Steven Spielberg quits as Olympics adviser

LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Oscar-winning filmdirector Steven Spielberg withdrew on Tuesday as an artisticadviser to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing over China'spolicy on the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

"I find that my conscience will not allow me to continuebusiness as usual," Spielberg said in a statement issued on aday when Nobel Peace laureates sent a letter to China'spresident urging a change in policies toward its ally Sudan.

"At this point, my time and energy must be spent not onOlympic ceremonies, but on doing all I can to help bring an endto the unspeakable crimes against humanity that continue to becommitted in Darfur," he added.

China is a leading oil customer and supplier of weapons toSudan and is accused by critics of providing diplomatic coverfor Khartoum as it stonewalls international efforts to sendpeacekeepers into Darfur.

In April, Spielberg wrote a letter to Chinese President HuJintao adding his voice to the chorus of people who haveprotested China's involvement with the Sudanese government overthe crisis in Darfur. At that time, Spielberg had asked to meetwith Hu, but the president failed to respond.

In his statement on Tuesday, Spielberg said Sudan'sgovernment shouldered the bulk of responsibility for "theseongoing crimes" in Darfur but said China "should be doing moreto end the continuing human suffering there."

Earlier on Tuesday, nine Nobel Peace Prize laureates --including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel and JodyWilliams -- sent a letter to Hu urging China to uphold Olympicideals by pressing Sudan to stop atrocities in Darfur.

"As the primary economic, military and political partner ofthe Government of Sudan, and as a permanent member of theUnited Nations Security Council, China has both the opportunityand the responsibility to contribute to a just peace inDarfur," said the letter.

"Ongoing failure to rise to this responsibility amounts, inour view, to support for a government that continues to carryout atrocities against its own people," said the letter,released on a day of events by the Save Darfur Coalition.

The letter was also signed by U.S. politicians, Olympicmedallists and entertainers and delivered to Chinese embassiesand missions as part of events in the United States and Europestaged to mark six months before the August 8-24 Olympics.

UNDERWRITING GENOCIDE

In more than four years of conflict in Sudan's westernregion of Darfur, 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million havebeen driven from their homes, according to estimates frominternational experts. Khartoum says 9,000 people have died.

Sudan's government, in its largest offensive in months,attacked three towns in Darfur on Friday, forcing about 200,000people from their homes and leading thousands to flee intoneighbouring eastern Chad.

The United States pressed Sudan to stop the campaign.

U.S. actress Mia Farrow, who has led the coalition's globalcampaign to press China to change its policies, gathered acrowd outside the Chinese mission to the United Nations in NewYork as she tried to deliver the letter.

"China hopes that these games will be its post-TiananmenSquare coming out party. But how can Beijing host the OlympicGames at home and underwrite genocide in Darfur?" she said,stuffing the letter under the mission door after her knockswent unanswered.

The letter to Hu acknowledged Chinese support for a U.N.Security Council resolution calling for deployment of aU.N.-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.

"However, we note with dismay that the Chinese governmentworked to weaken the resolution before it passed," it said. Theletter said China doubled its trade with Sudan in 2007 andcontinued its military relationship with the African country.

Jody Williams, a U.S. citizen who won the prize in 1997 forher campaign against land mines, said she and fellow femalelaureates had formed the Nobel Women's Initiative in 2006 tofocus on conflicts and particularly their impact on women.

Mass rape has been a weapon of warfare in Darfur and inMyanmar, the former Burma, another Chinese-backed regime.

"In Darfur and in the case of Burma, China is theeight-jillion-ton elephant in the room and needs to use some ofits weight in a positive way," Williams said by telephone fromVirginia.

The Save Darfur Coalition said it staged similar events inBritain, Portugal and Italy on Tuesday and planned moreprotests in Nigeria, France, Australia and elsewhere.

The campaign has so far not called for a global boycott ofthe Beijing games, although activists advocate not attending orwatching the Beijing Olympics on television.

China's Embassy had no immediate comment. But last month,the ruling Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper andforeign ministry said China would never submit to pressure fromgroups trying to use the Olympics to change Chinese policy.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan in New York; editingby Todd Eastham)