Darfur, China and the Olympics
posted in Foreign News | | | View blog reactions | Print This PostOn April 13, this Sunday, we will be conductiong “In Solidarity: Global Day for Darfur” campaign; and we’d like your help.
If you’re not real familiar with the Darfur Sudan situation, here’s a quick rundown:
For the past five years government backed mercenaries know as the Janjaweed have waged a campaign of genocidal murder, scorched earth, and systematic use of rape as a weapon of war to destroy communities in Darfur.
The Janjaweed are Afro-Arab militia in Sudan, who’ve been on a brutal campaign against ethenic groups they want to displace from Darfur for financial as well as ethno-centric reasons. They’ve chosen a method of utter demorilization, a shock and awe if you will, to accomplish this goal.
As I noted in my March 2007 post, A Million Miles Away the New York Times Described this campaign as being “…very different than opportunistic rape by individual criminals, this is policy rape.”
It’s believed that 400,000 people have been murdered and hundreds of thousands more displaced.
China’s role in Darfur, in short, as stated on this Save Darfur page is that “China’s responsibility and leverage stem from its intricate economic, military, and diplomatic relationship with Sudan. China is Sudan’s largest trade partner, major military provider, and consistent defender of Sudan’s interests in the United Nations.”
The ideal is to take advantage of the olympics and the attention it brings to leverage China and others to act on Darfur.
What We Need You To Do
1. If you’re a blogger, please participate in “In Solidarity: Global Day for Darfur”
2. Email or call the Olympic Corporate Sponsors.
Send a letter to companies sponsoring the 2008 Olympics, hosted by China. (Dream for Darfur’s email system will let you do this with the touch of a button.)
3. Pledge to turn off the commercials of Olympic Sponsors during the Games.
Olympic corporate sponsors have been silent about China’s financing of the Darfur genocide, even as the sponsors are spending billions to enhance China’s image as Olympic host. If sponsors continue to ignore China’s complicity in the Darfur genocide, we will ignore their million-dollar ad campaigns.
4. Petition the International Olympic Committee.
Urge the IOC to work with the international community to ensure that China uses its leverage with the government of Sudan to help stop the genocide in Darfur, and avoids tarnishing the 2008 Games in Beijing.
Comment and let me know if you will be participating.
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