Amnesty report says China failing to keep promises on human rights

BEIJING -- China has failed to live up to promises to improve human rights for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing despite reforms to the death penalty system and more freedoms for foreign reporters, Amnesty International said in a report today.

The report catalogs a wide range of persistent abuses, from extensive use of detention without trial to the persecution of civil rights activists and new methods to rein in the domestic media and censor the Internet.

The London-based group welcomed the new rules for foreign journalist and the referral of all death sentences to China's Supreme Court since the start of the year.

"Disappointingly, they have been matched by moves to expand detention without trial and house arrest of activists, and by a tightening of controls over domestic media and the Internet," Catherine Baber, deputy Asia-Pacific director of Amnesty International, said in a statement.

No Chinese official was immediately available to comment on the report. China has denounced previous Amnesty reports, saying it was fulfilling all the commitments made in its bid for the Games.

The report called on the International Olympic Committee to push Beijing more to improve its human rights record, especially on issues relating to the Olympics.

"The IOC cannot want an Olympics that is tainted with human rights abuses -- whether families forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for sports arenas or growing numbers of peaceful activists held under house arrest," Baber said.

The report said if private discussions were not working, the "IOC should consider making these concerns public, especially with the Olympics little more than a year away."

Many of the ills cited by the group have been endemic for years in China. But in bidding for the Games in 2001, Chinese leaders promised IOC members that the Olympics would lead to an improved climate for human rights and media freedoms.

IOC members have said they expect Beijing to keep its word. The organization, whose top officials just returned from two weeks of meetings with the Chinese government in Beijing, said they needed more time before commenting on the Amnesty report.

"It's clearly comprehensive and we want to take the time to digest it before making any further reaction," said IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies.