2008 Beijing Olympics security in control says China

16 March, 2008

China has discounted security concerns being expressed worldwide, after the announcement of two thwarted terrorist attacks, for the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in August 2008.

The news agency Associated Press quoted a spokesman for the Beijing’s Olympic Organising Committee as saying: “An efficient Olympic security command system is in place. We are confident of holding a peaceful and safe Olympic Games.”

A report said that few days ago a flight crew may have thwarted an attempt to shoot down a Chinese jetliner. The report surfaced two days after the flight made an emergency landing.

A Chinese Communist Party leader reportedly said the police had raided a “terrorist gang that was plotting to disrupt the Olympics.” This and the emergency landing of the flight were apparently unconnected, but both incidents are reported to have taken place in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China.

The China Southern Flight CZ6901, which took off from Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, en route to Beijing made an emergency landing in Lanzhou, in the neighboring Gansu Province. The passengers and crew members, who were unharmed, flew to Beijing a day later.

The Chinese Civil Aviation Administration said in a statement on its website that the flight made the emergency landing after “flammable materials were discovered in the toilet.”

According to US media reports, after the flight incident was revealed, Wang Lequan, chief Xinjiang’s Communist Party, said that members of a “terrorist gang” were plotting to attack the Beijing Olympics. The gang, he said, has been collaborating with the East Turkestan Islamic movement, which the United Nations has branded as a terrorist organisation. (East Turkestan is another name for the Chinese-administered Xinjiang Province, which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan.)

According to Xinhua, China’s state-controlled news agency, Chinese security troops who raided the “terrorist group” group in January 2008 had seized knives, axes, grenades and books about terrorism. The troops also killed two militants and arrested 15 others.

The website usatoday.com quoted Mei Jianming, an anti-terrorism expert with Chinese People's Public Security University, as saying: “There is a danger the East-Turkestan terrorists, I am sure, will do something to attract people’s attention. But it is hard to say how many members there are in their organisation, what kind of plans they have, what specific acts they will take to undermine the Beijing Olympic Games.”

However, there are those who doubt and question the claims over perceived terrorism during the Beijing Olympics, in which around 10,000 athletes and hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors would participate. They also wonder why Chinese officials chose not to reveal the incidents earlier, and some even suspect Beijing’s motive behind these announcements.

The Associated Press quoted Mark Allison, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Amnesty International, as saying in an interview: “When China has made allegations of terrorist activity, it doesn’t back it up with evidence and restrictions, making it impossible for independent investigators to verify.”

“As host,” Allison added, “China has legitimate and serious safety concerns, but Beijing’s claims draw suspicion because of the communist regime’s record of repressive policies, and its regard for even peaceful protests as a threat to national security. Without evidence, their claims are open to question.”

It may be noted that Ethiopian marathon runner Haile Gebrselassie, an Olympic record-holder, has announced that he is shunning the Beijing Games because of concerns about Beijing’s air quality. Gebrselassie, who suffers from asthma and pollen allergies, said he would not run in the marathon because of pollution fears.

In another development, Tibetans shouting ‘Boycott the Beijing Olympics’ had marched on March 10, 2008, from City Hall in New York to the United Nations headquarters in New York to protest against the Beijing Olympics.

At the march, women and monks clad in crimson robs carried red, blue and gold Tibetan flags as well as the Stars and Stripes and banners depicting the Olympic rings dripping blood. They also shouted “Free Tibet.”

China’s communist government, which invaded Tibet in 1950, had won the rights in 2001 to host the 2008 Olympic Games, promising the International Olympics Committee to improve human rights.

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