USA Today: Beijing not right for Olympic Games

When China meets in Moscow on Friday, it hopes that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will select Beijing as the site for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games (''Beijing is best bet for Olympics 2008,'' Plain Talk column, The Forum, Friday).

China has been beating, detaining, arresting, torturing and sentencing to labor camps the peaceful but determined practitioners of the Falun Gong [group]. Some may have been tortured to death by Chinese authorities.

Yet, despite this crackdown, followers and practitioners of Falun Gong continue to meet in public places, to get the word out that what they teach is good.

If the capital of China is selected for the Olympics, Beijing's crackdown will almost certainly intensify, as the leadership will want to make certain to keep its victims away from foreign crowds, journalists and especially cameras.

The IOC should think carefully about the forthcoming decision and explain the reasoning, if Beijing is selected, in terms of human rights.

Claiborne M. Clark

Durham, N.C.

http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20010709/3465329s.htm