International Community must Act Immediately to Stop Killing in Darfur by United Nations 2:47pm 17th Feb, 2005   World must act now on Darfur, with millions of lives at stake – UN relief chief    18 February 2005    The situation in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region is deteriorating rapidly, more than 4 million people could be in desperate need of life-saving aid by mid-year, and the Security Council and world at-large must act now to put a robust force on the ground and pressure on all sides, the top United Nations relief official warned today.    Humanitarian aid cannot be a substitute for necessary political and security action, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland told a news briefing on the conflict, which began in early 2003 when rebels took up arms against Government forces but has since been compounded by attacks by Janjaweed and other militias against villages and civilians.    The basic lesson of earlier crises like Bosnia, Kosovo and Rwanda is "that too often the world sends us, the band aid, and the world believes that we keep people alive and then they don't have to take a political and security action. This is wrong and that's why we are really tired of being that kind of a substitute for political and security action," he said, calling for sanctions, though without specifying against which side.    "It's now one year since the world woke up to what we in the UN had already described for two to three months as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world," he added. Since then the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) has doubled to between 1.8 million and 1.9 million "and it's growing by the day."    Painting an overall grim picture, he noted on the positive side that the humanitarian community – UN, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the Red Cross and Red Crescent family – "have done our bit," with 9,000 aid workers on the ground, close to 1,000 of them international. "We did prevent the massive famine that many predicted, but I think now it's time to say we may perhaps not be able to do so in the coming months if the situation keeps on deteriorating as it has," he said, calling for a tsunami-style increase in relief, a reference to the vast outpouring of international aid in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean disaster in December.    The number of IDPs and the many hundreds of thousands of others now outside of the camps who are in desperate need of assistance is bound to increase, he warned, adding: "Some are predicting 3 million, some are predicting 4 million, some are predicting more than that of people in desperate need of life-saving assistance as we approach the hunger gap in mid-year…whose lives will be at stake."    But again, relief aid is not enough. "The Security Council has to act. The safe zone of Bosnia and many other historic examples show us that humanitarians are good at putting plaster on a wound but if you don't heal the wound, many, many more people will die because there is a war on," he warned, noting that the insecurity was also preventing humanitarian groups from reaching hundreds of thousands of those in need.    "We are very afraid of the security of our workers in the field," he said, noting that "armed men in the militias are getting away with murder of women and children and it is still happening and those who direct these militias are also getting away with murder," due to massive impunity for what an inquiry commission has called massive war crimes and crimes against humanity.    "Eight workers have been killed, our helicopters have been shot at, our trucks are being looted there, we are paralyzed," Mr. Egeland added. "We could have provided daily bread for more than 2 million people. We are at best giving to 1.5 million people. This cannot continue as now."    He called for a four- or five-fold increase in the African Union (AU) monitoring force in Darfur, now numbering between 1,800 to 1,900; more pressure on the Government, the rebels, ethnic and local leaders "who take those positions that lead to massive killing of women and children;" and robust mediation.    "It is an area bigger than France and it's filled with only one thing, there is only thing that there is abundance of in Darfur and that's sort of angry young men with Kalashnikovs and other automatic arms," Mr. Egeland said. "Our staff on the ground is really working around the clock and are burning themselves out faster than anywhere else that I've seen in recent memory," he added. "I wish we had a fraction of [the Indian Ocean tsunami aid mobilization] for the Darfur tsunami which has displaced many more and which is potentially taking also more lives altogether unless action is taken."    16th Feb. 2005    INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY MUST IMMEDIATELY FIND WAY TO HALT KILLING IN DARFUR, SUDAN, SECRETARY-GENERAL TELLS UN SECURITY COUNCIL.    Following is the text of today’s statement to the Security Council by Secretary-General Kofi Annan:    I am pleased that the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, is with us today, to present the report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur. I will leave it to her to give a full description of the report’s findings and recommendations.      But let me stress that this report is one of the most important documents in the recent history of the United Nations.  It makes chilling reading.  And it is a call to urgent action.    The Commission has established that many people in Darfur have been the victims of atrocities perpetrated on a very large scale for which the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed are responsible -- including war crimes, and very likely crimes against humanity.    The Commission has also found credible evidence that rebel forces are responsible for serious violations, which may amount to war crimes. And the Commission strongly recommends that the Security Council immediately refer the situation of Darfur to the International Criminal Court, to ensure that those responsible for these heinous crimes are held to account.  It is vital that these crimes not be left unpunished. But the call to urgent action does not stop there.    Even as the Commission was conducting its inquiry, and since then, attacks on villages, killing of civilians, rape, pillaging and forced displacement have continued in Darfur. As others have said before me, while the United Nations may not be able to take humanity to heaven, it must act to save humanity from hell.  This report demonstrates, beyond all doubt, that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur.  And despite the attention the Council has paid to this crisis, that hell continues today.    The international community, led by this Council, must immediately find a way to halt the killing and protect the vulnerable.  The full range of options should be on the table -- including targeted sanctions, stronger peacekeeping efforts, new measures to protect civilians, and increased pressure on both sides for a lasting political solution.    I will do my part to help develop such a strategy.  But the power, and the responsibility, to do something about this grave crisis are in your hands.  Once again, I call on the Security Council to act urgently to stop further death and suffering in Darfur, and to do justice for those whom we are already too late to save.    SECRETARY-GENERAL, HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CALL FOR URGENT ACTION BY SECURITY COUNCIL TO HALT VIOLENCE IN SUDAN    United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today called for urgent and concrete measures to bring the current violence in Darfur, Sudan, to an end and restore security and dignity to the people of that conflict-ridden region, as she presented the findings of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur to the Security Council.    The Commission, while concluding that the Government of the Sudan had not pursued a policy of genocide, had determined that large-scale war crimes and crimes against humanity had been committed by Sudanese government officials and the Janjaweed militia, she said.  In addition, murder, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and forced displacement continued to be committed against the people of Darfur.    The report eloquently and powerfully argued that referral to the International Criminal Court was the best means by which to halt ongoing violations, prevent future ones and bring alleged perpetrators to justice.  Noting that the pursuit of justice was often said to clash with the pursuit of peace, she said the findings of the Commission irrefutably demonstrated that there was no hope for sustainable peace in Darfur without immediate access to justice.    Calling the Commission’s report “one of the most important documents in the recent history of the United Nations”, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the Council to act urgently to stop further death and suffering in Darfur, and to do justice for those for whom it was already too late.  “It makes chilling reading.  And it is a call to urgent action”, he stated.     “This report demonstrates, beyond all doubt, that the last two years have been little short of hell on earth for our fellow human beings in Darfur”, he continued.  And despite the attention the Council had paid to that crisis, that hell continued today.  The international community, led by the Council, must immediately find a way to halt the killing and protect the vulnerable.  The full range of options should be on the table, including targeted sanctions, stronger peacekeeping efforts, new measures to protect civilians, and increased pressure on both sides for a lasting political solution.  Visit the related web page
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item