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 Save Darfur Coalition
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Save Darfur Coalition
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Diverse Coalition Issues Unity Statement and Call to Action
on Sudan
Media Contacts:
David Rubenstein
202-368-6100 or [email protected]
Ronni Strongin
212-273-1657 or [email protected]
(New York, NY…August 2, 2004) The Save Darfur Coalition, comprised of a broadly diverse group of faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations, has issued a Unity Statement and Call to Action in response to the massive humanitarian and human rights crisis in Darfur, Sudan. The purpose of the statement and of the newly formed Coalition is to raise public awareness and to mobilize North Americans and members of the international community to respond to and help end the atrocities that threaten the lives of two million people in the region.
The Save Darfur Coalition presently consists of more than 70 organizations, including representation from all the major faiths and the Sudanese community, as well as a number of humanitarian and human rights organizations. Save Darfur will pursue several united actions to help stop the displacement of the ethnic tribal Africans, end the crimes against humanity and provide massive humanitarian support. In addition to the Unity Statement, which can be found in its entirety below, the Coalition is organizing a national Interfaith Day of Conscience on Wednesday, August 25 in churches, synagogues, mosques and community centers throughout the country.
The Coalition began on July 14 when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and American Jewish World Service organized a Darfur Emergency Summit at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan featuring Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel. Mr. Wiesel inspired the group with his impassioned remarks about the suffering being inflicted on Darfurians: "How can I hope to move people from indifference if I remain indifferent to the plight of others? I cannot stand idly by or all my endeavors will be unworthy."
To learn more about the crisis in Sudan and further actions people can take, or to add your group to the Coalition, contact David Rubenstein at 202-368-6100 or any of the member groups listed below. Additionally, the Save Darfur Coalition is building a Web site due to launch by the end of this week: www.savedarfur.org.
(more)Faith-based, Humanitarian and Human Rights Organizations Unite to Respond to
Massive Crisis in Darfur, Sudan
UNITY STATEMENT AND CALL TO ACTION
The emergency in Sudan's western region of Darfur presents the starkest challenge to the world since the Rwanda genocide in 1994. A government-backed Arab militia known as Janjaweed has been engaging in campaigns to displace and wipe out communities of African tribal farmers.
Villages have been razed, women and girls are systematically raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies targeted and destroyed. Government aerial bombardments support the Janjaweed by hurling explosives as well as barrels of nails, car chassis and old appliances from planes to crush people and property. Tens of thousands have died. Well over a million people have been driven from their homes, and only in the past few weeks have humanitarian agencies gained limited access to some of the affected region.
Mukesh Kapila, the former United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, said on March 19 that the violence in Darfur is "more than a conflict, it's an organized attempt to do away with one set of people." The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has issued its first ever genocide emergency. John Prendergast of International Crisis Group warns, "We have not yet hit the apex of the crisis."
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) estimates that 350,000 people or more could die in the coming months. Ongoing assessments by independent organizations such as Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) suggest that USAID's estimate may be conservative. If aid is denied or unavailable, as many as a million people could perish.
Lives are hanging in the balance on a massive scale.
Call to Action
We commend the efforts of the U.S. government in brokering a peace deal to end the gruesome 21-year Civil War in the South and its generous pledge of $300 million in U.S. humanitarian aid. We also applaud the recent visits of Secretary of State Colin Powell and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to the region of Darfur to assess the atrocities human rights organizations are calling the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. And we congratulate Congress for taking decisive legislative action. But we must not wait for a legal determination of "genocide" to ensure a massive worldwide humanitarian response and call to end the violence and investigate crimes against humanity.
As Elie Wiesel passionately declared at our Darfur Emergency Summit on July 14, "the perils of indifference enable killers to kill and tormentors to torment…we cannot stand idly by [the crimes against humanity being committed in Sudan] or all our endeavors will be unworthy…We must act." We therefore call on people of conscience everywhere to take any and all actions permitted by each individual's or organization's abilities and constraints to:
encourage worldwide efforts to stop the displacement and end the crimes against humanity
demand massive worldwide governmental humanitarian support and access to match the need
help in the relief efforts by supporting organizations giving aid
promote efforts to rebuild villages and return the displaced
call for a UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide
(more)
This statement is hereby signed and endorsed by the leaders of faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations joining together as the Save Darfur Coalition.
