Friday, September 07, 2007

the genocide Olympics

China is the most influential nation allowing the Sudanese government to perpetrate genocide in Darfur. As Beijing prepares to host the 2008 Olympics, join us in demanding that China use its leverage with Sudan to secure a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur.

From "China's Gold Medal Spin Doctors" in Business Weekly, August 17, 2007: "Earlier this year, when activists tagged Beijing 2008 the "genocide Olympics," pressuring China to intervene in Sudan's civil war, Beijing listened and sent a senior official to refugee camps there. In May, a Chinese military engineering unit was dispatched to the region, underlining China's resolve to deal with the issue."

From "China's Healing Power," Time, August 2, 2007: "A tiny shift in China's Africa policy might just lead to peace in Darfur...Why has China's stance changed? [One] reason for the shift is that China desperately wants the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing to go smoothly."

China, please: bring the Olympic dream to Darfur.

The photo above shows the torch relay - starting in the Darfur region of Sudan in August 2007. It will end in Beijing.

A former student of my Holocaust course at Penn, Karen Rutzick, has helped to create a powerful new web site: voicesfromdarfur.org.