Lausanne (AFP)

IOC President Thomas Bach pleaded Friday against a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, increasingly discussed because of the repression of the Uyghurs, affirming that such an option had "never brought anything".

Asked about the treatment by the Chinese authorities of this Muslim minority, qualified Thursday of "genocide" by a Dutch parliamentary motion, Thomas Bach admitted that he "led directly to the question of the boycott".

But "we must learn from history: a boycott of the Olympic Games has never brought anything," argued the German leader, renewed Wednesday for four years at the head of the Olympic body.

The former fencer turned lawyer recalled the boycott of the Moscow Olympics in 1980 by the United States and some of its allies, to protest against the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR.

"The Soviet army withdrew in 1989, so it was of no use to punishing their own athletes and leading to a counter-boycott of the Los Angeles Games" in 1984 by the bloc countries. East, he continued.

Thomas Bach was also the spokesperson for West German athletes to challenge the boycott of the Moscow Games, which prevented him from defending his Olympic team foil title won in 1976 at the Montreal Olympics.

More broadly, he recalled the "political neutrality" engraved in the Olympic Charter and recognized by the United Nations, explaining that the IOC could only act "within the limits of (its) attributions".

"Human rights or labor rights, among others, are part of the contract with the host city of the Games" and the Olympic body "works closely with the organizing committee and monitors supply chains, workers' rights, freedom of the press and many other subjects, "he said.

Claiming to take "this issue very seriously", he nevertheless stressed that the IOC was "not a super world government", capable of "settling issues for which neither the UN Security Council nor the G7, nor the G20 have a solution ".

"It is the responsibility of politics. We must assume our responsibilities in our field of competence, and governments must take theirs in their field of competence", concluded the head of the IOC.

© 2021 AFP