Farrow attacks Spielberg, Olympic sponsors on Darfur
BEIJING (Reuters) - American actor Mia Farrow has criticized film director Steven Spielberg and four corporate sponsors for supporting the 2008 Beijing Olympics as long as China fails to pressure Sudan over Darfur.
In an article in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Farrow accused China of "bankrolling Darfur's genocide" and called on Spielberg and the sponsors to "add their ... voices to the growing calls for Chinese action to end the slaughter...".
Spielberg is on the production team for the Games opening ceremony next August, while Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric and McDonald's are among the sponsors of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
"That so many corporate sponsors want the world to look away from that atrocity during the Games is bad enough," Farrow, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, wrote.
"But equally disappointing is the decision of artists like director Steven Spielberg to sanitize Beijing's image."
China supplies arms to Sudan and also has huge oil investments in the country. Rights groups say its engagement is frustrating attempts to stop the civil war and atrocities.
"Beijing is uniquely positioned to put a stop to the slaughter, yet they have so far been unabashed in their refusal to do so," she wrote.
"But there is now one thing that China may hold more dear than their unfettered access to Sudanese oil: their successful staging of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
"That desire may provide a lone point of leverage with a country that has otherwise been impervious to all criticism."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang had not heard about the article but said people who made such criticisms were not familiar with China's policy on Darfur.
"China shares the same goals as other countries in the international community and is making unremitting efforts in this regard," he told a news conference on Thursday.
China wished to see the humanitarian situation in the strife-torn region improve, Qin added. "We don't think it's appropriate to connect the Darfur issue with the Olympic Games in Beijing."
French presidential candidate Francois Bayrou called last week for a boycott of the Beijing Games if China maintained its current position on Darfur, while his rival Segolene Royal called for "pressure" on Beijing.
"We'd also like to point out that if some people connect the Darfur issue and the Olympic Games to try to win ballots or prestige, I think they are totally wrong," Qin said.
