ANCA ASKS ARMENIAN-AMERICANS TO PROTEST NEW SUDANESE GOVERNMENT ATTACKS ON CIVILIANS
Tert.am
17.06.11
Armenian Americans are calling for decisive US action to stop the
Sudanese government of indicted war criminal Omar al-Bashir from
continuing its brutal onslaught against civilians in Darfur and
South Kordofan.
To that end, they have decided to join with human rights advocates
and genocide-prevention activists from across the United States,
reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Community activists nationwide are raising this urgent crisis with
their local legislators, person-to-person, through phone calls, and
via on-line advocacy, including through an ANCA action alert that
sends pre-drafted WebMail messages to Members of Congress from the
ANCA website.
The ANCA action alert stresses that Armenian Americans, as citizens
with a direct connection to the Armenian Genocide and an enduring
commitment to ending forever the cycle of genocide, bear a special
responsibility to prevent atrocities all over the world. The Webmail
letter echoes an earlier call by US Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA)
upon President Obama to send former Secretary of State Powell to
Khartoum to personally impress upon Sudanese President Omar al Bashir
that he must immediately call off his military’s onslaught in Darfur,
Abyei, and the South Kordofan region of central Sudan. It also outlined
a number of additional steps that the Administration should take,
including:
– Strengthened United Nations economic, political, and diplomatic
sanctions targeting Khartoum – with specific benchmarks, hard
deadlines, and concrete consequences.
– Concerted efforts, in coordination with the United Nations, to
ensure that humanitarian provisions – most urgently water, food, and
medical supplies – are able to reach at-risk populations, including
the establishment of a no-fly zone over South Kordafan.
– Expanded support for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) in South
Kordafan and the African Union/UN Hybrid Operation (UNAMID) in Darfur.
The letter ends with a general call for a “clear and direct signal to
Khartoum” that the United States will not reward the Sudanese regime,
move toward normalization of relations with its government, or allow
it to conduct business-as-usual with the international community as
long as its leaders continue to defy international justice, and are
committing war crimes and atrocities against innocent civilians in
Darfur, Abyei, and South Kardofan.