‘Darfur Olympics’ to air in protest

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — As the Summer Games open in Beijing, actress activist Mia Farrow is Web-casting her own “Darfur Olympics” from a refugee camp on the barren Sudan-Chad border, aiming to shame China into using its influence with Khartoum to end the Darfur conflict.

Human rights groups have been using the Beijing Olympics to highlight accusations that China’s close ties to the Khartoum government are helping fuel the bloodshed in Darfur, where up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million people driven from their homes since 2003.

China buys nearly two-thirds of Sudan’s oil and is believed to provide the country with most of its small arms, many of which human rights groups say end up being used in Sudan’s western region of Darfur. Beijing, which has veto power at the U.N., has resisted tough Security Council action against Sudan over the conflict.

At the same time as the opening ceremony in Beijing today, Farrow will post footage on the Web from one of a dozen camps in eastern Chad where Darfurians fleeing the conflict have taken refuge. The Web-cast is to include refugee children playing sports and songs contributed by pop singers including REM, Bette Midler and Taleb Kweli.

Each day for the first week of the Beijing games, Farrow will post new Web-casts with “voices from the camps,” including interviews with women and children.

The footage will provide viewers around the world a glimpse of the “deplorable” conditions in these camps, Farrow said. The Web site is www.darfurolympics.org.