Sport and Politics: Diplomacy of an Olympic Truce

Subsequently, all the other Greek cities ratified this agreement, which recognized the permanent immunity of the sanctuary at Olympia. The truce, now known as the "Olympic Truce", allowed athletes, artists and their families to travel in safety to compete in or attend the Olympic Games, and return home safely afterwards.

The founder of the International Olympic Committee and renovater of the Olympic Games, French educationalist Pierre de Coubertin, was aware that without political powers there was no way forward. For that reason in 1894 he had invited to the Sorbonne University in Paris, academics, senators, members of parliament, ambassadors and personalties from within the Peace Movement, from Europe and the United States, some of whom became Nobel Peace Prize winners. The Paris Congress was chaired by a senator, Baron de Courcel, under the patronage of the King of Belgium, the Prince of Wales, the Crown Prince of Sweden, the Crown Prince of Greece and Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia.

"Any institution, any creation, however alive it may be", said de Coubertin, "develops according to the customs and the passions of the moment. Today, politics infiltrates the heart of all problems. How can sport, muscularism, Olympism itself, escape? But the ravages it can cause are only on the surface. In reality, institutions almost always undergo two types of development: that of the outward appearance and that of the soul. The first tries to espouse the forms of fashion, and changes according to fashions whims; the second remains as constant as the principles on which the institution rests; it evolves slowly and healthily, in accordance with human laws themselves. Olympism belongs to this latter category."

Despite this, even today, some still claim that you should not mix sport and politics. How naive! Once you have a government, there will be policy, and this policy will cover sport just as much as education, health and youth. What is more, almost all governments today have within their cabinets a minister responsible for sport, some of whom are among us today.

But the element which creates confusion is the policy which exploits sport for political ends, not the policy applied advisedly.

Nor did Pierre de Coubertin hesitate to campaign in favour of sport for all and Olympism with the now defunct League of Nations and the International Labour Office (ILO), before his death in 1937.

After his election in 1980 and the successive Olympic boycotts on political grounds, one of Coubertins successors, the current IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch, a skilful Spanish diplomat, also realized the need to establish working relations with governments, the United Nations system (UN), the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Organization of American States (OAS), the Commonwealth and other inter-governmental organizations. It is thanks to the pursuit of this policy, which promotes dialogue and cooperation, that we are here at the UNESCO headquarters today for a conference organized jointly.

As early as 1947, at the UNESCO general conference, Mr Armand Massard, president of the French National Olympic Committee (NOC) and IOC member, made the following remark to the UN Secretary General: "UNESCO stands for the Organization of the United Nations in the field of education, science and culture, the mere adding of the word physical to either would be sufficient. Do not UNESCO and the IOC share the same ideals, in as much as they both aim at improving the individual on a moral and physical level, as well as contriving to bring people together? The first aim is accomplished by means of public debates as well as literary and scientific works. The second by loyalty in stadium contests". Today, the clear link between the two organizations is obvious to everyone.

Sport now imposes its own logic, which is not necessarily that of governments. It is more than a mere instrument: it is becoming an end in itself, with its own values and progressive aspects.

The International Olympic Committee, now in its 105th year of existence, has interrupted the Olympic Games only during the first and second world wars, in 1916, 1940 and 1944. However, politics has never been separated from sport, right from the first Games held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, the cradle of Olympism.

During the IOC Session in Rome, in 1923, Pierre de Coubertin appealed for African Games to be held, and even created a medal which bore the Latin inscription:"Athlete Proprium Est Se Ipsum Noscere, Ducere et Vincere" ("The task of the athlete is to know himself, control himself and surpass himself") ("Le devoir et lessence de lathlte est de se connatre, de se conduire et de se vaincre soi-mme") to honour those who contributed to the realization of this project.

To demonstrate his desire to promote African sport, Coubertin invited the Prince Regent of Ethiopia, Ras Teferi Mekonen, who later reigned under the name of Emperor Hail Slassie, to attend the Games of the VIII Olympiad in Paris. Algeria had been chosen to host the first African games in 1925, but declined under pressure from the colonial powers.

