| ARCHBISHOP Desmond Tutu is one of the signatories to an open letter to the Chinese government from 80 Nobel Peace Prize laureates and other high-profile figures, calling for China to use its relationship with Sudan to help bring an end to the crisis in Darfur.
The letter is critical of the tacit and overt support given by China to “a government that continues to carry out atrocities against its own people”. Although the signatories recognise some efforts to increase diplomatic pressure on Sudan — notably, China’s support for a UN Security Council resolution calling for a combined UN and African Union peacekeeping force — it deplores the country’s continuing military relationship with Sudan.
“China also doubled its trade with Sudan in 2007, providing resources that make it easier for that government to carry out atrocities,” says the letter. It concludes: “As the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games approach . . . we will continue to watch for concerted and consistent Chinese action to ensure rapid deployment of UN-AU peacekeepers, progress in the peace talks, and an end to the use of rape as a weapon of war.”
Christian Aid has continuously urged both China and Russia, as members of the UN Security Council, to live up to their commitment to allow the peacekeeping force to be deployed. It has also urged politicians to bring pressure to bear on the Sudanese government through trade.
The calls are made against a background of renewed attacks by government-backed militias on three towns in West Darfur, which left thousands of people needing help.
Human-rights and humanitarian agencies continued to respond this week to Steven Spielberg’s withdrawal, on grounds of conscience, from his post as artistic adviser to the Beijing Games. His decision should prompt other influential outsiders to press China to reform, said the organisation Human Rights Watch.
It acknowledged that China, the biggest customer of Sudanese oil, had taken some minor steps to respond to the human-rights crisis in Sudan, but said that, just six months before the Games, repression in China was increasing.
“Beijing has given virtually no sign that it intends to keep the promises made to the international community in hosting the games,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “On the contrary, we have witnessed a systematic effort to silence, suppress and repress Chinese citizens who are trying to push the government into greater respect for fundamental rights.”
CAFOD, the Roman Catholic overseas development agency, has also drawn attention to human rights abuses in Chad. A statement on Tuesday called on EU member-states to reassess their support for Idriss Deby, the country’s President. |
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