Mia Farrow shows alternative 'Darfur Olympics'

53 minutes ago

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — U.S. actress-activist Mia Farrow aired an "alternative" Olympic opening ceremony in a Web cast Friday, showing Darfur refugees in the barren deserts of eastern Chad playing sports on sandy fields.

The Web cast coincided with a lavish opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics. The 2 1/2-minute video is part of a campaign by Farrow and other Darfur activists to pressure China into using its leverage in Sudan to bring an end to the five-year conflict.

In the Web cast, Farrow and a child walk into a sandstorm as she holds an extinguished torch. A young Sudanese boy sings: "Sudan is my country. Sudan is the country of my grandmother and grandfather. ... Sudan will always be my home."

Human rights groups, including Farrow's Dream for Darfur, have been using the Beijing Olympics to highlight accusations that China's close ties to the Sudanese government are helping fuel the bloodshed in Darfur, where the U.N. says up to 300,000 people have been killed.

China buys nearly two-thirds of Sudan's oil and is believed to provide Sudan with most of its small arms, many of which human rights groups say end up being used in Sudan's western region of Darfur. Sudan and China deny the charges, but Beijing has resisted tough U.N. Security Council action against Sudan over the conflict.

Each day during the first week of the Beijing games, Farrow plans to post new Web casts with "voices from the camps" in Chad, including interviews with women and children. About 250,000 Darfurians live in the refugee camps in Chad. Another nearly 2.5 million people displaced by the fighting remain in Darfur.

Six artists, including REM, Talib Kweli and The Jones Street Boys, have donated about 20 minutes of recorded concerts that are also posted on Farrow's Web site as part of the alternative ceremony.

Farrow's Dream for Darfur group has called the Olympics the "Genocide Games." China barred a Dream for Darfur member from entering the country. The activist had planned to take the video made by Farrow to reporters in China, where the Web site has been blocked.