August
7 Mia Farrow Keeps Pressure on China

 Speaking from a refugee camp on Chad's border with Sudan, Mia Farrow criticized China's decision to revoke a visa for Olympic speedskater Joey Cheek yet praised American team captains for selecting a former Sudanese refugee Lopez Lomong to carry the Stars and Stripes in Friday's opening ceremonies.

"It appears that U.S. Olympic athletes have a far better sense of the Olympic spirit than the USOC or the Olympic host," Farrow said.

Along with other athletes, Cheek formed Team Darfur to raise awareness of the crisis there.

Farrow, visiting a 27,000 person refugee camp in eastern Chad, is working with the advocacy group Dream for Darfur and will deliver a daily webcast throughout the Games that will be posted on darfurolympics.org. The group will stage its own online "opening ceremony" on the site, featuring refugees playing sports from the camp.

The websites have been blocked in China, but efforts were being made to establish a new URL, said Jill Savitt, Dream for Darfur's executive director.

Savitt said that she applied for a visa to be present in Beijing during the Games but it was rejected. Farrow did not.

"I thought I could be of better service here, giving people the opportunity to be heard," Farrow said.

Dream for Darfur representatives have met with Chinese officials seven times in the past 14 months, Savitt said. Although China has signalled its sensitivity to international pressure --- it has appointed a special envoy to address the Darfur crisis ---  "it hasn't produced a change on the ground," Savitt said.

President Bush, who will attend the opening ceremonies in Beijing, said yesterday in Bangkok that "the United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings." It as followed by a warning from China not to interfere in the country's internal affairs --- long a standard response from the government.

But human rights groups have been critical of Bush's decision to attend the Games in the first place.

Farrow said that one woman in the refugee camp --- where conditions are "deplorable" --- told her, "If people are attending the Olympic Games, they are not feeling our pain, they are not hearing our cry."

She said, "Our goal in all of this is to make sure the people are Darfur are not forgotten as the world celebrates China as a Olympic host."