A Greek philanthropist who was an IOC member in Egypt, Angelo C. Bolanaki, financed the construction of a stadium in Alexandria to organize the first African Games in 1927.

Pierre de Coubertin even made an appeal to the participants of all the countries of the world in the Games of the VII Olympiad in 1924 "so that they could each make a donation, however modest, to an undertaking of sporting and humanitarian solidarity". The 8th of July 1924 was reserved for this subscription, and the first to register was the President of the French Republic. An "African Sports" account managed by Mr Bolanki was opened at the Imperial Ottoman Bank, 7 rue Meyerber in Paris. Unfortunately, the colonial powers were once again opposed to the holding of African Games in Egypt, and the project was abandonned. The stadium in Alexandria was nevertheless used for the first edition of the Mediterranean Games, organized in 1951 thanks to Mohammed Taher Pacha, president of the Egyptian NOC and IOC Vice President. The second edition of these Games was in Barcelona in 1955, where Juan Antonio Samaranch was deputy secretary general of the organizing committee.

It was not until 1960, under the government of General de Gaulle, and through the High Commissioner for Sports, Maurice Herzog, who is now an honorary IOC member, that the Games of Friendship were organized for the first time in Madagascar, for the French-speaking countries in Africa.

It was these Games, expanded to include the neighbouring English-speaking countries and next held by Cte dIvoire and Senegal, which were transformed into the African Games in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo.

Better late than never, the independent Algeria hosted the 3rd African Games in 1978 in Algiers, and Egypt hosted the 5th edition in 1991 in Cairo.

The medal created by Coubertin will from now on be presented to those who serve the development of sport and Olympism with distinction in less-developed countries by the International Olympic Forum for Development.

The problem of the appalling policy of apartheid applied in South Africa was discussed for the first time in political terms by the IOC Executive Board at its meeting in Paris in 1955. But the real fight against apartheid in sport was begun in 1957 at Khartoum, Sudan, by the African Football Confederation. For the first edition of the African Nations Cup, Egypt was drawn against Sudan, and South Africa against Ethiopia. The South Africans insisted on entering a team composed solely of white players, or black players, but not mixed. South Africa was therefore excluded. At the time, there was no OAU or Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA). The struggle was long and hard. South Africa was suspended in 1964, then excluded from the Olympic Movement in 1970.

In the 1960s, the black South Africans created a South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SAN-ROC). A coalition of the anti-apartheid movements named "International Campaign against apartheid in sport" (ICAS), which I had the honour to preside, was also set up in Paris at the beginning of the 1980s.

For President Samaranch, the South African problem could not be settled without the Africans. He therefore set up an Apartheid and Olympism commission, chaired by IOC Vice President Judge Kba Mbaye, a former vice-president of the International Court of Justice and secretary general of the Games of Friendship in Dakar, in 1963. The Commission made two visits to consult the political parties and sports organizations in the country, and initiated the creation of a multiracial NOC which joined the Olympic Movement in 1991. But racial discrimination has still not disappeared from the world sports movement. Racism is still alive and well, with its attendant cynicism and sarcasm. We must therefore all remain vigilant in order to defend dignity and human rights.

There was also the case of Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe, which was settled by expulsion before the Games of the XX Olympiad in Munich in 1972.

The invasion of Hungary by the USSR in 1956 led to a boycott of the Games of the XVI Olympiad in Melbourne by some European countries. Egypt withdrew from Melbourne because of the invasion of the Suez Canal. To replace it in the football tournament, FIFA called on Ethiopia, which declined the invitation.

However, the IOC, in cooperation with the Czech National Olympic Committee, managed to get the Hungarian athletes out "secretly", and they were able to take part in the Melbourne Games, where the Olympic Truce was mentioned for the first time.

After the successive boycotts of the 1970s and 80s, it was necessary to handle the break-up of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on a sporting level, with the recognition of the National Olympic Committees of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia, and their first participation in the Olympic Games.

