From Scotsman

Olympic boycott threatened as Burma death toll climbs
AUNG HLA TUN IN RANGOON AND DARREN ENNIS

BURMA'S political crisis was thrust to the front of the international stage yesterday following the shooting death of a Japanese journalist and an explicit threat from the EU's most powerful political grouping that China's 2008 Olympics faces boycott unless it intervenes against the country's ruling junta. [...]

[...]

For the first time yesterday, China publicly called for restraint in Burma but Edward McMillan-Scott, the vice president of the European Parliament, said European Union countries should boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics unless China intervenes in Burma.

The British Conservative MEP is backed by the assembly's largest political group - the centre-right European People's Party, which includes the governing parties of France and Germany - and the Liberal grouping within the EU legislature.

"The consensus around the European Parliament is that China is the key. China is the puppet master of Burma," Mr McMillan-Scott said.

"The Olympics is the only real lever we have to make China act.

"The civilised world must seriously consider shunning China by using the Beijing Olympics to send the clear message that such abuses of human rights are not acceptable."

"This religious mass movement is finding echoes all over Asia including China, Korea and Tibet. They are filling a political vacuum. You cannot kill faith. If you try, it will kill you," said Mr McMillan-Scott, who has just returned from a tour of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Thailand.

Beijing has a deep investment in Burma, with concerns about trade, border stability and fighting drugs magnified by plans to build oil and gas pipelines through Burma's ethnically mixed border regions into China. [...]

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