Lawmakers Seek To Pressure China Over Killings in Darfur
City Council members are calling on New York-based sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics to pressure the Chinese government to help end the killing in Darfur by threatening to withdraw their sponsorship.
The members are planning to meet outside NBC Studios today to urge the television station and other sponsors of the summer Olympics to use their financial stake in the international sporting event to force the Chinese government to take action.
"It's a pretty simple message," a council member of Brooklyn who will attend today's event, Simcha Felder, said. "The Darfur issue needs no explanation. They are killing people."
Mr. Felder, who said his district is home to the largest concentration of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel, said the killing in Darfur hits home "a little too hard."
The advocacy coalition Save Darfur says China is the largest foreign investor in Sudan and a significant weapons supplier, with more power than any other nation to pressure the country into halting the ongoing violence.
The vice president of strategic marketing, communications, and promotions for NBC Sports, Michael McCarley, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Mr. Felder, along with council members Gale Brewer and Inez Dickens, are introducing a City Council resolution today that will echo their call outside NBC.
The resolution asks all corporate sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with headquarters and operations in New York to "meaningfully engage the Chinese government in proactively addressing their role in the ongoing crisis in Darfur."
It says each sponsor should withdraw support from the summer games if the Chinese government does not sever its financial connections with Sudan "or leverage its connections to hold Sudan accountable for ending the genocide in Darfur before December 31, 2007." The Sudanese government-supported military campaign against Muslims in Darfur has been under way since early 2003. An estimated 400,000 people have been killed and 2 million displaced during that time.
The resolution notes that American sponsors with operations in New York include Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, General Electric, Samsung, and Kodak. General Electric, the parent company of NBC, bought broadcasting rights to the 2008 Olympics for $894 million.
