Free Republic

Linking Darfur with Beijing Olympics "totally unreasonable" A visiting senior Chinese diplomat said in London Thursday that it was "totally unreasonable" to link Sudan's Darfur issue with the Beijing Olympics in August. It was also "dangerous" to politicize the Olympics in the long run, said Liu Guijin, special representative of the Chinese government to Darfur issue, said at a news conference held at the Chinese Embassy in London. Liu told reporters that he was very surprised by Oscar-winning film director Steven Spielberg's resignation as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The Beijing Olympic organizing committee had sent Spielberg...

Western media exaggerate China's limited arms sale to Sudan (Xinhua) Updated: 2008-02-22 22:34 LONDON - A senior Chinese diplomat has said that western media have exaggerated China's limited arms sale to Sudan. Liu Guijin, special representative of the Chinese government on the Darfur issue, told a news conference at the Chinese embassy in London on Thursday that "China has adopted a high degree of restraint in its arms sale to developing countries, including Sudan. It is very limited in numbers." According to relevant international statistics, among a total of seven countries exporting arms to Sudan, China only accounted for 8...

February 17, 2008 Let the protest games begin Will political and human rights campaigns sour China’s Olympic party? Michael Sheridan, John Harlow and Maurice Chittenden The freeze-frame moment for Steven Spielberg came in one of those scripted, smiling meetings that Chinese officials act out so well. The legendary director had come to Beijing hoping to use his moral influence to help end the killing in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have died in a war between rebels and the Sudanese government, which is armed and financed by China. He had offered to put his talents at the disposal of...

Spielberg ‘breached Olympic spirit’ By Mure Dickie in Beijing Published: February 14 2008 20:33 | Last updated: February 15 2008 01:35 Organisers of the Beijing Olympics denounced any linking of sport and politics as a contravention of the “Olympic spirit” on Thursday following the resignation of Steven Spielberg, the US film director, as an artistic adviser on the games’ opening and closing ceremonies. In spite of its insistence on keeping politics out of sport, the Olympics organising committee (Bocog) joined the foreign ministry in defending China’s stance on Darfur, which had been cited by Mr Spielberg as the reason for...

Spielberg quits Beijing Olympic role By Mure Dickie in Beijing Published: February 13 2008 02:07 | Last updated: February 13 2008 07:14 Steven Spielberg, the US film director, has quit as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympic Games, complaining that China was not doing enough to end violence in Sudan's Darfur region. The move by Mr Spielberg, an unpaid adviser to organisers of the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, is a heavy blow to China's efforts to prevent international criticism of its support for the Sudanese government from casting a pall over the August Games. China has repeatedly denounced efforts...

Flapping Their Gum: Sudan Threatens U.S. Soft Drinks A Different Kind of Cola War: Sudan's Ambassador Threatens to Ban Key Soft Drink Ingredient By RUSSELL GOLDMAN June 1, 2007 — The Sudanese government's response to proposed U.S. sanctions intended to force an end to the bloodshed in Darfur was short, sweet & and fizzy. Speaking to reporters Wednesday in Washington, Sudan's ambassador the United States denied government-funded militias were killing civilians in Darfur, and threatened to cut off exports of gum arabica, a key component in soft drinks, if the Bush administration imposed economic sanctions. "See how many people are...

China: Don't link Olympics, Darfur By ALEXA OLESEN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 26 minutes ago China on Thursday blasted separate calls by a French politician and Mia Farrow to use the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games to pressure Beijing into doing more to stop the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. "We don't think it is appropriate to link the Olympic Games in Beijing with the Darfur issue and we don't think it will be popularly accepted or echoed by people around the world," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang. "It is a totally misguided approach for people to link the...

Criticizing the United Nations for not being more "effective" or "forceful" in places like Darfur misses a very important point. The main objective of UN peacekeeping is to keep conflicts from disturbing the major powers, not necessarily the same thing as making peace. Thus we have the spectacle of the UN standing aside as Arab death squads keep killing African Moslems in Darfur. Why? Because the Arab world does not want another Arab government criticized for condoning mass murder. Pretend it isn't happening, and we'll keep the oil flowing. No one is immune to this sort of thing. When the...

Fighting in Darfur 'threatens 3m lives' By David Blair, Africa Correspondent (Filed: 07/09/2006) Three million lives will be at risk in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur if renewed fighting sabotages the international relief effort, Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, said yesterday. Kofi Annan says that the imminent withdrawal of the African Union soldiers puts the international relief operation in jeopardy The warning came as the African Union, an alliance of 53 countries on the continent, confirmed it will withdraw its mission from the area. Sudan's regime has told the union to remove its 5,000 soldiers and 2,000 civilian staff...

