Spielberg Withdraws As Artistic Advisor To Olympics

For some months, director and Hollywood power broker Steven Spielberg had withstood criticism of his original intention to serve as artistic advisor to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, even as actress Mia Farrow led the assault on what she called his helping to "sanitize Beijing's image".

Today came the director's announcement that that based on China's involvement with the government and economy of Darfur, which serves to "provide it with the opportunity and obligation to press for change", he would not be serving in that capacity. He noted that he had left his contract unsigned for a year.

"I find that my conscience will not allow me to continue with business as usual," Spielberg said in a statement this afternoon. "At this point, my time and energy must be spent not on Olympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an end to the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to be committed in Darfur."

He added that while the Sudanese government bears the bulk of the responsibility, China's ties to the government "provide it with the opportunity and obligation to press for change."

As the VOA web site detailed,

China is Sudan's biggest foreign trading partner, importing nearly two-thirds of that country's oil. Beijing's economic partnership with Khartoum, which also includes arms sales, has drawn criticism from western governments and human rights groups.

Some two million people have fled their homes in Darfur and another 200,000 have died since the conflict between ethnic rebels and the pro-government Janjaweed militia broke out in 2003.

In an open letter to the Chinese government, Olympic athletes, Nobel laureates and celebrities, including U.S. actress Mia Farrow, said Beijing "has both the opportunity and the responsibility to contribute to a just peace in Darfur."

Farrow, who had warned that Speilberg might become "the Leni Riefenstahl of the Beijing games", said on Tuesday, "How can Beijing host the Olympics at home and underwrite genocide in Darfur? China still has the chance to spare its games the humiliation as being remembered as the genocide Olympics. We are all calling upon China to use its unique point of leverage to bring about an end to the human catastrophe in Darfur".

Spielberg had sent a warning last year in the form of a letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao saying that he had "only recently come to understand fully the extent of China's involvement in the region and its strategic and supportive relationship with the Sudanese."