photo courtesy of PR Photos/www.prphotos.com

Steven Spielberg has announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, after trying unsuccessfully for almost a year to convince President Uh Jintao of China to do more to end Sudan's attacks in the Darfur region. This is a huge blow to China who has insisted that Sudan should not be linked to the Olympics.

Spielberg said in a statement that his "conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual." The statement said:

"Sudan's government bears the bulk of the responsibility for these ongoing crimes but the international community, and particularly China, should be doing more to end the continuing human suffering there. China's economic, military and diplomatic ties to the government of Sudan continue to provide it with the opportunity and obligation to press for change."

A spokeperson at the Chinese Embassy in Washington responded:

"As the Darfur issue is neither an internal issue of China nor is it caused by China, it is completely unreasonable, irresponsible and unfair to link the two as one."

It's interesting how governments cannot see how their continued economic ties with Sudan show their complicity with Sudan's brutality in Darfur.  It was rather brave of Spielberg to pull out of the Beijing Olympics because a lot of people, companies, governments, etc. seem too scared to stand up to China over this issue.  The international community must do more about the genocide.

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