EU Council of Foreign Ministers consults in Brussels on Darfur crisis

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) accused the European Union (EU) on Tuesday with reacting helplessly with regard to the continuing genocide in western Sudan. "It is a long time now since anyone in Sudan took seriously the constant statements of dismay from Europe”, said the GfbV Africa correspondent Ulrich Delius. "For the Sudanese leaders are fully aware that no actions will follow these empty words.” The EU Council of Foreign Ministers expressed again its dismay at its meeting in Brussels on 12th/13th February on the violence in Darfur. Generally disregarded by public opinion throughout the world the Janjaweed mounted militia, supported by the Sudanese army, began four years ago in February 2003 attacks on the villages of the black African civilian population in western Sudan.

Delius criticises that while Europe is doing its best to disguise its inactivity, every week more people are being uprooted in Darfur and fewer and fewer can be supplied with food. "The EU must at last impose sanctions against those responsible for the genocide.” There has been discussion for three years now on travel restrictions and the freezing of the bank accounts of the Sudanese rulers. To date however there have been only limited sanctions agreed by the UN against four persons, among them two rebel leaders.

This cat and mouse game of the Sudanese leaders with the international community must be finally stopped by an international signal, said Delius. For it is unbearable that the Sudanese government should for four years systematically violate humanitarian international law and basic international human rights conventions with impunity.

The suggestion of the British Prime Minister Tony Blair of imposing a no-fly zone above Darfur must be implemented by the EU. Every week the Sudanese air force bombs villages in Darfur, causing fear and terror among the civilian population. The African Union has already condemned these air raids as infringements of the truce. The Security Council has given its general approval for the no-fly zone. Now this decision must finally be implemented to improve the security of the civilian population.