Page A4
August 22,2001
(Eipr JJortlanò (fibecruer
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Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect or represent the views
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Chinese Olympics a Setback For Human Rights
“¡ j î a r t l a n i t
Congress’ failure to object is reminiscent of Nazi Olympics of 1936
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F or the P ortland O bserver
T he R epublican leaders in C on
gress have again dem onstrated the
d ish o n esty o f th eir p a rty ’s so-
called “com passionate conserva
tism .”
Last m onth, as the International
O lym pics C om m ittee prepared to
m eet in M oscow to decide w hether
to site the 2008 gam es in C anada,
France or C hina, G O P leaders re
fused to allow a vote on a resolu
tio n c o n d e m n in g th e B e ijin g
selection.
H ouse C oncurrent Resolution
73 w as introduced in A pril by C on
gressman Tom Lantos, D-Calif. The
m easure stipulated that C h in a's
selection as host site be contin
gent on the P eo p le’s R epublic o f
China releasing all political prison
ers, ratifying the International Cov
enant on C ivil and Political Rights
and observing internationally rec
ognized hum an rights.
Supporters quoted from official
state departm ent findings that said
C hina continues to restrict free
dom ofreligion. For example, Falun
G ong practitioners w ere said to be
subject to police beatings, deten
tion u nder extrem ely harsh condi
tions, and torture.
C hina w as also accused o f vio
lence against w om en. an d o fb ein g
coercive in its family planningprac-
tices - w hich som etim es included
forced abortion and forced steril
ization.
T he C hinese governm ent w as
also said to restrict w orker rights
and use forced labor in prison fa
cilities.
T he Inform ation C enter for Hu
man Rights and Democracy, a Hong
K ong-based group, alleges that at
least 10,000 m em bers o f the Falun
G ong are beging held in m ore than
300 labor cam ps and that 98 have
been killed.
T he O lym pic co m m ittee’s rea
soning for aw arding the gam es to
China, in short, w as that this w ould
e n c o u r a g e th e “ B u tc h e rs o f
T iananm en S quare’’ to clean up
their act.
B ut ju st a w eek after leading the
com m ittee dow n the prim rose path,
C hinese leaders show ed their true
c o lo r s , a g a in a t B e i j i n g ’s
T iananm en Square, by subduing a
handful o f Falun G ong protestors.
Holding the 1936SummerOlym-
pics in N azi G erm any d id n ’t lead
H itler to clean up his act either.
C oncentration cam ps w ere “ in
b u sin ess” w ell before the opening
cerem ony on Aug. 1 o f that year.
M ore than a year earlier, trade
unionists rallied in N ew Y ork C ity
to bo y co tt the 1936 gam es.
A rally p o ste r u rg ed “ trad e
unionists” to help “liberate the race,
religious, labor and other anti-N azi
prisoners held in N azi co n cen tra
tion cam ps!”
A nd ju st tw o w eeks before the
opening cerem ony, there w as a
“clean up” by B erlin p o lice w ith
som e 800 G ypsies im prisoned in a
“cam p” w ithin the city.
T h a t A u g u s t, w h ile J e s s e
O w ens, the leg en d ary A frican-
A merican athlete w as w inning four
(Above) A photograph from a Nazi Party lecture on genetics and
race, two years before the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, focuses on
one o f 500 children in Germany viewed by the Nazis as racially
inferior to their Germanic classmates.
(Left) Jesse Owens, the legendary African-American athlete, won
four gold medals in the Berlin Olympics o f 1936 under the cloud
o f Nazi Germany and Adolph Hitler's racist regime.
O lym pic gold m edals, a huge co n
centration cam p w as u n d er co n
struction o utside Berlin.
W hen the cam p opened in the
fall, the p riso n ers co n sisted o f
political o pponents o f the N azi re
gim e, including liberals, socialists,
and com m unists, as wel 1 as several
hundred Je h o v ah ’s W itnesses.
O ne o f the m ost p o ig n an t pho
tos o f this era w as o f an A frican-
G erm an g irl stan d in g w ith her
“A ryan” classmates. Nazi Germany
used this photo in a lecture on
genetics and race and to ju stify a
policy o f forced sterilization o f
people the N azis view ed as racially
inferior.
T his girl was one o f about 500
teenagers referred to as “Rhineland
b astards,” w hose m others w ere
G erm ans and fathers w ere A frican
soldiers o f F rench colonial troops
sta tio n e d in the R h in elan d , in
so u th w estern G erm an y , in the
years after W orld W ar I.
I w onder how m any o f the m ore
than 300 C hinese “ labor cam ps"
today will still be in operation in the
su m m erof2008?
I w onder how m any o f these
“ labor cam ps” w ill be m anufactur
ing products for sale in the U nited
States in violation o f federal law
banning the im portation o f goods
produced by slave labor?
I w onder how m any o fth e thou
sands o f reporters in B eijing dur
ing the 2008 O lym pics w ill bother
o r even b e perm itted to leave their
a ir- c o n d itio n e d a n d sa n itiz e d
O lym pic V illage hotels to find out
the an sw er to these tw o questions?
Former State Sen. Walt Brown,
a retired U.S. Navy JAG Com
mander. served in China during
WWIt. A lifetime civil libertarian,
he joined the NAACP in 1949
while in law school. Later he stud
ied constitutional law at Harvard.
In 1983 Brown received a special
ACLU award fo r his work in Sa
lem against the death penalty. He
currently is Chair Emeritus fo r th*
Socialist Party o f Oregon.
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