Darfur Advocacy Groups Urge Immediate Obama Administration Leadership to Solve Humanitarian Crisis

Darfur Advocacy Groups Urge Immediate Obama Administration Leadership to Solve Humanitarian Crisis

Groups: Sudan's decision to restrict flow of aid represents possible prelude to humanitarian catastrophe of highest magnitude

WASHINGTON – The Save Darfur Coalition today called on President Obama to press the Sudanese government to immediately reinstate the licenses of 13 international humanitarian groups expelled from Darfur last week. In a letter cosigned by 54 coalition partners, the groups said that the administration should urgently undertake a sustained diplomatic effort to resolve the Darfur crisis and restore peace to all of Sudan.

"We know from your commitment to Darfur as a senator and your campaign pledge of ‘unstinting resolve' to end the Darfur genocide that you believe the United States and its citizens cannot stand by while civilians are unjustly targeted by their own government," the groups wrote in the letter. "Now, with millions of lives hanging in the balance, we must act immediately. Any delay will lead to even greater loss of life in Darfur."

The organizations expelled from Darfur are a part of a humanitarian apparatus that provides relief to 4.7 million Darfuri civilians. It is estimated by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance that their expulsion will leave 1.1 million Darfuris without food aid, 1.5 million without access to healthcare and more than one million without potable water.

"The denial of life-saving food, water and medical care in Darfur is a human rights violation that endangers health and threatens lives," said Frank Donaghue, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights. "The recent outbreak of meningitis in Darfur's Kalma Camp is just the beginning of the widespread suffering that the expulsion of humanitarian aid groups will cause."

The full text of the letter appears below.

March 11, 2009

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC

Dear President Obama,

Darfur demands your attention now. Millions of lives are at risk, and your direct engagement can not be delayed.

We are a broad coalition of faith-based, human rights and advocacy organizations, and on behalf of our constituencies we implore you to respond immediately to the increasingly urgent situation in Sudan.

As you know, the licenses of over a dozen humanitarian aid organizations have been revoked by the government of Sudan, leaving millions of Darfuri civilians at immediate risk of disease and starvation. You, along with other world leaders, must immediately and publicly condemn President Bashir's actions and insist that he restore access to life-saving humanitarian aid.

We know from your commitment to Darfur as a senator and your campaign pledge of "unstinting resolve" to end the Darfur genocide that you believe that the United States and its citizens cannot stand by while civilians are unjustly targeted by their own government. Since you were elected our president, over 250,000 Americans have signed postcards asking that your administration take swift and strong action to end the genocide in Darfur. Now, with millions of lives hanging in the balance, we must act immediately. Any delay will lead to even greater loss of life in Darfur.

The Sudanese government's decision to restrict the flow of humanitarian aid to Darfur represents the possible prelude to a humanitarian catastrophe of the highest magnitude. The 13 organizations that had their licenses revoked are some of the largest international aid groups in Darfur and sustain an apparatus that provides the last remaining lifeline for 4.7 million conflict-affected Darfuri people.

The time is now for the United States to immediately undertake an urgent, sustained diplomatic push to resolve the conflict in Darfur, including the reopening of humanitarian access. Sudan's recent actions reinforce the need to appoint a full-time Sudan envoy with the stature, mandate and authority to drive all aspects of Sudan policy.

We are counting on your leadership, President Obama. But more importantly, so are the people of Darfur.

Sincerely,

Jerry Fowler
President
Save Darfur Coalition

CC: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, UN Ambassador Susan Rice

Rabbi David Saperstein
Director
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

Mark Hanis
Executive Director
Genocide Intervention Network

Rabbi Steve Gutow
President and CEO
Jewish Council for Public Affairs

Ruth Messinger
President and CEO
American Jewish World Service

Frank Donaghue
Chief Executive Officer
Physicians for Human Rights

Reverend William G. Sinkford
President
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations

John Norris
Executive Director
ENOUGH Project

Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos
Sr. Program Director for Faith & Order and Interfaith Relations
National Council of Churches USA

Aram Hamparian
Executive Director
Armenian National Committee of America

Bryan Ardouny
Executive Director
Armenian Assembly of America

Helen Fein
Executive Director
Institute for the Study of Genocide

Don Kraus
CEO
Citizens for Global Solutions

Abraham H. Foxman
National Director
Anti-Defamation League

Jill Savitt
Founder
Genocide Prevention Project

Rabbi Jeffrey A. Wohlberg, President
Rabbi Leonard D. Gordon, Social Action Chair
Rabbi Marion Shulevitz
Rabbinical Assembly

Rev. David Emmanuel Goatley, Ph.D.
Executive Secretary-Treasurer
Lott Carey Convention/Lott Carey International

Tzivia Schwartz-Getzug
Executive Director
Jewish World Watch

Rabbi Marla Feldman
Director
Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism

Shelley Lindauer
Executive Director
Women of Reform Judaism

E. Robert Goodkind
Chair, JBI Council.
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights

Mahmoud Braima
President
Darfur Association in the USA, Birmingham, AL

Mohamed Adam Yahya
Founder and Executive Director
Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy

Marie Dennis
Director
Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Elise Klein
President
Teachers Against Prejudice

Bill Andress
Moderator
Sudan Advocacy Action Forum

Martina W. Knee
Member, Executive Committee
San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition

Eric Cohen
Investors Against Genocide

Susan Morgan
Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur

Abdelbagi Jibril
Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre

Sharon Silber
US Representative
Society for Threatened Peoples
Jews Against Genocide

Nancy Walsh and Gloria Crist
DarfurMetro

Eileen B. Weiss
Co-Founder
NYC Coalition for Darfur

Jimmy Mulla
President
Southern Sudanese Voice for Freedom

James Rucker
Executive Director
ColorOfChange.org

Elgasim Salih
President
World Relief Organization

Jessica Trubowitch
Director, Legislative Affairs and Intergroup Relations
Jewish Community Relations Council of the San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin, Sonoma, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties

Kathryn Harrison
Executive Director
Darfur Alert Coalition

Joe Carson
Affiliation of Christian Engineers

Shrikumar Poddar
Mayurika Poddar
India Foundation, USA

K. S. Sripada Raju
International Service Society

Amin Tejani
ARC, Lansing, Michigan

Devesh Poddar
Washington Watch Inc.

Barbara Thomas
Annapolis Friends Meeting

Josh Pasek
Chair
Young Democrats of America Jewish Caucus

Nikki Serapio
Director
Americans Against the Darfur Genocide

Eric Fusfield
B'nai B'rith International

Bob Brousseau
Kentuckiana Interfaith Taskforce on Darfur

Michael Neuroth
Policy Advocate on International Issues
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries

Rabbi Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus
President
Rabbi Steven Fox
Executive Vice-President
Central Conference of American Rabbis

Michael Lucero
Founder
I Stop Genocide

Gerri Miller
Dear Sudan

David Rosenberg
Coordinator
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition

Gabriel Stauring and Katie-Jay Scott
Stop Genocide Now

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About the coalition - The Save Darfur Coalition - an alliance of 180 faith-based, advocacy and human rights organizations - raises public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and mobilizes a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of people throughout the Darfur region. The coalition's member organizations represent 130 million people of all ages, races, religions and political affiliations united together to help the people of Darfur. For more information on the coalition, please visit http://www.SaveDarfur.org. To obtain footage from the Darfur border region, coalition events, various interviews, and more, please visit the Save Darfur Coalition media gallery at http://media.savedarfur.org. All footage may be previewed in non-broadcast quality and may be purchased in broadcast quality by filling out the purchase request form provided on the site.