Muslim groups urge Arab summit to address Darfur crisis
March 28, 2008 (LONDON) — A coalition of Muslim groups urged the Arab League to do more to address the killings in Darfur and play a more active role to solve the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.
The appeal comes on the opening day of the Arab League Summit in Damascus and is contained in an open letter that was delivered to the Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa earlier this week.The Arab summit will be held in the Syrian capital from March 29-30.
“The (Darfur) crisis has cost the lives of at least 200,000 Muslims yet has not yet captured the attention of the Muslim world in the way that it should,” the Muslim coalition said in an open letter to League Secretary General Amr Musa.
The coalition, comprising over twenty Muslim groups, includes many international and national organisations such as Human Rights groups like Friends of Al-Aqsa and the Islamic Human Rights Commission; aid agencies including Muslim Aid and Islamic Aid and other Islamic groups from countries as diverse as Britain, Germany, Malaysia, Iran, Turkey, the US, Australia and Bahrain.
Darfur’s fighting opposes mainly ethnic-African local rebels against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government. The vast majority of the people killed since fighting broke out in 2003 are Black villagers, as are most of the region’s over 2 million refugees, often targeted by government-linked militias of Arab nomads.
The letter accuses the Sudanese Government of blocking the full deployment of the UN peacekeeping force by placing “many obstacles in its path” and urges the Arab League to, “call for an end to the obstructions on the deployment and call on those countries which have the capability to offer their own resources and manpower to support this for the protection of civilians.”
It said the League could contribute “much more” to the humanitarian operation in Darfur, urging the 22-member organization to pressure the Sudanese government to stop obstructing the United Nations’ deployment.
The Arab Summit is expected to discuss Darfur crisis.
The letter also calls on the Arab League to “contribute much more to the humanitarian operation” and to “put pressure on all sides to engage honestly in the talks and encourage all sides to show flexibility.”
In the wake of increasing attacks in the past month, particularly in West Darfur, the letter also calls for the Arab League to speak out against the violence; “President Bashir has said he would consider a ceasefire but we also know that many such ceasefires have been broken in the past. The Arab League as well as calling for a ceasefire should speak out against anyone, government or rebels who breaks it.”
(ST)