Religious Leaders Urge U.S. Push for Darfur Peacekeepers

c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Hundreds of rabbis, pastors and other religious leaders have asked Andrew Natsios, the Bush administration’s special envoy for Sudan, for a “comprehensive diplomatic offensive” on Darfur from the United States to help ensure a peacekeeping force can protect the people of Darfur. The letter organized by the Washington-based Africa […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Hundreds of rabbis, pastors and other religious leaders have asked Andrew Natsios, the Bush administration’s special envoy for Sudan, for a “comprehensive diplomatic offensive” on Darfur from the United States to help ensure a peacekeeping force can protect the people of Darfur.

The letter organized by the Washington-based Africa Action comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity _ and increased violence _ in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region.


Natsios reported some progress after a meeting with President Omar al-Bashir in the capital of Khartoum, according to Dec. 13 news reports at the end of the envoy’s four-day visit.

But Natsios did not elaborate on what steps the Sudanese government might be willing to take. Al-Bashir has resisted U.S. pressure to allow a 20,000-member United Nations peacekeeping force to supplement an under-funded and ill-equipped African Union 7,000-member contingent.

An estimated 200,000 people have died in Darfur in the four years since fighting broke out between the government and ethnic African rebels seeking more autonomy and control over resources in the region. Some 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes.

The African Union peacekeeping force has been unable to stop the rising tide of violence. The Sudanese government is believed to fund Arab militias, known as janjaweed, to carry out military operations against the rebels and civilian refugees.

On Thursday (Dec. 14), the Lutheran World Federation criticized the Khartoum government for “failing to provide humanitarian agencies with the support it has agreed upon.” The president of the LWF is the Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

On Nov. 16, Sudan officially expelled the Norwegian Refugee Council from Sudan. The NRC was the non-governmental coordinator of the largest refugee camp in Darfur.

And on Tuesday, the U.N. Mission in Sudan flew 134 humanitarian staff workers out of El Fasher in North Darfur following several days of clashes in the city.


“We are … deeply concerned by reports of obstruction and harassment of humanitarian workers and agencies, preventing them from providing relief and humanitarian assistance and operating effectively in Darfur,” the LWF said.

The LWF statement was presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council during the council’s emergency two-day meeting on Darfur. The U.N. agency, while stopping short of criticizing Sudan, did agree to send a five-member team to assess the situation. Outgoing U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the move as a “robust action,” but Amnesty International condemned what it called the council’s “timidity.”

The U.N. has called Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and the Bush administration _ and many religious organizations _ have termed Khartoum’s policy “genocide.”

On Dec. 8, in a speech marking Human Rights Day, Annan said the United Nations had failed to live up to its responsibility.

“Sixty years after the liberation of the Nazi death camps and 30 years after the Cambodian killing fields, the promise of `never again’ is ringing hollow,” Annan said.

In their letter to Natsios, the religious leaders outlined a number of steps they wanted the U.S. to take, including new sanctions against senior Sudanese government officials responsible for the continuing violence in Darfur, and a diplomatic effort to encourage other countries to enact sanctions against Sudan similar to those the U.S. has had in place since 1997.


“The U.S. should use its relationships with governments around the world to `internationalize’ pressure on Khartoum and create a united front for new and urgent action on Darfur,” the letter said.

KRE/RB END RNS

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