Madam, - John O'Shea (February 2nd) graphically summed up the desperate plight of the people of Darfur, where in the past four years more than 400,000 have died through murder, starvation and disease with unimaginable atrocities inflicted on wholly innocent civilians.
Your Editorial of January 31st rightly pointed the finger at the European Union for having failed to take any effective measures or even implemented "no-fly zones" to prevent the brutal Sudanese regime continuing military operations.
Ireland is complicit in that failure, despite our lofty rhetoric, and the 3.5 million people dependent on aid now face an even more frightening scenario as aid agencies are forced to flee.
China is especially culpable because President Hu Jintao's administration is the largest investor and customer of the Sudanese oil industry and thereby keeps the country's economy afloat. The warm reception President Hu received in Khartoum last week underlines just how much leverage he has over the genocidal Sudanese regime.
President Hu wants next year's Olumpic Games in Beijing to be his crowning glory. How can that be allowed to happen while his regime facilitates genocide in Darfur?
Do we have any alternative left but to call for a boycott of Olympics unless China uses its leverage to stop the killing in Darfur? - Yours, etc,
RONAN TYNAN, Blackrock, Co Dublin.