World governments must hold China to account on human rights abuses

British MP commends Spielberg’s stance in resigning as Olympics adviser
[London UK, Wednesday 13 February] Following Steven Spielberg’s resignation as “a matter of conscience” from his role as artistic director for the Beijing Olympics, Norman Baker, MP, President of the Tibet Society UK, commended his action and commented, “Steven Spielberg is right to remind the world that China, as a major world power, cannot ignore the human rights tragedy in Darfur and pretend that trade is everything and human rights don't count. But the world needs to remind China that it is not only its dealings with Africa that raise concerns.

“First and foremost, let us remember that China has illegally occupied Tibet for almost 50 years now, and continually inflicted appalling human rights abuses on the Tibetan people, abuses that if anything are intensifying in the run-up to the Olympics. China needs to explain to the world why basic human rights - the right to worship freely, the right to demonstrate peacefully, the right to call for an end to Chinese occupation and not only banned but that those who seek to exercise them are treated with brutality.

"In this Olympic year, the world needs to hold China to account not only for its amoral stance in Africa but for the abuses it itself perpetrates in Tibet."

The Tibet Society urges Prime Minister Gordon Brown to also act on behalf of all those in China and Tibet who continue to suffer human rights abuses and to call on both the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government to adhere to the pledges of improving human rights so freely given when the Olympics were awarded to China. It appears these pledges have now been conveniently forgotten and brushed under the carpet in the run up to the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee’s proud proclamation that the Olympics would be a “force for good” is in danger of ridicule as China continues to clamp down on its citizens and whitewashes its appalling record.

Human rights is not a political issue, it is a fundamental humanitarian principle. As a man of moral integrity, surely it is time for Gordon Brown to speak out on behalf of those who can’t and call on China to make good its pledges?