WASHINGTON (September 20, 2005)– The United States and the international
community must do more to bring an end to the ongoing crisis in the Darfur
region of Sudan, said the chairman of the bishops’ International Policy
Committee today in urging support for a “National Day of Action for the
People of Darfur.”
“The crisis in Darfur must be ended,” said Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ, of
Pensacola-Tallahassee.
The National Day of Action for Darfur, set for September 21, 2005, is
being organized by the Save Darfur Coalition, of which the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops is a member.
Bishop Ricard’s statement follows:
National Day of Action for the People of Darfur
September 21, 2005
Most Reverend John H. Ricard, SSJ
Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee
Chairman, Committee on International Policy
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
As chairman of the Committee for International policy of the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, I join with the leaders of religious and
secular organizations on September 21, 2005, to support a National Day of
Action for the people of Darfur. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been
lost and more than 2 million people face food and other insecurity as they
languish in camps for the internally displaced or in refugee camps in
neighboring Chad.
On this National Day of Action, we urge continuing pressure by the
international community, including the African Union, on the government in
Khartoum, the Janjaweed militias and the rebel forces to cease military
operations and provide safe corridors for the delivery of urgently needed
humanitarian assistance. We call upon the U.S. Congress to enact the
Darfur Accountability Act so that the African Union peacekeeping force
might be expanded and given a stronger mandate to protect innocent
civilians. The International Criminal Court should also be assisted in
bringing to justice those accused of war crimes and genocide in Darfur.
The crisis in Darfur must be ended. We cannot stand idly by while human
life is threatened. The United States and the international community can
and must do more to end this moral and humanitarian crisis. We continue to
offer our prayers that the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Darfur
may end soon.