Olympics Brass Ignore China's Role in Ongoing Darfur Genocide

The following was adapted from my piece in the NY Daily News:

There are few institutions in the world that claim to embody and protect humanity's highest dreams and values. The International Olympic Committee, custodian of the Olympic Games, is one of them.

Any organization that lays claim to the lofty moral goal of protecting mankind's universal dreams and aspirations should, from time to time, be subject to a reality check; rhetoric of morality and peace is without substance if words are not matched by deeds.

There is a direct connection -- financial, military, political and strategic -- between this year's Olympic host, China, and the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur that has been called the first genocide of the 21st century.

Entering its sixth year, it is unclear how many have died from the violence inflicted by the Arab-dominated government in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, against the non-Arab tribes of the region of Darfur. Hundreds of thousands by any estimate. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced.

As we speak, humanitarian aid is scaling back because the situation on the ground has become so dangerous for aid workers. Without security food delivery cannot continue.

And so, in addition to the recent spike in government and Janjaweed attacks, Darfurians are also dying a slow death of starvation and disease.

What does Darfur have to do with the International Olympic Committee? The IOC chose this year's Olympic host, China. China is underwriting the genocide in Darfur. While IOC remains silent.

"Respect for universal fundamental ethical principles" is what the IOC's Charter demands. When awarding the Olympics to China, the IOC said the Games would serve to "open up" China to the world on human rights issues. In fact, China's promise to improve its record on human rights issues was reportedly part of Beijing's pitch to the International Olympic Committee to win the privilege of hosting the Games.

Yet as the Games approach, the IOC has proven reluctant to mention, much less address, the human rights complaints about China. It was only recently, following large protests that dogged the Olympic Torch Relay in London and Paris, that the IOC President Jacques Rogge called for the peaceful resolution of the Tibet issue. Responding only to the squeakiest wheel, Rogge ignored the plight of Darfur.

And so has China. Despite intense international scrutiny, Beijing has. done pathetically little to use its considerable leverage with Khartoum to bring desperately needed security to the people of Darfur.

[Co-Authored by Ellen Freudenheim]

Comments

[moodyring]

I couldn't agree more, Mia. Thanks for continuing to speak out about this.

People keep trying to minimize China's role to buying oil from Sudan. As bad as that is, the atrocity that bothers me the most is the fact that China is selling the guns that Sudan is using to murder their own people. It's mind-boggling.

Thank you for your work with this!

[ashen]

Just curious where Ms Farrow was during the 1984 Olympics. When the US was underwriting the civil war in Sudan which left 2 million people dead.

The US is still the biggest arms dealer in the world. China comes in 9th -- just under Italy, and just above the Ukraine.

I am not saying China isn't complicit in Darfur -- the WHOLE WORLD is complicit. I do not see how China can succeed in pressuring Darfur where the US, Nelson Mandela's South Africa, the French, and other countries have all failed.

As Americans we should be looking first at our OWN complicity in all this. There are two bills, one in the House, one in the Senate that would specifically pressure Sudan on Darfur. Why don't we support these bills? The US does NOT pressure Sudan sufficiently because we need them for helping us in our war in Iraq. We also created the modern failed state of Sudan by propping them up at the same time we made Saddam, enabled bin Ladin, and set the conditions for Al Qeda in our war games against the Soviet Union. This is all blowback from the same stupid foreign policy we've had for decades. And the people of the world pay the price.

WE NEED OBAMA.

[pcplz]

C'mon people...stop the petty bickering about who should say anything. Look around and do what you can to improve our lot here at home and hopefully elsewhere. Wake up about China. Watch your backs there. China is smilingly taking over everything. Protesting is a good thing. It informs and helps us all to understand or think about what we are doing. While we are totally distracted in the Mideast, China is undermining all of us. Tell your children to learn Mandarin.

