Dr Jacques Rogge
President of the International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
Château de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland

10 December 2007


Dear Dr Rogge,

In light of the meeting of your Executive Committee in Lausanne 10 - 12 December and the debate in the European Parliament on 12 December on the recent EU/China Human Rights Dialogue, I am writing to invite you to publish your assessment of China's compliance with the regime's undertakings when you awarded the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing.

As you know, there is a gathering momentum of concern about China's failure to comply even with the published undertakings.

The usual claim that the IOC does not involve itself in politics is manifestly wrong, as for example when the IOC boycotted South Africa from the Olympic Games over apartheid, from 1964 to 1992. Furthermore, Article 1 of the Olympic Charter enjoins "universal fundamental ethical principles" and all who know China recognise that far from reform in the political or social spheres, the regime continues its brutal and repressive policies against all form of dissidence, and in its policies on religion, it is genocidal.

Also notable was the effect of President Ronald Regan's demand for reform in South Korea before the 1988 Seoul Games, which led to the establishment of democracy in that country.

The environment in Beijing has been criticised by you and the World Health Organisation. What is not so well-known is the massive amount of demolition of historic buildings in Beijing, without compensation for the occupants of several hundred thousand dwellings.

The EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament has succeeded in placing on the agenda for this Wednesday 12 December at 15h00 a Commission statement on the October EU-China Human Rights Dialogue and the recent EU-China Summit.

I am writing to you to invite you to make an assessment of China's compliance with the undertakings made to you and your Committee, as suggested during a hearing on human rights in China of the European Parliament Sub-Committee on Human Rights, on 26 November, by my colleague Pál Schmitt, an Olympic two-time gold medallist, who is also a member of the IOC.

I stated when I inaugurated in August my campaign for a debate within the European Union about the participation of athletes or the public in the Beijing Olympics that if by Christmas the situation had not improved, the European Union should consider a boycott.

My personal opinion is that no politician elected in free and fair elections and senior figures in national life within the European Union should attend any games in Beijing and I believe that your Committee should forthwith decide that the Games should forever take place in Athens, which hosted particularly successful Games in 2004.


Yours sincerely,




Edward McMillan-Scott
Vice-President of the European Parliament