Activists eye profile-raising day for Darfur

September 14, 2007 (NEW YORK) — Activists on Friday announced a campaign timed to coincide with the UN General Assembly to draw attention to the on-going crisis in Darfur, in western Sudan.

The groups plan to rally Sunday to “send off their country’s delegations to the United Nations General Assembly in New York with a united message: ‘Don’t Look Away Now’,” they said in a statement.

On this fourth “Day for Darfur,” activists will urge “the international community to honor their responsibility to protect the people of Darfur” and demand a African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in the area.

“Furthermore, all UN delegations are urged to ensure that the Government of Sudan facilitates the swift and unimpeded deployment of the peacekeepers,” they added.

At least 200,000 have been killed and two million displaced in Sudan since 2003, according to UN figures. A brutal conflict erupted there in 2003 when Khartoum enlisted Janjaweed Arab militia allies to help put down an ethnic minority rebellion.

(AFP)

On the net: http://www.globefordarfur.org/act_now/index.php