Baichung Bhutia refuses to carry Olympic torch...

[veer]

NEW DELHI: As the Olympic torch was flown into the Chinese capital on Monday to be taken around the world, the shadow of Tibetan pro-tests over the Beijing Games seems to be growing. Now, Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia has refused to run with the flame when it reaches New Delhi on April 17. Bhutia faxed his decision to the Indian Olympic Association on Monday after he had been chosen for the honour of carrying the Olympic torch on the India leg of its journey. Talking to TOI , Bhutia, a Buddhist, said, ‘‘I sympathize with the Tibetan cause. I have many friends in Sikkim who follow Buddhism. This is my way of standing by the people of Tibet and their struggle. I abhor violence in any form.’’ Bhutia emphasized that he had not been requested by any group to pull out of the torch run. ‘‘This is an absolutely personal decision. I feel what’s happening in Tibet is not right and in my small way I should show my solidarity.’’ Bhutia is not the first public personality to have distanced himself from the Beijing Olympics. In February, Hollywood director Steven Spielberg withdrew as an artistic adviser to the Olympics over China’s support to the Sudanese government at a time when the regime had been charged with massacres in the country’s Darfur region. Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he did not rule out France boycotting the games if the situation in Tibet worsened. Suresh Kalmadi, president of the IOA, denied any knowledge of Bhutia’s faxed reply. ‘‘The fax has not reached me as yet since I’m not in my office,’’ he said. Kalmadi added that several top athletes like P T Usha, Milkha Singh and Gurbachan Singh Randhawa have been invited for the event. Randhawa, when asked by TOI whether he would carry the torch, said: ‘‘I have received an invitation to run with the Olympic torch and I will proudly do it. I know about what is going on in Tibet but the Indian government is not protesting. So why should I?’’ But Bhutia, not known for having strong political views, has made up his mind. Never in his football career spanning more than 15 years has Bhutia transgressed the line that separates sport from politics. He once even reprimanded a photographer who was taking his snap beside a statue of Buddha on Buddha Purnima. But the cause of the Tibetan people has struck a chord with the ‘‘Sikkimese Sniper’’. So much so, it caused him to shed his ‘‘apolitical’’ garb. --- goo bhutia.. :two_thumbs_up:

[veer]

Olympics: 100-day countdown starts amid Tibet, torch troubles 6 hours ago BEIJING (AFP) — China hailed the 100-day countdown to the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday, but simmering controversies over Tibet and the torch relay, as well as heavy pollution, cast a shadow over the milestone. Activities to mark the day included a fun run involving thousands of people near key Olympic venues in the north of the capital while speakers blared the unofficial theme song for the Games preparations, "We Are Ready". As if to illustrate the clouds over the August 8-24 Olympics, the runners set off under a pall of smog, which some elite athletes have identified as a health threat that may stop them competing. Earlier, state press reported that police in northwestern China had Monday shot and killed an ethnic Tibetan suspected of inciting anti-China protests in March. It was the first official admission that police had killed a Tibetan in the unrest that has flared across the Tibetan plateau, embarrassing and angering China's communist rulers ahead of the Olympics. Tibet's government-in-exile says more than 200 people have been killed in a Chinese crackdown in the Himalayan region, while before Wednesday China had insisted the only deaths were 20 people killed by Tibetan "rioters". The Olympic torch meanwhile returned to Chinese soil in Hong Kong, after a worldwide relay that has been marred by protests over China's control of Tibet and clashes between demonstrators and Chinese supporters. Demonstrations are expected in Hong Kong, which has freedom of expression laws, during Friday's relay, and authorities have stoked fears of a clampdown by barring some activists from entering the city. American actress Mia Farrow, who is pushing China to help stop violence in Sudan's conflict-riven Darfur region, is expected in the financial hub. A lengthy relay through China looks set to provide its share of controversy, amid plans to take the flame through simmering Tibet and heavily Muslim Xinjiang, where Chinese control also is widely resented. Beijing has been praised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for its 37 Games venues, which will host 28 medal sports, and other preparations. But China has come under fire for allegedly falling short on promises made to help secure the Games, including vows to improve human rights, stage a "green Games", and loosen restrictions on foreign media. Earlier in April it jailed high-profile dissident Hu Jia, a case that activists say highlighted a campaign of official harassment and detentions aimed at silencing critics of its human rights record during the Games. Meanwhile, the capital has been wrapped in smog for much of the past few weeks. China is vowing clean skies in August, but the IOC has said some distance events may have to be postponed if the air is a threat, and last month marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie ruled himself out of the Beijing race partly on health grounds. Media groups also have taken aim at Chinese press restrictions imposed amid the Tibetan unrest and a government campaign to blame pre-Olympic troubles on the foreign media. "If allowed to continue, the reporting interference and hate campaigns targeting international media may poison the pre-Games atmosphere for foreign journalists," the Foreign Correspondents Club of China said in a statement Wednesday. In an editorial Wednesday, the China Daily newspaper vowed the decision to award the Games to China would be vindicated. "(Beijingers) want to tell the world that their rationale for bidding for the Games in 2001 was sound then, and remains sound today," it said. Beijing's newly installed Roman Catholic bishop, Joseph Li Shan, appealed for divine intervention in a special 100-day countdown service to about 200 of the capital's faithful. "Brothers and sisters, let us take this Mass to express our sacrifice, our prayers, and our wish for a peaceful Olympics to our God. May God help us," he said. Wang Fangfang, a 24-year-old student attending the service, reflected the view of many Chinese that a successful Games was a national mission. "The Olympic Games and Catholicism have a common point in that they are universal, and so we have to do what we must for the Olympics," she said.