Tommy Calvert
American Anti-Slavery Group
Tony Hileman
American Humanist Association
David A. Harris
American Jewish Committee
Ruth W. Messinger
American Jewish World Service
Dr. William F. Schulz
Amnesty International USA
Barbara B. Balser
Abraham H. Foxman
Anti-Defamation League
Archbishop Khajag Barsamian
Bishop Vicken Aykazian
The Armenian Church of America
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
ASMA Society: American Sufi Muslim Association
Reverend David Beckmann
Bread for the World
Reverend Alan Senauke
Buddhist Peace Fellowship
Arsalan Iftikhar
CAIR: Council on American-Islamic Relations
Norman L. Epstein M.D.
CASTS: Canadians Against Slavery and Torture in Sudan
Rabbi Paul J. Menitoff
Central Conference of American Rabbis
Dr. John Eibner
Reverend Dr. Keith Roderick
Christian Solidarity International
Faith J. H. McDonnell
Church Alliance for a New Sudan, Institute on Religion and Democracy
Reverend John McCullough
Church World Service
Aaron M. Knight
Citizens for Global Solutions
Rabbi Marla J. Feldman
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism
Mansour Kane
The Committee for the Defense of Human Rights in Mauritania
Reverend Ronald D. Witherup, SS
Reverend Ted Keating, SM
Reverend Stan De Boe, OSST
Conference of Major Superiors of Men
James S. Tisch
Malcolm Hoenlein
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
Suliman Giddo
Darfur Peace and Development
Reverend Jeffrey Haggray
District of Columbia Baptist Convention
Rabbi Saul J. Berman
Edah
Edward W. Stowe III
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Adam Taylor
Global Justice
Naim Baig
Mohammed Tariq Rahman
ICNA: Islamic Circle of North America
(more)
Gareth Evans
International Crisis Group
Sharon Cohn
International Justice Mission
Lavinia Limon
IRSA/USCR: Immigration and Refugee Services of America/U.S. Committee for Refugees
Dr. Fatten El-Komy
Omar Moad
Islamic American Relief Agency
Felice D. Gaer
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
Marie Abrams
Hannah Rosenthal
Martin Raffel
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Joyce Neu
Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice
Constance Phelps, SCL
Carole Shinnick, SSND
Marie Lucey, OSF
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Kathryn Wolford
Lutheran World Relief
H. Eric Schockman, Ph.D
MAZON: A Jewish Response To Hunger
Mahdi Bray
Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation
Reverend Richard Cizik
National Association of Evangelicals
Reverend Anthony Evans
National Black Church Initiative
Reverend Robert Edgar
Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Dr. Robert C. Henderson
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States
Anne Curtis
Maureen Fenlon
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
David Robinson
Pax Christi USA
Louise Diamond
The Peace Company
Holly Atkinson
Physicians for Human Rights
Reverend Peter Laarman
Progressive Christians Uniting
Daniel Sokatch
Progressive Jewish Alliance
Rabbi Perry Raphael Rank
The Rabbinical Assembly
Rabbi Richard Hirsh
The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
Rabbi David Saperstein
Mark J. Pelavin
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Mohamed Yahya
Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile
Ricken Patel
Res Publica
Jim Wallis
Sojourners
Daniel Nagashima
Soka Gakkai International USA Buddhist Association
(more)
Sabit Alley
South Sudanese Community in America
Reverend Walter Fauntroy
Joe Madison
Sudan Campaign
Elnour Adam
Sudan Peace Advocates Network
Morris W. Offit
John Ruskay
UJA-Federation of New York
Rabbi Eric Yoffie
Union for Reform Judaism
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
Reverend William G. Sinkford
Unitarian Universalist Association
Charlie Clements
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee
Robert Goldberg
Morton B. Plant
Stephen Hoffman
United Jewish Communities
Fr. Michael A. Perry, O.F.M.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Fred S. Zeidman
Tom A. Bernstein
Sara J. Bloomfield
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Rabbi Jerome Epstein
Mark Waldman
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Avrum Rosensweig
Ve'ahavta: The Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and Relief Committee
Sandra K. Krause
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children
Shelley Lindauer
Women of Reform Judaism
Richard M. Joel
Yeshiva University
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