MuseumDESCRIPTION:
Jill Savitt, director of the Olympic Dream for Darfur campaign, speaks with Jerry Fowler about the contradiction between Beijing hosting the 2008 Olympic Games, having chosen the slogan “One World, One Dream,” and China’s close economic relationship with Sudan during the Darfur genocide. Savitt explains the goals of the Olympic Dream for Darfur campaign, why the campaign does not advocate a boycott of the Olympics, and how citizens can become involved.
TRANSCRIPT:
JERRY FOWLER: My guest today is Jill Savitt. She is on leave from her position as Director of Public Programs at Human Rights First and is starting a new project where she will be director of Olympic Dream for Darfur. Jill, welcome to the program.
JILL SAVITT: Thanks so much.
JERRY FOWLER: Well, Olympic Dream for Darfur, what is the connection between the Olympics and Darfur?
JILL SAVITT: Well, China is the host of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games. China is also perhaps the government most well poised to have an influence on what is going on in Darfur because China and Khartoum have a very close economic relationship in terms of guns and oil, selling guns and buying oil. And China has also been the main diplomatic protector of Khartoum at the Security Council which has made it impossible, in fact, for civilian protection personnel to go in and protect humanitarian workers and civilians in Darfur. So our campaign is focused on getting China’s attention, getting the global community to get China’s attention, to convince Khartoum to allow in peace support personnel. And it seems that China is most sensitive about its hosting of the Olympics. And so that is our leverage that we are using is trying to show the contradiction between being the host of games that represent peace and being a close partner of a genocidal regime.
JERRY FOWLER: So the immediate question that people would ask is: are you trying to organize a boycott of the Beijing Olympics?
JILL SAVITT: Absolutely not. This is not a boycott campaign. In fact, we believe that the best place for countries to do battle is in the sports arena. And so our campaign is decidedly not a boycott. What we would like to do is, as our name says, bring this Olympic dream to Darfur, bring these ideals of peace and brotherhood to Darfur. The signature of this campaign is an Olympic Torch Relay that will go from Darfur to Beijing and it will stop in countries that are historically associated with genocide as a way to raise awareness about the connection between China and Darfur and to mobilize people around the world to focus attention on China.
JERRY FOWLER: Let me just push on that boycott idea, though, because if the goal is to pressure China, is that kind of the ultimate pressure, threatening the failure of their games?
JILL SAVITT: We do not want to see the games fail. We really do believe in the Olympic spirit and the Olympic ideal and having countries gather in this way. You know, on a strategic level, if you boycott, then what is next? You actually have voted with your feet and you have said you are out and China can continue to do what it is doing without this interference. As long as we are not boycotting and we are involved in the Games, we will call attention to the role of China in Darfur leading up to the Games. And then, just as we are bringing the Olympic dream to Darfur starting now, which is roughly a year ahead of the Games, our intention is to bring Darfur to the Olympic Games by using the Games themselves to call attention to Darfur.
JERRY FOWLER: Now this pressure has been starting to build a little bit. Some people have used the term “Genocide Olympics.” And China has responded that this is improper because it is politicizing the Olympics.
JILL SAVITT: Well the Olympics have long been politicized so this is nothing new. The Games throughout the ages have been used for political ends. We do not believe this is politicizing the Games. There are certain things that rise above politics altogether and genocide certainly is one of them. That is a crime against humanity and it is above any sort of politics. And if there is a nation that can act, especially a nation that has said “we want to enter the international community, we want to host these Games, this is a rising China.” Being the host of the Olympics does come with its responsibilities and this is one of those responsibilities.
JERRY FOWLER: So what would you like to see China do? What would specifically be evidence that they are moving in the right direction?
JILL SAVITT: Well, ultimately, what we would like to see China do is use its unrivaled influence with Khartoum, and it is the country with the most influence over Sudan arguably, use that influence to get Khartoum to consent to allowing in peace support personnel as is outlined more than six months ago, in August 2006, in United Nations Resolution 1706. We would like to see those troops on the ground in Darfur. There are a series of things that China can also urge Khartoum to do incrementally leading up to that: disarming the Janjaweed, the proxy militia. That would be one thing. Allowing access for humanitarian workers into the region. That would be another. Stopping the aerial bombing so civilians and humanitarian workers can meet up and get goods to people and medical supplies. So those are some of the steps that if China were to take any of those actions, we would see that China was clearly and genuinely resolved to helping Darfur.
