge insisted Friday that the Beijing Games were on track as he sought to draw a line under a week overshadowed by worldwide protests linked to Tibet.
With the Olympic flame now in Buenos Aires, the IOC executive board discussed whether future relays should be curtailed to avert demonstrations similar to those seen in London, Paris and San Francisco in recent days.
The protests were just some of the issues that distracted the IOC, along with Chinese allegations that terrorists planned to kidnap athletes and a global debate over a possible boycott of the Beijing Games.
However, Rogge wrapped up a week of meetings in Beijing by praising the “excellent” preparations for the Olympics, despite the protest-hit torch relay. “Here and there are small details to be fine-tuned but I am saying that the level of preparedness … is really excellent and we are very happy about the proceedings,” he said.
Rogge’s closing comments came after he urged China’s communist rulers Thursday to honour their Olympic commitments and improve their human rights record. Beijing responded by telling the IOC to keep politics out of the Games.
Pro-Tibet demonstrators have disrupted the torch relay throughout the week and Buenos Aires was braced for trouble Friday as the flame arrived on the latest leg of its international relay. Just before the procession started, rival pro-Tibet and pro-China demonstrators faced off along the route in the centre of the Argentine capital.
Police moved apart the rival groups, each numbering around 50, after the confrontations threatened to degenerate into scuffles. Around a dozen Chinese residents sang China’s national anthem and waved red Chinese flags. Protests during earlier legs had sparked a debate in the IOC over whether the flame’s global journey should be cut short.
But Rogge said late Friday that the IOC and the Beijing organisers would stand firm and there would be no change to the relay, adding: “The IOC affirms that the torch relay will go through Tibet.”
On the subject of security for the iconic flame, IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies earlier said: “The organisers did explain today… that they will strengthen their work around mitigating any potential risks that may come in future stops.”
Meanwhile, US President George W Bush said that his plans to attend the summer Games “haven’t changed,” but left unclear whether he would attend the opening ceremonies in Beijing. “I view this as an opportunity to support US athletes. And my plans haven’t changed,” Bush, who has never said whether he will be at the early August kick-off gala, told ABC television in an interview on his Texas ranch.
He has come under pressure from human rights groups, some of his Democratic critics, and even his Republican party’s presumptive White House nominee, to skip the event in protest over China’s human rights record, its crackdown in Tibet, and support for Sudan despite the crisis in Darfur. “This isn’t a new issue for me. Every time I meet with the Chinese president — and I’ve met a lot with him — I bring up religious freedom and human rights,” Bush told ABC.
Asked whether his presence at the Olympics sent a message to the world, Bush shot back: “Yeah. It says I’m supporting our athletes is what it says. And I don’t view the Olympics as a political event. I view it as a sporting event.”
Violence erupted in Tibet on March 14 after days of peaceful protests in the capital Lhasa against 57 years of Chinese rule and quickly spilled over into other parts of China inhabited by Tibetans. Exiled Tibetan leaders say 150 people have died in the Chinese crackdown on the demonstrations. China insists it has acted with restraint and killed no one, while blaming Tibetan “rioters” for the deaths of 20 people.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged China on Friday to open the troubled Himalayan region up to journalists and diplomats. “We have been very concerned about the closed nature of all of this, the lack of transparency,” she told reporters in Washington. “It’s important that journalists be able to get in, it’s important that diplomatic personnel be able to get into Tibet so that there can be independent reporting about what’s going on there.”
Rice, other US officials and EU leaders have repeatedly urged China to act with restraint against protesters there and open a dialogue with Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.