http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Olympic...EK4204620080807

BEIJING (Reuters) - More than 40 athletes competing in the Beijing Olympics have urged China to peacefully settle contention over Tibet and protect freedom of religion and opinion, rights groups said, raising pressure on the Games host.

The Games participants are among 127 international athletes reported to have signed a petition to Chinese President Hu Jintao, bringing sports and human rights together in a way that Beijing has often rejected as "politicizing" the Olympics.

The signatories ask Hu "to enable a peaceful solution for the issue of Tibet and other conflicts in your country with respect to fundamental principles of human rights", according to the letter issued late on Wednesday by Sports for Peace, Amnesty International and the International Campaign for Tibet.

They also press Hu for "freedom of expression, freedom of religion and freedom of opinion in your country, including Tibet", according to Sports for Peace's German website ( www.sportsforpeace.de ).

The reported signatories include Cuba's world record-holding hurdler Dayron Robles, a surprising gesture for an athlete from a Communist friend of China. Others include the U.S. 400 meter runner DeeDee Trotter and Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic.

Honestly, I don't really participate in threads like this .

But this is what I observe.

The more the world makes the fuss about China's human rights record and Tibet and stuff etc.., the more the CCP tightens the grip.

And honestly I think there is really nothing the rest of the world can do to China about that.

Even the Western leaders and the torch relay dramas cannot change China's stance then I don't know how much these 40 athletes can change.

The troll is back with another stupid thread. The more Western ignorant idiots that attempts to poop on the party, the more support CCP gets from the population.

Exactly, the people in the West just don't get it .

The more they stir up things, more good reasons for nationalism , more nationalism means more support for the CPC, more support means hold on to power much longer.

And they chose right in the time of the Olympics to stir up things, and they thought this will bring democracy ?

But I do agree with the Western press that the survival of the CPC depends on the support of the people, even if the 1989 event does a replay now or in 2010, I bet the CPC will not dare bring up tanks like they did before because the CPC would lose both internal and external support and Chinese economy would stop running, the private enterprises now accounts for a too large proportion of the economy, CPC has nothing to gain from another bloodshed.

But oh well, too bad the CPC is now further empowered by the people. And I bet the CPC now is whispering a big thank you to the Western media.

Only if they just reported the Tibet event with a bit more with truthfulness.

And this is the thing that the journalists, pro-democracy people just don't understand, this is not simply just the communist party comming out party, this games is also about the faith of 1.3 billion people, if this Games crash, aha I don't even dare to imagine what will happen, but I am pretty sure about one thing though, the wrath of 1.3 billions people won't be directed at the CPC.

So what? Words fall on deaf ears. :-) These jokers can shriek till they drop dead. And the Chinese people won't feel sorry for them. Case closed.

And the stupid Chinese posters keeps on responding.

To Those Chinese posters who keeps on responding to him YOU ARE ALL IDIOTS !

Why are these dumb idiots playing politics at the olypmic games--shouldnt the game be free from political bull-cra-p???

the "world media" are in a rush to put their fast diminishing influence in China to use.
their poking is ineffective, but China should have pushed up their cost to provoke.

I can agree that many western reporters did not do that. But this is not true for all of them. E.g my impression is that the reporters of the swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, that I read every day, have done a very good job. But they have been prevented by Chinese authorities. The same goes for Swedish radio and TV.




You obviously have no high thoughts of Chinese people.

You are obviously a troll. So I still haven't heard your defence for your father being retarded yet. Mr. Reverse Onus.

to: yuebaili3

If our country does not have the human rights, perhaps I already killed you

In fact, many western reporters(especially the German,france and Britain) try to attest their report by inaccurate pictures. Moreover these reportors always pay their attention to how the chinese cops arresting the rebels while ignore how these terrorists kill the common chinese people.
I think the best way to know tibet is taking a travel there without political purpose. You can see whether the tibet people are concerned with their lives or not.
moreover, we chinese people do not feel that we are limited in human rights. I admit china government is likely to control the media to some degree. However, the chinese people are more concerned with life standard rather than the damn useless expression freedom. we have different value system because the variance in history,culture, and tradition. our ancestors told us that personal rights even life is nothing when compared to national rights.
at last, our chinese peopel have experienced too much insults and bully by western nations 100 years ago(you could read chinese history). Now we are stronger and stronger, however, we only need respect and peace from the west. But some politicos are afraid of china's prosperity which is the reason why they try to vilify china
on behalf of all chinese young people