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'Bush shouldn't go to Olympics'
02/04/2008 10:27 - (SA)
Washington - A bill was introduced on Tuesday in the US House of Representatives seeking to prohibit US President George W Bush from attending the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing following China's crackdown in Tibet and other alleged abuses, a congressional aide said.
The bill was introduced by Thaddeus McCotter, chairperson of the policy committee of Bush's Republican party in the House, and several lawmakers have offered to become co-sponsors, the lawmaker's aide, Paul Blocher, told AFP.
It was "to prohibit Federal government officials and employees from attending the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games held in communist China based upon communist China brutalising protesters in Tibet," according to a copy of the bill.
Bush is planning to attend the Olympic Games in Beijing in August despite calls for world leaders to boycott the opening ceremony in protest at the Chinese government's crackdown on demonstrations against its rule in Tibet.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will not attend the ceremony, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has not ruled out following suit.
Beijing says rioters killed 18 innocent civilians and two police officers so far during the protests, but exiled leaders of the Himalayan province say between 135 and 140 people were killed in the Chinese crackdown.
The bill was also to rebuke Beijing for "supporting and enabling Sudan's genocidal regime, forcing a one child policy upon Chinese families, persecuting Chinese citizens for freely exercising religion, repressing free and independent labour unions, engaging in wanton environmental degradation, and systematically denying the Chinese people their basic freedoms".
It is the first legislation proposed in Congress since the Chinese crackdown in Tibet.
- AFP
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