Berlusconi ally urges Italian athletes to show dissent in Beijing

Aug 5, 2008

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

Rome - A senior member of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's political party has triggered a row by urging Italy's Olympic officials to allow Italian athletes at the Olympics to protest China's human rights policies.

Maurizio Gasparri, chief whip in Italy's Senate for Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, also said he would send the athletes in Beijing a video showing 'Communist China's daily repression in Tibet,' according to a statement from his office Tuesday.

Ahead of the Olympic opening ceremony scheduled for Friday, Gasparri also criticized what he said were attempts by Italy's national Olympic committee (CONI) to prevent athletes from engaging in 'small and peaceful symbolic acts of protest.'

'Gasparri can say what he wants, but he shouldn't be surprised if there are no symbolic acts,' CONI president Gianni Petrucci, was quoted as saying from Beijing by Turin daily, La Stampa.

'Respect for the Olympic Charter, which was not compiled by CONI, but by the International Olympic Committee,' meant athletes should desist from acts of protest, said Petrucci, adding: 'We don't need heroes.'

Gasparri has expressed the hope that Beijing would see displays similar to those at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, where US 200m gold medallist Tommie Smith and bronze medal winner John Carlos raised a clenched-fist 'Black Power' salute to protest racial discrimination in the US.

Several human rights groups, as well as some of his fiercely anti- communist supporters have urged Berlusconi to snub Friday's opening ceremony.

A decision on whether the premier would attend has yet to be announced, his office said Tuesday, refusing to confirm reports that Italy would instead be represented by Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

The Italian Olympic squad's official flagbearer at the ceremony, canoeist Antonio Rossi, said he does not agree with athletes coming under pressure from politicians to protest against China's policies.

'It doesn't seem to me that Italian companies are boycotting the Chinese market or closing their offices in Beijing or Shanghai,' Rossi, a triple Olympic gold medal winner, told La Stampa.

But Rossi said he had nothing against athletes engaging in forms of protests of their own will, adding that he couldn't rule out making such a gesture himself.