Rights Group: China Olympics Evict 1.5 Million

GENEVA — Some 1.5 million Chinese have been forced from their homes during preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, a rights group said yesterday.

China rejected the figures from the Geneva-based Center on Housing Rights and Evictions as "groundless" and said some 6,000 families had been compensated and properly resettled.

"Our research shows that little has changed since 1988 when 720,000 people were forcibly displaced in Seoul, South Korea, in preparation for the Summer Olympic Games," said Jean du Plessis, COHRE's executive director. "It is shocking and entirely unacceptable that 1.25 million people have already been displaced in Beijing, in preparation for the 2008 Games, in flagrant violation of their right to adequate housing."

Some 6,037 households have been demolished since 2002 to make way for nine venues in the process of preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

"Those citizens have received cash compensation and been properly resettled. Not one single household has been forced to move out of Beijing," Ms. Jiang said.

IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies told the Associated Press that the study "touches upon a very important subject," and that the IOC planned to attend a COHRE workshop addressing the issue June 14–15.

"We'd like to get a better understanding of the issues and see what international norms and U.N. standards exist that could serve as guidelines for governments in the future," Ms. Davies said.

The three-year study covered seven past and future Olympic host cities — Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing, and London.

The study says that large-scale events often lead to rising housing costs, resulting in forced evictions, displacement, and criminalization of homelessness.

Five years ahead of the London 2012 Olympics, more than 1,000 people face the threat of displacement from their homes, while housing prices are escalating, the study said.