Amnesty slams China on Olympic pledges

Amnesty International accused China of failing to live up to pledges to improve human rights in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics in a report issued Thursday, the Financial Times reported. The global human rights organization said activists, journalists and lawyers continue to suffer imprisonment, harassment and torture while media controls have been tightened despite promises from senior Chinese officials that hosting the games will lead to progress on human rights. It urged the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in particular to "exert influence on the Chinese authorities" to secure reforms, such as stronger reviews of death penalty cases, an accounting of the number of people executed and the release of jailed dissidents. The IOC said after Beijing's was awarded the games in 2001 that such improvement was inevitable but that it "was not the task" of the committee to monitor or lobby on the issue.