AFP: IOC urged to act over plans for pre-Olympic crackdown in China

Friday May 3, 12:02 PM

Two groups of Chinese dissidents have called on the IOC to review its decision to award the 2008 Olympics to Beijing after publishing what they described as evidence of plans for a crackdown in the run up to the Games.

In an open letter to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, two US-based groups urged the body to "meet at the earliest possible date to review new evidence and consider rescinding its decision to award the 2008 Games to China."

The groups, the Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China and the Free China Movement, released what they said was a report from authorities in Jilin province calling for a crackdown on all dissident groups, particularly the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, "in order to host a better and successful Olympics in 2008."

The report called for organisers of demonstrations to be swiftly arrested and "punished severely", sanctions of up to three years in custody and fines of 10,000 yuan (1,200 dollars) for offenders and for Falun Gong activists to be particularly harshly dealt with.

Jilin is one of the provinces where the Falun Gong has been most active ....

[...]

The appeal to the IOC follows recent hints from Rogge that China's human rights abuses could yet result in it being stripped of the Games.

"We are convinced that the Olympic Games will improve human rights in China," Rogge told the BBC.

"However the IOC is a responsible organisation and if either security, logistics or human rights are not acted upon to our satisfaction then we will act."

IOC officials have since played down the comments, denying that they amounted to a warning to China.

[...]

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/020503/1/2owpw.html

Reuters: China said to order Falun Gong crackdown before Olympics

Friday May 3, 6:26 PM

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has given police in a northeastern province the go-ahead to arrest followers of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement without warrants in a crackdown ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, a U.S.-based rights group said.

The Free China Movement faxed a copy of what it said was a document issued by the Public Security Bureau and Supreme Court of Jilin Province to Reuters late on Thursday, outlining the campaign which is to last from May 20 until the end of 2007.

The Free China Movement said the document showed that the International Olympic Committee had been "hoodwinked" into awarding the 2008 Games to China and that human rights conditions in China would only worsen.

"While the IOC decided to award China the 2008 Olympics based in part on the assumption that the human rights conditions in the country would improve as a result, this document clearly demonstrates that the reverse is happening -- that China is using the international games to launch a new wave of oppression against all forms of dissent in China," it said.

It was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the document, which was stamped with the official seals of the Jilin public security apparatus and top court. Police in Jilin contacted by Reuters said they had not seen the document.

[...]

It was to be sent to every city and county security bureau and court in the province, said the document, which authorised particularly harsh punishments for Falun Gong followers.

"Once they are found, they should be arrested first before making up the other arrest procedures," it said of the group's members.

Others who gather illegally in groups of 15 or more are subject to up to 15 days in detention and fines up to 1,000 yuan ($120). Those who attend and "do not show any remorse" can get three years in jail and be fined 10,000 yuan, it said. [...]

China was awarded the 2008 summer Games last July to the chagrin of some rights groups. Others said the games would encourage greater scrutiny of China's rights record and be a catalyst for change for the better.

[...]

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/reuters/asia-103273.html

Organization says cops told to squash protesters prior to 2008 Games

BEIJING, May 2 -- Telling police to "arrest them, then do the paperwork," China is girding for the 2008 Olympics by ordering a crackdown on Falun Gong and all other dissent in a northeastern province, according to a document that Chinese democracy activists say is an official decree.

It was not possible to independently verify the authenticity of the document released in the United States by the Free China Movement, a Washington-based group that opposed Beijing's selection to host the 2008 Summer Games.

The Free China Movement said the decree came from the highest levels of China's government. Andrew Nathan, a China scholar at Columbia University who co-edited "The Tiananmen Papers," about other Chinese government documents, said he believed the order was authentic.

The one-page order, directed to police bureaus and courts in Jilin, said it came from that northeastern province's police headquarters and top court. It appeared to sanction the arrest of Falun Gong practitioners even without formal warrants.

The Free China Movement faxed a photocopy of the document to reporters in Beijing.

[...]

The notice was not dated. But it ordered the campaign from May 20, 2000 -- 13 months after Beijing submitted its bid to the International Olympic Committee but before it was chosen -- until Dec. 30, 2007.

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It said the decree was obtained by the U.S.-based Committee for Investigation of Religious Persecution in China, which in February released scores of what China scholars said appeared to be genuine internal government documents.

[...]

The decree, titled "Notice on severely striking illegal organizations," bore two official-looking seals and said it was designed "to better welcome the smooth holding of the 2008 Olympic Games in our country" and "to stabilize social order."

The notice ordered that organizers of large protests "who refuse to mend their ways" be sentenced to up to three years' imprisonment and fined $1,200. Leaders of "illegal organizations," it added, "should be punished severely."

"Falun Gong practitioners and instigators should be cracked down upon to a greater degree," the order said. "First arrest them, then do the paperwork."

Christian Science Monitor: Falun Gong said targeted in Olympic document

Posted: Thursday, May 2, 1:07pm EDT

A document that appears to be authentic orders police and the courts in parts of China to prepare for the 2008 Olympic Summer Games by targeting Falun Gong followers for arrest without warrant, heavy fines, and imprisonment. The directive, which US-based Chinese democracy activists said came from the highest levels of government, also applies to organizers of large gatherings or protests. The leak coincided with the visit to the US of Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao.

http://www.csmonitor.com/newsinbrief/brieflies.html