It is no longer “One World, One Dream” as the slogan for The Beijing Olympics, but for many human rights groups, the new title for The Olympics come summer, is The Genocide Olympics. It’s China bashing gone to the extreme, but is it warranted?
The reason for The Genocide Olympics gaining popularity in the lexicon of today’s politics is that it has taken such a movement for China to take notice with regards to its position regarding the Genocide in The Darfur region.
I think the strategy of shaming China is a worthy goal, but it is not by any sense the only strategy that should be utilized in this issue. But it is by far, the strategy that has gained momentum and wide public awareness. However, we must not forget that China is not the only nation that has stood still in this issue, it is safe to say that the entire world has stood still on this issue. But it is China that is the biggest backer to the murderous regime we find at the heart of The Goverment in Sudan.
The United Nation’s, because of the inherent politics that is behind each resolution it makes, has a process with a speed that cannot possibly tackle issues such as Darfur in a most timely manner, especially when time is key to saving lives.
And it is not only speed, but we must again realize that The United Nations has been hijacked by politicians and men in suits, with the unworthy goal of providing selfish leverage and gain for their respective countries. And in China’s case, this is to close its eye to The Genocide, because the oil they receive from the regime in Sudan keeps their thirst for oil quenched.
WASHINGTON POST
The beginning, or at least, the widespread use of the term Genocide Olympics may have began with an article in The Washington Post. In the Editorial Pages of The Washington Post, dated December 14th 2006, the question is raised, will these Olympics in China be the event that will forever be known as The Genocide Olympics?
ERIC REEVES’ BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE
Three days after that Washington Post article, Eric Reeves wrote a seething and on the point article regarding The Genocide Olympics,
CATACLYSMIC HUMAN destruction in Sudan’s Darfur region and in eastern Chad continues to accelerate, even as the international community remains inert. Humanitarian workers are being evacuated at an alarming rate, as violence creates an intolerable lack of security. The murderous Janjaweed militias are more heavily armed and more deadly than ever, due to continuing support from the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum. According to Jan Egeland, departing UN aid chief, some 6 million people in the crisis area face an increasingly “hopeless” situation. A catastrophic wave of death is impending, and indeed has already begun.
Why is the international community so paralyzed in responding to the first great genocide of the 21st century? Why does UN Security Council Resolution 1706, passed in August, mean so little? Why hasn’t the authorized force of 22,500 troops and police begun protecting civilians and the rapidly collapsing humanitarian lifeline upon which millions now depend? Why has the world refused to confront Khartoum’s génocidaires with an ultimatum on UN deployment?
The regime remains obdurate for two primary reasons: a lack of diplomatic, financial, and military commitment on the part of militarily capable Western nations; and steadfast diplomatic support from China, assuring the regime that the Security Council will never pass a truly threatening resolution. Wielding its veto threat, China forced changes in the text of Resolution 1706 so that it merely “invites the consent” of Khartoum, without stipulating what would happen if the “invitation” were declined.
Khartoum, of course, adamantly refused to accept any UN forces. Indeed, the regime has subsequently insisted that the UN cannot be part of the command structure of the thoroughly ineffectual African Union force presently on the ground, and cannot provide more than technical and logistical assistance. Hence the genocidal status quo.
So what will Western countries do to put serious pressure on the Khartoum government? The European Union cannot find the will even to impose economic sanctions, although its parliament declared in September 2004 that realities in Darfur are “tantamount to genocide.” That weasel phrase is designed to avoid the obligations of signatories to the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. The United States imposed comprehensive economic sanctions on Sudan in 1997, but now seems more interested in making deals with the regime in exchange for intelligence on terrorists. (For Khartoum, this is a perverse benefit of having hosted Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda from 1991 to 1996.)
Despite the public hand-wringing and disingenuous bluster, the United States and its allies have acquiesced before Khartoum’s defiance, and in China’s determination to protect its biggest investment in Africa. Over the past decade, $10 billion in capital and commercial investments have bought China a dominant position in Sudan’s burgeoning oil industry, which now produces 400,000 barrels a day. Indeed, Sudan is China’s largest source of off-shore oil production.
Closing Thoughts
By all means, let’s shame China’s government. Without this shame, there can be no light shed on Darfur, and the murder, rape, and Genocide we see in Darfur will continue. These are lives lost, this isn’t a movie, these are not just statistics, these are real live human beings, and they are being killed in massive numbers.
If this is going to help stop the atrocities, then let’s start pushing the term Genocide Olympics. The Olympics may be sacred ground for athletes, and unity may be the goal in the end. But I say, what is unity when it is a lie to cover the truth? When the death toll rises, can we still say that we are a united world? If so, then what are we united in?
The Genocide Olympics campaign is worthy if only to let the politicians of the world, and especially the officials in China realize, that to do nothing, and remain in the status quo, is to say yes to Genocide, and the death of hundreds of thousands.
We have seen Rowanda, and it is being played out once again in Darfur. The world has not learned its lesson, and the sad tragedy of history has again repeated itself. To shame China is to let them know that millions all over the world are realizing the policy of their inactions. To do nothing for national gain, at the expense of the dead, and more death to come.
If the only argument against not boycotting the Olympics is that the games should not be politicized, or that it is not the athletes fault, or that sports and the unity of the world should be the goal. Then, my dear friends, that is by far the weakest argument in the face of the atrocity of hundreds of deaths. If the argument of bringing the world together, by not highlighting the Genocide is the argument that we want to make, then we are seeing a loss of humanity.
It is humanity after all, that should be celebrated, not the death of it.
Read More at MiaFarrow.org and SudanReeves.org
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