International Herald Tribune, France
Dec 5 2007
Mia Farrow and Srebrenica survivors press China to help end abuses in
Darfur
The Associated PressPublished: December 5, 2007
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Srebrenica genocide survivors will join
actress Mia Farrow’s campaign urging China to press Sudan to end
abuses in its Darfur region, the actress said Wednesday.
Together with the association Mothers of Srebrenica, Farrow will on
Friday light an Olympic-style torch which is touring countries that
have suffered genocide.
The Dream for Darfur Olympic torch was lit for the first time in
August at the Darfur-Chad border and has so far toured Rwanda,
Armenia and Germany. It is planned to pass Cambodia before reaching
China in early 2008.
"The aim is to push with all our mind on China which is the only
leverage we have to stop the genocide and mass atrocities in Darfur,"
Farrow said in Sarajevo.
The Mothers of Srebrenica association represents the survivors of
Europe’s worst massacre since World War II, when Bosnian Serb forces
executed some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in this east Bosnian town in
1995. The World Court recognized the massacre as an act of genocide.
"Who better understands that kind of suffering than the survivors
here," the actress said.
"We believe it is unacceptable for China to underwrite a genocide in
Sudan while enjoying the prestige of hosting the Olympics, a
pre-eminent symbol of international cooperation," the New York-based
Dream for Darfur advocacy group says on its Web site.
It claims China has protected Khartoum in the U.N. Security Council
and sold weapons to the Sudanese government, while making Sudanese
oil purchases that help fund the genocidal campaign.
Farrow said "there is no way" the Sudanese government could "thumb
its nose at the entire international community and the U.N. for five
years without the full support of China."
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been chased
from their homes in Darfur since 2003, when tribes of ethnic African
farmers rebelled against the Arab-dominated central government,
accusing it of neglect and discrimination.