(May 24, 2012) Britain will ban leaders guilty of human rights abuses from travelling
to the United Kingdom for the 2012 London Olympics, a senior British official said
on Wednesday. Jeremy Browne, the Foreign Office minister, answered a question by
Labour lawmaker Denis MacShane by saying that people linked to such crimes will not
be allowed into the country. `'Where there is independent, reliable and credible
evidence that an individual has committed human rights abuses, the individual will
not normally be permitted to enter the UK'' Browne said in a written response to a
parliamentary query. He would not comment on individual cases but said anyone subject
to a European Union or United Nations travel ban will not be welcome. Syrian President
Bashar Assad's regime is under U.N. sanctions for its violent crackdown on dissent.
The International Criminal Court has indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for
genocide but appears nowhere close to having him arrested. The British comments come
after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he was eager to attend the London
Olympics but Britain didn't want to host him, according to the official IRNA news
agency. There are U.N. sanctions against Iran. MacShane seized on the comments and
called for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bahrain's King Hamad to be among those
barred from the Olympics, which take place from July 27 to Aug. 12 in London. Neither
is under sanctions.