Site
Contents
 |
General Information about the Area Office
North Indiana Conference Office
South Indiana Conference Office
Prayer Guides
(Courtesy of the NIC Prayer Team)
Area United Methodist
Foundation
For resources to assist your congregation in welcoming guests,
click here
Seashore District Volunteer Center VIM project -- Completed
Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
January 2007 |
Senator gives little hope to Darfur coalition
By Daniel R. Gangler
"There is no basis for optimism for the moment."
|
INDIANAPOLIS - U.S. Senator Richard Lugar gave little hope Dec. 9 to an interfaith coalition of Hoosier religious and community leaders including native Darfurians who asked him to step up his efforts to end the worsening genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Lugar, an Indiana Republican and United Methodist, who was head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he met with the coalition, is now ranking member of the committee. During the past three years, he has been involved actively with the legislation granting humanitarian aid to Darfur while putting pressure on Sudan in the form of the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act to permit United Nation peacekeeping troops into the Darfur region of Sudan.
Lugar called the University of Indianapolis dialogue timely, because Andrew Natsios, special U.S. envoy to Sudan, was in Sudan with a dozen U.S. dignitaries. Lugar said Natsios told him "the Arab ruling group in the capital feels that they have an existential problem related to their longevity."
He said, "This may lead them to be more amenable to possible U.N. peacekeepers as suggested by the international community." Unfortunately, Lugar said, "they (the Sudanese rulers) have hunkered down to reject (U.N. Secretary-General) Kofi Annan, to reject whoever happens to be in the African Union picture, and to do so without really much apology."
In early December, Annan expressed his disappointment that the United Nations failed to live up to its responsibility to promote human rights with the ongoing killing and displacement of civilians in Darfur.
"There is no basis for optimism for the moment, but our special envoy is traveling in the area," Lugar said, referring to Natsios. "He's very serious in his intent and bears the weight of the United States. We have to wait for his report. It's about the only thing the world community has going for us right now."
Lugar said the current regime in Sudan may be open to African Union peacekeepers but not combatants. He said the African states have been reticent in sending peacekeepers to Sudan.
Natsios carries with him a recent, unanimously passed Senate resolution warning Sudan that coercive actions will be taken by the United States and perhaps the rest of the world that aligns with us.
Possible sanctions
Concerning possible sanctions being considered by Indiana and other states against companies doing business with Sudan, Lugar said that the sanctions have to be very comprehensive and substantial to be effective. Regimes often don't care how sanctions affect their own people. He believed sanctions worked in South Africa twenty years ago, because Nelson Mandela was imprisoned due to his fight to overthrow apartheid rule. There is no such person in Sudan.
Lugar further warned the 40 members of the coalition present that Natsios is going to issue problems to the current leaders of Sudan of what will happen if they don't stop their current repressive actions. One of their (Sudan leaders') reactions might be for Sudan to deny access to persons wanting to give humanitarian aid. Aid workers also might be hunted down and shot like the people in the camps.
He noted too that even though the Chinese may have a major stake in Sudan's oil, they have told the U.S. that they do not have an interest in human rights in Sudan.
"Whatever is happening in the refugee camps may be interesting to us, but not to them. They do have an interest, in terms of their national outlet, in oil in Sudan and protecting their right to drill it and bring it out," Lugar said.
The coalition asked Lugar to do two things in regards to Darfur. First, to push the Bush administration to take actions already approved by Congress. And second, to share correspondence with him to the rest of the world.
Ad hoc coalition
He spoke to the ad-hoc coalition during a meeting at the United Methodist-related university following his 30th annual day-long symposium for more than 400 outstanding high school students and their parents from across the state. The Darfur coalition is composed of Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders coordinated by Beth Reilly, a member of Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Fort Wayne where more than 200 Darfurian immigrants live.
The hour-long dialogue with Lugar began with three presentations. The Rev. Joe Johns, pastor of Fellowship Missionary Church in Fort Wayne offered a first-hand account of the situation in Darfur as one who does relief work in the refugee camps.
Johns expressed the coalition's gratitude for the work Lugar has done on the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act and asked him to be a champion of the Darfurian people.
He was followed by David Warshauer, president of the Indianapolis Jewish Community Relations Council, who encouraged Lugar to push for full implementation of the DPAA and more specifically to freeze the assets of individuals in the Government of Sudan who are responsible for the genocide and to deny entry at U.S. ports to oil tankers doing business with Sudan.
Warshauer closed by saying, "The words that came out of the Holocaust were 'never again,' and that doesn't just apply to Jews, but to wherever people are subject to genocide."
The Rev. Chad Abbot, pastor of Lockerbie Central United Methodist Church in Indianapolis and coordinator of the South Indiana United Methodist Conference Peace with Justice program summarized Hoosier activities during the past two years and United Methodist support for funding, legislation, peacekeeping operations and divestment.
State Senator John Broden (D-Dist. 10) of South Bend, a Roman Catholic, plans to introduce Sudan divestment legislation in the Indiana State Senate this month.
Following presentations, Mastora Bakhie, a Darfurian immigrant who escaped in the violence and moved to Fort Wayne, said, "Every day, we lose our relatives, homes, dignity and we don't know when we will find a real solution."
For more information about the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, log on to www.savedarfur.org and www.churchworldservice.org.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008