Czechs move to join Olympic ban

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 1

Czechs move to join Olympic ban

NZPA-AP Mexico City The Czechoslovakia Ambassador to Mexico, Mr Sindrich Tucek, said yesterday that his country will follow the Soviet lead and not participate in the Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles, according to Notimex, the official news agency of the Mexican Government. Notimex reported that Mr Tucek made the comment in an interview during an official visit to Puebla, where he spoke with local officials. Puebla is 126 km east of Mexico City. Notimex said that Mr Tucek said that 30 Czechoslovakian athletes who were training in Mexico for the international competitions have returned home. Czechoslovakia now joins the Soviet Union, East Germany, Bulgaria, and Vietnam in boycotting the Games. Yesterday in Washington President Reagan was under pressure to make a major initiative to woo the Soviet Union back to the Olympics. However, the White House insisted that the President had no plans to join any effort to make Moscow reverse its boycott decision. Two Democratic Presidential candidates, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Mr Walter Mondale, both urged Mr Reagan to make a move to save the Games. The first of three senior international Olympic officials was due in Moscow today as the boycott appeared to be taking shape. The president of the Paris-based Association of National Olympic Commit-

tees, Mr Mario Vazquez Rana, hopes to persuade Soviet sports officials to reverse their decision to boycott the Games. Bulgaria, East Germany, and Vietnam have also said they plan to stay away, giving similar reasons to Moscow — fears for their athletes’ safety and a United States Government failure to contain anti-Communist groups planning to demonstrate in Los Angeles. Western diplomats said that other Soviet allies were likely to follow suit. Only Rumania, which often takes an independent line within the Eastern bloc, has indicated it will send a team. Mr Rana said that the president of 1.0. C., Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch, had asked him to undertake the Moscow mission. Mr Samaranch has announced that he will fly to Moscow too in the next few days, bearing a letter for President Konstantin Chernenko from President Reagan. Mr Primo Nebiolo, the head of the International Amateur Athletics Federation, is also due to visit the Soviet capital. The Soviet news media, meanwhile, have, for the first time, begun criticising the 1.0. C. as well as the United States authorities, saying Mr Samaranch had failed to take any steps to meet Soviet complaints about conditions in Los Angeles. The criticism of the 1.0. C., which came in an interview with a Soviet Olympic trainer, seemed to cast new doubts on the chances of success for the senior international Olympic figures heading for Moscow.