[Dunque]

Ms. Farrow - you live in New York City, do you not? Why go half a world away for your outrage? Where is the moral indignation over the wasted lives, tragic deaths and shattered families in the Bronx? What are you doing right in your own backyard to prevent this tragedy from continuing?

I'm not minimizing the suffering in Darfur. It's just that too often these efforts seem like celebrity colonialism. I can assert my moral superiority without ever really endangering myself or getting my hands dirty with the nitty gritty of getting something substantive done. And I can then sit comfortably at night in my Park Avenue residence, sipping a fine wine and ignoring the tragedies right outside my window.

[zuobinH]

"Any organization that lays claim to the lofty moral goal of protecting mankind's universal dreams and aspirations should, from time to time, be subject to a reality check; rhetoric of morality and peace is without substance if words are not matched by deeds."

Your words do not match your deed, Ms. Farrow. This is shear hypocrisy. It is not the Chinese who is holding a gun at anyone, not refugees at Darfur, nor any other places in the world. Darfur's situation is a tragic situation and it is our responsibility to help them. But why do you blame the Chinese or Chinese government? The tension between the two sides at Darfur is not made overnight, nor it was China's making. It is a situation that requires willingness of the two sides to sit down and start a dialogue. Outsiders often complicate situation, as we are seeing in every conflicts on this planet. If you do not understand this, then you are ignorance, at best.

If you are compelled to do something positive, then go to Iraq, or New Orleans to help the suffering.

[Brooklynindy]

Zuobin, you say, "Outsiders often complicate the situation." Are you referring to the Chinese Outsiders in Sudan who provide support to a genocidal government?

[Jonahson]

Here is an excerpt from an article found in the Guardian by Daniel A. Bell, 'I do not mean the Olympic Games should be free from protests. The example of the African American athletes raising their fists at the Mexico 1968 Mexico Olympics is often cited. But they were protesting against their own government, and such protests are more likely to be effective than criticising the host. Imagine US and British athletes were to protest their country's involvement in the Iraq. That 's more likely to do more good than any attack against the Chinse.'

[garbovatwins]

Everyone on your world has such a short time to change, such a short time to try to heal your world and the way you treat each other. Use your Olympics as a platform for that change. In this country of China especially that is a major contributor to the damage you are inflicting upon your world, the solution is not isolation. The people of China are waiting to join your world community and embrace it. Do not squander what little time you have by worsening the situation you all face for your survival as a species.

[drblack]

China is also helping Mugabe keep power in Zimbabwe after he lost the election. China is sending guns and troops to help this tyrant .
The USA , under Republican , Bush , control has done some bad things...we can change our government and speak out. China would never allow any criticism of the government.
No country is without flaws but China's government is way worse than the USA when it comes to Freedom and Human rights.

[Justtellthetruth]

Let me get this straight; Chinese troops are being sent to Zimbabwe to help Mugabe crack down? That sounds like utter BS to me. Regarding weapons, how many US weapons are sold and used in the worst possible conflicts in the world?

[hiplib]

I do not understand why any American or Brit feels they have any right to criticize another coutnry after what their own countries have done in Iraq. Invading and occupyibng a coutnry that had not done them any harm, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, setting off an entirely predictable civil war, torture, kidnapping, assassinations......... on and on.
Ms Farrow I respect you as an actress but his article is nauseating, sickening hypocricy.

[Brooklynindy]

Hiplib, are you proposing that since we happen to reside in this country, many of us by birth, that we must now be silent before all injustice, even if we intensely disagree with the actions of our government? Mia Farrow is not a representative of the U.S. Government; she is not an elected official. I'm quite sure that she abhors the despicable acts of our war criminal president.

But are you saying that because she is a U.S. citizen, she has to just shut up about injustices elsewhere? Or that every time any of us speaks out about injustices outside of our own country, we must precede that by an apology for our own government's action? I get your point, and we're all outraged at our own government's actions, but could you write the essay so we can copy & paste that thousand-page document as the foreword?

