U.S. and European media

August 20, 2023

Associated Press: Sudan's president: Darfur genocide 'nonexistent'. Sudan's indicted president denied Wednesday that his regime is orchestrating genocide in the troubled western region of Darfur - and offered hope for an end to the violence and the dawn of reconciliation by promising free and fair elections next year.

Associated Press: Darfur tribal chiefs throw in with al-Bashir. When Sudan's president landed in this remote western Darfur town, he was warmly greeted by a man who by all logic should be his mortal enemy - a tribal chief the Sudanese leader is charged with trying to exterminate. The sultan of the Masalit tribe, Saad Abdel-Rahman Bahr-Eddin, wearing an elaborate golden robe and large white head wrap, approached President Omar al-Bashir and raised his hands in the air in a common Sudanese gesture of welcome.

Associated Press: BEIJING BEAT: Rights groups frustrated by Olympics. The Beijing Olympics have left the world's human rights groups frustrated and angry - convinced that China has been let off the hook for serious abuses, and adamant that future hosts like Russia must be held to a higher standard. Western activists also are disappointed that among the thousands of athletes at the games, few have made even low-key efforts to speak out about political repression or China's economic ties to Sudan, where violence has raged in Darfur.

USA Today: Ambassadors urge Phelps, others to give to Olympic charity program. It took 12 days, but a social conscience finally arrived at these Olympic Games. No one unfurled a Save Darfur banner on the medal stand or unzipped a team jacket to reveal a Free Tibet T-shirt. It wasn't nearly that dramatic. But it was significant that in an Olympics where the Games' image has been so utterly and completely protected by Chinese government officials and their IOC and television friends, more than a dozen past and present athletes showed up Tuesday to talk about something other than split times and how well the buses are running. They came to a glistening corporate hospitality pavilion to support the Right to Play humanitarian organization at a benefit auction, where a video featured banned hero Joey Cheek, of all people -- right on the Olympic Green.

Associated Press: Joey Cheek bemoans curbs on Olympic free speech. Former U.S. Olympic speedskater Joey Cheek, founder of a group of athletes called Team Darfur, had a visa for China revoked shortly before he was to embark for Beijing two weeks ago. He had planned to urge China, an economic partner of Sudan, to help make peace in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region. Here are excerpts from comments Cheek e-mailed Wednesday to The Associated Press, regarding how the Chinese authorities and the International Olympic Committee have addressed issues related to dissent and political free speech at the Olympics.

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