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Erica Barton, UJC Media Relations
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United Jewish Communities and The Jewish Federations of North America Call for End to Sudanese Humanitarian and Human Rights Abuses

New York -- August 6, 2004 -- United Jewish Communities (UJC) and the Jewish Federations of North America have joined more than 70 major Jewish and non-Jewish groups in a coalition aiming to draw attention to and ease the massive humanitarian and human rights crisis in Sudan, where government-backed militia atrocities against ethnic tribal Africans threaten the lives of two million people in the Darfur region.

The Save Darfur Coalition, a diverse group of faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations, including UJC, this week issued a unity statement and call to action to the Sudan crisis. The statement calls for worldwide efforts to end human displacements and crimes against humanity in Sudan, worldwide governmental humanitarian support and access, support of organizations providing aid, efforts to rebuild villages and return displaced persons, and an investigation by the United Nations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

To date, as many as 50,000-100,000 civilians have been killed and 1.2 million people have been driven from their homes in Sudan. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) estimates that 350,000 people or more could die in the coming months.  Refugees report the raping of women and girls, the torching of villages, the destruction of food supplies and the deliberate poisoning of water resources by the militia.

"In full view of history, the Jewish community will not stand by as atrocities are committed in an attempt to eradicate a people," said UJC Chair Robert Goldberg. "No one must look back 10 years from now and wonder why the world did not act to end the suffering, save lives and maintain the values and dignities of humanity."

The Committee on Conscience of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has declared a "genocide emergency" in the Sudan, indicating that genocide is imminent or is actually happening in the Darfur region.

"We commend the efforts of the U.S. government in brokering a peace deal to end the gruesome 21-year Civil War in the South and its generous pledge of $300 million in U.S. humanitarian aid," the Coalition statement reads. "We also applaud the recent visits of Secretary of State Colin Powell and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to the region of Darfur to assess the atrocities human rights organizations are calling the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. And we congratulate Congress for taking decisive legislative action. But we must not wait for a legal determination of ‘genocide' to ensure a massive worldwide humanitarian response and call to end the violence and investigate crimes against humanity."  (Editors Note:  The full statement and a list of signatories can be found at www.savedarfur.org)

The Coalition is organizing an Interfaith Day of Conscience on August 25 in churches, synagogues, mosques and community centers nationwide, and a protest in New York City on Sept. 12.

The Coalition launched on July 14 when the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and American Jewish World Service organized a Darfur Emergency Summit at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York featuring Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Elie Wiesel.

"How can I hope to move people from indifference if I remain indifferent to the plight of others?" Wiesel said. "I cannot stand idly by or all my endeavors will be unworthy."

United Jewish Communities (UJC) represents 155 Jewish Federations and 400 independent communities across North America. Through the UJA Federation Campaign, UJC provides life-saving and life-enhancing humanitarian assistance to those in need, and translates Jewish values into social action on behalf of millions of Jews in hundreds of communities in North America, in towns and villages throughout Israel, in the former Soviet Union, and 60 countries around the world.