Since February 2003, an estimated 30,000 people have been killed and more than one million displaced by violence in the Darfur region of the Sudan.
In June, Congress passed a resolution (H. Con. Res. 467) reminding the US Government and the international community of their legal obligations under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and urging the Bush Administration “to lead an international effort to prevent genocide in Darfur.”
The United Nations Security Council has also taken action in an attempt to stop the violence. Acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the Security Council voted 13-0 (with abstentions from China and Pakistan) to “[demand] that the Government of the Sudan disarm the Janjaweed militias” and “apprehend and bring to justice its leaders and their associates who had incited and carried out violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as other atrocities in the country’s Darfur region.”
Despite this, however, a major humanitarian crisis is continuing to unfold, endangering the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians and threatening to destabilize the region.
Please act now to stop the escalating crisis in Darfur and ensure that those displaced by the violence have access to adequate food, shelter and medical attention.
TAKE ACTION TODAY
Contact President Bush and your Congressional representatives to urge them to act today to stop the killing in Darfur. Contact information for the Adminstration and Members of Congress is provided below or you can use ADC’s online service to conveniently send your letter electronically:
http://capwiz.com/adc/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=6263656
POINTS TO INCLUDE IN YOUR LETTER
1. Urge the Bush Administration to lead an international effort at the United Nations Security Council to halt the killings and rape, reverse the killing and displacement and ensure that those governmental and non-governmental actors responsible for atrocities in Darfur are held accountable.
2. Ask President Bush to speak publicly and forcefully against the situation in Sudan and put pressure on the Government of Sudan to ensure that relief agencies are able to inspect conditions and provide humanitarian assistance to the internally displaced and other civilian victims of the ongoing violence.
3. Encourage the President to introduce a resolution in the UNSC to deploy forces to Sudan under Chapter VII to protect and assist humanitarian convoys in delivering relief supplies and policing the refugee camps currently at the mercy of the Janjaweed militias.
President George W. Bush
president@whitehouse.gov
Tel: 202-456-1111
Fax: 202-456-2461
Secretary of State Colin Powell
secretary@state.gov
Tel: 202-647-4000/6607/6575
Call your Senators and Representative today. Find your representative online at www.adc.org or call the Capitol Hill switchboard: 202-225-3121.
ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS
1. Human rights organizations estimate that Janjaweed militias backed by the Government of Sudan have killed approximately 30,000 people in Darfur since February 2003. During the same period, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees estimates that 1.2 million people have been internally displaced and around 200,000 have sought refuge in neighboring Chad.
2. Survivors describe killings, torture and rapes committed by Janjaweed militias in plain view of Sudanese government forces. Janjaweed attacks have frequently been supported by the Sudanese air force, which has launched air raids indiscriminately on civilian targets, bombing villages and attacking them with helicopters.
3. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) estimates that “at least 300,000 or more Darfurians are likely to perish by the end of this year if restrictions on humanitarian access persist.” Relief agencies complain that the Sudanese government is restricting their movement and preventing them from delivering life-saving assistance to civilians.
RESOURCES
Amnesty International:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/sudan/index.do
Human Rights Watch:
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/darfur/index.htm
USAID:
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/sudan/darfur.html