Flumesday.com - Will Darfur Crisis Lead to An Olympic Boycott

Will Darfur Crisis Lead to an Olympic Boycott?
It could spell big trouble for little China if the call for an Olympic boycott over Darfur picks up political steam in the West. Tuesday evening at a Paris rally, major French presidential candidate Francois Bayrou brought what was once a fringe idea perpetuated by Darfur activists into the mainstream. Bayrou told the Paris crowd, "If this drama does not stop, France would do itself credit by not coming to the Olympic Games. There is nothing easier than stopping this tragedy, this genocide. This is a political issue because China decided to bring its protection to the Khartoum regime." China and the Sudan have a long-standing economic and diplomatic relationship which has caused many Darfur advocates to accuse China of being complicit in the genocide that has taken 200,000 lives in the region since 2003. As the AP reports, China buys two-thirds of all oil produced in Sudan and in exchange, sells the Khartoum government weapons and military aircrafts. China, a permanent member on the U.N. Security Council, abstained from Resolution 1706, which would have brought an international peacekeeping operation in Darfur and Beijing has consistently opposed sanctions against the Khartoum government. Eric Reeves, English professor at Smith College and one of the leading Darfur activists and experts, commonly refers to the Beijing games as the "Genocide Olympics." While Reeves does not favor a boycott of the Olympic games, he writes this about the China-Darfur connection on his website:

It's time, now, to begin shaming China-- demanding that if the Beijing government is going to host the premier international event, the Summer Olympic Games of 2008, they must be responsible international partners. China's slogan for these Olympic Games-- "One world, one dream"-- is a ghastly irony, given Beijing's complicity in the Darfur genocide. The Chinese leadership must understand that if they refuse to use their unrivaled political, economic, and diplomatic leverage with Khartoum to secure access for the force authorized under UN Security Council Resolution 1706, then they will face an extremely vigorous, unrelenting, and omnipresent campaign to shame them over this refusal.

Not surprisingly, China is not all that bothered by any shaming campaign and the Chinese embassy in Paris did not comment on Bayrou's statements on Tuesday. Needless to say, no one returned my calls. Interestingly, Wednesday marked the 27th anniversary of Jimmy Carter's announcement that the United States would boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics in protest of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. As the AP points out, though America persuaded many of its allies to join the boycott, France was not one of them. With less than a year and a half to go before the Olympic torch is lit in Beijing, it remains to be seen how China will adjust its policies in order to appear as a "globally responsible" Olympic host. And if Western countries are serious about a Darfur-inspired boycott, Olympic planners may have to change the Olympic slogan from "One World, One Dream" to "Half the World, One Big Nightmare for China."

•AP: French Candidate Calls for China Boycott