UPDATED ON:
Friday, June 15, 2007
13:24 Mecca time, 10:24 GMT
Sport
Rogge weighs in to child labour row
IOC president Jacques Rogge: Taking measures against worker abuse [GALLO/GETTY]
IOC President Jacques Rogge has told Al Jazeera he has been embarassed by the child labour scandal which has engulfed the Beijing Olympics and has vowed to take steps against the problem.
 
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, Rogge hinted at a larger investigation.
"It is just plainly not acceptable and we are going to take measures against that," he said.
 
"No one should doubt the purity of our intentions. We have set the standards very high saying that child labour is just simply not acceptable.

"We are going through the whole supply chain and I will make sure this does not happen in the future."

In China, Beijing Olympic organisers have summoned the four manufacturers named in the report by the organisation PlayFair 2008 to Beijing to answer charges they broke national labor laws on child labor, overtime pay and minimum wages to make souvenirs for the 2008 Olympics.

The four manufacturers acknowledge they have Olympic contracts, but deny the charges.

Chen Feng, deputy director of marketing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was to have met with the company representatives on Wednesday, but a spokesmen said any finding would not be released for several days.

Sales suspended

Meanwhile, a Chinese retailer has said it was suspending sales of Olympic goods produced by companies that allegedly used child labor.

Sales of the officially licensed products will resume only if the allegations are proven false, said Zhao Hongjun, general manager of Golden Star Manufacturing and Trading Co. Ltd. based in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

"This was not done on anyone's orders," Zhao said.

"We just feel it's proper that we should stop selling their products for a while since those companies are now under official investigation," he said.

 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
 
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