WASHINGTON - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has called on President Bush to persuade the Chinese government to reconsider its order barring from attending the Olympic Games a U.S. gold medalist who is an activist on the issue of genocide in Darfus.
Joey Cheek, who won gold in speedskating in the 2006 Winter Games, said Wednesday the Chinese revoked his visa entitling him to take part in the opening ceremonies.
Cheek is a co-founder of Team Darfur, an organization that calls attention to the plight of a Sudanese minority population in Sudan. He helped raise $1 million to help children in Darfur.
Pelosi said, "In the coming days, President Bush will arrive in Beijing. I call on President Bush to secure the entry of Joey Cheek and other U.S. citizens who have been barred from attending the Olympics because of their beliefs, [and] advocacy for the people of Darfur and human rights in China and Tibet."
"The Olympic Charter," Pelosi said, "states that "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country of a person on the grounds of race, religion, politics, gender, or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.' The International Olympic Committee is tolerating clear violations of both the Olympic ideals and the commitments the Chinese government made in order to host the Olympic Games."
Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino, speaking aboard Air Force One today as Bush flew to Thailand, his final stop before reaching Beijing, said:
"We were disturbed to learn that the Chinese had refused his visa. We are taking the matter very seriously. We have sent in our embassy in Beijing to démarche the Chinese. That is where we go in and we say we are concerned about this, and we want you to reconsider your actions. So we would hope that they would change their mind."
The Cheek episode focuses attention on China's role in what many human rights observers call a holocaust. The New America Foundation said China has been an arms "supplier of last resort" to not only the brutal Sudanese government, but also to the junta in Myanmar, formerly Burma, and to Robert Mugage, the dictator of Zimbabwe. The full report may be found at www.newamericafoundation, under "press room." --Douglas Turner

Labels: Beijing bars U.S.