Oh, and One More Thing: Iraq Tortures Its Own Athletes

Written by Eric Olsen
Published December 05, 2002

As an Olympic buff, this is reason alone for regime change:

    A human rights group formally demanded that the IOC expel Iraq's national Olympic committee because its chief - Saddam Hussein's eldest son Uday - tortured and jailed athletes who failed to please him.

    Indict, which is based in London, said Wednesday it lodged a complaint against the Iraqi body with the Ethics Commission of the International Olympic Committee. The group said it included witness statements from exiled former Iraqi athletes and United Nations reports to build its case.

    "Iraq has violated every single provision of the IOC Code of Ethics," said Charles Forrest, chief executive of Indict. "The IOC should have investigated this on its own. Now I hope it will be forced to."

    IOC officials said they were aware of the complaint but were unable to comment because they had yet to receive the document.

    Indict said the Iraqi leader's son once made a group of track athletes crawl on newly poured asphalt while they were beaten and ordered that some be thrown off a bridge. It also alleged he ran a special prison for athletes who offended him.

    "The Iraqi committee is the only Olympic committee in the world with its own prison and torture chamber," said Ann Clwyd, a British lawmaker who also is chairwoman of Indict. "To allow (it) to participate in the Olympic movement is to mock all of the Olympics' high principles." [AP]

I would suggest Uday not be among the candidates to replace his father once the hammer comes down. I suggest an errant javelin might be poetic justice for Saddam's boy.

Do something IOC.

Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and publisher of Blogcritics.org, which, quite frankly, rules - as do his wife and four children.
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
Oh, and One More Thing: Iraq Tortures Its Own Athletes
Published: December 05, 2002
Type:
Section: Culture
Writer: Eric Olsen
Eric Olsen's BC Writer page
Eric Olsen's personal site
Spread the Word
Like this article?
Email this
Submit to del.icio.us Save to del.icio.us
RSS Feeds
All RSS Feeds (240+)
Comments on this article
BC articles by Eric Olsen
All Culture Articles
Eric Olsen's personal weblog
All BC articles
All BC Comments

Comments

Want comments emailed to you? No spam, promise! Address:

Add your comment, speak your mind

(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/2137)

Personal attacks are not allowed. Please read our comment policy.





Remember Name/URL?

Please preview your comment!

Fresh
Articles
Fresh
Comments