Darfur Activists Plan Beijing Protest

By JOE McDONALD –

BEIJING (AP) — Activists will demonstrate in Beijing during the Olympics to press China to help end bloodshed in Darfur, a group said Thursday, adding to the government's public relations headaches as it tries to quell protests in Tibet.

The announcement came as two U.S.-based groups released a report that accused Beijing of blocking efforts to compel the Sudanese government to end fighting in its western Darfur region.

"We are planning some actions during the games themselves in Beijing," Dream for Darfur's executive director, Jill Savitt, said in a conference call with reporters. Savitt said the group was keeping details secret "for fear we would not be able to pull off those events."

Activists are calling on Beijing, a diplomatic ally of Sudan and buyer of its oil, to help end fighting in Darfur. They have been pressing Olympics sponsors to lobby Beijing for action or face pickets at their headquarters or other protests.

In their report, Dream for Darfur and Save Darfur rejected Beijing's assertions that it has been trying to bring peace to the region.

They accused China, a permanent Security Council member, of blocking or weakening U.N. measures to compel Sudan to end the violence while supplying Khartoum with weapons.

"The actions of China, more than the actions of any other country besides Sudan, have facilitated the atrocities in Darfur," the report said. "For the past five years, essentially all of China's actions supported the government in Khartoum, thereby enabling the atrocities Khartoum committed."Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>