Around the World, Protesters Call for Action on Darfur

Agence France-Presse

Sunday 20 April 2007

Protests took place around the world on Sunday to demand that world leaders act to prevent further bloodshed in Darfur on the fourth anniversary of the conflict's start.

The Global Day for Darfur, organised by a coalition of rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, saw activists around the world turn over more than 10,000 hourglasses filled with fake blood.

These are designed to convey the message that delaying intervention will cost even more lives in the troubled western region of Sudan.

The conflict has caused 200,000 deaths and led to two million people being displaced, according to the United Nations. Sudan contests the figures, saying that only 9,000 have died.

The focus of the day was in London, where hundreds of demonstrators marched on Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office to hand in a letter to a government minister.

Activists have also erected a two-metre- (seven-foot-) high hourglass of fake blood.

Statements of support for the campaign were issued by eight politicians from the ruling Labour Party who are contenders for the post of leader and deputy leader when Blair steps down later this year.

In Rome, hundreds of people took part in a march on the Colosseum.

There was also a 200-strong protest in Berlin, where marchers carried alarm clocks and a banner saying: "It is five minutes to midnight, we're sounding the alarm!"

Several hundred protesters, led by US actress Mia Farrow, rallied outside the White House to urge US President George W. Bush to increase support for the immediate deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

The actress-activist addressed the US demonstrators, many of whom were dressed in "Save Darfur" T-shirts and UN peacekeepers' blue berets, and blasted both Bush and China for failing to take steps to halt the bloodshed.

"From camps and villages across Darfur, pleas for protection reverberate in my soul. Peace and protection now is the only appropriate response. It is a moral imperative," Farrow said.

"President Bush has asked for more time. Tell it to the mother whose children are on fire."

Farrow, wearing a brown T-shirt which read "Genocide Olympics," called for the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing to be used as a lever to pressure China to support sanctions on the Sudanese government and peacekeepers for Darfur.

"China is underwriting the genocide in Darfur. There is one thing that China holds more dear than its unfettered access to Sudanese oil and that is its staging of the 2008 Beijing Olympics," which "cannot be allowed to go on as usual," she told the rally.

Smaller demonstrations took place in cities including Brussels, Stockholm and Budapest. Organisers said there would also be events happening in cities including Lagos, Nigeria, and Melbourne, Australia.

To coincide with the day, actors and musicians including Elton John, George Clooney, Bob Geldof, Mick Jagger and Hugh Grant released a statement calling on the international community to take "decisive action" over the atrocities.

Amnesty International attacked the "vicious crimes against humanity" which it said the Sudanese government has allowed to take place in Darfur.

"Enough is enough. It is time for the rest of the international community to take effective action," Amnesty's United Kingdom director Kate Allen said in a statement.

Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial has sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon calling for "concrete steps" to ensure that troops are sent to Darfur.

"As the heads of the Jewish people's central organisation for commemorating the Holocaust - a genocide that took place while the world was silent - we feel a special obligation ... to raise alarm on Darfur," the letter said.

The United States and Britain have in recent weeks indicated that their patience with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir is running out.

But Bush agreed earlier this month to postpone sanctions to give Ban more time to try and pursue a diplomatic solution.

Although Beshir recently agreed to let 3,000 UN troops to boost the weak African Union force in Darfur in a first phase deployment, he has objected to some key elements of the larger operation.

These include allowing the UN to share command of the forces with AU counterparts.

The UN's World Food Programme also launched a new appeal for donations for the "emergency situation" in Chad, where the monsoon season is about to strike amid a surge in the number of internally displaced people and refugees pouring in from neighbouring Darfur.