Bolton Hearing Rebroadcast c-span 1 NOW

BOLTON HEARING LIVE ON C-SPAN 3

Sen. Mark Dayton, who voted to block the nomination of John Bolton as U.N. ambassador last year, said he's keeping an open mind on the re-nomination this time but still needs to be persuaded that Bolton is the right man for the job. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on Bolton Thursday. The committee will then decide whether to endorse the nomination before it goes to the full Senate for a possible vote. President Bush used a recess appointment to name Bolton to the post last August after Democrats blocked a vote on the nomination. That appointment...

HEARINGbefore the COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONSUNITED STATES SENATEONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESSSECOND SESSION Thursday, July 27, 2006 Time: 9:30 AMPlace: 419 Dirksen Senate Office BuildingPresiding: Senator Lugar     Nominee: The Honorable John R. Bolton To be U.S. Representative to the United Nations with rank of Ambassador and U.S. Representative to theUnited Nations Security Council and U.S.Representative to Sessions of the United NationsGeneral Assembly during his tenure of service asU.S. Representative to the United Nations ChairmanRichard G. Lugar Ranking Member Joseph R. Biden Chuck Hagel Nebraska Lincoln Chafee Rhode Island George Allen Virginia Norm Coleman Minnesota George V. Voinovich Ohio...

Why the West should never kowtow to al Qaeda's demands on Darfur.IN HIS MOST RECENT audio taped message, Osama bin Laden succinctly restated his rationale for international terrorism. This is worth understanding for several reasons, not the least of which being that it provides a much-needed refutation to the often-stated argument that al Qaeda and its supporters are driven and strengthened only by the actions of the United States in general and, more narrowly speaking, the Bush administration. As bin Laden makes clear, his grievances are by no means limited to the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan or the...

U.S. Campaign to Push for N. Korean Rights By BO-MI LIM, Associated Press Writer Sun Jun 26, 3:14 PM ET SEOUL, South Korea - Christian supporters from President Bush's Texas hometown, believed to have been instrumental in pressuring the White House to raise concerns over war-ravaged Sudan, are launching another international human rights campaign — this time against North Korea's hard-line regime. Members of the Midland Ministerial Alliance, a network of more than 200 churches in the city, are in Seoul this week seeking support for their latest push for improved human rights in the communist North. "North Korean human...

Harvard Divests in PetroChina, Sudan Genocide By David Kute and Leeshai LemishThe Epoch Times Apr 15, 2005 CAMBRIDGE, MA: Harvard President Lawrence Summers releases press statement about divesting PetroChina investment. (Jodi Hilton/Getty Images) BOSTON „ŸHarvard University announced that it will divest funds invested in PetroChina, an oil company said to be linked to genocide in Darfur. "Divestment is not a step that Harvard takes lightly," said Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers in a press release. "But I believe there is a compelling case for action in these special circumstances, in light of the terrible situation still unfolding in Darfur and...

BloggodocioAP , UNITED NATIONS Friday, Mar 11, 2005 Far more people have died in Sudan's ravaged Darfur region than the 70,000 reported since last year, and many of those deaths were from preventable causes like pneumonia and diarrhea, the UN humanitarian chief said Wednesday. Getting an accurate count of the dead from Darfur's two-year conflict has been extremely difficult because of the size and remoteness of much of the region. It is known that thousands have died from the fighting and many thousands more from disease or hunger. Egeland said the 70,000 figure was released when there were 1 million...

BERLIN: The European Union has failed to find a firm action plan that could help prevent killings in the Darfur region of Sudan. As German deputy foreign minister Kerstin Muller sees it, the suffering continues because the Sudanese government and the rebels in Darfur are unwilling to search for a political solution, and because the international community lacks the determination to end the conflict. Germany wants the EU to impose sanctions against key players in the conflict. That will include freezing their financial assets and restricting their travel. But EU members remain divided over this proposal. Some countries such as...

Death Toll in Sudan's Darfur Reaches 70,000 - UN Fri Oct 15, 2004 02:02 PM ET By Richard Waddington GENEVA (Reuters) - A total of 70,000 people are estimated to have died as a result of the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, with hundreds still dying every day, a top U.N. official said on Friday. David Nabarro, head of the World Health Organization's (WHO) health crisis action group, gave the new overall figure, saying malnutrition and disease meant the monthly fatality rate was about 10,000. The previous total death toll had stood at 50,000. People were dying in Darfur,...

Darfur killings 'are genocide' By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor (Filed: 10/09/2004) The atrocities in the Darfur region of western Sudan amount to "genocide", America declared yesterday. The announcement by Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, sharply raised the pressure on Khartoum to restore security and rein in the Janjaweed militia. Colin Powell talks to the Senate foreign relations committee Mr Powell told a meeting of the Senate foreign relations committee: "I concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility and that genocide may still be occurring." He...