Withdraw from the Olympic Games

THE A RGIIM ENT about whether or not Britain shouldtake part in the Moscom. Olympic is not primarily about recent events in Afghanistan.
A s a matter of fundamental decency and good sense, we should withdraw from a huge international charade that is merely going to prop up a regime which inflicts imprisonment and misery upon millions of its own people.
It is a decision about which our Government should not even hesitate.
The big round-up of dissidents prior to the Olympics has already begun. and by the time the Games open. all "undesirable" people in Moscow will have been removed.
The children and young people are being sent out of the city to special "holiday camps" and ever) seat in the Olympic stadium has already been al located.
The Soviet government is under no delusions about the importance of the Olympics as a propaganda exercise: "For the first time, the Games will he held in the capital of a socialist state, where the noble ideals of the lympics are fully supported. Peace, equality, fraternity, international co-operation — these concepts are inseparable from the life of Soviet society and are grounded in the constitution of the USSR. Thus, holding the Games in Moscow opens a qualitatively new stage in the Olympic movement."
That is the view of I. Novikov, deputy chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers and chairman of the organising committee the 1980 Olympics.
At the same time. Soviet athletes
have been warned that they have a primary responsibility for promoting the authentic communist message at the Games. and that it is their duty to squash any attempt.to use the Games to promote new ideas;
E. A. Shevardnadm, First Secretary of the Georgian Communist party said at a meeting of the party in July 1979; "There are forces in the world that are preparing intensively not only for sports' contests but also for political and ideological skirmishes and subversive activity. Groups hostile to the Soviet Union are intent on using the Olympic Games for ideological subversion and political attacks. Under these circumstances, every one of our sportsmen must be prepared to give a decisive, convincing and well-Founded repulse to the ideological enemy."
Does anyone still believe that in spite of all this. the Games would mean a chance for the world's athletes, to .sit around and chat amiably together about peace and brotherhood without any pressure. and that this discussion would include urdinan Soviet people'? I he Women's Campaign for Soviet Ji.n■ry, one of the groups in Britain who have been trying to alert people to the realities of what is going on, say that the most important thing to consider is "the effect that the Games will have on ordinary Soviet citizens."
The WCSJ says it has already been inivounced in the international press that school children and students will he sent out of Moscow during the time of the Games and that the city is being "cleaned up" in preparation for 'the Olympics.
Amnesty International has expressed the fear of many Soviet Baptists that they may he sent ussay
from Moscow before the Games start and Je.wist Refuseniks have expressed similar worries tor the last two years.
11 seems likely that the KGB will take this opportunity to get rid of
moo: than prostitutes and criminals during the "cleaning up" process, and the coming of the Games has put at risk many who belong to various religious minorities who might otherwise hope to he ignored by the authorities.
They cite the evidence given by a former prisoner: Wolf Zalmanson, who was released from a Soviet tabour camp last April. Following his arrest in 1971) he met many prjsoners serving in Soviet Labour camps who were arrested shortly after the International Youth Festival of 1957.
These prisoners had been charged after they had communicated with visitors From the West and 13 years later they were still imprisoned for this offence, Wulk Zalmanson himself is convinced that the labour camps, which have been allowed to run down slightly during the last few months, will be refilled with a fresh influx of victims when the Olympic Games are over.
Amnesty International says that the athletes. sporting journalists and spectators, who visit Moscow in July 1980. should accept responsibility for the consequence of their actions and should realise that any ordinary Soviet citizen to whom they speak may suffer in the future, London SW3 Joanna Nash