Action for Darfur—Letter to our politicians

Please copy and paste this letter into Word and send it to your local federal parliamentarian, the Foreign Minister and/or the Prime Minister, c/-

 

 

 

Dear The Hon.

As a member of the Jewish community, I recall how the outside world was almost silent while 6 million Jews were being slaughtered.  I am determined that such a silence is never repeated.

 

In Kosovo, in the 1998, NATO undertook humanitarian intervention and even bombed Serbia after a few thousand civilians had been killed. Now we have a death toll in excess of 350,000 in Darfur, and yet still the international community has not acted.

 

According to the findings of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (January 25, 2005), Sudanese government officials and the Janjaweed are responsible for "the killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement throughout Darfur." Approximately 2 million people now live in displacement camps lacking adequate food, water, shelter, healthcare, and sanitation. Attacks on civilians continue and supplies of humanitarian aid are increasingly jeopardized.

 

To date 7,000 African Union (AU) troops have been charged with monitoring Darfur (an area the size of NSW), but not protecting its civilians.  Following U.N. Security Council Resolution 1663, adopted March 24, 2006, the U.N. has started contingency planning toward a possible takeover of the AU mission. For now, there is no timetable and no mandate for civilian protection.

 

I therefore call upon the Australian Government to:

 

· Publicly recognise the tragic events in Darfur as Genocide - as defined under the UN “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

· Introduce a resolution to the UN (based on Chapter VII of the UN Charter that gives the UN a mandate to protect civilians) that:

° transfers authority from the AU to the U.N. for an immediate expansion to an international peacekeeping mission.

° imposes an immediate arms embargo on the Government of Sudan and other active combatants in Darfur

° establishes a framework to bring to justice those responsible for the genocidal campaign in Darfur.

· Expand Australian government offices to enable the processing of more refugees from Darfur in locations such as Chad where the refugees are located.

 

Australia is an active member of the international community, whose leadership showed the world how an effective UN peace-keeping force can bring calm and security to a country like East Timor.  There is no reason why we should not again take the lead in saving lives of innocent civilians in Darfur.  The Australian people expect nothing less.

 

Yours sincerely,