EU rights champion backs Spielberg over Games

By Darren Ennis

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The Beijing Olympics should be used as a stick to beat China over its policy on Darfur and individuals should be willing to boycott the event, the winner of the European Union's top prize for human rights said.

Prominent Sudanese human rights lawyer Salih Osman said politicians, athletes and others should be willing to "follow director Steven Spielberg's lead" by opposing the Games unless Beijing changes its stance on the conflict in Darfur.

"This is a simple balance or decision between money and oil or people's lives," Osman told Reuters in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

"We cannot allow the Games to undermine the lives of innocent people in Darfur. The Olympics is the opportunity to make China listen, why shouldn't we use it as a stick? Spielberg expressed his position, so others should do the same."

The U.S. film director quit as an artistic adviser for sport's showpiece event because of China's support for the Sudanese government.

Beijing is a major investor in Sudan's oil industry and the largest supplier of weapons to the East African country.

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Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million uprooted in violence in Darfur since mostly non-Arabs took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect.