Amnesty International has accused China of suppressing dissenters in a report published in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics.
In a report to mark the 10-day countdown to the Games, Amnesty stated China failed to honour pledges made when seeking to host the Games. "There has been no progress towards fulfilling these promises, only continued deterioration," the organisation claimed.
Amnesty said China targeted human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers to "silence dissent" ahead of the Games.
The Olympics Countdown: Broken Promisesconcluded that in most areas human rights have continued to deteriorate since a previous Amnesty report published in April.
A Chinese government spokesman responded: "Anybody who knows China will not agree with this report on the deterioration of human rights." He called on Amnesty to "take off the colored glasses they have worn for many years".
But Amnesty claimed that In the run-up to the Olympics, the Chinese authorities have locked up, put under house arrest and forcibly removed people they believe may threaten the image of “stability” and “harmony” they want to present to the world.
“By continuing to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were granted the Games seven years ago,” said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific Deputy Director at Amnesty International.
“The Chinese authorities are tarnishing the legacy of the Games. They must release all imprisoned peaceful activists, allow foreign and national journalists to report freely and make further progress towards the elimination of the death penalty,” she added.
Journalists using the Internet network at the main press centre for media covering the Games were unable to access the website of Amnesty International today.
The International Olympic Committee is to investigate the apparent censorship of the Internet service, media chief Kevan Gosper said today.
"As I've said before, this is a country that does have censorship within its media, but we've been guaranteed free access, open media activity for media reporting on the Olympic Games at Games time," Mr Gosper said. "We are now in Games time."
Amnesty said several other websites were also reported to be blocked, including Taiwan newspaper Liberty Timesand the Chinese versions of both Germany's Deutsche Welle and the BBC.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said media should be able to access the Internet as usual but he conceded that sites related to Falun Gong, the spiritual movement China considers a cult, would be blocked.
Amnesty said its findings contradict Beijing Olympic Bid Committee Secretary-General Wang Wei's vow in 2001 that China "will give the media complete freedom to report."
China, which has promised media the same freedom to report on the Games as they enjoyed at previous Olympics, loosened its regulations governing foreign media in January last year.
Despite these new regulations, which are scheduled to expire in October, foreign media in China have complained of harassment by officials, and Human Rights Watch released a report earlier this month saying China was not living up to its pledges.
On the weather front, smog that has covered Beijing for the last few days cleared today as rain fell. The city's severe pollution has been one of the biggest worries for Games organisers, who promised a green Games and have enacted emergency measures to lift the pall.
They have raised the prospect of more pollution controls, in addition to keeping nearly half of Beijing's 3.3 million cars off roads and shutting many factories near the capital, but have refused to give details, insisting air quality is improving.
Du Shaozhong, deputy chief of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said the haze did not mean air quality was necessarily bad.
"We do not approve of the use of pictures to pass judgment on air quality . . . you have to look at the complete monitoring system, and scientifically look at the data," Mr Du said.
"Cloud and fog are not pollution. This kind of weather is a natural phenomenon, and has nothing to do with pollution."
Additional reporting Reuters