The political crisis in Yugoslavia then led to sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council, which for the first time included sport as part of the sanction measures. For the IOC, there was no question of abandoning the athletes, victims of a political process. It began negotiations with the Sanctions Committee and reached a compromise which allowed Yugoslav athletes to take part as individual competitors in the Games of the XXV Olympiad in Barcelona in 1992.

The break-up of the USSR into 15 republics also led the IOC to propose the formation of a unified delegation for the Games in 1992 since there was no sufficient time to establish NOCs.

It was not until 1993 that the 15 NOCs were recognized, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation and Ukraine joined the Association of European Olympic Committees, and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan joined the Olympic Council of Asia.

But all these actions undertaken by the IOC in the field of sport were brought to fruition with the consent of the political authorities. When, in 1993, the UN General Assembly adopted two resolutions concerning the International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal, to be celebrated in 1994 to mark the IOCs centenary, and observance of the Olympic Truce, several NOCs took initiatives to promote peace. Indeed, President Samaranch had written to all heads of state and government asking them to support observance of the Olympic Truce during the XVII Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994.

A discreet diplomatic campaign was launched in Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Liberia, Sudan and Rwanda among the different warring parties. This was how the Sudanese NOC succeeded in obtaining a cease-fire, decreed by the President of the Republic, in the war which continues to oppose the government and the Sudanese Peoples Liberation Army (SPLM) in the south of the country, in order to observe the Olympic Truce. The armed conflict in Georgia with Abkhazia was also suspended.

The Japanese NOC created a slogan: "Carry the flame of world peace forever".

The IOC President met with the heads of state of the Balkans region; was later invited as a guest to the OAU summit for heads of state and government in Tunis, Tunisia; and addressed the UN General Assembly in New York.

Observance of the Olympic Truce at the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano in February 1998 certainly also encouraged dialogue and the search for diplomatic solutions in the Iraq crisis, avoiding a human tragedy. Twenty-four hours after the closing ceremony of the Games, the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, signed a memorandum with the Iraqi deputy prime minister, Tarek Aziz, in Baghdad.

We are living in a world where real peace is becoming increasingly elusive, driven away by gun fire, coups dtat, bombings and antipersonnel mines. Fratricidal civil wars, ethnic and racial cleansing and genocide feature on the list of crimes against humanity recorded by contemporary history. Destroy in order to rebuild has become a new element of development because of human stupidity.

In the absence of lasting political solutions, the IOC can only propose a truce, even if it is merely symbolic and limited for the moment. But we must not despair, even if the results do not live up to our hopes . We must continue to work untiringly so that peace may reign in the world and the third millennium be better and peaceful for present and future generations. Nevertheless, sport undeniably remains a key instrument of diplomacy, as proved by various hope-inspiring initiatives.

We all remember the "Ping-Pong diplomacy" which helped rebuild relations between the United States of America and the Peoples Republic of China. More recently, sport has played a strategic role in relations both between the USA and Iran, and between the USA and Cuba. The IOC maintains permanent contacts with South and North Korea with a view to facilitating rapprochement between them through sporting contacts. Athletes from the Peoples Republic of China also interact with those from Chinese Taipei on the sports field, thanks to an agreement concluded by the IOC.

The Games of the XX Olympiad in Munich were the scene of a tragedy in which Israeli athletes were killed by terrorists. The refusal of the Asian sports movement to accept Israel has led the International Sports Federations to include it in Europe. As for the Palestinian NOC, it currently has provisional recognition allowing it to take part in the Olympic Games.

For the former UN Secretary General and current Secretary General of Francophonie, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, "the Olympic ideal is a hymn to tolerance and understanding between people and cultures. It is an invitation to competition, but competition in the respect for others. In its way, Olympism is a school of democracy. There is a natural link between the ethics of the Olympic Games and the fundamental principles of the United Nations."

