Steven Spielberg Releases Text of Letter to Chinese President, Hu Jintao, Condemning Darfur Genocide
11 Mayo 2007 - 3:42PM
PR Newswire (US)
Asks for Meeting in Beijing Within Next 30 Days LOS ANGELES, May 11
/PRNewswire/ -- Steven Spielberg has released the text of a private
letter he had sent to the President of China, Hu Jintao, condemning
the genocide in Darfur and asking the Chinese government to use its
influence in the region to bring an end to the suffering there.
Additionally, he is asking for a meeting in Beijing with the
Chinese President within the next 30 days. The full text of the
original April 2nd letter is as follows: His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People's Republic of China Zhongnanhai, Xichengqu,
Beijing City People's Republic of China April 2, 2007 Your
Excellency, I greatly value my association with the 2008 Beijing
Olympics, an event meant to unify nations and people as well as to
promote respect for universal moral principles. These first Olympic
Games to be held in China also promise to be a fitting symbol of
the important role that your nation will play in the affairs of the
world in this new century. My contributions as a filmmaker have led
me to the Beijing Olympics. As important as film is to me, however,
there is another aspect of my life's work that is both more
personal and more significant. Among my proudest achievements has
been the establishment of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for
Visual History and Education. The Institute has recorded the video
testimonies of 52,000 survivors of the Holocaust from 56 countries
in 32 languages. These remarkable documents have offered the world
faces and voices of men and women who survived the genocide which,
in Hebrew, we call the Shoah. These first-hand experiences have
been preserved and made available for scholarship and education so
that the genocide suffered by the Jews under the Nazis can never be
forgotten. Even more important than the collection of the
testimonies themselves is the mission of the Institute: to use
those testimonies to overcome intolerance, prejudice, bigotry and
the suffering they cause. We are doing that now in many countries
around the world, and I hope that China will someday be one of
them. I regard the creation of the Shoah Foundation Institute as
the most important professional accomplishment of my life. It
alerts me, and I hope others as well, to the importance of speaking
out on behalf of those who are targeted by governments for murder.
I believe there is no greater crime against humanity than genocide.
I feel strongly that every member of the world community has a
moral and ethical responsibility to act to prevent such crimes, to
eliminate the conditions in which they are bred and to combat them
wherever they exist. Therefore, I am writing this letter to you,
not as one of the overseas artistic advisors to the Olympic
Ceremonies, but as a private citizen who has made a personal
commitment to do all I can to oppose genocide through the work of
the Shoah Foundation Institute. For four years I have followed the
reports of the chaos and human suffering of the civilians in the
Darfur region of Sudan. There is no question in my mind that the
government of Sudan is engaged in a policy which is best described
as a genocide. I have only recently come to understand fully the
extent of China's involvement in the region and its strategic and
supportive relationship with the Sudanese government. I share the
concern of many around the world who believe that China should be a
clear advocate for United Nations action to bring the genocide in
Darfur to an end. Accordingly, I add my voice to those who ask that
China change its policy toward Sudan and pressure the Sudanese
government to accept the entrance of United Nations peacekeepers to
protect the victims of genocide in Darfur. China is uniquely
positioned to do this and has considerable influence in the region
that could lead efforts by the international community to bring an
end to the human suffering there. My hope for all sovereign nations
is that they will work creatively to co-exist with great peace and
lasting prosperity and that they will treat their citizens with
dignity and respect. That hope motivates this letter, which I send
to you in the spirit of the Olympic Games themselves. Your
Excellency, I look forward to your response and would be more than
willing, if you desire, to meet with you to discuss this further.
In the meantime, I will watch with great interest China's actions
in Sudan. Most Sincerely, Steven Spielberg DATASOURCE: Steven
Spielberg's Office CONTACT: Marvin Levy, +1-818-733-9787, for
Steven Spielberg's Office
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