September 21, 2004Sudanese church leader in New York to address Darfur crisis
Ruun says United Nations has abandoned the innocent
by Jennifer Butler
Presbyterian United Nations Office
and Jerry L. Van MarterNEW YORK * The Rev. Haruun Ruun, the executive secretary of the New Sudanese Council of Churches (NSCC) who has sharply criticized the United Nations for being slow to respond to the crisis in the Darfur region of his country, will address an international group of religious leaders here Wednesday.
Ruun's Sept. 22 address at the Church Center for the United Nations, is entitled "Crisis in the Sudan: From Peace Accords in the South to Conflict in Darfur." In addition to his address, he will also attend a series of public forums on Thursday at the Interchurch Center, hosted by Church World Service and Religions for Peace-USA.
"Great hopes were raised when UN Secretary General Kofi Annan came to Sudan [in June 2004]," Ruun said in preparation for his visit. "People felt that finally their suffering had been heard. There was all this excitement and then nothing. What happened to the UN? The killings and rapes are still happening in Darfur."
Since government-backed miliatias launched their murderous assault in Darfur earlier this year, more than 500,000 Sudanese have been killed and an additional one million have fled their homes. The Bush Administration has labeled the siege on Darfur "genocide."
"The Sudanese government will continue to commit genocide unless there is international pressure, Ruun said. "The UN Security Council must impose sanctions on the government's oil revenue, freeze the assets of Sudanese government leaders and restrict their travel...[and] empower the African Union to act."
A U.S. citizen and Presbyterian minister, Ruun has led the NSCC's response to the longstanding humanitarian crisis in the Sudan for ten years. For more than 30 years the Muslim government in the northern capital of Khartoum has waged war against the primarily Christian and Animist southern Sudan.
Ruun said that the UN must show leadership and convince all parties concerned that "everyone will have a share once there is peace, that no one's interests are going to be neglected. Everyone will benefit from peace."