Ministers are under pressure to stop human rights abusers from coming to the Olympics after a Syrian general boasted he would attend.
A London 2012 spokesman said: 'All National Olympic Committees submit names of athletes, support staff, officials, media and guests to us. These then go through Home Office checks' Photo: EPA
By Patrick Sawer, and Tom Parfitt, in Moscow
8:00AM BST 27 May 2012
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General Mofwaq Jouma’s threat came as reports that more than 90 people, including several young children, had been massacred by Syrian troops in the town of Houla, in Homs province, in the past two days.
He boasted that he was determined to attend the games and lead his country’s 31-strong delegation at the opening ceremony in his role as chairman of Syria’s national Olympic committee.
At the same time a leading Russian dissident has called for Britain to prevent senior members of the Russian government suspected of human rights abuses and corruption from attending the Olympics.
In a letter passed to The Sunday Telegraph from his prison cell, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the jailed oil tycoon, urged a ban on 308 officials, including high-profile figures such as Russian deputy Prime Minister Vladislav Surkov, youth leader Vasily Yakemenko and controversial elections chief Vladimir Churov.
His intervention and the general’s boast put pressure on ministers to avoid regimes which abuse human rights embarrassing Britain by sending their associates to the games as members of the “Olympic family”.
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General Joumaa insisted his country should be allowed to compete in the games and that he should be allowed to lead its national delegation.
He said: “The British people should not be worried about Syrians coming to the UK. What happened in some cities like Homs is that people broke the law.”
Home and Foreign Office officials and the London 2012 organisers are now trying to avoid a shadow being cast over the games by the presence of individuals linked to repressive regimes.
The FCO would not comment on individual cases, but Whitehall sources have indicated that General Joumaa can expected to be barred from the UK as he is closely identified with troops loyal to President Assad who are estimated to have killed 10,000 people since the start of the 15-month insurgency.
Syria’s athletes could still be allowed to compete, as they were exempted from serving in the armed forces.
Locog, the games’ organisers, are in the process of receiving the names of all athletes, officials, guests and delegates being sent to London by each of the countries taking part.
The names are being passed on to the Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office for checking against lists of individuals whose presence in this country is deemed undesirable, or who appear on the records of international bodies such the EU and International Criminal Court as being suspected of human rights abuses.
A London 2012 spokesman said: “All National Olympic Committees submit names of athletes, support staff, officials, media and guests to us. These then go through Home Office checks. This process has started but we do not comment on individual applications.”
However, the process faces the difficulty that the names of the “Olympic family members” are continuing to arrive and may not be finalised until just before the opening ceremony at the end of July.
Jeremy Browne, the Foreign Office minister, said in a letter to Denis MacShane, the Labour MP and former Europe minister, last week: “Where there is independent, reliable and credible evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses the individual will not normally be permitted to enter the UK.”
That was interpreted as strong signal to a number of countries with a poor human rights records that Britain would not tolerate the inclusion in National Olympic Committee delegations of individuals linked to repressive measures against their own people.
It could also mean the banning of high-profile political leaders from the opening and closing ceremonies of the games, such as Islon Karimov, the Uzbekistan president, and Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, the Turkmen president.
Human Rights Watch has declared both regimes to be “in the category of the worst dictatorships in the world and the worst abusers of human rights”.
Other leaders, such as President Assad and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe are already banned from travelling to the EU.
However, with thousands of names to vet the possibility remains that a number of delegation members with close ties to their ruling regimes – often the very reason they are chosen to serve on National Olympic Committees – could still slip through the net.
There also appears to be no prospect at this stage of leaders such as Russia’s President Putin and the King of Bahrain being banned from the games, despite accusations that their treatment of political opponents and democracy activists breaches international standards.
Another leader who would cause embarrassment with his presence is Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Although he is not officially barred from the UK, President Ahmadinejad said he expected to be blocked from entering if he tries.
However, he could send an official from his regime to capitalise on the potential to cause embarrasment.
Mr Khodorkovsky, jailed on allegedly trumped up charges of fraud in 2003, stopped short of requesting an entry ban on Vladimir Putin, but urged Prime Minister David Cameron to tackle the Russian president over his autocratic leadership if he travels to London for the Games.
He said: “I understand it would be very difficult for the British government to ban any head of state from the Olympics, especially from a member-state of the G8 and Council of Europe.
“I also, however, understand that the values of the Olympics are about respect, excellence and friendship and it would do Putin no harm to be exposed to these ideals and think of applying them at home.”
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