Sarkozy urges China to act responsibly on Tibet
TARBES, France (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged China on Tuesday to show responsibility over the unrest in Tibet and refused to rule out boycotting the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Sarkozy spoke shortly after a media rights group which staged a brief protest at the Olympic torch-lighting ceremony in Greece on Monday urged him to threaten to boycott the Games' opening ceremony because of Tibet.
"I don't close the door to any option, but I think it's more prudent to reserve my responses to concrete developments in the situation," Sarkozy said, when asked about a possible boycott.
Aides later said he was talking only of a possible boycott of the opening ceremony, not of the Games in general.
"All options are open but I appeal to the sense of responsibility of Chinese authorities," he said.
France has called for an end to the violence, in which Tibet's government-in-exile says 140 people have been killed. But like other Western governments, it has rejected the idea of boycotting the Games.
Sarkozy said China had to understand there was worldwide concern over the situation in Tibet and he said action would depend on how its leaders responded.
"I want dialogue to begin and I will graduate my response according to the response given by Chinese authorities," he said.
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has called on China to let foreign media into Tibet and on Tuesday called for an end to China's "repression" of dissent there.
MORE PROTESTS
Rights group Reporters Without Borders urged officials to boycott the opening ceremony because of China's human rights record in Tibet and elsewhere.
The group, known by its French acronym RSF, staged a brief protest at Monday's torch-lighting ceremony when three of its activists broke through a tight security cordon at the site that hosted the Olympics in ancient Greece.
One of them approached Beijing Games chief Liu Qi during his speech in front of hundreds of officials but was quickly led away by police.
"We are asking heads of state and government, and here in France Mr Sarkozy, to say today that if the (rights) situation does not improve in Tibet and in the rest of China, they will not be present on August 8 at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games," RSF chief Robert Menard told reporters.
Kouchner said last week that the idea was interesting and worth discussing but that it did not have the French government's support. He later said it was unrealistic.
"There will be other possible demonstrations. We will continue," RSF's Menard, who was one of the three activists arrested in Greece, told reporters at the main Paris airport after his release from Greek police custody.
(Additional reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
