Anti-Beijing demonstrators picket IOC building

Adrian Warner

Tibetan exiles demonstrated against Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympics outside IOC headquarters on Tuesday before the release of a key evaluation report on the Chinese capital's plans.

The demonstrators attached banners to trees in front of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) building on the banks of Lake Geneva and held up placards and flags.

One of the banners portrayed a Tibetan monk with his hands cuffed behind his back by the five Olympic rings. "No Olympics in China before the liberty of Tibet," the banner read.

Beijing is regarded as the favourite of the five cities bidding to win July's vote on the 2008 venue ahead of strong contenders Paris and Toronto and outsiders Osaka and Istanbul.

The IOC evaluation commission, whose members have visited all five cities in the last few months, was due to publish its report on the technical aspects of each bid at 1200 GMT.

Beijing holds strong cards although it has yet to build many of the planned facilities for the Games.

China is an attractive commercial market for the blue-chip sponsors who back the Olympics and the IOC has an opportunity to make history by giving Beijing the Olympics for the first time.

HUMAN RIGHTS
But the ghost of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre helped to derail the Chinese capital's bid for the 2000 Games which were awarded to Sydney.

Concerns over human rights have started to dog its campaign again in the last few months. China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since 1950.

Leaders of the Tibetan group were allowed into IOC headquarters to hand in a petition with 6,000 signatures although they did not meet president Juan Antonio Samarnach who was attending a meeting of the IOC's executive board.

Later the demonstrators started shouting slogans such as "No Olympics for China" which could be clearly heard in the heart of the IOC building.

Officials from the five bids have come to Switzerland for the release of the report but senior Beijing officials were not in the building at the time of the demonstration.

Yangzom Brauen, president of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe, said the demonstrators planned to continue their protests in Moscow where the IOC will choose the venue of the 2008 Games at a meeting of all members on July 13.

"If they choose China we will go on for the next seven years," she said.

"Every year presidents of every country go to China and talk about human rights and we have never seen any changes. I can't believe the Olympic Games will change China's attitude."

HUMAN RIGHTS
Last week the Dalai Lama, who fled to India from Tibet in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, travelled to 2002 Winter Games hosts Salt Lake City seeking support for Tibetan autonomy and respect for human rights by Beijing.

He said China should only be allowed to stage the Olympics if the award would advance the cause of human rights.

In March a bipartisan coalition of U.S. lawmakers asked the IOC to reject the Beijing bid because of human rights concerns.

The message coming from the IOC has been that politicians should stay out of Olympic matters and IOC members should be allowed to make their own decisions on human rights.

Some members argue that giving the Games to China could force the country to improve its record.