Our Press Releases
Survivors Fund calls for action in Darfur
London – 17th September 2006
The Global Day for Darfur on 17th September is a vital appeal to raise international awareness of current events in Sudan. For too long, the United Nations has stalled from committing troops to the region, leaving it to the African Union to staff the peacekeeping mission.
Rwanda’s action in Darfur is in fact one of the few positive legacies of the genocide. Rwanda has at least learnt that lesson, that it cannot remain a bystander to genocide. Sadly the international community has not.
Like in Rwanda in 1994, the genocide in Darfur has seen vulnerable women targeted by sexual violence, used as a weapon of war. Its tragedy lies in its long reaching consequences, which continue long after the end of the killings. Almost 20,000 women in Rwanda still await access to antiretroviral treatment due to being gang raped and deliberately infected with HIV/AIDS, to die slowly. Again, the silence and apathy of the international community is deafening.
We must act, and act now in Darfur, to prevent more preventable deaths. The responsibility lies with all of us to make our voices heard to stop the genocide in Darfur.
Mary Kayitesi-Blewitt
Director, Survivors' Fund
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