STOP CHINA FROM ENABLING MASS MURDER IN DARFUR
Errol Louis
New York Daily News, NY
Sunday, September 9th 2007, 4:00 AM
If everyone reading this column takes one action to end the genocide
going on in Darfur, the world will be many steps closer to stopping
the slaughter. Right now, there’s a window of opportunity in which
small acts of protest can have a huge impact.
The window has opened because China – which provides weapons, financing
and diplomatic support to the murderous military dictator of Sudan,
Omar Hassan al-Bashir – is unusually vulnerable to international
pressure these days.
China, desperate to improve its image in advance of next year’s summer
Olympics in Beijing, has been working overtime in recent weeks to shine
up its image, which has been hammered by reports of the country’s mass
export of tainted drugs, poisoned pet food and defective products –
including children’s toys contaminated with lead paint currently
being recalled by American companies like Mattel.
The Communist bosses in Beijing have reacted with a round of deadly
scapegoating: In July, the regime announced the execution of Zheng
Xiaoyu, who once ran the country’s food and drug safety agency.
But that hasn’t quieted global outrage. Now China has another headache
on its hands: Beijing is drawing condemnation all over the world
for supporting Sudan, where Bashir’s regime has killed an estimated
400,000 Darfuris and chased more than 2 million off their land.
The government continues to support aerial bombing of villages and
other atrocities that led the U.S. State Department to classify the
carnage as genocide three years ago.
Most chilling of all, the Sudan government continues to close off
access to the killing grounds. The director of CARE, the international
relief agency, was recently expelled from the country.
Despite these horrors, China supplies Bashir’s regime with extensive
financial aid – it recently agreed to forgive $80 million in debt – and
supplies weapons to the Sudanese government. At the United Nations,
China has repeatedly voted against sending a UN-led peacekeeping
force into the region.
Now is the time to put pressure on China to help end the genocide
in Sudan. Anybody can get involved – and it sure beats wringing
your hands.
Today at 2 p.m., human rights advocates and ordinary citizens will
hold a rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (47th St. between First and
Second Aves.) to protest China’s support of Sudan’s genocide.
The ceremony, sponsored by the 170 nonprofit and religious
organizations of the Save Darfur Coalition, will feature the lighting
of an Olympic torch that will be passed from hand to hand by survivors
of genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Cambodia, the Jewish Holocaust and
Armenia.
The torch will move all around the U.S. and eventually travel to China
in December to dramatize Beijing’s complicity in the horror of Darfur.
If you can’t attend today’s rally, please log on to savedarfur.org,
click on the button that says "bring the Olympic dream to Darfur,"
and sign an electronic petition that will be sent to the Chinese
government.
It may not seem like much, but it will make a big difference. Attention
from the outside world might have stopped the 1994 genocide in Rwanda,
when 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days.
I recently spoke to one survivor of that horror, 22-year-old Jacqueline
Murekatete, who will take part in today’s torch-lighting ceremony. She
gets the last word on the subject:
"For as long as we as human beings continue to be indifferent – as
long as we continue to see people murdered because of their race or
ethnic group – what happened in Rwanda, what’s happening in Darfur,
will continue to happen."