wfn.org | DARFUR CAN'T WAIT 30 DAYS SAYS CHURCH WORLD SERVICE

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

CONTACTS:
Ann Walle/CWS/New York
Phone: (212) 870-2654
e-mail: awalle@churchworldservice.org

Jan Dragin/New York/Boston - 24/7
Phone: (781) 925-1526
e-mail: jdragin@gis.net

DARFUR CAN'T WAIT 30 DAYS SAYS CHURCH WORLD SERVICE

Church World Service Raises Quarter of a Million for Darfur in First Month
of Campaign

NEW YORK- Wed 8/4/04- Global humanitarian agency Church World Service today
called on U.S. citizens to immediately pressure the United Nations and world
bodies to intervene more quickly and definitively to protect nearly one
million black Africans threatened by the escalating crisis in the Darfur
region of Sudan.

In a second national flash e-mail campaign to its constituents, on its
website and through contacts with media, CWS is urging people to write to
U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Danforth, urging immediate action and greater
pressure on the Sudanese government to bring the violence to an end.

According to UN estimates, reports CWS Executive Director and CEO the Rev.
John L. McCullough, almost 500 refugees perish daily in Darfur or in
makeshift camps in neighboring Chad.   "With so many lives at risk, thirty
days is far too long," McCullough says.

Other aid agencies and human rights organizations concur with that fear,
citing the region9s current rainy season as breeding ground for epidemics
and diseases already showing signs of manifesting.

Violent Arab Janjaweed militia, reportedly backed by the Sudan government,
are blamed for the deaths of up to 50,000 black African villagers in Darfur.
An estimated 1.2million people have fled their homes and are now in
makeshift camps elsewhere in the region or in neighboring Chad. Despite
claims by the Sudan government that it is disarming the militia, latest
reports from Darfur indicate continued if not increasing attacks on
villagers.

Declared genocide by the U.S. Congress last Friday, Darfur9s heightened
violence prompted the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution that gives
leeway to impose sanctions on Sudan in 30 days if its government doesn9t
take action to disarm, apprehend and prosecute the Janjaweed- and to provide
access by aid agencies seeking to supply food, drinking water and medical
supplies to an estimated 300,000 displaced people facing imminent
starvation.

"The longer the international community waits, the longer violence and
atrocities against civilians will occur," says CWS9 McCullough.

The CWS advocacy campaign urges:

o the support of an international peacekeeping force to restore order and
secure humanitarian zones to facilitate assistance for refugees and
internally displaced persons

o insistence that that the government of Sudan disarm and apprehend
Janjaweed militias

o a demand that the government of Sudan provide full access to humanitarian
groups to Darfur, and make all government resources available for the
delivery of aid

Early in July, CWS issued a $1,750,000 fundraising appeal, launched a
nationwide direct mail campaign, and increased its national advocacy efforts
on behalf of those affected in Darfur.

CWS Director of Emergency Response Programs Rick Augsburger says "We9ve
raised a quarter of a million dollars in about a month9s time. We9re
confident we can reach the campaign goal, particularly now with greater
world and media attention turned to Darfur."

Beginning in July, and over the next 18 months, CWS is assisting in
providing food, medicines, access to clean water, agricultural inputs and
tools, and trauma care to 500,000 of the most vulnerable people in the
Darfur region. The program includes a supplemental feeding program for
50,000 affected children.

Over the weekend, CWS partners bringing aid to Kubum and Um Labassa, 100
kilometers west of Nyala, reported having their trucks stuck in wadis or
gullies, due to the rainy season and fear the roads may be totally cut off
soon.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), there are approximately 10,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in
Kubum alone and about 2,400 in Um Labassa.

CWS partners working through the coalition umbrella of Action by Churches
Together (ACT)/Caritas say the real need for displaced people In the Um
Labassa and Kubum area is shelter.

Meanwhile, in a weekend of to-and-fro9ing, Sudan9s government in Khartoum
first rejected then reluctantly agreed to the UN Security Council
disarmament resolution on Darfur. As of an Associated Press report yesterday
(Mon 8/2), the country9s army had labeled the UN resolution on Darfur as a
"declaration of war."

The UN vote was passed 13-0 (China and Pakistan abstaining). If Sudan fails
to comply within 30 days to the Security Council resolution, the council
will consider further action.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: Please add the following source to your listings or
agencies accepting contributions for relief programs in Darfur, Sudan:

Contributions to support relief work in Darfur may be sent to the Church
World Service Sudan-Darfur Crisis Appeal #640B. Secure contributions may be
made online visit our website at www.churchworldservice.org
http://www.churchworldservice.org/ or sent to Church World Service, P.O. Box
968, Elkhart, IN, 46515.

###