If everyone reading this column takes one action to end the genocide going on in Darfur, the world will be many steps closer to stopping the slaughter. Right now, there's a window of opportunity in which small acts of protest can have a huge impact.
The window has opened because China - which provides weapons, financing and diplomatic support to the murderous military dictator of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir - is unusually vulnerable to international pressure these days.
China, desperate to improve its image in advance of next year's summer Olympics in Beijing, has been working overtime in recent weeks to shine up its image, which has been hammered by reports of the country's mass export of tainted drugs, poisoned pet food and defective products - including children's toys contaminated with lead paint currently being recalled by American companies like Mattel.
The Communist bosses in Beijing have reacted with a round of deadly scapegoating: In July, the regime announced the execution of Zheng Xiaoyu, who once ran the country's food and drug safety agency.
But that hasn't quieted global outrage. Now China has another headache on its hands: Beijing is drawing condemnation all over the world for supporting Sudan, where Bashir's regime has killed an estimated 400,000 Darfuris and chased more than 2 million off their land.
The government continues to support aerial bombing of villages and other atrocities that led the U.S. State Department to classify the carnage as genocide three years ago.
Most chilling of all, the Sudan government continues to close off access to the killing grounds. The director of CARE, the international relief agency, was recently expelled from the country.
Despite these horrors, China supplies Bashir's regime with extensive financial aid - it recently agreed to forgive $80 million in debt - and supplies weapons to the Sudanese government. At the United Nations, China has repeatedly voted against sending a UN-led peacekeeping force into the region.
Now is the time to put pressure on China to help end the genocide in Sudan. Anybody can get involved - and it sure beats wringing your hands.
Today at 2 p.m., human rights advocates and ordinary citizens will hold a rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza (47th St. between First and Second Aves.) to protest China's support of Sudan's genocide.
The ceremony, sponsored by the 170 nonprofit and religious organizations of the Save Darfur Coalition, will feature the lighting of an Olympic torch that will be passed from hand to hand by survivors of genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, Cambodia, the Jewish Holocaust and Armenia.
The torch will move all around the U.S. and eventually travel to China in December to dramatize Beijing's complicity in the horror of Darfur.
If you can't attend today's rally, please log on to savedarfur.org, click on the button that says "bring the Olympic dream to Darfur," and sign an electronic petition that will be sent to the Chinese government.
It may not seem like much, but it will make a big difference. Attention from the outside world might have stopped the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, when 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days.
I recently spoke to one survivor of that horror, 22-year-old Jacqueline Murekatete, who will take part in today's torch-lighting ceremony. She gets the last word on the subject:
"For as long as we as human beings continue to be indifferent - as long as we continue to see people murdered because of their race or ethnic group - what happened in Rwanda, what's happening in Darfur, will continue to happen."
