Mia Farrow introduces the alternative opening ceremony of the Darfur Olympics

The Darfur Olympics is launched today, a week-long protest to keep the spotlight on the people of Darfur during the Beijing Games.
Violence and destruction are raging in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Since February 2003, government-sponsored militias known as the Janjaweed have conducted a calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, starvation and displacement in Darfur. Experts estimate that roughly 200,000 people have died due to violence, starvation and disease. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes and over 200,000 have fled across the border to Chad.

No country has done more to support the regime in Khartoum than the People’s Republic of China: no country has offered more diplomatic support, nor done more to provide money to buy the weaponry that fuels the engine of genocidal destruction. And no country has done more to insulate Khartoum from economic pressure or human rights accountability.

The people behind the Darfur Olympics created an alternative opening ceremony, a one-minute celebration of Darfurian children.
And, every day for the first week of the Games (August 8 to 15) they will show a new webcast report by Mia Farrow from a Darfurian refugee camp.

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