Prague - The Czech Republic has witnessed a demonstration today that urged Czech athletes and the Czech Olympic Committee (ČOV) to express their views about the issue of human rights in China in a more assertive manner.
The protest started today at 2 PM in Prague's Opletalova street where activists were to ask the participants of the Czech Olympic Committee´s conference about their view of the situation in Tibet.
"I don't expect their opinions being sharply different from ours. They are simply not facing the whole issue bravely enough," stated Stanislav Penc, an activist who ran for the Green Party in Hradec Králové in the parliamentary elections.
HAVE A LOOK AT PHOTOS FROM THE HAPPENING HERE
"Be daring"
The happening was to encourage the Czech Olympic Committee and Czech athletes to protest against the human rights abuse in Tibet.
"In addition to their organizational duties, the Czech Olympic Committee should remember that our athletes represent a country that has suffered from Nazis and communist totalitarian regime over 60 years. They should say they stand by Tibet and for other oppressed peoples in the world," said Penc.
Czech Olympic Committee´s spokesman Jan Martinek commented that at the recent International Olympic Committee (IOC) summit in Beijing, Czech representatives were among the most radical part of the participants.
Czech committee: We are quite radical already
"From all 205 members of the IOC, only few national committees are as radical as we are. For example, countries in America or Africa have their own problems," informed Martinek, added that the Czechs unsuccessfully tried to have a special investigative team sent to Tibet.
At the same time, the Czech Olympic Committee admits that the unity of the Olympic movements needs to be honored and doesn't want to contribute to a possible rupture by organizing a radical action.
All in all, the Czech national committee is unlikely to issue a decision made by their French or Belgian counterparts that tells their athletes which issues related to the Olympics they may or may not comment.
PM speaks out
PM Mirek Topolánek (Civic Democrats) gave a clear explanation today why he would not attend the Olympic Games opening ceremonies in Beijing this summer.
"The events that we have been monitoring in China lately made not only me but the whole number of European representatives and across the ocean decide not to attend the ceremonies," Topolánek said.
He is the only one out of the four Czech lawmakers who gave the Chinese regime as the reason for his decision to skip the ceremonies.
President Václav Klaus alleged he would undergo a surgery at that time, while Senate´s head Přemysl Sobotka does not like the long distance between Prague and Beijing and parliament´s head Vlček does not trust media´s coverage of the situation in Tibet.
