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HONG KONG: US actress and activist Mia Farrow accused
China on Friday of “underwriting the atrocities in Darfur” as
she tried to put pressure on Beijing to end years of bloodshed in
the Sudanese region.
Farrow, speaking in Hong Kong as
the Olympic torch relay was borne through the southern Chinese city,
is using the high profile of this summer’s Beijing Games to
highlight China’s support of the Sudanese government.
“It isn’t a pretty way to say
this, but China is underwriting the atrocities in Darfur through the
oil revenues which now top$ 4 billion US a year,” she told Agence
France-Presse.
“Some 70 percent of that money
has been used to attack the population of Darfur.”
She appealed for Chinese leaders
to help stop the unrest, which has led to more than two million
people fleeing their homes since the Sudanese government enlisted
militia allies to put down a revolt in the region in 2003.
“Please China, you have it
within your considerable power to alter the course of history to
bring about an end to the suffering in Darfur,” she said.
“I don’t believe for a second
that Sudan could have continued this level of destruction against
its own people for more than five years without the backing of a
giant, and that giant is China.”
Farrow said Beijing should press
leaders in Khartoum to “cease the aerial bombardment and ground
attacks” and let in a full complement of international
peacekeepers.
The United Nations said last
month that the death toll in Darfur from five years of war, famine
and disease had reached 300,000.
--AFP
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