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Africa Action calls Powell trip to Sudan 'Dangerously Naive'

Africa Action (Washington, DC)
PRESS RELEASE
June 29, 2004
Posted to the web June 29, 2004

20,000 people sign petition calling for US intervention to stop Genocide
As US Secretary of State Colin Powell travels to Sudan to pressure the Khartoum
government on the crisis in Darfur, Africa Action today rejected attempts at
'constructive engagement' with the Sudanese regime, which has sponsored a
genocidal campaign against the people of Darfur for over a year. Africa Action
today announced that 20,000 people in the US and internationally have signed a
petition, launched just two weeks ago, urging Secretary Powell to declare that
a genocide is taking place in Darfur and to push for an immediate US-led
intervention to stop the killing. The petition will be presented to Powell upon
his return to the US.
This week's visit to Khartoum and Darfur by Secretary Powell and United Nations
(UN) Secretary General Kofi Annan has been rejected by Africa Action as
"dangerously naive." Executive Director Salih Booker said today, "The Khartoum
government is clearly responsible for the genocide taking place in Darfur, and
yet it continues to deny its role and to obstruct humanitarian access to the
region. Rather than traveling half-way around the world to hold talks with this
murderous regime, Powell could achieve much more by simply uttering one word -
genocide."
Africa Action notes that the US, and all permanent members of the UN Security
Council, are parties to the 1948 Convention on Genocide, and are bound to
prevent and punish this crime under international law. Genocide is described as
the commission of acts with "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnic, racial or religious group."
Booker emphasized, "Colin Powell's trip to Sudan gives him an opportunity to
witness first-hand the devastation being wrought in Darfur and the stone-
walling of the Khartoum government."
He added, "Many thousands of US citizens have signed Africa Action's petition
to Secretary Powell, demanding that the US take immediate action to save
hundreds of thousands of lives in Darfur. The US has an obligation to recognize
the genocide taking place and to lead an urgent intervention to stop it. The
time for soft diplomacy has long since passed."
Africa Action's petition calls on Powell to take the following three immediate
steps to address the crisis in Darfur:
(1) Declare the atrocities occurring in Darfur to be "genocide" and take
appropriate action as mandated by the Genocide Convention;
(2) Bring to bear the unique intelligence capacity of the US to track the
militias' activities in Darfur as well as the movements of the displaced;
(3) Mobilize some of the almost 2,000 U.S. troops in nearby Djibouti to lead a
multinational force to secure the region, facilitate humanitarian assistance,
and to enforce the cease-fire until a UN peacekeeping force can be assembled.

   

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