[allAfrica.com] [allAfrica.com_Sports] World Needs to Refocus On Darfur, International Organizations Say United States Department of State (Washington, DC) NEWS December 13, 2004 Posted to the web December 14, 2004 By Charles W. Corey Washington, DC Four groups speak out on International Human Rights Day Using International Human Rights Day as their platform, four international human rights organizations called on the world December 10 to refocus its attention on the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region, roughly 100 days after the Bush administration declared that genocide is taking place there. Adotei Akwei, senior advocacy director for Amnesty International USA; Omer Ismail, co-founder of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization; John Prendergast, a special adviser at the International Crisis Group; and Salih Booker, executive director of Africa Action, condemned the ongoing atrocities in Darfur and the failure of the international community to take appropriate and forceful action to correct the situation. In his opening remarks at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Akwei said there has been an "ongoing failure" of the international community to "act with the vigor needed to save lives and stop the crisis in Darfur." "To be sitting here nearly two years after the eruption of the crisis, nearly two million persons displaced and thousands of deaths later, is an indictment on all of us," Akwei said. "When one also considers the amount of talk, expressions of remorse and promises of 'never again' on this 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, the failure to stop the Sudanese government and its militia, as well as the abuses by the armed opposition, from destroying the lives of the people in Darfur is even more disgraceful." Akwei also charged that there is an "epidemic of gender-based violence" in Darfur. "This violence is deliberate, systematic and constitutes a war crime," he said, noting that his organization -- Amnesty International USA -- is currently engaged in a multiyear campaign to stop the human rights abuse of gender-based violence around the world, but particularly in Darfur. Omer Ismail, of the Darfur Peace and Development Organization, told reporters that the Darfur crisis remains the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today, despite all that has been done by the international community. In fact, he said, the situation is worse now than it was months ago when the United States determined that genocide was going on there. Reinforcing those points, Prendergast called the international community's response in the past 100 days "shameful." If the international community would focus on protecting civilians and seeking accountability for those who are committing war crimes in Darfur, he said, there would be a "rapid improvement" in the situation in Darfur and a better chance for a comprehensive peace in Sudan. During the past 20 months, during which genocide has been committed in Darfur, Prendergast charged, "there has not been one punitive action placed against the orchestrator of these waves of attacks -- the government of Sudan." The U. N. Security Council is "structurally incapable" of responding to situations in which mass atrocities are being perpetrated, Prendergast said, citing Darfur as a stark example of that inability to act. The Security Council is being hobbled on Sudan by what Prendergast termed the "Darfur Four" --Algeria, Pakistan, China and Russia -- who are motivated by their oil investments in Sudan, an interest in maintaining their profits from arms sales, and their belief in sovereignty and non-interference in the affairs of other nations, he told his audience. The result, he said, is an international community that is left with a series of "lowest-common-denominator resolutions" on Darfur that have little effect. Even though the Bush administration "certainly cares about Sudan" and is "fully engaged" in the situation in Darfur, he said, it is pursuing the wrong policy - - one that is "incentive-based" rather than punitive. The United States is also hindered by what he called "Iraq overhang," in which it seeks to save its diplomatic capital for use on the situation in Iraq. To change the situation, he said, the United States and the international community must focus on accountability. "The message needs to be sent to the government, to the regime in Khartoum: the days of total impunity that have existed up to now are over!" he said. That message should be conveyed to the rebels as well, he added. Picking up on that point, Booker also lamented that the international community has "utterly failed" to hold the Sudanese government accountable. He predicted that some 400,000 lives will have been lost in Darfur by the end of 2004 -- about half of them in the Rwanda genocide -- in addition to the 2 million Darfurians who have been displaced. For that reason, Booker said, his organization, Africa Action, is calling on the United States to do everything possible to secure a new U.N. Security Council resolution that would authorize a multinational intervention force to stop the genocide in Darfur. That measure, he said, would include the expansion of the African Union peacekeeping force already involved, seeking to bolster that force with troops from other U.N. member nations. Additionally, he said, the resolution would strictly enforce a no-fly zone over Darfur and place an immediate arms embargo on the government of Sudan. (The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2004 United States Department of State. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================