Mia Farrow urges China to help stop Darfur killings

May 2, 2008 (HONG KONG) — Actress Mia Farrow urged Beijing on Friday to help stop the killings in Sudan’s western Darfur region, staging a peaceful, one-woman protest on the sidelines of the Hong Kong leg of the Olympic torch relay.

The 63-year-old actress held aloft her own torch, which she said honored victims of genocide, near Hong Kong’s government headquarters – away from the Olympic torch route.

“As the games approach, China has the opportunity to change the course of history,” she said.

There had been concerns whether the Hong Kong government would let Farrow in after it deported several pro-Tibet and rights activist before the torch relay. Hong Kong officials were under pressure to ensure a trouble-free relay after embarrassing protests at earlier stops on the flame’s global tour on its way to Beijing Olympics in August

But immigration officials let Farrow through Thursday after questioning her briefly and asking her not to disrupt the torch relay.

Earlier Friday, Farrow gave a speech on Darfur at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club to a packed audience. She showed pictures of victims, famished children and refugee camps.

The U.N. estimates that about 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in Darfur during four years of fighting between local rebels and government-allied janjaweed militias, whom human rights groups have accused of atrocities.

The bloodshed began in 2003 when ethnic African tribesman took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese Arab-dominated government.

China has been one of Sudan’s biggest trading partners, buying oil from the African nation and selling it weapons. Activists have been urging Beijing to use its influence to pressure Sudan to stop the violence.

“Beijing is singularly positioned to persuade Khartoum to cease the regime’s assault upon Darfur’s population,” Farrow said in her speech Friday.

Farrow, who has dubbed the Beijing games the “genocide Olympics,” said she has lobbied Chinese officials in New York on Darfur.

Recalling one meeting, she said one Chinese official asked her why activists didn’t highlight Beijing’s humanitarian work in Darfur.

Farrow said she replied, “Here in America, when something’s wrong with our car and we take it to the mechanic, we don’t say what’s right with our car. We say what’s wrong with our car.”

She added, “Maybe I’m not the most tactful person … but I’m not a liar.”

(AP)