Olympics preparations a nightmare at times

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 50

Olympics preparations a nightmare at times

By

LARRY SIDDONS

NZPA Lausanne An air of relief has fallen upon the International Olympic Committee after seven years of planning the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics amid threats of political disruption. In Lausanne, headquarters of the 1.0. C., the mood is expressed by the 1.0. C. president, Mr Juan Antonio Samaranch, who says South Korea is on the verge of achieving its “economic dream.” For the international committee and the Seoul organisers, however, the seven years of preparation have seemed at times not a dream but a nightmare. Boycott threats have come from the Communist bloc and Africa. Demonstrations by students and middle-class workers spawned violence in the streets of Seoul and forced officials to hold presidential elections sooner than planned.

A Korean airliner was blown out of the sky, killing 115 people, and a North Korean agent said she did it to disrupt Olympic preparation.

The 1.0. C. stood firm, refusing to even discuss moving the Games to a less-volatile site.

Now, with a record 161 nations ready to take part and the lighting of the Olympic flame on the banks of the Han River less than a month away, it sees its faith about to be rewarded, with top athletes of East and West meeting for the first time since 1976. “When the 1.0. C. awarded the Games to Seoul in 1981, I thought it made the right decision. I still think so,” Mr Samaranch said. No-one would argue South Korea and its capital have unde-gone remarkable changes in the seven years since the 1.0. C. decided Seoul would play host to this Olympic Games. Mr Samaranch has watched those changes from a privileged seat. “The Olympic Games have been very helpful for Seoul ... And also the country. It has gone through an economic dream. And politically today, the Republic of Korea is a real democracy,” he said. Street protests only underscore that democratic status, Mr Samaranch said. "/There are some people, from what we can see on television, the fights between students and police, who may think

there is the climate there for revolution. That is untrue,” the 1.0. C. president said. “The Republic of Korea is the fastest-grow-ing economic and political site in the world. No. 1.” Until the Games end on October 2, no-one can be assured whether they will remain secure, for whatever reason. Last month, after a United States Nayy ship downed an Iranian airliner killing more than 260 people, Mr Samaranch was known to be worried by the possible impact of that action on the Olympics. But he also has done all he could to assure a complete, peaceful Games in Seoul. Mr Samaranch was Spain’s Ambassador to Moscow before becoming 1.0. C. chief in 1980, and he used his diplomatic skill to stamp out the worst of the bushfires that flared.

They started when North Korea issued an unprecedented demand in late 1985 it be declared co-host of the Games. Unless it was allowed to stage at least eight of the 24 events — roughly equivalent to the proportion of the population of the Korean peninsula residing above the 38th Parallel — the North said it would lead an East-bloc boycott of Seoul.

Boycotts had hit the previous three Summer Games, and Mr Samaranch was determined Seoul would be spared. Through four sets of joint meetings, he kept the North and South talking, while travelling to Communist capitals to try to convince leaders not to heed Pyongyang’s call. When the deadline of January 17 came for countries to say whether they would participate, negative replies came from only six — North Korea and allies Cuba, Ethiopia, Albania, Nicara-. gua and the Seychelles. “The greatest Olympic nations will attend,” Mr Samaranch said. The threat of another boycott, by • African nations protesting South s Africa's racial policies, ' was quashed earlier when Mr Samaranch held a first-ever conference on “Olympism Against Apartheid” in Lausanne. In South Korea, the 1.0. C. president met Government and Opposition leaders and got them to urge their followers to unite behind the Olympic effort. Student demonstrations, which helped bring about the balloting in which Mr Roh-tae Woo was elected president last December, have continued as the

Games approach. But-Mr Samaranch said fears these often-violent protests, or terrorism from Pyo n g - yang, would disrupt the Games were unfounded. “The security arrangements at the Games will be very complete,” he said. A bomb blast at Kimpo Airport in Seoul just before the Asian Games in 1986 killed five people, but Mr Samaranch emphasised “during these games, nothing happened.” The 1.0. C. is moving a staff of about 40 people to Seoul for a month of work, beginning with a quarterly executive board meeting from September 11-12 and the committee’s 94th session the following three days. The prime task of the session, the committee’s annual meeting, will be the choice of a host for the 1994 Winter Games, with Sofia, Bulgaria, believed to be the frontrunner in a four-city field. Other candidates are Anchorage, Alaska; Lillehammer, Norway; and Ostersund, Sweden. Lausanne, the 1.0.C.’s home city, pulled out of the running earlier this summer under pressure from environmental and taxpayer groups.