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Bush defends decision to attend Olympic Games' opening ceremony
Turkmenistan News.Net
Sunday 6th July, 2008 (IANS)
US President George W. Bush defended Sunday his decision to attend the opening ceremony of next month's Olympic Games in Beijing, saying not to go would mean offending the Chinese people.
'It would be an offence against the Chinese people if I didn't go,' Bush said in Japan after holding a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
The US president also vowed to reassure critics by saying he would raise the issue of human rights violations during his meetings with Chinese officials while in Beijing.
The White House officially ended months of uncertainty Thursday by confirming that Bush planned to attend the Aug 8 event.
A number of European leaders are refusing to go because of China's treatment of protesters in Tibet during recent demonstrations in the region.
Bush was in Japan to attend a Group of Eight summit due to open Monday in the northern island of Hokkaido.  Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
Anonymous
07-06-08, 10:33 AM |
Bush defends decision to attend Olympic Games' opening ceremony
Can anybody explain in more specific term what it means by china’s treatment of protesters in tibet. What is it to protest? Was it the nepalis or indian police’s harsh treatment or the killing of innocent girls burned alive by rioting tugs? I think we should protest the chinese government for not stopping the riot ealier enough, they should have shoot those rioting tugs that carry weapon, instead of letting them knifing and burning shops with people in there. Even though these tugs worship Dalai Lama.
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waltky
08-17-08, 12:52 AM |
Even during Olympics China brutalizes Tibetans...
:mad:
Dalai Lama: China mistreating Tibetans during Games
Sat Aug 16, 2008 - The Dalai Lama said on Saturday China was mistreating and torturing civilians in Tibet while the Olympic Games were going on.
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“Unfortunately the Olympic spirit is not being respected at all by Chinese officials in Tibet," he said in an interview on France’s TF1 television, when asked if the tradition of an Olympic truce was being respected. “There are restrictions on the circulation of information, very strong censorship," he said. “Civilians are often arrested, violently tortured to the point where they die. It’s really very, very sad," he said.
The Dalai Lama is on a two-week visit to France, mostly focused on religious commitments. He has made few political comments but he criticized China’s actions in Tibet at a meeting on Wednesday with French legislators. The visit has triggered a domestic row in France, where critics accuse President Nicolas Sarkozy of caving into Chinese pressure by declining to meet him.
On Saturday he met Sarkozy’s challenger in last year’s presidential election, Segolene Royal, who said she intended to visit Tibet. Foreign activists have staged a number of protests in Beijing to highlight what they say is repression of Tibetans in the Himalayan region but the Dalai Lama has appealed to supporters not to disrupt the Games.
[url:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSLG68555620080816[/url]
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