NCC welcomes U.N. resolution
to send more peacemakers to Darfur

New York, August 31, 2006 – The National Council of Churches USA, which has called the ongoing genocide in Darfur “the heaviest burden we bear in the twentieth-first century,” is praising today’s United Nations Security Council resolution to send a peacemaking force to Sudan’s war-torn region.

“There is widespread agreement, from the State Department to the NCC’s member communions, that in the midst of a civil war in Sudan, a genocide has taken place in Darfur,” said the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the Council. “When thousands of people have been killed, raped and tortured, it must compel the attention of the world."

The resolution calls for the United Nations to add 17,300 military personnel and 3,300 civilian police to Darfur, provided the Sudan government acquiesces to the plan.

But Edgar the nations of the world should consider ways to end the Darfur tragedy whether Sudan agrees to to the U.N. resolution or not. “Genocide is an international issue,” he said. “The nations of the world – as indicated by the Security Council resolution – want it to end.”

► See Duane Shank's call for action on FaithfulAmerica.org