JERRY FOWLER: Now the Chinese government has appointed a special envoy who has been to Khartoum and they have also offered at least some number of Chinese troops to be part of the deployment in Darfur. Do you think that is evidence that they are moving towards doing the things that you want or is it more for show?
JILL SAVITT: I think those are all welcomed steps but they are not nearly sufficient. If China wanted to have civilian protection forces in Darfur, I think we would see that happen. We have not seen some of the other indicators that would show that China was genuine in their resolve to do this. For instance, China could take back their offer to fund a presidential palace that was priced at some $18-$20 million. China could tell Khartoum that it was not going to forgive its debt. China could take a number of steps that could indicate to the rest of the world that they were serious about trying to resolve the conflict in Darfur. These other steps I think we have seen a pattern in both Sudan in general and with China in its role vis-à-vis Sudan that China will do something, get a little positive publicity for doing it, the advocacy community, it hopes, will quiet down a little bit, more time will pass, but nothing will change. This new envoy from China goes into Darfur, visits a few camps and provides an absolutely whitewashed, airbrushed view of the situation that life is improving for Darfurians; that he did not see the squalor and heartache and suffering that everyone else has spoken about. So sending an envoy, very good. The report from the envoy, it is just completely not in line with the facts.
JERRY FOWLER: Let us go back to one of the things you mentioned, which was the Darfur Olympic Torch Relay that you are organizing. Give us some details on that and particularly is there a way that people can get involved in it?
JILL SAVITT: Well there is going to be an international torch relay, it is largely symbolic, so someone is not going to jog the entire route from Darfur to Beijing.
JERRY FOWLER: But that is true with the regular torch relay, is it not? Does somebody actually jog the whole route?
JILL SAVITT: They do not. They take planes; they do not swim across the ocean to get to another continent. And so like that, ours will be largely symbolic. We are going to start as close to Darfur as we can, likely, though, we will be in Chad, on the border if we can get there. Right now Mia Farrow is going to launch the torch on August 8th and then we will immediately go to Rwanda to the Kigali Memorial Center. And what is interesting is that at that memorial center in Rwanda there is an eternal flame and so we will light the torch from that eternal flame. We are still working out who is going to join us in Rwanda. It will be Mia Farrow handing the torch off to another high-profile person. We are looking for Olympic athletes, celebrities, thinkers, people who have been involved in the Rwandan crisis and who are involved in Darfur and the Olympics. From Rwanda, we are going to go to Yerevan, Armenia and then we are going to go to Sarajevo, Germany, Cambodia and then we are going to try to go to Beijing but likely we will end in Hong Kong. And that is going to take place over a six month period.
JERRY FOWLER: And will there be any problem in getting into Hong Kong? It is controlled, of course, by the Chinese government.
JILL SAVITT: Right. We have not heard that that is going to be a problem yet but we have a contingency plan in case there is. Which is, on the final day of the relay, which is likely to be in December, we are aiming for International Human Rights Day, December 10th, we are going to have actions at Chinese embassies around the world. There is going to be a worldwide day of action where we are going to take this torch relay to China by having people show up at embassies, consulates, other Chinese governmental bodies around the world.
JERRY FOWLER: And when you say action, to conduct a protest? Or...
JILL SAVITT: I think it is going to be more somber than fist shaking. But it will be people, likely; it will be appropriate to the place where it is being held by the advocacy groups, in that country, who undertake it will do something appropriate for their location. But it is likely to be candlelight vigils or a symbolic passing of a torch in front of those embassies with a request to meet the officials within the embassy, although those are likely to be denied.
JERRY FOWLER: And have you yourself talked to Chinese government officials?
JILL SAVITT: We have not. We are just getting started with this campaign and we have written a letter to them, which we are poised to send, that outlines the entire scope of this campaign. We feel that, as advocates it is our responsibility to tell the Chinese government what we are planning. The only contact we have had with them so far has been really in media interviews, where folks from our campaign have been interviewed and Chinese government officials have been interviewed. That has been our only direct connection, but we feel, as a first order of business, that is on our list to do. We officially launch this campaign in about a week to ten days and that letter will be a part of the launch.
JERRY FOWLER: You are focused on the ongoing genocide in Darfur, of course, and China’s connection to the Sudanese government and to Khartoum. But what about other human rights issues with China? I mean it has a horrible record in and of itself of persecuting political dissidents, people who try to practice their religion. It has got a history of forced abortions and organ harvesting, some really horrible things. Does just focusing on Darfur risk giving them a free pass on these other things?
