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By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: February 13 2008 02:07 | Last updated: February 13 2008 07:14
Steven Spielberg, the US film director, has quit as artistic adviser to the Beijing Olympic Games, complaining that China was not doing enough to end violence in Sudan's Darfur region.
The move by Mr Spielberg, an unpaid adviser to organisers of the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, is a heavy blow to China's efforts to prevent international criticism of its support for the Sudanese government from casting a pall over the August Games.
China has repeatedly denounced efforts by activists to use the Olympics to push it to change its policies on issues ranging from Darfur to its own restive Himalayan region of Tibet and its continuing crackdown on domestic political dissent.
However, a group of Nobel Peace laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu this week signed a letter to Hu Jintao, Chinese president, calling on him to uphold Olympic ideals by pushing Khartoum to end atrocities in Darfur.
Activists including actress Mia Farrow and former Olympic athletes pushed a similar message outside China's embassy in London and its mission to the United Nations in New York.
China's ties with Sudan, which include buying much of its oil exports and supplying it with arms, have made it the primary target of campaigners pushing for stronger efforts to end a conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2m people since 2003.
In a statement, Mr Spielberg said his conscience would not allow him to spend his time and energy on Olympic ceremonies while "unspeakable crimes against humanity" continued in Darfur.
"Sudan’s government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these on-going crimes but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more to end the continuing human suffering there," the celebrated Hollywood director and producer said.
Organisers of the Beijing Games declined to respond immediately to Mr Spielberg's resignation.
However, China's special envoy to the region last year said that anyone who linked the situation in Darfur with the Olympics was either ignorant of reality or steeped in obsolete cold war ideology.
Beijing insists that it has been labouring in a low-profile and non-confrontational way to help end the violence in Darfur, saying the Khartoum regime is a legitimate government that "deserves respect".
China also insists that politics should not be allowed to intrude on the biggest sporting event it has ever hosted, although critics counter that Beijing itself ties the Games to its political agenda of promoting patriotism and "harmonious" development.
It is unclear how much traction such critics will achieve in the final months before the Games begin at 8pm on August 8, 2008. Despite an international campaign threatening to dub the Games the "Genocide Olympics" there appears little enthusiasm for a boycott and world leaders including US president George W. Bush have promised to attend.
Mr Spielberg stopped well short of calling for wider non-participation, saying he still hoped to attend the Games. "I saw, and continue to see, the Beijing Games as an opportunity to help ease some of the tensions in the world," he said.