The present UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is also a fervent defender of the Olympic Truce. The international centre for the Olympic Truce, under the patronage of the IOC President and Greek Foreign Affairs Minister George Papandreou, will seek, in cooperation with inter and non governmental organizations, to use the Olympic values and sport to promote brotherhood, friendship, dialogue and reconciliation in countries involved in armed conflict, in the framework of a culture of peace.

Contrary to what people think, the Olympic Truce is often used by politicians.

The title of "Olympic", "world" or "continental" champion, in a sport, brings together the people of a nation. Political parties call a truce.

Parliaments suspend their deliberations to follow a sports event. Heads of state and government receive champions and decorate them. Football, in particular, is the political sport par excellence. When, in 1980, the President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, declared a boycott of the Games of the XXII Olympiad in Moscow because of the war in Afghanistan, some European governments had to confront their national Olympic movement. The NOCs asserted their independence, and went to Moscow under certain conditions. But at the medal ceremonies, the athletes were disappointed at not seeing their national flag raised and not hearing their national anthem. For there are very few occasions when the national anthem is played officially: in honour of a head of state or government, of a minister representing the nation and when an ambassador presents his credentials.

But the ordinary person is honoured with his national anthem only when he becomes an Olympic or world champion in any sport, and at the start of international matches.

This rare privilege, which sometimes makes athletes shed tears of joy in front of millions of television viewers, is a tribute both to the individual and to sport.

Yet the Olympic anthem, composed by the Greek Spiros Samaras in 1896, of which all followers of Olympism are proud, is unique in that it belongs to the whole of humankind.

Moreover, if we are today familiar with the names of certain countries or cities around the world, it is not thanks to geography lessons but to Olympic champions, top footballers, and international competitions. Football stadiums are also used for events of a political nature. When the great statesman Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years of imprisonment by the apartheid regime, it was in the football stadium in Soweto that he met his people. It was in the same stadium that he retired from political life. But he will for ever be the embodiment of tolerance, justice, equality, human rights, respect for others and brotherhood between peoples.

On the subject of stadiums, the French author Andr Malraux said: "I am sorry that there are fewer and fewer people in museums, and an ever greater number in stadiums". In response to this, his compatriot, the former Director General of UNESCO Ren Maheu said "the two activities do not seem incompatible, and in an ideal society, people would go to museums and stadiums, since the beauty of the movements in football is akin to that of the forms of a chef doeuvre."

Unfortunately, stadiums are also used as political prisons or refugee camps. Problems of a political nature are also caused by chauvinism, resulting in the scenes of violence we sometimes witness in stadiums, because of a lack of tolerance and fair play. The Sports Hall in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, destroyed during the war and rebuilt thanks to the IOC, was used as a military storehouse, and the stadium for the opening ceremony of the XIV Olympic Winter Games in 1984 was transformed into a cemetery. But the stadium, turned into a musical arena, an architectural masterpiece and the main gathering place in the city, will remain for millions of people the place where the Sunday and Easter truces were observed, as well as the Olympic Truce, the queen of all truces.

The Olympic Movement is the largest movement in the world made up of volunteers of all political and religious persuasions. Their daily work is accomplished during the Truce, as sports competitions are held throughout the year. In other words the Olympic Truce is permanent in the minds of those who devote their efforts to the well-being and peace of our society.

Those poor and rich leaders, the majority of whom have as their sole ambition to serve their clubs, associations and federations, devoting all their energy and know-how, and spending their own money for the cause. For someone like me, who believes that, to some extent, poverty is a school of imagination, there is no doubt that the committed leader will find solutions to his many needs so that sport and the Olympic Truce may prosper. Sport is a universal language. Sport is a medicine available without prescription for physical and moral well-being. Sport is a permanent school of life which we attend until we die. Sport is the joy of living.

Moving from Olympism to the gospels, Coubertin said: "The Bible orders us to Love thy neighbour as thyself, teaching the way of salvation. Rejoice in ever-reborn humanity, advises Olympism. Have faith in it, pour your strength into it, join your hopes with the hopes of Olympism. Egotistical joy is not an intermittent sun. Altruistic joy is a perpetual halo."