Mr. Chair, we have a moral duty to act to stop the carnage and unspeakable crimes that have taken place. We failed to act during Rwanda, the world failed to act during the holocaust that killed six million Jews, with crimes of indifference and silence. The often quoted axiom by Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing”, unfortunately still holds true today.
Since the outbreak of hostilities in 2003, the crisis in Darfur has resulted in 400,000 largely civilian deaths, the displacement of more than 2 million people and the suffering of millions more. The peace talks have dragged on for over two years, with no results, including today when the government of Sudan walked away from the negotiation table
The previous government sponsored a document, “Responsibility to Protect”, to the UN, which stipulates that if a sovereign state is unable or unwilling to protect its citizens from extreme harm, the international community must intervene.
Clearly in Darfur, would the member not agree that the threshold of this document has been met for a meaningful intervention?