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Schoeman: IOC should stand up
17/03/2008 18:14 - (SA)
Mike Corder
Endhoven, Netherlands - World 50m butterfly champion Roland Schoeman supports calls for the IOC to take a stand on the human rights situation in China.
While European nations and Olympic committees said on Monday they opposed a boycott of the Beijing Games over China's handling of the unrest in Tibet, the South African swimmer said the International Olympic Committee should take a stand.
The IOC "should stand up and say, 'The way these people are being treated is not acceptable,"' Schoeman said.
"Either you put an end to this or else. The 'or else' could be extreme or it could be a set of conditions," he added. "I'm not about to tell the IOC what to do at all. I'd like to see them stand up and say, 'Please, this isn't the way it's supposed to be done. Let's do something about it, let's find a means to make it better for everybody in a sense."'
Schoeman was speaking at a swimsuit launch a day before racing was to start at the European Swimming Championships.
He said Dutch swimming star Pieter van den Hoogenband "made a valid point" when he called on the IOC to make a statement to China about human rights on behalf of all athletes.
Firm believer in human rights
But Schoeman said he was not ready to make a decision about possibly skipping the Games to protest China's rights record.
"That's something I'm going to have to educate myself further on. I'm a firm believer in human rights, always have been, always will be," he said. "It is something I have to educate myself in before I can make a rational decision on it."
Schoeman said Olympic organisers should have acted earlier - when China was awarded the Games in 2001 - to discuss human rights.
"You have to from the very get go say these are the issues associated with it, with the country, the political climate, the beliefs, whatever it is," Schoeman said.
"I'm not talking about going in and changing an entire belief system because that's not going to happen - everybody's entitled to their beliefs but ... these things should have been looked at in 2001 when the games were announced."
- SAPA
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