Genocide survivors call for EU action on Darfur
Aegis Trust
Oct 20, 2006 (LONDON) — 120 survivors from the Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia have today called on UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to impose sanctions on the Sudanese government to stop the conflict in Darfur.
The genocide survivors have signed an open letter to key European governments ahead of today’s EU Informal Heads of State Meeting in Finland.
The statement will be published in The Times and The Guardian in the UK (English), Le Monde in France (French), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in Germany (German), El Pais in Spain (Spanish), Kauppalehti in Finland (Finnish), NRC Handelsblad in the Netherlands (Dutch). The statement will also be published in English in the International Herald Tribune.
“The European Union founded in the wake of Europe’s own genocide cannot ignore the threat of a new one. I didn’t survive a Nazi concentration camp to sit back while genocide is repeated. Europe can play a leading role in stopping this slaughter but it has to act now,” said Holocaust survivor Martin Stern who signed the letter.
The statement from genocide survivors urges the EU to take a number of immediate steps including:
– implementation of the UN authorised no fly zone;
– targeted sanctions against perpetrators
– the strengthening of the AU force.
– a timetable for EU-wide trade sanctions if these steps don’t secure the desired results.
Dr. James Smith, Executive Director of the Aegis Trust – an International genocide prevention organisationwhich coordinated the statement said:
“We have been overwhelmed by the response we have received from genocide survivors. To have well over a hundred survivors wanting to speak out shows that genocide survivors are all too aware that history is repeating itself in Darfur” stated.
He continued: “The images and stories of atrocities in Darfur, from which we too readily avert our gaze, have a distinct and acutely painful resonance for survivors. Most of all, they are angry that the world could allow such things to happen again; that the phrase ‘never again’ in reality means little.”
The letter points out that “while China may be holding the UN hostage, there is no such excuse for EU inaction”. The most recent statement from EU Foreign Ministers (Tuesday 17th October) did not contain even a threat of sanctions
Alongside the publishing of the advert in EU newspapers, on Friday survivors from the Holocaust and genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia will join Dr. James Smith from the Aegis Trust and Andrew Stroehlein from the International Crisis Group at a press conference in Lahti, Finland which will call on EU leaders, meeting today, to take bold action to pressure the Sudanese government to accept the expanded UN mission in Darfur.
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For interviews with survivors or with the Aegis Trust contact:
Hratche Koundarjian, Parliamentary Officer of the Aegis Trust: +44 (0)7905 911 039 [email protected]
David Brown, Press Officer of the Aegis Trust: +44 (0) 7812 640 873 [email protected]
Letter published in the International Herald Tribune and to seven European Newspapers
Dear EU Prime Ministers [or individual Prime Ministers name in respective countries newspaper publications],
As 120 survivors of the Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia, we write to urge you to act now to end the genocide in Darfur.
As many as 400,000 people have already been killed, while a further three million are only alive because of the world’s largest aid effort – but that is now on the verge of collapsing.
Through the European Union you have the capacity to put real pressure on the Sudanese Government to stop the killing. But so far the EU has done next to nothing.
Today, as you meet other European leaders, we urge you to turn this around and secure an agreement that the EU will:
Monitor and implement the UN-authorised no-fly zone over Darfur;
Apply EU-wide concerted pressure on Sudan to stop its current offensive, stop killing civilians and accept a UN force;
Impose targeted sanction in the form of asset freezes and travel bans on the individuals responsible for the human rights abuses and crimes against humanity;
Support and assist the strengthening of the African Union force;
Set down a date for EU-wide trade sanctions if the Sudanese do not respond to this pressure.
While China may be holding the UN hostage, there is no such excuse for EU inaction.
History has been a harsh judge of the reluctance of European Governments to take meaningful steps to end the genocides of which we are survivors.
The Union founded in the wake of Europe’s own genocide cannot ignore the threat of a new one.
It is up to you and a handful of other leaders to ensure that the EU lives up to its responsibility to protect.
We urge you to make today’s EU Heads of State meeting in Finland a turning point.