Interesting, so Darfur is becoming a campaign issue now:
April 27, 2007 (PARIS) — French right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday attacked as “absurd” a call by his Socialist rival Segolene Royal for a boycott of the 2008 Olympics to force China to back international action in Darfur.
“It is absurd. What do we want, for China to open up or shut down? The Olympic Games are universal, a wind of freedom and hope, they will certainly have an extremely positive influence on China’s opening-up,” he told reporters.
“To deny the Olympic Games to 1.3 billion Chinese is to isolate them when what Chinese society needs is to open up. Sport is a factor for peace, freedom, encounter and dialogue.
“To refuse that is the opposite of what we should do,” charged Sarkozy, who will face off against Royal for the French presidency on May 6.
Royal argued on Wednesday that the international community should use “the threat of the Olympic Games” to spur China into supporting UN action in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.
China responded by saying the threat went “against good will among the peoples of the world” and calling for “objectivity” and “calm” from political leaders.
We’re going to see more of this whole boycott thingy. As the Genocide Olympics movement grows, it will cause an increasing headache for China and hopefully that will materialize into some sort of genuine pressure being applied on the Sudanese government to find a solution to the notorious disaster known as Darfur. Oh well, as usual, we’ll just have to wait and see. Sigh!
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s probably a political way of surrendering before the games even start and thereby saving themselves the trouble of actually competing. Pretty smart actually.
This reminds me of the boycott of Moscow in 1980 in a protest.
Aaron that is funny.. I really do not understand this one.
I think it is the election-mode talk, a way to differentiate herself from the Sarkozy. I am sure she really does not care about Darfur nor about the athletes who put in all those years to prepare.
Daniel, I can see the analogy with Moscow games but at that time the US was protesting the situation in Afganistan where the soviet army was in Afganistan to assist and support the communist government.
In the Sudan case, China is mainly doing business, I do not think the Chinese army is in Sudan.
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