Africa Action (Washington, DC)
29 June 2004
press release
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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