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NEWS:New Save Darfur Ad: 'While Bashir Lies, Darfur Dies'For Immediate Release: 07/07/07
Coalition urges world leaders to hold dictator to his Darfur agreements. The Save Darfur Coalition today launched a national advertising campaign reminding world leaders of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's consistent pattern of breaking promises and agreements on Darfur. The ads, which begin today on CNN, Fox News Channel and Washington-area television and will tomorrow appear in the Washington Post, New York Times and Washington Times, urge the international community to hold the dictator to his word and allow U.N peacekeepers into Darfur. The ads can be viewed at: www.savedarfur.org/pages/bashir_lies_darfur_dies/ . "President al-Bashir has signed agreements with the international community only to reverse himself before the ink was dry," said retired ambassador Lawrence Rossin, Save Darfur Coalition senior international coordinator. "He has shown over and over how easily a dictator can get away with genocide while lying to world leaders and pay no price for it. Now, Secretary-General Ban and U.N. Security Council ambassadors tell us they have a deal with Bashir on U.N. peacekeepers. That's great news for the people of Darfur if it's true, but already al-Bashir shows signs that he will not keep that deal." The coalition last month expressed deep skepticism over the announced agreement on Darfur peacekeeping forces between the African Union, United Nations and Sudanese government, citing previous, similar assurances from al-Bashir. The new round of advertisements will renew the call for accountability, underscoring the need for less talk and more action to resolve the ongoing Darfur crisis. In addition to the advertisements, the Save Darfur Coalition also released a multi-paged fact report detailing several - but not all - of al-Bashir's broken promises to the international community and the people of Darfur. The report includes multiple examples of al-Bashir agreeing to ceasefires with rebel forces only to violate them soon thereafter with aerial bombardments of villages and other military assaults. The document also notes al-Bashir's various "agreements" to the AU - U.N. hybrid peacekeeping force - agreements that were quickly qualified and eventually altogether rejected. The fact report can be viewed at: www.savedarfur.org/pages/bashir_lies_darfur_dies/ . "World leaders must compel al-Bashir to fulfill this agreement this time, and allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur. Too many Darfuri lives hang in the balance to allow him to break his word, yet again," Rossin said. The situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate with more than 400,000 newly displaced people in the last year. Four million people are now affected by the crisis, which has spread from Sudan into Chad and the Central African Republic, and almost a quarter of these cannot get humanitarian assistance because of insecurity. |
GLOBE FOR DARFUR