Spielberg quits Olympic role over Darfur

February 12, 2008 (LOS ANGELES ) — American film maker Steven Spielberg today has quitted his post as artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics saying that China has to do more to end continuing human suffering in Sudan’s Darfur.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to formally announce the end of my involvement as one of the overseas artistic advisors to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games.” Spielberg said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

Spielberg, who decided that the Chinese government had not been sufficiently active in resolving the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, said, “With this in mind, I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual.”

China is a leading oil customer and supplier of weapons to Sudan and is accused by critics of providing diplomatic cover for Khartoum as it stonewalls international efforts to send peacekeepers into Darfur.

In April, Spielberg wrote a letter to Chinese President requesting more active pressures on Khartoum to end the Darfur crisis. At that time, Spielberg had asked to meet with Hu, but the president failed to respond.

Spielberg, who is also the chairman and founder of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, had been criticized by some Darfur activists, most notably by actress Mia Farrow in a widely disseminated March 2007 opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, for his role in the Olympics.

Farrow accused him of helping to “sanitize Beijing’s image,” adding, “Does Mr. Spielberg really want to go down in history as the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing Games.” Riefenstahl was the German filmmaker and propogandist, most famous for “Triumph of the Will,” a film of a 1934 Nazi party congress.

Sudan’s government, in its largest offensive in months, attacked three towns in Darfur on Friday, forcing about 200,000 people from their homes and leading 12000 refugees to flee into neighboring eastern Chad.

The United Nations estimates some 200,000 people have died in the western Sudanese region from the combined effects of war, famine and disease since 2003, when a civil conflict erupted pitting government-backed Arab militias against non-Arab ethnic groups.

(ST)