As we have entered into the Passion of Christ in this Holy Week, my attention is also sadly drawn to the atrocities being carried out in the Darfur region of the Sudan.
The statement of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan yesterday in Geneva, where he recognized the 10th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, brings hope that the international community will take the steps necessary to see that Darfur does not become another Rwanda.
While the Secretary General’s appointment of a high-level team to go to Darfur to examine the crisis and to seek improved access to those in need of help and protection is a positive step, we believe more can and should be done. The international community must make it clear that it is not only prepared to, but will act immediately to take swift and appropriate action if full access to the region and protection for humanitarian groups is delayed. Further, we urge the United Nations Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva to act now to appoint a Human Rights Rapporteur for Darfur. We believe these steps necessary to fulfill the commitment of the General Assembly of the United Nations last December when it called “on all states to act in accordance with the Convention for the Prevention and Suppression of the Crime of Genocide in ensuring that there is no repetition of the events” that occurred in Rwanda.
The Most Reverend Joseph Marona, Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, provided reports on the tragedy in Darfur during his time in the United States with our House of Bishops in late March. The Archbishop urged us to do all we could to bring an end to the crimes against humanity being committed by government-backed militias and to help both those internally displaced and those taking refuge in Chad.
The terrible irony here is that these events are coming at a time when many were hopeful that peace was becoming a possibility for Sudan, ending a 20-year civil conflict which has taken the lives of over two million persons. The historic tragedy of Sudan is, in part, the result of the indifference of much of the world to the violence that the ruling power has committed against its own people. It would only add to that tragedy if the crisis in Darfur were ignored in order to complete the peace process between the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.
The words ring out--never again. And the promise of Christ’s transforming love through his sacrifice for us all remains our hope in the midst of so much despair and brokenness.
The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church, USA
