[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Africa Action calls for immediate UN Intervention to stop Genocide in Darfur

[Alfred Kagan]

>Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 11:33:06 -0600
>From: Africa Action <africaaction at igc.org>
>Organization: Africa Action
>X-Accept-Language: en-us, en
>To: ejlist at africaaction.org
>Subject: Africa Action calls for immediate UN Intervention to stop Genocide
>  in Darfur
>X-ACL-Warn: ClamAV says this message is clean
>X-Spam-Score: -103.7 (---------------------------------------------------)
>
>
>At this morning's press briefing on Darfur, Africa Action released 
>the following statement. It is also available at 
>http://www.africaaction.org . For more information, contact 
>Ann-Louise Colgan at 202-546 7961
>---
>
>AFRICA ACTION STATEMENT CALLING FOR IMMEDIATE INTERVENTION TO STOP 
>THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR, SUDAN
>December 10, 2004 - International Human Rights Day
>
>"The U.S. must do everything necessary to secure a UN Security 
>Council Resolution invoking Chapter 7, which would authorize a 
>multinational intervention force to stop the genocide in Darfur.
>Anything less will make the U.S. complicit in the genocide, which 
>only the U.S. has rightfully acknowledged."
>
>It is almost 100 days since September 9th, when Secretary of State 
>Colin Powell declared on behalf of the Bush Administration that, 
>"genocide has been committed in Darfur, and that the government of 
>Sudan and the Janjawid bear responsibility." At that time, however, 
>Powell also denied logic and emphasized that "no new action is 
>dictated by this determination." Indeed, in the 100 days since this 
>recognition, the Sudanese government has continued its genocidal 
>campaign with impunity and the international community has not taken 
>urgent action to arrest this crisis.
>
>Since September, the U.S. has taken its determination of genocide to 
>the United Nations (UN) Security Council, and called on the UN to 
>initiate a full investigation. This investigation is now underway, 
>and will conclude its work in February 2005. In recent months, the 
>U.S. has also provided C-130 transportation planes to contribute to 
>increasing (by a mere few hundred) the number of African Union (AU) 
>troops on the ground in western Sudan.
>
>These actions are wholly inadequate as a response to genocide. The 
>recognition by the Bush Administration and by Congress that genocide 
>is taking place in Darfur MUST dictate new and urgent action. 
>Instead, in recent weeks, we have seen the U.S. engaging with the 
>Khartoum government as a legitimate partner in the North-South peace 
>process, even while this same government continues to wage genocide 
>in western Sudan. Increasingly, both the U.S. and the UN have begun 
>to frame the crisis in Darfur as a civil conflict and a humanitarian 
>disaster, rather than a calculated action on the part of the 
>government. The international community has utterly failed to hold 
>the Khartoum regime accountable for its crimes in Darfur.
>
>Meanwhile, the genocide continues. Latest statistics indicate that 
>as many as 350,000 people have died in the past 18 months, and that 
>an additional 10,000-30,000 are still dying every month. By the end 
>of the year, the genocide in Darfur will have claimed 400,000 lives, 
>which is half as many lives as were lost in the Rwandan genocide a 
>decade ago. Nearly 2 million people have been displaced inside 
>Darfur and many of these are beyond humanitarian access. Almost 
>250,000 Sudanese have fled as refugees to neighboring Chad. The 
>destruction of villages and the rape of women and girls continue, 
>and insecurity remains a primary concern throughout the area. 
>Violence is still the leading cause of death, but mortality rates 
>are increasing due to malnutrition-related illness and diseases 
>arising from inadequate camp conditions.
>
>In light of the ongoing genocide in Darfur, and the inability of the 
>U.S. and UN to force a change in Khartoum's behavior or to take 
>action to stop the genocide, Africa Action calls on the U.S. 
>government to press the UN Security Council to immediately invoke 
>Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, authorizing an international 
>intervention in Darfur. Such a force is essential to stop the 
>violence, to provide protection for 2 million internally-displaced 
>Sudanese, to facilitate an urgent expansion of the humanitarian 
>relief effort, and to create a climate in which political 
>negotiations can take place.
>
>Under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, the Security Council has 
>authority to intervene in conflict situations where there is a 
>threat to the peace, and to take any measures necessary to maintain 
>and restore international peace and security. The crisis in Darfur 
>must meet this definition. Furthermore, the government of Sudan has 
>proven itself unwilling to comply with previous UN resolutions and 
>incapable of providing security to the people of Darfur, and this 
>makes this a legitimate area of concern for the international 
>community. Genocide is a crime against humanity and 136 countries 
>worldwide, including the U.S., have undertaken to prevent and punish 
>this crime as signatories to the Convention on the Prevention & 
>Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948).
>
>The U.S. must immediately introduce a new Resolution at the Security 
>Council to invoke Chapter 7:
>
>* Taking account of the failure of the Khartoum government to comply 
>with earlier Security Council Resolutions (1556 & 1564) ordering 
>that it disband the Janjaweed militias and halt the killings in 
>Darfur.
>
>* Acknowledging that mass murders and rapes, crimes against humanity 
>and genocide are taking place in Darfur, based on the extensive 
>research and documentation of the U.S. government, UN agencies and 
>other credible human rights organizations.
>
>The Security Council Must:
>
>* Provide the African Union force with a Chapter 7 mandate under the 
>UN Charter to protect the civilians of Darfur and to enforce a 
>cease-fire.
>
>* Expand this force by soliciting military personnel and logistical, 
>communications & financial support from UN member nations to form a 
>UN peacekeeping operation to incorporate and support the AU troops 
>under Chapter 7.
>
>* Enforce the no-fly zone over Darfur
>
>* Impose an immediate arms embargo on the government of Sudan
>
>Securing the passage of such a resolution will require significant 
>diplomatic efforts from the U.S. in order to overcome the veto right 
>of the permanent members of the Security Council. But there has 
>seldom been a more urgent case for the U.S. to exercise its 
>political power at the UN. An intervention force under Chapter 7 
>would not only represent a real and overdue international commitment 
>to stopping the genocide and restoring security to Darfur, it would 
>also make clear to the Khartoum government that the international 
>community will no longer tolerate this non-compliance with previous 
>resolutions.
>
>Secretary of State Powell stated before the U.S. Senate 100 days 
>ago, "let us not be preoccupied by this designation of genocide." 
>Africa Action believes that this designation must pre-occupy us, and 
>requires action. Ten years after the genocide in Rwanda, we cannot 
>afford to repeat the same mistakes. If we don't act now, when will 
>we ever act? If we don't have special and clear-cut obligations in 
>the case of genocide, when do we? Our first responsibility is to the 
>people of Darfur, and our immediate emphasis must be on stopping 
>this violence.
>
>The United States has a unique capacity to mobilize a multinational 
>effort to end the genocide in Darfur. We demand no less. A new U.S. 
>Resolution at the Security Council must call for and secure the 
>immediate implementation of a Chapter 7 intervention to stop the 
>genocide in Darfur.
>
>####
>
>
>--
>
>Africa Action 1634 Eye Street NW, #810
>Washington, DC 20006
>Tel: 202-546 7961 * http://www.africaaction.org


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu