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Iraq booted from Asian Games

By JEFFREY K. PARKER

BEIJING -- The Olympic Council of Asia, faced with threats of an Arab boycott and angered over its president's death in Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, voted overwhelmingly Thursday to bar Iraq from the Asian Games.

Iraq angrily denounced the vote, which also suspended Iraq from the council, as fixed, but said it saw no point in appealing.

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'This was a victory for everything illegal,' said the Iraqi chief delegate, Abdul Karim al-Mulla, after the vote. 'This is our great sorrow.'

The vote, coming just two days before the opening of the games, was the latest show of international outrage against Baghdad over the Aug.2 invasion. OCA President Fahad al Ahmad al-Sabah, a member of the Kuwaiti royal family, was killed by Iraqi troops as they stormed into the oil- rich emirate.

Sheikh Ahmad al Fahad al-Sabah, who succeeded his father as president of Kuwait's national Olympic committee, praised the vote as a reflection of Asian disgust with Iraq. He said Kuwait now would seek to exclude Iraq from other international organizations.

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'Asia has said its wishes, that Iraq is no longer part of Asian sports,' Ahmad said. 'This is the first kickoff of Iraq and I hope we see the big one: (an expulsion) from Kuwait.'

Ahmad denied Iraqi allegations that Kuwait and other Persian Gulf states had bribed OCA members to vote against Iraq, saying he made no promises and asked each member simply to follow its conscience.

The move to bar Iraq dashed the hopes of host China for a games free of political disputes. The quadrennial Asian Games, staged between Olympics, open Saturday and will last for two weeks.

The possible presence of the Iraqis has all but overshadowed the Chinese government's euphoric propaganda on the games, the first major international sports event hosted by communist China.

Wu Zhongyuan, spokesman for the Beijing Asian Games organizing committee, said the vote barred Iraq from the games and suspended its OCA membership until Olympic activities 'can be conducted normally' in Kuwait, where OCA headquarters had been located.

He said the vote was 27-3, with five abstentions and one invalid vote. The OCA has 38 member nations and territories, and two nations were not present.

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'The organizing committee will abide by the decision,' Wu said.

Some Arab nations had indicated they would consider a boycott unless Iraq was expelled from the games. The possible Iraqi presence had also concerned security officials over problems that could arise if the Iraqi team was housed in the Asian Games village as neighbors to teams from hostile nations.

Al-Mulla acknowledged the Iraqi soccer team had already arrived in China. Its fate was unclear, but he said there was no plan to appeal the decision and the Iraqi official delegation would leave for home. Most of the Iraqi athletes were believed still in Baghdad awaiting the decision.

'We are really worried about the spirit of sports in Asia,' al- Mulla said. 'There should be friendship. Here there is no friendship.'

Al-Mulla charged the vote had been somehow rigged, claiming the secret ballots were large enough to be read '100 meters away' and claiming other technical problems that hurt Iraq. But he did not discuss the overwhelming size of the vote.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi News Agency said, 'The Iraqi National Olympic Committee has strongly denounced measures and behaviors adopted by some gulf countries and the Asian Olympic Council with a view to banning Iraq.'

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It said the Iraq's Olympic committee linked 'these bizarre measures and behaviors' with 'suspicious policies,' and said the moves 'were at variance'with the Asian Olympic Council's principles 'away from all political trends.'

Iraq's expulsion was clearly the less difficult route out of the dilemma for the Chinese government, which indicated during the past week it would abide by the OCA majority decision to avoid a more embarrassing boycott.

But the move could also heighten security fears of terrorism against the Games as a means to avenge Iraq. Security around the Kuwaiti and Saudi Arabian delegations in Beijing has been extremely tight, with police virtually sealing off the hotel where senior Kuwaiti officials are staying.

Kuwait had planned on sending a 330-member delegation to the games, but has entered just 43 athletes who had been training in Europe when the invasion occurred.

Earlier in the day, Chinese Premier Li Peng met with visiting Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal and told the Saudi that the world community should take steps 'to avoid further worsening of the gulf crisis which might lead to a war,' the official Xinhua new agency reported.

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