From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 7/9/2007 11:09 PM
9.7.2007 12:51 MSK
The IOC has forgotten that its purpose is "building a better world"
RUSSIA,Sochi. In supporting Sochi’s bid to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has demonstrated that the protection of nature is not a real priority, notes the organization "Ecological Watch in the North Caucasus" in a communication of July 5.

The communication further stated: "On July 4, 2007, the International Olympic Committee session designated Sochi as the host city for the Winter Olympic Games in 2014.

This decision was taken despite the fact that public ecological organizations, both Russian and international, have informed the IOC about serious the ecological consequences of holding the Olympic Games in Sochi.

No Olympic Games in history have carried such serious threats to wildlife and to biological diversity. Never in the history of these games, have all sport facilities been planned in valuable natural territories, where world natural heritage areas would undergo massive construction activity in the name of conducting the games. The Olympic Games in Sochi, apparently, will be first on this black list. These will be the most destructive Olympic Games for wildlife since the advent of the Olympic movement.

The International Olympic Committee has repeatedly declared its adherence to steady development and proclaimed in recent decades that the protection of the environment is one of its priorities. It is customary to assume that the IOC imposes very high ecological requirements on cities which plan to conduct Olympic Games.

Unfortunately, as the case of Sochi has shown, all these declarations are not real tools of policy for the International Olympic Committee. If these principles actually played a key role in its activity, then Sochi’s bid would have been rejected at the earliest stage, or stringent ecological requirements would have been advanced to bind Russian authorities to exclude valuable natural territories. But this did not happen. The IOC did not impose requirements on Russia so that Olympic facilities would not affect valuable natural territories. The most serious threat of ecological catastrophe in Sochi is the complete absence of a control system, the colossal negative impact from the building of Olympic facilities on available water resources, the destruction of the green spaces in Sochi for these buildings, and many other ecological problems. All this undermines confidence in the International Olympic Committee as an ecologically responsible international institute. Its objectivity in the study of the negative environmental impact of the Olympic Games in Sochi is highly suspect. Does it really aim to "build a better world ", as indicated in its declaration? A "better world" cannot be built at the price of the destruction of wildlife.

“Ecological Watch in the North Caucasus” and other concerned public ecological organizations intend to continue to fight against the destruction of the unique natural environment of the West Caucasus, destruction which now carries the blessings of the IOC. If the concept of the Sochi Olympic Games is not fundamentally changed and threats to valuable natural resources and threats of irreparable damage to unique biological variety are not removed, it, together with other Russian and international public organizations, through different international initiatives, will seek a revision of the decision to conduct the 2014Olympic Games in Sochi ".

Translated by OM Kenney
PRIMA-News Agency [2007-07-05-Rus-40]

http://www.prima-news.ru/eng/news/news/2007/7/9/38643.html