The New Nation - Internet Edition

Olympic Games that unites humankind not only demonstrating the eternal craving to achieve higher excellence in the arena of sports but also bringing the world closer together in shared expressions of joys and sorrows and emotions at successes and failures, once again looks like falling victim to politics.

World leaders are facing mounting calls from rights groups to boycott the opening ceremony of Beijing 2008 Games in August in protest against China's actions on Tibet, which it has ruled since 1950.

Major protests were experienced in London and Paris as the Olympic torch made stops on its journey to Beijing as human rights groups were out to pressure Beijing to uphold human rights.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among those heeding the boycott, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's office said he would also not be attending, although it stressed his plans had not changed. "He's never been going to the Olympic opening ceremony. We have always said he's going to the closing ceremony," a spokeswoman for his office said.

The White House refused to say whether President George W Bush would attend, saying it was "extremely premature" to say what his schedule would be for August.

Democrat Barack Obama joined his rival in the presidential nomination race - Hillary Clinton - Wednesday in calling on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing if human rights conditions do not improve. Republican candidate John McCain has said Bush should keep his options open.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not said if he will attend, but used a speech in Beijing to deliver a blunt message that there are "significant" human rights issues in Tibet.

The Olympic torch is now on its way to Buenos Aires in Argentina, after dramatic scenes in San Francisco, where organisers fearful of more violence rerouted the leg and halved its length, leaving supporters disappointed and confused.

International Olympic Committee's Jacques Rogge said pro-Tibet protests dogging the torch relay had left the Games in crisis, and publicly reminded China of its promise to advance human rights.

Rogge said he was "saddened" by the violent protests in London and Paris, but believed the stop in San Francisco had been an improvement and that the relay would not be cut short.

Despite the ongoing protests, Rogge again stressed there were no plans to cut short the Beijing torch relay. The comments drew an immediate response from China, which urged the IOC to keep "irrelevant political factors" away from the Games.

"I believe IOC officials support the Beijing Olympics and adherence to the Olympic Charter of not bringing in any irrelevant political factors," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.

"I hope IOC officials continue to adhere to principles of the Olympic charter," he said, in responding to Rogge's earlier comments on human rights.

Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, reiterated that he backed China's right to host the Olympic Games. But he insisted that nobody had the right to tell protesters demanding freedom for Tibet "to shut up".

The United States and several other Western countries boycotted the 1980 Moscow Games over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Moscow and its allies had retaliated by boycotting the subsequent Los Angeles Olympics.

Nobody can expect China to democratise overnight. No such furore was seen on human rights situation in China when the 2008 games was awarded to the nation that had earlier successfully hosted the Asian Games. Politics should not spoil the next Olympic Games and the pride and exhileration of athletes from all over the world. We find a little bit of hypocrisy when the rights of Tibetan people are debated in the context of Olympic Games, We fully support the cause of the Tibetan people. But this political issue is to be supported politically through political influence and political pressure from world leaders. Influence of Olympic Games has a unique nature to liberalise the thinking of the political reforms and that influence should be upheld to change Chinese government's attitude to the people of Tibet and the larger issue of human rights.