[pakiman]

no, it's just that there are more pressing issues to deal with at home. Let the Chinese take care of China's government, while the American's take care of their own. Do you not see the irony of an American criticizing human rights violation in other countries? Take a trip outside of the US and try, you will be laughed off the block.

[Justtellthetruth]

Perhaps if we were not also supporting the 40 plus year violently enforced colonial occupation of the remaining lands of the Palestinians, consigning millions to apartheid, statelessness and misery for decades, we would be in a better position to complain.

Mia can complain about the actions of the Chinese government, but as a nation, we have no moral authority to pontificate about Darfur when we enable Israel to do what they are doing in the occupied territories, or consider the lack of our own military actions AGAINST the actions in darfur, or our inaction in Rwanda.

Boycotting the Chinese for doing nothing when WE are doing nothing seems like the HEIGHT of hypocrisy.

[Brooklynindy]

Thank you, Mia, for your persistence and dedication to getting the word out regarding the China-Darfur connection, and thanks for keeping the pressure on. You're almost singlehandedly responsible for raising awareness of the issue. I've been rooting for you since NPR profiled your efforts last year. Glad you got Spielberg to pull out. Keep up the great work!

[Gilda]

From the New Republic:

http://tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=14c3f222-6ba1-4511-8c31-70b9c734b421


BOYCOTT CHINESE MADE PRODUCTS AND THE OLYMPICS -

SUPPORT TIBET

[emerywood]

" China is underwriting the genocide in Darfur "
Please be more specific and tell us exactly what China did.
If you are talking about inaction, what have the United States and other major countries done so far other than paying lip service ?

[alsm9]

HuffPost's Pick

From what I understand, China buys a lot of their oil from the Sudanese, who in turn pass on the money to the Janjuweed as funding to purchase weapons and slaughter hundreds of thousands of people. You are right though, there is a lot of lip service going on and not much help.

I wrote both the IOC and COC (Canadian Olympic Committee) letters. I never received even a response. I'm guessing they pitched it in the garbage. I wonder how many letters they've actually received?

[Brooklynindy]

From the Brookings Institution:

China is Sudan's largest trading partner and the main foreign investor in Sudan's oil industry. China National Petroleum Corp. has a 40 percent share in the international consortium extracting oil in Sudan, and it is building refineries and pipelines, enabling Sudan to benefit from oil export revenue since 1999.

Although most Western oil companies have withdrawn from Sudan under pressure from human rights organizations, Chinese companies have turned a blind eye to the brutal way in which Sudan forced 200,000 to 300,000 of its citizens from oil-rich lands without compensation. Nor have these companies shown concern that Sudan uses oil revenue to purchase arms for its wars against its black African population.

As a member of the U.N. Security Council, China should be called upon to dispatch its foreign minister to Darfur to join international expressions of alarm at the unfolding genocide. It also should consider reducing its oil purchases from Sudan, should the Security Council decide upon sanctions.

Were China to use even a small part of its leverage to call Sudan to account, it would go a long way toward saving lives in Sudan.

[Holt]

This is all true and all that, but Jimmy Carter was ripped a new one for boycotting the 1980 Olympics so no USA Prez will do that. At least, not the gutless wonder that is George Bush.

[gladlythecrosseyedbear]

why aren't you attacking saudi arabia or egypt for tyrannizing their people? why don't you care about how the palestinians are faring under israeli rule? it must be grand to be able to pick & choose one's evildoers as bush does

[batgirlevi]

"There is a direct connection -- financial, military, political and strategic -- between this year's Olympic host, China, and the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur that has been called the first genocide of the 21st century."

Comprehend much?

[rwe2late]

Apparently Farrow discounts the genocide happening in Iraq.
She also chooses to disregard the "financial, military, political and strategic" reasons for the tragedy occurring in Somalia.

But that would entail having to consider her own country, her own government, her own responsibility.

Much better to rant about China's policies, than try to do something about the dismal human rights record of the US government, US military, and US corporations.