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For Immediate Release
September, 16 2008, 05:00pm EDT
Contact:
Brenda Bowser Soder,bowsersoderb@humanrightsfirst.org,O -202/370-3323, C - 301/906-4460
HRF Applauds Senate Resolution Expanding Sudan Arms Embargo
WASHINGTON
In a clear bipartisan statement denouncing the flow of weapons to Sudan, Senators Bill Nelson and James Inhofe, along with sixteen other co-sponsors, called on countries to cease selling arms to Sudan.
Senate Resolution 660, introduced yesterday afternoon, calls on arms suppliers-particularly China and Russia-to cease their sales immediately, as "continued sale of arms to Sudan under these circumstances violates the United Nations arms embargo imposed by Security Council Resolutions 1556 and 1591." The resolution also calls for an expanded UN arms embargo on Sudan.
Human Rights First applauds Senators Nelson, Inhofe, and the other co-sponsors of the resolution for condemning the continuing sales of arms to Sudan. "That such a diverse group of senators came together to decry continued arms transfers to Sudan shows how important the issue of arms is to resolving the conflict in Darfur," said Betsy Apple, Director of Human Rights First's Crimes Against Humanity Program. "So long as Darfur is awash in weapons, there will be no peace for the peacekeepers to keep."
Human Rights First joined these Senators in demanding that all countries immediately cease arms sales to every party to the conflict in Sudan. "Sudan President al-Bashir is under potential indictment for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court," stated Apple. "No one should be arming a potential war criminal."
Human Rights First is a non-profit, nonpartisan international human rights organization based in New York and Washington D.C. Human Rights First believes that building respect for human rights and the rule of law will help ensure the dignity to which every individual is entitled and will stem tyranny, extremism, intolerance, and violence.
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