Evangelicals Urge President Bush to Press China for Darfur Peace
Evangelicals are calling on President Bush to take a ‘historic opportunity to rehabilitate his human rights credentials’ by confronting the Chinese president about his country’s role in ending the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
Evangelicals are calling on President Bush to take a “historic opportunity to rehabilitate his human rights credentials” by confronting China’s president about his country’s role in ending the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan.
“President Bush should make clear during his visit it is in China's best interest to see a stable and secure Sudan, which cannot exist until Darfur is stabilized and the killing is stopped,” a letter signed by Richard Cizik, Vice President for Governmental Affairs within the National Association of Evangelicals.
The president arrived in Beijing on Saturday evening for a three-day official visit to China to discuss religious freedom, human rights, and democratization among other issues with China’s president, Hu Jintao. Bush, who began his official visit to China on Sunday at the Protestant Gang Wa Shi Church in Beijing, was reminded about the ongoing civil war in Sudan, a country suffering from more than 20 years of internal fighting, by leading evangelical voices on the WEA website.
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“We are deeply concerned about the humanitarian and human rights tragedy in Darfur. We call upon all governments to seek to bring an end to this deteriorating situation,” Geoff Tunnicliffe, International Director of the World Evangelical Alliance, said ahead of President Bush's meeting with President Hu on Saturday. “In particular, China as a major investor and trade partner with Sudan, needs to use its influence to help end the genocide.”
China is the largest customer for Sudan’s oil and is one of its largest suppliers of arms. Such economic partnerships place China at a unique advantage to press the Sudanese government for real action.
“It is therefore vital that the U.S. and the international community explore every avenue available to end the violence in Darfur by engaging China. Beijing's recent involvement in the multilateral talks with North Korea signal a willingness to become more engaged in influencing other nations' policies,” the letter stated.
“We hope President Bush seizes this opportunity to engage China on this issue and make ending the genocide in Darfur a priority for his administration.”
For two years, the western region of Darfur in Sudan has been afflicted by conflict that has resulted in what the United Nations labels as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. Currently there are over two million people internally displaced by the ongoing violence and an estimated 180,000 deaths as a consequence of the crisis.
