New York road race for Darfur aims message at China

HUNTINGTON, N.Y.--Several hundred runners, walkers, and spectators of all ages participated in a special 5K road race on Sunday, October 21, 2007, with a twofold purpose: Provide humanitarian aid to Darfurians and send a message to the world that the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, must end.

"I could feel a lot of emotional and physical energy from those who came out for the road race," said UUSC president Charlie Clements, after running the 3.1-mile course and presenting trophies and medals to the race winners. "This was the first in what we hope will be a series of events that brings much greater worldwide visibility to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur."

The "message" from the road race was directed primarily at China, which is hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics and is Sudan's largest trading partner and its biggest supplier of military weapons.

During the medal presentations, the recipients were asked to make a symbolic gesture of support for the suffering Darfurians, a gesture that also will send a message to the Chinese government as it prepares to host the 2008 Summer Olympics. UUSC, a member of the Olympic Dream for Darfur coalition, is campaigning vigorously to urge China to use its influence to help end the genocide in Darfur.

"It is important to keep reminding China that their Olympic moment in the sun might be marred by protests if they do not use their influence with the Sudanese government to stop the genocide," said Clements, who also delivered the sermon at the regular Sunday morning service at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Huntington on Long Island. Many of the runners attended the service, even though they may have had no previous connection with the church.

Remembering Mexico City Olympics

He noted the action of two American black athlete-activists Tommie Smith and John Carlos who in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City made gestures from the medal stand. With their heads bowed and their raised fists covered with a black glove, the U.S. Olympians made a powerful symbolic protest of racism in America at the height of the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Clements pointed out that the Chinese government already is nervous about the connection that anti-genocide activists are making between the 2008 summer Olympics and China's connection to the ongoing nightmare in Darfur. He noted that the Chinese spy agencies, their counterpart to the U.S. CIA, have begun to gather information about foreign organizations and individuals that may try to organize demonstrations either before or during the Olympics. He encouraged like-minded, anti-genocide organizations to stage a symbolic "medal ceremony" at all Darfur-related events, as well as at athletic contests.

"Let's get athletes to begin using this gesture, so that the Chinese intelligence service will blow a circuit thinking every Olympic team in the world has a conscience and will be prepared to make a statement themselves atop the medal stand," he said. "Tell China we will only call off the gestures if it is clear they are genuinely involved in finding a negotiated settlement to the Darfur Crisis."

All proceeds from the race will go to the Darfur Relief Program of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), an international human rights organization based in Cambridge, Mass. Through its Drumbeat for Darfur campaign, UUSC works to mobilize social activists to help end the genocide.

For more information about UUSC's Drumbeat for Darfur campaign.