Praise for Beijing organization, criticism over rights

LONDON (AFP) - China won praise Sunday for organising an impressive Olympics and Germany predicted the Beijing Games would have an "irreversible" impact on Chinese society, but rights groups remained critical.
As the Games ended with a spectacular closing ceremony at the "Bird's Nest" stadium , the International Olympic Committee's pledge when it awarded Beijing the Games in 2001 -- that hosting the Olympics would open China up to the world -- came under scrutiny.
Germany's Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who also has responsibility for sport, said that aim had been met.
"China opened itself to the world community to an extent that would have been unimaginable at the time of the east-west division of Germany," he said in an interview to be published Monday with Bild newspaper.
That would lead to a change that would be "irreversible," he said.
But Schaeuble cautioned against an overly positive assessment of conditions in the world's most populous country.
When the Chinese leadership sees the system questioned, it does not respect basic freedoms as we know them. That is why I am strictly against saying it is all good," he said.
As the host country of the next Olympics, Britain chose its words carefully, with officials praising the way that Beijing organised the Games but staying silent on accusations from rights groups that pro-Tibet protests had been crushed by Chinese authorities.
Sebastian Coe, a former gold medal-winner in athletics who chairs the London 2012 organising committee, said ahead of the closing ceremony that "there wasn't a good deal wrong" with the Beijing Olympics.
"The city has opened up and people are mixing like they did in Moscow when I was there in 1980.
"t is the right place to be now. Sport has been the catalyst," he added.
The United States was still to comment after the closing ceremony, but on Saturday it showed signs of disappointment with the Chinese authorities as it urged Beijing to release eight American nationals detained after pro-Tibet protests during the Olympics.
"The US government encourages the government of China to demonstrate respect for human rights, including freedom of expression and freedom of religion of all people during the Olympic Games," said Susan Stevenson, the US embassy spokeswoman in Beijing.
"We are disappointed that China has not used the occasion of the Olympics to demonstrate greater tolerance and openness."
The American protesters were one of several small groups of foreign demonstrators detained during the Olympics for protesting about China's 57-year rule of Tibet, which has been under the spotlight this year.
Amnesty International accused the Chinese authorities of violating human rights by preventing protests during the Games and the group said the IOC had failed in its duty to hold the organisers to account.
"The Beijing Olympics have been a spectacular sporting event but they took place against a backdrop of human rights violations, with activists prevented from expressing their views peacefully and many in detention when they have committed no crime," said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific deputy programme director.
"The Chinese authorities and the IOC had an opportunity to demonstrate human rights improvements but in most respects they failed to deliver. Forced evictions, detention of activists and restrictions on journalists should not blight another Olympics."
Amnesty urged the IOC to build human rights "indicators" into Olympic bids to ensure it did not "repeat its mistakes" at future Games.
The European Commission meanwhile merely praised the performances of European athletes and Culture and Youth Commissioner Jan Figel said he looked forward to the Olympics returning, in 2012, to "the continent where they were born."