New UN special adviser on sport prioritises China-Tibet unrest

Lemke, 61, was appointed to the position on 18 March 2008 and will hold the rank of Under-Secretary General during his tenure. He takes over the role from Adolf Ogi, the former Swiss president.

Lemke was the general manager of Werder Bremen Football Club between 1981 and 1999, and now sits as the chairman of the supervisory board for the club. He is also Senator for Interior Affairs and Sport in the German state of Bremen, a post he has held since 1999.

In a press conference to announce his appointment, which initially lasts for one year, Lemke outlined three main tasks during his term: planning sport’s contribution to UN peacekeeping and development activities; representing the UN Secretary-General in meetings with the major sports federations; and evaluating and analysing all sports activities and projects being run by the UN.

However, his first act as special adviser will be to visit China to assess the current political situation in China in the wake of recent protests over Tibetan autonomy, telling journalists he will visit the region “as soon as possible”.

The protests were triggered in part by the hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing and have sparked calls for a boycott of the event, or at least the opening ceremony by politicians, not least in Lemke’s home nation, Germany.

Lemke himself is against a boycott, believing it would only result in pain for the athletes rather than triggering wide scale political change in China.

“A boycott achieves nothing at all, except that many thousands of highly-qualified athletes who have trained for it miss out and it devalues one of the biggest sports events in the world,” Lemke told German radio reports the news agency Agence France Presse.

Nonetheless, Lemke also refused to rule out a boycott if the situation deteriorates reports the Indo-Asian News Service.

Lemke’s appointment was welcomed by Germany’s Federal Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“We now also have to tap the power and momentum of sport on an international scale. Willi Lemke's many years of experience in sport and politics will equip him with the skills he needs for this important activity,” Steinmeier told reporters according to a statement by the German Foreign Office.

However, Steinmeier confirmed ten days after Lemke’s appointment that the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, would not be attending the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, and neither would he nor sports minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

While denying that the decision not to attend constituted a boycott over the recent unrest in China, Steinmeier did not rule one out in the future. “This is not the right moment to talk about a boycott ... We should watch how the Chinese government deals with the situation in the next weeks and months,” the Guardian reports him as saying.

Meanwhile, the German National Olympic Committee (DOSB) announced on 24 March 2008 that it would not be boycotting the Olympics this summer, a move welcomed by athletes in a survey carried out by the DPA press agency.

Nonetheless, some German athletes have expressed misgivings over the political situation in China, and a network of athletes including Athens canoeing bronze-medalist Stefan Pfannmoeller, have instead chosen to wear an armband during the tournament with the words “Sport for Human Rights” emblazoned upon it.

“As athletes we carry a big responsibility and must show it. If not us, who else?,” Pfannmoeller told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.

Related links

• United Nations, Secretary-General appoints Wilfried Lemke of Germany as special adviser on sport for development and peace
• The Guardian, Merkel says she will not attend opening of Beijing Olympics
• German Foreign Office, Using sport's peacekeeping potential
• Play the Game, Former UN special adviser on sport Adolf Ogi’s presentation at Play the Game 2005
• Play the Game, Foreign media barred from Tibet in breach of Olympic media access pledge