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Monday, April 30, 2007

Report Faults China On Rights Failures

Olympics an Excuse for Arrests, Amnesty Says

Washington Post Foreign Service by Maureen Fan April 30, 2007 -Amnesty International and others said the Olympics provide a rare opportunity to effect change in this image-conscious nation.

"It's only about a year to go and we don't see any genuine effort by the Chinese administration to improve human rights," said T. Kumar, advocacy director for Asia and the Pacific for Amnesty International. "The efforts they're taking are stopgap -- the public statement about extra review for the death penalty, the additional movement for international journalists. It's just enough to keep the criticism at bay."

Kumar added: "If we don't make any structural improvements before the Olympics, it could be worse afterwards. No one is going to pay attention once the glamour and attention and the Olympics are gone."(more)

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