AFP Actress Mia Farrow Slams Olympics Sponsors

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" height=110 BGCOLOR="#990033" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>                 Truth For Tibet</B></I></div> <div> <B>                                             </B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.truthfortibet.org/index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.truthfortibet.org/index.html"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B>  </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Verdana" ><I><B>          </B></I></FONT></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="38f4eac01egerdp.gif"> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <U>Actress Mia Farrow slams Olympics Sponsors</U></div> <bR> <bR> <div> HONG KONG (AFP) — US actress and activist Mia Farrow Friday accused sponsors</div> <div> of the Beijing Olympics of bowing to "greed and fear" in failing to pressure</div> <div> China on its role in the conflict in Darfur.</div> <bR> <div> Of 19 major corporate Games sponsors, only three had responded to her call</div> <div> to use their influence to persuade the Chinese government to help bring an</div> <div> end to violence and suffering in the Darfur region of Sudan.</div> <bR> <div> The remaining 16 -- who she said included Coca-Cola, Visa, General Electric,</div> <div> Volkswagen and Samsung -- had "flunked" a report card issued by the pressure</div> <div> group she leads called Dream for Darfur.</div> <bR> <div> "History will note their silence," she said. "I'm disgusted."</div> <bR> <div> "It's about fear and greed of the sponsors," she said, adding only three</div> <div> companies came in for praise -- McDonald's, Adidas and Kodak -- for writing</div> <div> to the UN, urging it to enforce Resolution 1769 authorising a 26,000-strong</div> <div> peacekeeping force for the region.</div> <bR> <div> However, McDonald's later denied it had contacted the UN on the subject.</div> <bR> <div> The resolution has yet to be implemented.</div> <bR> <div> Farrow, star of Woody Allen's "Hannah and her Sisters" and another 12 movies</div> <div> made with her former partner, was speaking at the Foreign Correspondents'</div> <div> Club of Hong Kong as part of an international tour to highlight what she</div> <div> calls "genocide" in Darfur.</div> <bR> <div> The UN estimates 300,000 people have died in five years of war, famine and</div> <div> disease.</div> <bR> <div> Following the Hong Kong government's decision to bar a number of people who</div> <div> had planned to use Friday's Olympic torch rally through the city to call for</div> <div> Tibetan independence, she said she had wondered if she would be permitted to</div> <div> enter.</div> <bR> <div> The visit, her first to any part of China, was the final leg of a "torch</div> <div> lighting" tour of regions whose people had suffered genocide, including</div> <div> Rwanda, Cambodia and Israel.</div> <bR> <div> Outside central government offices, Farrow lit a torch she said represented</div> <div> the Olympic flame -- a symbolic event aimed at highlighting China's role in</div> <div> the Darfur bloodshed, she said.</div> <bR> <div> She accused the Chinese government of underwriting the violence through oil</div> <div> purchases from Sudan, which she put at an annual four billion dollars, 70</div> <div> percent of which was then used to purchase Chinese arms deployed in attacks</div> <div> on Darfur.</div> <bR> <div> "I said they should take their business elsewhere," she said of the</div> <div> "flunked" corporations.</div> <bR> <div> "They all said it's something for the UN to do, not us. We said OK, why not</div> <div> then get together and write a letter to the UN?</div> <bR> <div> "They couldn't even do that. Cowards," she said. "It's about fear and greed</div> <div> of the sponsors."</div> <bR> <div> Describing Darfur as "low-hanging fruit for China compared to other issues,"</div> <div> Farrow said her organisation wanted Beijing to pressure the Sudanese</div> <div> authorities to "stop attacking civilians" and accept the peacekeeping force</div> <div> mandated by the UN resolution.</div> <bR> <div> "It's a do-able thing for the People's Republic of China, a powerful</div> <div> nation," she said.</div> <bR> <div> Her efforts to highlight China's role in Darfur had "opened a window" that</div> <div> other groups had taken advantage of to press their own causes, she said.</div> <bR> <div> "So it was not surprising to see the Tibetan people push their own</div> <div> frustrations forward," she said, referring to last month's anti-Chinese</div> <div> demonstrations in the Himalayan region that turned violent and led to a</div> <div> tight security crackdown.</div> <bR> <div> "I empathise with the people of Tibet," Farrow said.</div> <bR> <div> She said she supported a boycott of the Olympics opening ceremony, an idea</div> <div> that has gained some traction in the wake of the Chinese actions in Tibet,</div> <div> which the Tibetan government-in-exile has said led to more than 200 people</div> <div> being killed.</div> <bR> <div> On Wednesday, Chinese media said police had shot dead one alleged Tibetan</div> <div> independence "insurgent," the first official admission that authorities</div> <div> killed anyone during recent unrest.</div> <bR> <div> She supported "a boycott of the opening ceremony because that would not hurt</div> <div> the athletes," she said.</div> <bR> <div> "For our leaders to refuse to attend the opening ceremony would send a clear</div> <div> message to Beijing that their policies on certain issues are simply not</div> <div> acceptable," she said. </div> </td> </tr></table></body>