AP Photo|Sang Tan
Betsy Apple, the Director of the Crimes Against Humanity Program at Human Rights First and Eric Sears, a program officer in the same program, recently wrote at the Huffington Post that China continues to downplay the link between it’s arm sales to Sudan and the genocidal depopulation technique being administered in Darfur.
Last week the Chinese foreign ministry dismissed the findings of a new Human Rights First report that identified China as the single largest provider of small arms to Sudan, promising the world that its arms sales are “always highly prudent”.
Whenever a word such as prudent is used I always sense of cover up and Chaplin’s voice speaks to me, “More than logic; We need compassion”.
Prudence is a word stuck in logic.
Look at the definition of the word Prudence:
1 : the ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason ~ One can reason anything right or wrong.
2 : sagacity or shrewdness in the management of affairs
3 : skill and good judgment in the use of resources ~ The third definition is more in line with China’s policy. They want to secure Darfur’s oil of which they hold the majority of. By selling the arms used to murder and displace people living in the vicinity of their oil wells is China utilizing it’s resources in good judgment?
4 : caution or circumspection as to danger or risk ~ When the genocide or depopulation campaign started in 2003 so did China’s arm sales to Sudan, hardly a drop of logic is needed to put the two together in regards to caution as to risk or danger.
The article also rightly states that the Beijing Olympics are becoming a pr nightmare for China. That is why we have designated the Olympic Sponsors a primary target.
Email or call the Olympic Corporate Sponsors.
Send a letter to companies sponsoring the 2008 Olympics, hosted by China. (Dream for Darfur’s email system will let you do this with the touch of a button.)
Pledge to turn off the commercials of Olympic Sponsors during the Games.
Olympic corporate sponsors have been silent about China’s financing of the Darfur genocide, even as the sponsors are spending billions to enhance China’s image as Olympic host. If sponsors continue to ignore China’s complicity in the Darfur genocide, we will ignore their million-dollar ad campaigns.
Write to the UN Special Adviser on Sport for Development and Peace.
Mr. Adolf Ogi represents the UN Secretary-General in contacts with international sports bodies. Tell him you are concerned that the world will gather for the Olympics while the people of Darfur are being slaughtered.
Petition the International Olympic Committee.
Urge the IOC to work with the international community to ensure that China uses its leverage with the government of Sudan to help stop the genocide in Darfur, and avoids tarnishing the 2008 Games in Beijing.
0 Comments on “Always Highly Prudent”
Leave a Comment