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Page last updated at 04:36 GMT, Wednesday, 2 April 2008 05:36 UK
Olympics 'worsening China rights'
Beijing Olympics committee head Liu Qi (R) hands the torch to Chinese 
President Hu Jintao (L) on 31 March 2008
China is determined to hold a successful Olympic Games

China's human rights record is getting worse, not better, because of the 
Beijing Olympics, a rights group says.

According to Amnesty International, China is clamping down on dissent in a bid to portray a stable and harmonious image 
ahead of the Games in August.

It urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and world leaders to speak out against abuses, including China's 
handling of protests in Tibet.

US President George W Bush is facing calls to boycott the Games' opening.

"It would be clearly inappropriate for you to attend the Olympic Games in China, given the increasingly repressive 
nature of that country's government," a group of 15 US politicians wrote in a letter to Mr Bush on Tuesday.

Mr Bush has said he plans to attend the ceremony but Germany's Angela Merkel says she will not. French President Nicolas 
Sarkozy has not ruled out a boycott.

An IOC team is currently in Beijing to assess its readiness for the Games.

'Beyond reach'

In a report entitled China: The Olympics Countdown, the London-based group said the Olympics had failed to act as a 
catalyst for reform in China.

        
It is increasingly clear that much of the current wave of repression is occurring not in spite of the Olympics but 
actually because of the Olympics
Amnesty International report

"Unless the Chinese authorities take steps to redress the situation urgently, a positive human rights legacy for the 
Beijing Olympics looks increasingly beyond reach," it said.

"It is increasingly clear that much of the current wave of repression is occurring not in spite of the Olympics but 
actually because of the Olympics."

Activists and dissidents had been targeted as part of an apparent pre-Olympics clean-up, it said, with many under some 
form of detention.

Journalists, both domestic and foreign, were still prevented from reporting 
freely.

The group also called on world leaders to speak out on the situation in Tibet, calling a failure to address the issue 
"tacit endorsement" of human rights abuses.

It accused Chinese troops of using lethal force on Tibetan protesters and urged China to release information about those 
who had been detained, saying it feared for their safety.

'Prejudice'

On Tuesday, ahead of the publication of the report, China hit out at Amnesty and said any attempt to pressure Beijing 
over the Olympics would fail.

"The organisation holds prejudice against China, so you can imagine what kind of report it will release," foreign 
ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping also said that Tibetan "independence forces" were planning to launch 
suicide attacks as part of a wider uprising - a move he blamed on the Dalai Lama.

China says 18 civilians and two police officers died in the unrest in Tibetan and neighbouring provinces inhabited by 
Tibetans that began on 10 March.

Tibetan groups outside China put the death toll at up to 140, a figure that includes Tibetans they say were killed by 
Chinese security forces.

All claims about the unrest are difficult to verify because the Chinese government has mostly barred foreign journalists 
from these sensitive areas.

TENSION IN TIBET
KEY STORIES
India footballer in Tibet protest
China makes 'suicide squad' claim
China seeks India Tibet backing
FEATURES AND ANALYSIS
Chinese paramilitary police in Zhongdian, Yunnan province Clamping down
Tibetan monk speaks out on round-up of protesters as unrest spreads
Tibetan monks: A controlled life
China's quandary
Tibet's unsettled borders
listen Jailed protester
BACKGROUND
Key places and events
Guide: Inside Tibet
Q&A: China and Tibet
EYEWITNESS
Tibetans describe unrest
Chinese react to violence

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Chinese government
Amnesty International
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Olympics 'worsening China rights'