As you probably know in Darfur, Western Sudan, the situation between the Sudanese
Government, the militias and the displaced population is very bad. . Through a
strong network of NGOs and other groups, lobbying in the USA has resulted
in a US Congress’ Resolution declaring the Darfur situation a ‘genocide’ and in
a clear commitment to present a resolution to the UN Council on this
issue. Once this situation is described as ‘genocide’ by UN it calls for
an immediate and international intervention. Among the NGOs working for this resolution, the
JRS-USA played an important role.
Fr. Jim Stormes, the Assistancy Coordinator for the Social Apostolate in USA, after
the experience of JRS participating in lobbying for the resolution of the Congress,
sent us a message, asking for some way to cooperate, as Social Apostolate,
to make some policy also at the level of the European Parliament, where,
actually, the policy of intervention is weak. As in any other humanitarian disaster,
the political scenario is rather difficult and complex. The situation on the ground,
however, is quite terrible.
The JRS has been involved in this tragedy. The following is a very
sketchy and preliminary report.
(1) At the moment, JRS is working with two Jesuits in the Camps in
Chad with refugees from Darfur (a third Jesuit will join them at the
end of August). They are working in very difficult conditions especially as regards
security. The JRS team is working on the field of education and social
service helping the local Caritas (SECADEV - Caritas Chad). You can find the
first report on the JRS presence in Chad on the web site:
http://www.jrs.net/dispatch/disp.php?lang=en&dispId=enlatest#12
(2) JRS, together with Trocaire (a partner) has been trying for the last 6
months to get access to the area of Darfur, and they are still
trying, but so far it has been refused. The lack of access is
one of the most immediate issues at the moment.
(3) The policy director of JRS-USA, Mitzi Shroeder (Mitzi.Shroeder@jrs.net), has played an important role
and it would be good for the Social Apostolate representative there to work
closely with her for information and lobbying.
(4) Finally, tomorrow, (26th July 2004), Christine Bloch (Christine.Bloch@jrs.net), the JRS’ Representative in Geneva
will participate at a meeting between NGOs and the Independent Expert on Sudan
for the EU. She will report on what is said from the meeting.
We thought it was important to let you know the situation and the
steps that the JRS and the Social Justice Secretariat is taking on this
issue. Tomorrow, from Christine’s report, we will know a little more clearly if
there are some possibilities to lobby at the EU level and which steps
can be taken.
Please send this note to all the Provincial Coordinators of your Assistancy as
soon as possible. We are also sending this note to all Provincials for
information. We regret that this message is only sent in Spanish and English.
Fraternally
Fernando Franco SJ
Social Justice Secretariat