Thanks to all of you who came and thanks especially to David Kilgour for being here and also to all the people who are accompanying me from the Bloc of the Coalicíion Cívica, Juan Carlos Morán, Elisa Beatriz Carca y José García Hamilton, and the ex candidate for the governor of Buenos Aires, and Margarita Stolbizer
...
We believe that the subject of human rights is one of those subjects, which fortunately brought to the citizens of Argentina a general understanding of awareness to its importance and due to this importance, it has to be defended by the whole world.
I told David that we had a meeting last year in the legislature of Buenos Aires with a special delegation from the Chinese government, during which I remembered that I protested about the situation of a Chinese journalist who was in prison for publishing articles in the Internet, which do not express the same view of the government of China. I remembered the answer that was given to me; in fact they gave me three answers, which revealed everything about the level of dictatorship unfortunately now in force in China today. The first answer to me was that they said that the person violated the law by publishing critics against the Chinese government in the Internet. The second answer was directed to me as a question concerning where did I obtain such information, and the third answer was to explain to me that, in order to learn the truth about China, I had only to look into the 200 web pages of the Chinese government published in Internet and not look elsewhere; all other information is false.
Today is a very special day for us Argentines; it is the day after the anniversary of the coup. The fact that we are now in an activity, which is not planned but very much connected to the subject of human rights is a coincidence, and we welcome this coincidence.
I want to use this opportunity to repeat the support of the Coalition Civic for all the initiatives which have to do with Human Rights in Argentina and also those which have to do with the judging of crimes against humanity, committed in this country. This seems to me to be a substantial and principal part of the subject of human rights in Argentina. The Coalition Civic is there, the leaders of the Coalition Civic have always been there and have always been the mayor promoter of laws according to which genocide cases are tried. We have been the first to push forward the subject concerning these indescribable crimes, and we are going to support all measures taken in this respect.
At the same time we believe of course that the question of human rights has to include the question of the past, but it also has to be observed from the present and future perspectives. And as Argentines, we have, in this respect, a lot of experience and a responsibility. This is because, to me, the situation of the Olympic games in China, in spite of all the differences of location and time with us, reminds me in someway the experience which we had here during the 1978 World Soccer Champion Game, when one government which violated human rights tried to use a manifestation of a sport to legitimize itself before the people and the world.
Therefore, at that time, we Argentines had a lot of support from organizations, politicians and citizens of other countries living in all parts of the world; in Europe, in the United States, in other South American countries. They used the opportunity of the of the World Soccer Champion games in 1978 to put forth to the world the topic of the crimes which the dictator was committing in Argentina. And that was a great help; all those who were here and who at that moment were active in this subject of human rights, recognized this at that time and, we have to go on recognizing this. Therefore, I believe that the Olympic games have to be the opportunity in which China improves radically her standards of freedom of expression, of civil rights, and stop the application of death penalty and the repression against political and religious minorities.
Regrettably when China took the commitment to organize the Olympics, one of the points to which she is obligated to fulfill was exactly this: to radically improve the situation of the political and civil freedom of human rights in China. Regrettably, as it is known by the public, the situation has not only not improved, but, in many aspects, has worsened and continues to worsen and, therefore, we are in solidarity with the demand that the Chinese government take responsibility of the commitments which they have made and which have to be continuously fulfilled..
The aspect of the campaign (Human Rights Torch Relay) the also interests me, because no one is asking for a boycott, rather they are asking to seize the opportunity when the eyes of the world are going to be on China, to demand a full validity of human rights. And in this sense, we believe that as the campaign expresses very well that there is an incompatibility between the Olympic games, which is always presented as an occasion of brotherhood among the countries, and the violation of human rights which is still being continuously committed in China.
Lastly, I wanted to say that as a political analyst of the globalization, I am not saying anything new, which nobody knows. Yes, I am saying that China conducts herself as a great world actor in the economic, as well as the political field. This means that of course all of the country has the right to occupy a place in the international scene. However, this implies also great responsibilities. China acting as a big world actor must imply that the responsibilities of the Chinese Government are to favor the progressive development of democracy inside the country and to the permanency of human rights within of her borders.
This is something of which we always will be alert, and will demand this to be fulfilled, because we understand that the question of human rights is, without doubt, a question of Argentina, and it is certainly primarily also a question of the past. However, we also believe that it is an universal issue which has the possibilities of being carried out and that the civil society and other countries can intercede. In our era of genocide, this is what was done in behalf of us, from all parts of the world.