Washington D.C., Oct 3, 2004 / 22:00 pm
In a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, the U.S. bishops said the U.S. government can do more to help end the genocide and humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.
“While we applaud your budget request for Sudan, we recognize that it was submitted to Congress nearly nine months ago, and the situation in the region has changed dramatically since that time,” said the bishops.
The letter was signed by Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ, of Pensacola-Tallahassee, chairman of the USCCB Committee on International Policy, and Ken Hackett, president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services.
“As the humanitarian situation in Darfur continues to deteriorate, we respectfully suggest that there are additional steps the administration could take to help to bring an end to the violence and promote conditions for a peaceful resolution of this conflict,” they said.
The bishops urged the Bush administration to support the $225 million in emergency funding, which the Senate had approved, and to earmark additional funding to help victims in Darfur.