United Nations, Nov 05: The U.N. General Assembly has adapted an Olympic truce resolution calling for and end to hostilities during the next summer games.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the General Assembly on Monday (November 3) called for warring sides in conflicts around the world to observe a truce during next year's Olympic Games in Athens. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge spoke at the 58th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and presented the traditional resolution on the Olympic Truce, which was immediately adopted by the Assembly . The resolution was introduced, as usual, by the host country of the next Games, in this case Greece, which will welcome the athletes of the whole world from 13 to 29 August 2004 for the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad. Several other representatives of member states who also spoke in support of this draft text. The current draft of the Truce is based on the tradition of the "Olympic Truce", or "Ekecheria", established in Ancient Greece in the 9th century B.C. Taking into account the new political reality of which sport and the Olympic Games are a part, the IOC decided in 1992 to revive this tradition aiming to put sport and its network at the service of peace and bringing people together. The adoption of a resolution on the Olympic Truce by the General Assembly takes place regularly every two years some months before the opening of the Games. The first resolution was adopted in 1993.


At the General Assembly meeting, Greece's Minister of Foreign Affairs, George Papandreou, mentioned the importance of the Games next year.


"You know less than a year from now Greece will have the privilege of celebrating the homecoming of the greatest peace gathering of our time," he said. "The occasion of the 2004 Athens Olympics, provides a unique opportunity to rekindle the ancient Greek tradition of Olympic truce."


Tunisian Minister of sport, Abderrahim Zouari opened the session by mentioning the drug problems that currently challenges the sports world, with the discovery of the unknown designer steroid, THG, which athletes had believed to be undetectable.


"Sports could help to achieve a peaceful world and to achieve Olympic goals. It also sets forth the need to carry out the convention on drugs with respect to all sports activities," he said.


Founding member of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and four-time Olympic speedskating gold medallist Johann Olav Koss of the Netherlands said that the Games have been tainted by the discovery of THG.


"I think it's very difficult to say how it's going to affect the Olympic Games next year," he said. "We will see who is being caught and who's being excluded from participation. If the numbers are as big as we think it might be than that will have a big impact, particularly, from the American perspective."


With the Olympic Games just around the corner, the shake-up will see the loss of some big name athletes and could affect corporate endorsements and contracts, but just how heavily will they be affected?


"I believe that the Olympics stands above this problem. And, I don't believe that for example the corporate rights or broadcasting rights for the Olympics will be that much affected because we believe in the Olympic ideals and I think we have to go back to them more closer and also from the athletes perspective. We realize that the Olympic ideals stand for good values and that's what it promotes to every person in the world."


More than four hundred world leaders and personalities have signed up in support of the Olympic Truce initiative, including former South African president Nelson Mandela, Iran's president Mohammed Khatami and the foreign ministers of many other other countries.


The initiative was officially launced during the flame-lighting ceremony at Olympia for the 2001 Winter Olympics and has gained further momentum during these volatile times in world politics.


Bureau Report