Word: dissenter
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Plenty of similar tales have surfaced in recent weeks of how Chinese expressing even mild dissent have been jailed, intimidated, forced to leave Beijing or barred from coming to the capital for the Games. When the Games were awarded to China in 2001, the International Olympic Committee and some Chinese officials argued that they would act as a force for openness. But both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have published reports in the weeks leading up to the Games arguing persuasively that they've had the opposite effect. The forcible suppression of dissent and the jailing of activists...
...that reformers would truly align themselves with the centrist bloc Qalibaf envisions. "In reality this is a political current constructed by the state in order to present personalities from the conservatives like Qalibaf as reformists," Abtahi says, pointing out that Qalibaf played a prominent role in quelling pro-democracy dissent during Khatami's presidency. And while perhaps not the unreconstructed revolutionary that Iran's hard-liners so admire, Qalibaf is unabashedly loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, Iran's ultimate authoritarian decision maker...
That's not to say the government hasn't taken aggressive measures to crack down on domestic dissent. Strict visa policies have kept many activists out of the country, most notably former U.S. Olympic speed skater Joey Cheek, who has worked internationally to stop the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region. Among the many interest groups that have criticized Beijing's policies, overseas Tibetan rights activists have been the busiest protest group during the Games. They've held at least five demonstrations in high-profile spots around the city, and each time they have been detained and deported. "What...
...African Union [July 14], which espouses democracy and free and fair elections, should have condemned Mugabe and refused to recognize his government. Instead, with the dissent of a few countries, notably Botswana, the Union merely passed a feeble resolution suggesting a government of national unity, which Mugabe in any case would not accept. It is tragic that the A.U. ignored the opportunity to take drastic action. Instead, it has lost whatever credibility it had. Edward R.C. Preston, AUCKLAND...
Despite the relative calm, signs of dissent were apparent. "There's a lot of things we keep in here," one Uighur shopkeeper said, tapping on my chest. He said that decades of Chinese rule had changed the mentality of his people. "We've been under a lot of pressure" he says. "For some minorities the conditions have been good...