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The following is brought to you by the
IHM Legislative Advocacy Network, sponsored by the IHM Social Justice
Committee and approved for issuance by Fr. Schillinger. It is an "alert"
received from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. on
what has been termed by the Catholic Relief Services as "The Greatest
Humanitarian Crisis Facing The World Today."
There is a human tragedy unfolding rapidly in Sudan and our collective
response may mitigate the human suffering there. As we have seen before, these
cases of "ethnic cleansing" can progress very rapidly into mass destruction of
lives and property. Please take a few moments to review the situation. The IHM
Social Justice Committee hopes that the Holy Spirit will move you to react to
this evil in one of the ways suggested below. Please keep in your prayers the
Sudanese and the various governments empowered to alleviate this catastrophe.
BACKGROUND
For many years, the U.S. Catholic bishops have been engaged in the
human struggles in Sudan and other parts of Africa. Earlier this month, Bishop
John Ricard, SSJ, Chairman of the Committee on International Policy, visited
Sudan (his fifth trip) and the Darfur region with Fr. Michael Perry, OFM, Policy
Advisor on Africa for the Department of Social Development and World Peace.
They report that the crisis in Darfur constitutes a humanitarian catastrophe and
demands an immediate, concentrated, well coordinated, and sustained response on
the part of the United States and the international community. As many as
50,000 people have died and more than 250,000 others face an uncertain fate
unless the international community, together with the Government in Khartoum,
takes steps to prevent further loss of life.
Bishops' Stance
As part of a coordinated response to this crisis, the bishops were
asked by U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops President Bishop Wilton Gregory to
pray for the people caught in this crisis. Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
is already on the ground to assist with the food, water, and shelter for the
refugees.
Bishop Ricard wrote to Secretary of State Colin Powell asking for a meeting and
urging the U.S. to take the following steps:
1. The United States should call for and work closely with the UN Security
Council and the UN Human Rights Commission for the immediate deployment of
human rights monitors. The UN and the U.S. also should work to strengthen the
capacity of the African Union's monitoring mechanism to include the monitoring
of human rights abuses.
2. The President of the United States should appoint a high ranking
individual of the caliber of Senator John Danforth to serve as Special Envoy
and coordinator for U.S. policy. The Special Envoy would be tasked to bring the
full weight of U.S. diplomacy to bring additional pressure on the Government in
its dealings with the crisis in Darfur and to move forward to completion the
peace process between the Government in Khartoum and the SPLM/A and its allies.
3. The United States and the international community must continue to insist
that the Government in Khartoum take immediate and effective steps to:
- A. Allow for unfettered access of humanitarian relief efforts in all
areas of Darfur and must cooperate fully with the international donor
community to ensure rapid, safe delivery and protection for humanitarian
relief workers.
- B. Put an immediate end to aerial and ground attacks on civilian
targets by its own armed forces and the Janjaweed and other armed
militias it has employed in its fight against rebel forces in Darfur. It
must be clear that such acts will result in serious consequences.
- C. Accept primary responsibility for safeguarding the rights and
dignity of its citizens. Failure of the Government to protect its
citizens, its participation in the wholesale violence exacted on its people,
and its unwillingness or inability to rein in the Janjaweed and other armed
militias in the region of Darfur requires that the international community
take steps to ensure the protection of unarmed and innocent civilians in
Darfur. To this end, the international community should be prepared to
provide the African Union with logistical, financial and political support
as it conducts its mission of verification of the ceasefire agreements.
4. The U.S. government and the international community must be prepared to
support the expansion of the mandate of the Africa Union in Darfur to
include protection of innocent civilians, those inside the refugee camps and
those outside of these camps, and mandate African Union forces take whatever
steps are necessary within the framework of a U.N. Chapter VII mandate. The
United States and the international community should provide logistical,
financial and political support for this expanded mandate and, if absolutely
necessary to preserve human life, provide additional human resources
(technicians, logistical specialists, and even armed personnel).
5. Greater efforts must be made to coordinate humanitarian airlifts to
regions cut off from other forms of access because of the seasonal rains. This
will require logistical support from the United States and other nations and
should be provided immediately to prevent increased mortality.
6. The Government in Khartoum must comply with all conditions of protocols on
security which it has signed with the U.N. on July 3 and August 10, 2004,
including the creation of "zones of tranquility" (demilitarized zones). The
effective date of August 30, 2004 should be maintained by the U.N. and the
international community before which time the Government of Khartoum must
clearly demonstrate that it has made significant and substantial progress toward
the achievement of clearly defined benchmarks.
7. Failure on the part of the Government of Khartoum to respect protocols on
security (July 3 and August 10) should result in increased pressure on the part
of the international community, including the application of targeted
sanctions against Janjaweed leaders and Government officials with clear ties to
the Janjaweed.
8. Target sanctions on the groups mentioned above might include travel bans,
freezing of assets and other appropriate measures. Should the Government
fail to make significant progress after the imposition of targeted sanctions,
the United States should consider the application of cial Envoy and coordinator
fo capital market sanctions which would prevent any companies operating in the
oil industry in Sudan from listing on American securities markets.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
1. Write to Government Leaders. Write letters to
President George W Bush,
Secretary of State Colin Powell,
and Members of the House of Representatives and Senate, and/or
United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan
and United Nations Security Council. Urge them to take immediate and stronger
action in Sudan to keep this humanitarian disaster from getting worse.
2. Write letters to the editor and Op Ed pieces. Call network and
cable news stations to ask for more coverage about Darfur.
Click here for letter-writing tips. Click on these links to find contact
information for your local press:
newspapers, TV stations,
Radio stations.
3 . Learn more about Durfar (click
here). This site gives more information on the suffering and violence
in the Durfar and Sudan region as well as additional ideas to help, including
making a contribution.
Learn more about what Catholic Relief Services is doing (click here) and
what you can do to help through CRS.
4. PRAY!
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