JILL SAVITT: There are a lot of organizations that are focused on the portfolio of human rights concerns regarding China, Tibet, Taiwan, labor practices, treatment of their own citizens. And we feel like a rising tide can lift all boats when it concerns China. I think to focus on all of those for any one campaign, at least in our case, dilutes the message. We are in an urgent situation with Darfur. Of course, these other issues also are urgent and there are advocacy groups working on them, who we are talking with to make sure that we are not doing anything to the detriment of each other. This campaign is focused just on Darfur. We are not taking on the entire portfolio of concerns, though we are certainly sympathetic to them.
JERRY FOWLER: And what are you asking people to do, individual citizens, what can they do to help support this campaign?
JILL SAVITT: Well there is, we are organizing also with the Save Darfur Coalition, which is a U.S.-based group. We are organizing a torch relay that will just take place in the United States. So folks, anyone who wants to be involved in that relay can certainly get involved. We are urging people to take a series of actions, either by signing petitions on our website, sending emails to certain officials or copying down letters right off our website, handwriting them and sending them. So just as we are sending a letter to the Chinese government, we will have talking points and possible text that people can use to send a similar letter to Chinese embassies. We are writing to the head of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, asking him to use his influence with China so that these Games are not tarnished. We will be asking corporate sponsors to consider their role in underwriting these Olympics and to consider what their names and their brands will be associated with if nothing is done in Darfur. The thought that, next summer, as there are images coming out of Beijing of athletic prowess and glory, and then if you think of a split screen of what it will be like in Darfur at that exact moment, it really does compromise the ideal of the Olympics. And we are hoping that everyone who is connected with the Olympics in any way will see that and will intercede with China and urge them to act.
JERRY FOWLER: One of the particular individuals who has gotten some attention focused on him is Steven Spielberg, the famous director, who I guess has agreed to be the artistic director for the Beijing Games. Do you think it is appropriate for someone like him or other U.S. personalities to lend support to the Games in that way?
JILL SAVITT: Well the situation with Steven Spielberg is actually an interesting and it is in a little bit of flux. He did, in fact, sign on to be the artistic director of the opening ceremonies and was I think taken a bit aback, at least from what I have seen in talking to the people who advise him, by the outcry about his burnishing the image of China at the very moment that China is complicit in so many human rights abuses. He was unaware - as he said in media coverage and in a letter to President Hu of China - that he was unaware of China’s relationship to Khartoum and he was unaware of the role that China was playing in basically underwriting the genocide there. Once he was aware of that, he wrote a very strongly worded letter to President Hu basically outlining his difficulty in supporting the Olympics because of that role, especially with his background on the Holocaust and in the foundation that he started on the Shoah. So he has written this letter and he has given the President of China thirty days, which started the clock on those thirty days started (on around May 10th), thirty days to schedule a meeting. And so we are in that thirty day period right now where Mr. Spielberg had a number of questions for the President of China about what steps he was willing to take to influence Khartoum to allow in civilian protection forces. We have about two weeks to go on that month and I think we will hear from Mr. Spielberg what he intends to do based on whether the Chinese government ever contacted him and, if they did, what they said.
JERRY FOWLER: Just one final note. You have a website so people can keep track of the campaign and do some of the things that you were talking about. Before we get to that, there was one thing I wanted to highlight that you said. You mentioned that people, you were going to have text that people could copy down in handwriting for letters to send. Why is that important?
JILL SAVITT: Well I think that emails are terrific; they are a great way to very quickly express what you feel about a particular issue. But that technology, there are ways now for governments and other targets to filter that out. And I think almost if you get back to basics and take up a piece of paper and a pencil and you write something down and you send it by snail mail, there is something very urgent and immediate about that, sort of counter-intuitively since urgent and immediate is what seems to, you know, that is what email is about. But I think the physical stack of letters that the Security Council or that the Chinese government or the Chinese Embassy could receive will be a very powerful sign of just number and strength of the people who care about Darfur. One other thing that we are doing is we have made a temporary tattoo with the Chinese characters for “China, please-” and the tattoo, it is a little medallion and around its circumference it says, “Bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur.” And we have these tattoos; the historical parallels of tattoos in genocide are deliberate. And we are hoping that people can make this message of “China, please, bring the Olympic Dream to Darfur” unavoidable. And so anyone who comes to our website, which is www.dreamfordarfur.org, and the word for is spelled out F-O-R, www.dreamfordarfur.org, can sign up and get a free tattoo. We are trying to get them out to as many people as possible.
JERRY FOWLER: Jill Savitt is director of the Olympic Dream for Darfur campaign. Jill, thanks so much for taking the time to be with us.
JILL SAVITT: Thanks for having me.
