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Stop the Genocide in Darfur, Mr. President

U.S. Official Says One Million People May Die

 

WASHINGTON DC, June 7, 2004  Khartoum continues its genocide in Darfur.  The U.S. Committee for Refugees again urges President Bush to exercise decisive political will to stop the genocide and save hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

 

"The eyes of history remain upon the President, whose principles should lead him to seek immediate Security Council action invoking Chapter VII of the UN Charter or other effective international intervention to achieve unimpeded humanitarian access now and end the genocide in Darfur," said USCR Executive Director Lavinia Limon.

 

The stakes are enormous.  "We estimate right now if we get relief in, we'll lose a third of a million people, and if we don't the death rates could be dramatically higher, approaching a million people," U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Andrew Natsios said on June 3.

 

In "Lead More Boldly on Darfur, Mr. President, Don't Repeat Bill Clinton's Historic Mistake on Rwanda," Limon declared on May 12, "One million internally displaced persons and refugees are facing starvation as a result of Sudan's atrocities and denial of unrestricted access for humanitarian relief.  In a few weeks the rainy season will make the roads impassable, and hundreds of thousands may starve to death."

 

"The President must not let this happen.  He should act to ensure that massive amounts of food and relief supplies reach everyone in Darfur who needs them and that unimpeded access is not merely requested but immediately achieved.  Otherwise hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children may die, and President Bush may be found wanting in the eyes of history for failing to rise to the awful specter of this genocide in the making.  His leadership and political will are needed now."

 

But his leadership and political will have not yet appeared.  Meanwhile, the number of Darfurians needing "acute assistance" has risen to 2 million from 1.2 million, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland told the Security Council on May 26.  An April UN report described appalling child mortality rates, systematic rape, denial of food, and other abuses at Kailek concentration camp due to "a strategy of systematic and deliberate starvation being enforced by the Government of Sudan and its security forces on the ground."

 

Said Limon, "The failure of President Bush and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to lead the world to stop the genocide is shameful and indefensible.  It is not too late for the President to act to save hundreds of thousands of lives, but time is running out."

 

 

The U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) is a public information and advocacy program of Immigration and Refugee Services of America (IRSA), a nongovernmental, non-profit organization. Since 1958, USCR has defended the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons worldwide.

 

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