Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Bush Accused of Complacency, Double-Dealing on Darfur

Nine months after his administration first declared that ongoing violence in Darfur constituted ''genocide,'' U.S. President George W. Bush was urged by some 80 human rights and religious groups and prominent individuals here Tuesday to do more to protect innocent civilians in Sudan's western Darfur region.
In a letter to the White House, the activists called specifically for Washington to submit a resolution at the U.N. Security Council authorising an African Union (AU) mission there to use force to protect civilians. It also called for the administration to mobilise a ''robust international force'' to augment the AU mission.
Such a force should include troops, financial and logistical support from countries outside Africa, presumably including the United States, according to the letter, which was written by the advocacy group Africa Action and signed by the leaders of the American Jewish World Service, the Coalition for International Justice, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), and the National Council of Churches USA, among many others, as well as seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).

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