Mia Farrow and Eric Reeves Announce Launch of Olympic Dream for Darfur Campaign
Filed Under Human Rights, China | Posted on June 22, 2007
NEW YORK - Darfur advocates Mia Farrow and Professor Eric Reeves, a leading expert on Sudan, announced today the launch of the Olympic Dream for Darfur campaign during a telephone press conference. The goal of the campaign is to urge the Chinese government, host of the 2008 Olympics and enabling partner of the Khartoum regime, to persuade the regime in Sudan to allow a civilian protection force into Darfur and to engage in a good-faith peace process.
Olympic Dream for Darfur (www.dreamfordarfur.org) is an international grassroots and media campaign that will organize a number of high-profile actions, including a symbolic Olympic Torch Relay, which will start on August 8, 2007. The relay will begin on the Darfur-Chad border and travel through countries historically associated with genocide – Rwanda, Armenia, Bosnia, Germany, and Cambodia. The goal of the Relay is to call attention to China’s role in the Darfur crisis and its inconsistency with its role as Olympic host.
The Torch Relay will end in Hong Kong and will coincide with mass rallies at Chinese Embassies around the world. In addition, Olympic Dream for Darfur is also organizing Torch Relays in a number of countries, including the United State, in partnership with the Save Darfur Coalition. The campaign will also conduct private advocacy with individuals associated with the Olympics.
“The primary goal of Olympic Dream for Darfur is ensuring a fully realized UN protection force to provide verifiable security for civilians and humanitarian workers on the ground in Darfur,” said Jill Savitt, Director of Olympic Dream for Darfur. “This is the standard by which we will measure our success; we will continue our advocacy focusing on China until this goal is reached.”
To learn more about China’s complicity in the Darfur genocide, please see Professor Eric Reeves’ report “China, Darfur, and the Olympics: Tarnishing the Torch?” This can be found at www.dreamfordarfur.org.
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