Bush pressured to help stop Darfur genocide

Bush pressured to help stop Darfur genocide

WASHINGTON — On Sept. 21, religious groups stepped up pressure on the Bush administration and Congress to help end the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, saying the United States has a “moral duty” to intervene.

The Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of 134 religious and humanitarian groups, said Washington must provide increased aid to African Union troops who are on the ground in Darfur and impose economic sanctions on the Sudanese government in Khartoum. Leaders met with Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and members of Congress and delivered a letter to President George W. Bush as part of the “National Day of Action for the People of Sudan.”

“The United States has a moral duty to lead the world to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians in Darfur,” said Richard Cizik, vice president of government affairs for the National Association of Evangelicals. “But we didn’t just say, ‘Do something.’ We proposed specific steps to resolve this horrific humanitarian crisis that is killing one Darfurian civilian every four minutes.”

Government-backed Arab militias have killed some 400,000 black Africans in Sudan’s western Darfur region since 2003, according to the United Nations. There are an estimated 2.5 million refugees in Sudan and neighboring Chad, and 3.5 million are facing starvation.