Mia Farrow launches plea to save Darfur victims
June 20, 2006 (BERLIN) — US actress and UNICEF goodwill ambassador Mia Farrow launched an urgent plea here for more and faster humanitarian aid to Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.
Farrow told reporters in Berlin “only 20 percent” of the money the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said was needed to help the region had been raised so far.
Farrow said that when she visited Darfur with her 18-year-old son Ronan earlier this month they had repeatedly heard the plea “UN, come quickly” from people who were forced to flee their homes during the three-year-old war.
The conflict and a dire humanitarian crisis have left up to 300,000 people dead and some 2.4 million displaced.
The UN agency has called for some 36 million euros (46 million dollars) to help those who lack food, shelter and health care, and face still worse when the rainy season hits the western Sudanese region.
“The UNICEF action is far from hopeless,” the 61-year-old actress said.
But she warned that if the international community ignored pleas for help, Darfur could descend into anarchy to become “another Somalia” and destabilize a large swathe of Africa.
Her son, a junior UNICEF ambassador, told reporters: “The basic rights of children to access to health, food and water are violated. If the world turns away, we’ll see hundreds of thousands dead.”
Farrow’s visit to Darfur coincided with that of a joint African Union-United Nations assessment team seeking agreement from the Sudanese government for a UN force to be deployed in the region.
An undermanned African Union force is struggling to enforce a fragile peace deal signed last month, and fighting between rebel factions continues, hampering relief efforts.
But President Omar al-Beshir is opposed to the deployment of UN troops, vowing on Tuesday that “there will not be any international military intervention in Darfur as long as I am in power.”
(ST)