Africa Action Releases New Report on International Failure to Protect Darfur
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2008
10:49 AM
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CONTACT: Africa Action
Michael Swigert (202) 546-7961
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Africa Action Releases New Report on International Failure to Protect Darfur
More Resources, Diplomatic Pressure Vital to Success of Peacekeepers
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WASHINGTON, DC - January 31 - Today, half a year after the
passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1769 on July 31, 2007, Africa
Action releases new analysis detailing the failure of the international
community to deploy the peacekeeping force for Darfur authorized by this
resolution. Africa Action calls on the Bush administration to put its
words into action and move from rhetorical opposition to genocide to
proactive engagement with the United Nations to achieve the fully
resourced deployment of the complete “hybrid” UN-African Union force
(UNAMID) that the Security Council called for six months ago.
Over the past months, UN officials and humanitarian groups operating in
Sudan have warned that UNAMID is on the brink of collapse, and recent
estimates caution that it may take most of 2008 to deploy the complete
mission. For a chronology assessing the missed deadlines and analysis of
the current status of this operation, please see the latest Africa
Action report at http://www.africaaction.org.
“What the people of Darfur need now is less rhetoric and more sincerity
from the international community including the United States,” said
Gerald LeMelle, Executive Director of Africa Action. “History will
remember this administration not for its statements of ‘opposition to
genocide in Sudan’ but for the concrete steps it took to put an
effective peacekeeping mission in place and the vigor of its diplomatic
efforts. The U.S. must provide international leadership to combine the
expedited deployment of this protective force with an inclusive
political peace process for Darfur as well as progress in implementing
the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South Sudan.”
Less than 1,500 of UNAMID’s allocated 6,000 police officers and 7,000
out of 20,000 troops are currently in Darfur. No country has yet to
offer to provide the two-dozen tactical and transport helicopters the
mission requires. The government of Sudan has yet to accept a UN Status
of Forces Agreement that would allow UNAMID personnel the operational
freedoms, such as freedom of movement and communications and the ability
to conduct flights after dark, that they need to fulfill their mandate.
“300,000 people were newly displaced by the violence in Darfur in 2007,”
said Marie Clarke Brill, Deputy Director of Africa Action. “The UN and
aid agencies report that the situation on the ground is the worst since
widespread hostilities broke out in 2004. Yet the new US special envoy
for Sudan announced earlier this week that he would indefinitely
postpone his visit to the country for unspecified reasons. After the
premeditated January 7 attacks on a clearly marked UN convoy by Sudanese
military forces, the U.S. and the international community can no longer
hide from the fact that Khartoum bears the primary responsibility for
the suffering of Darfur’s civilians. It is unacceptable for the U.S. to
prioritize ‘War on Terror’ intelligence interests in Khartoum over the
lives of Sudan’s people.”
Africa Action has been working to stop genocide in Darfur since early
2004. For the latest analysis on the crisis in Darfur, please see
http://www.africaaction.org/darfur.
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