Troops from the North of Sudan are engaging in ethnic cleansing against the people of in the Western Darfur region. They are gang-raping and abducting girls as young as eight years of age and women as old as 80, systematically killing, torturing, or using them as sex slaves; they are murdering men, women and children; and they are destroying entire villages. Refugees from the violence are crowded in areas which humanitarian groups are having great difficulty reaching, and doctors warn that disease and starvation will kill hundreds of thousands if the international community does not intervene immediately.
Pope John Paull II has spent a special envoy, Archbishop Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum,” to Sudan. He will meet with key Church figures in Khartoum; then, with the help of the United Nations, the papal envoy will travel to Darfur, to visit refugee camps.
The serious humanitarian situation in Darfur is cause of great concern for Pope John Paul II, and he has expressed his wishes that the people of Darfur be given all necessary humanitarian aid. He wants the voice of the peoples of Darfur to be heard and taken into consideration, and their fundamental human rights be respected.
Please write or call the the White House and urge that the U.S. government press the Security Council to immediately pass a Darfur-specific resolution that comprehensively responds to the present emergency and lays the groundwork for sustainable peace.
The Honorable George W. Bush, President of the United States,
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC 20500,
Fax: 202-456-2461, Telephone: 202-456- 1414
Prayer for Those Suffering in Darfur, Sudan
Lord, turn your eyes to your children in Darfur.
See, the poor are cornered,
Marked for destruction,
Taken by violence.
At the bar of injustice
They tremble;
Evil takes their breaths, their bodies.
Turn your gaze toward them,
O Living God,
Give them refuge.
Bring healing and hope to your people.
Amen.
Inspired by Psalm 10
