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Armenian Church voices concerns over new genocide

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  • Armenian Church voices concerns over new genocide

    PRESS OFFICE
    Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern)
    630 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10016
    Contact: Jake Goshert, Coordinator of Information Services
    Tel: (212) 686-0710 Ext. 60; Fax: (212) 779-3558
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Website: www.armenianchurch.org

    May 20, 2004
    ___________________

    NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES ASKS FOR INTERVENTION IN SUDAN

    Joining efforts by the U.S. government, the United Nations, and a
    variety of international aid organizations to stop the violence in
    Sudan before it becomes genocide, the National Council of Churches
    (NCC) this week issued a call for intervention in the troubled region.

    During its meeting in Chicago, the NCC's executive board passed a
    resolution on Tuesday, May 18, 2004, urging member churches to push
    for cessation of the apparent attempt at ethnic cleansing in the
    Darfur region of western Sudan.

    The violence has already claimed tens of thousands of lives and
    displaced a million people.

    A NEW GENOCIDE?

    The year-long battle in the Darfur region is being propagated by the
    majority Arab population which controls most of the nation's wealth
    and power. U.N. officials report a systematic attempt to rid the
    Darfur region of non-Arab residents.

    News reports tell of bombings from government airplanes followed by an
    invasion by the Jinjaweit -- a government-backed nomadic Arab tribe
    which has been promised the land in Darfur -- who are using rape,
    killings, and arson to force the surviving black residents to leave.

    Those able to flee the Sudan -- which was recently elected to a
    three-year term on the U.N. Human Rights Commission -- have been
    pouring into neighboring Chad, where food, water, and shelter are
    growing scarce. American officials have unsuccessfully called on
    Sudan to allow humanitarian aid to flow into the Darfur area.

    "My family is victim of the first genocide of the 20th century," said
    Bishop Vicken Aykazian, legate and ecumenical officer of the Diocese
    of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) and a member of the NCC
    executive board. "I am very much concerned when I see that people in
    other nations now are being massacred as well, simply because they
    are black. Ten years ago, in Rwanda, in front of the civilized world,
    one million people were slaughtered. The same thing is happening now
    in Sudan. The NCC must take this very seriously and do something."

    The first NCC resolution dealing with the Sudan was approved in 2002.
    This recent resolution "affirms and extends" the calls to action made
    in the earlier statement of the NCC Executive Board -- an 80 member
    body representing leaders from the NCC's 36 Protestant, Orthodox,
    and Anglican member churches.

    -- 5/20/04

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