[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Burma Out! The General and Raging S



Subject: Burma Out! The General and Raging Syd

U.S. drug czar, Olympics officials feud at
international conference 

Copyright © 1999 Nando Media
Copyright © 1999 Associated Press



By MIKE CORDER 

SYDNEY, Australia (November 15, 1999 3:34 p.m. EST 
http://www.nandotimes.com) - The White
House drug czar and Olympics officials feuded Monday over a new 
agency aimed at
fighting doping by athletes, as a summit on drugs in sports opened at 
the site of next
summer's Olympic Games. 

Barry McCaffrey, the top drug adviser to President Clinton, said the new 
World Anti-Doping
Agency - known as WADA - is too closely linked to the International 
Olympic Committee,
and that the United States could not take part in the venture as it stands. 

"It looks to us as though it will be dominated by the IOC. That, to us, is 
unacceptable,"
McCaffrey said on the opening day of the three-day summit. 

Olympics officials angrily denied the criticism. 

"Contrary to some public criticism, its (WADA's) structure ensures that it 
is truly
independent of any particular sport or organization," IOC vice president 
Kevan Gosper
assured delegates from 26 nations. 

John Coates, president of the Australian Olympic Committee, called 
McCaffrey "no friend of
the Olympic movement" and tried to stop him from taking a tour Sunday 
through Sydney's
2000 Olympics complex. Sydney officials, however, permitted the tour. 

Gosper told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio that McCaffrey was 
basing his attacks on
outdated information. 

"I think that the United States has not really kept fully in touch with 
developments that have
taken place," Gosper said. 

The World Anti-Doping Agency, created Wednesday by the IOC, will 
have representatives
from sports bodies, including the IOC, on its board as well as 
government officials. 

The IOC will have four seats on the agency's board, which can have up 
to 35 members.
The body's first chairman is IOC vice president Dick Pound and it is 
provisionally based in
Lausanne, Switzerland, home of the international Olympic movement. 

On Sunday, McCaffrey said there was a "fundamental conflict on 
interest" in the IOC
running both the anti-doping agency and the Olympics. 

Prince Alexandre de Merode, chairman of the IOC medical committee, 
called McCaffrey's
reaction "hysterical and not constructive." 

The IOC invited McCaffrey to Switzerland as soon as possible to meet 
with IOC President
Juan Antonio Samranch regarding a "mutually agreed upon agenda." 
Samaranch is not
attending the Sydney conference. 

The dispute has overshadowed other issues at the Sydney summit, 
which gathers
anti-doping experts in talks on how governments can cooperate to help 
in the fight against
performance-enhancing drugs in sport. 

Australian organizers wants delegates to commit to agreed standards in 
doping control and
improve international cooperation and collaboration through bilateral 
and multilateral
anti-doping agreements. The summit ends Wednesday. 

At the summit, McCaffrey is seeking support for a package of six 
principles the United
States believes must underpin a global anti-doping policy. Besides a 
fully independent
anti-doping agency, he wants athletes to be subject to year-round 
no-notice testing and no
statute of limitations for doping charges. He wants samples to be 
preserved so they can be
tested later when new tests are developed, more research on tests and 
promotion of
clean-competition ethics. 

Opening the conference, Australian Sports Minister Jackie Kelly hailed 
the summit as the
start of "a new era in cooperation between governments and 
international sporting
federations to crack down on 'tracksuit fraud' in order to protect the body 
and spirit of
international sport." 



---------------------------

Not good enough chaps...   Gotta take on the junta before
"00000 normal service will be resumed" at Syd 2000. 

So better :                 Watch this space.


Follow the plea by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the appreciations 
of HH the Dalai Lama, the Shan Democratic Union,  film maker John 
Pilger, the Free Burma Coalition,  author Alan Clements, Dennis 
Skinner MP, Tony Benn MP, Ann Clwyd MP, Congress-woman  
Maxine Waters,  Socialist Workers' Party,  Dr and Welsh rugby  
star JPR Williams, Hendrix  bassist Noel Redding,  S African jazz 
pianist Abdullah Ibrahim,  All Burma Students Democratic 
Organisation,  All Burma Students Democratic Front, Tasmanian 
Trades & Labour Council,  SACP (South African Communist Party),
COSATU,  Tim Gopsill, editor.  The.Journalist@xxxxxxxxxx, and 
numerous others.   

Supporting a Genuine war upon drugs and human rights abuse.
Sydney 2000 : Burma Out! 
http://www.mihra.org/2k/burma.htm

Music Industry Human Rights Association
http://www.mihra.org / policy.office@xxxxxxxxx 

Rachel and James http//:www.mihra.org/2k/rachel.htm
Union Action http://www.mihra.org/2k/Union.htm

Founded during UN50. Mihra's roots are in music and anti-racism and 
was first in line in calling for a sports boycott of Burma for the Sydney
2000 Olympic Games. Mihra also advances protection of creators rights 
in an anti-cultural market, currently 93.8% monopolised by the recording  
/ publishing Grand Cartel. 

Major solo work "Piece of Mind". With orchestra, Holland 69. same  
time as Beatles "Abbey Road".   http://onlinetv.com/rogerbunn.html
                          ========================