Quiddity
UndertheInfluenceofGiants
ROME (CNS) -- The international community has failed to act effectively in putting an end to the tragic conflict and "horrific violation of human rights" taking place in the Darfur region of western Sudan, a Vatican official said.
The "killing of children, sexual abuse and rape of girls and women, forced uprooting of (the) population, burning of villages, attacks on internally-displaced-people camps, targeting of unarmed civilians" are all part of the human and environmental disaster continuing to unfold in the region, said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.
The Vatican's representative to U.N. and other international organizations in Geneva spoke Dec. 12 at an emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on the human rights situation in Darfur. Catholic News Service in Rome obtained a copy of his text.
"The crisis under discussion has provoked debates and international complaints," he said, but so far the international community has only responded with "insufficient effective actions."
The No. 1 priority should be concrete measures to end the killings, not wrangling over "political arrangements and commercial interests," he said.
Archbishop Tomasi called for the United Nations, the African Union, and the Sudanese government to cooperate in stopping the violence.
The international community could also help by gathering evidence of human rights abuses, protecting civilians, delivering humanitarian aid and disarming rebel groups, he said.
At least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and more than 2 million people have been displaced since 2003 when fighting escalated between rebel groups and government troops and Arab militias known as Janjaweed.
Despite a May peace agreement meant to end the conflict, the fighting has continued and threatens to spread to neighboring Chad, where many displaced people from Darfur are taking shelter.
Sudan has not yet agreed to allow U.N. peacekeepers in the country, although it has agreed to U.N. help in supporting a larger force of African Union peacekeepers. For now some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers have been struggling to monitor the cease-fire and protect civilians.
While the conflict in Darfur "is a major humanitarian challenge of huge proportions," Archbishop Tomasi said, it does offer nations an opportunity to find new ways to collaborate and create constructive, "comprehensive, just and durable" solutions to "endemic problems."
The "killing of children, sexual abuse and rape of girls and women, forced uprooting of (the) population, burning of villages, attacks on internally-displaced-people camps, targeting of unarmed civilians" are all part of the human and environmental disaster continuing to unfold in the region, said Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.
The Vatican's representative to U.N. and other international organizations in Geneva spoke Dec. 12 at an emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on the human rights situation in Darfur. Catholic News Service in Rome obtained a copy of his text.
"The crisis under discussion has provoked debates and international complaints," he said, but so far the international community has only responded with "insufficient effective actions."
The No. 1 priority should be concrete measures to end the killings, not wrangling over "political arrangements and commercial interests," he said.
Archbishop Tomasi called for the United Nations, the African Union, and the Sudanese government to cooperate in stopping the violence.
The international community could also help by gathering evidence of human rights abuses, protecting civilians, delivering humanitarian aid and disarming rebel groups, he said.
At least 200,000 people have died in Darfur and more than 2 million people have been displaced since 2003 when fighting escalated between rebel groups and government troops and Arab militias known as Janjaweed.
Despite a May peace agreement meant to end the conflict, the fighting has continued and threatens to spread to neighboring Chad, where many displaced people from Darfur are taking shelter.
Sudan has not yet agreed to allow U.N. peacekeepers in the country, although it has agreed to U.N. help in supporting a larger force of African Union peacekeepers. For now some 7,000 African Union peacekeepers have been struggling to monitor the cease-fire and protect civilians.
While the conflict in Darfur "is a major humanitarian challenge of huge proportions," Archbishop Tomasi said, it does offer nations an opportunity to find new ways to collaborate and create constructive, "comprehensive, just and durable" solutions to "endemic problems."
