Linking Olympics with Darfur issue “strongly” opposed – China
January24, 2008 (BEIJING) — China said here Thursday it strongly opposes the practice of using the Olympic Games to hype political issues such as Darfur, saying it is in fact destroying and disturbing the preparation works of Olympic Games.
“It is of apparent political intention and purpose to link the Darfur issue with the Olympics,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told a routine press conference. “Such practice violates the Olympic spirit and principle, and will never succeed.”
China is firmly opposed to those persons or organizations who hype particular issues in the name of the Olympics, said Jiang in response to the question that whether China would put more pressure on Sudan as someone considered China’s continued support for the regime in Sudan could tarnish the Olympics.
China will never, ever accept those accusations, said Jiang, adding that international society knows very well that China has exerted a positive and constructive influence on the Darfur issue.
“I don’t know whether those organizations know China’s role on the issue and the current situation in the Darfur region,” she said.
China has been the first country to promise and then to dispatch soldiers to participate in peacekeeping missions in Darfur.
A 140-strong advance troop of a Chinese engineering unit has arrived in Darfur, and the unit is gradually being deployed.
The political process and peacekeeping deployment in Darfur has achieved progress under the joint efforts of all concerned parties, Jiang said.
China always maintains that a “double track” strategy — a balanced combination of political process and the peacekeeping mission should be applied in resolving the Darfur issue, she said.
China also supports taking advantage of the leading role of the Sudanese government, UN and AU (African Union) negotiation mechanism.
Meanwhile, various difficulties may arise during the process of the deployment of any UN-AU hybrid-mission peacekeeping missions.
Jiang called for all concerned parties to increase cooperation so as to resolve related issues through coordination.
“China will continue to play a constructive role in pushing forward a proper settlement of the Darfur issue,” Jiang said.
(Xinhua)