"China feels it is a strong but misunderstood country, so the obligations made in the area of human rights might be regarded as challenges to be rejected. Then we must present some real cases, in which it is easier to show their contradictions": this is the opinion of Lina Tamburrini, a journalist and an expert about China (she has lived seven years in Peking as a correspondent) who spoke last night at a meeting about the Amnesty international report called "Peking 2008. Olympic Games and human rights in China", presented nationwide on 5 December 2007. The organisation is campaigning to make China fulfil, on the occasion of August’s Olympic Games, the obligations undertaken before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in the area of human rights. Such obligations concern a significant reduction in death penalties, "administrative detention" camps in which about 1 million Chinese work , censorship of the press, TV and the Internet, and the current persecution of human rights activists. In the run-up to the Olympic Games, for instance, China is arresting more and more human rights activities who protest against the governmental eviction of land and houses, which are demolished to build sporting facilities, without letting the people concerned oppose or have any compensation at all. (continued)
