Media Statement, 13th March 2008

Is the Government doing all it can to stem the flow of death in Darfur? GOAL believes it can do much more.

In a statement GOAL CEO’s John O’Shea said, “It is one thing for the cynical Chinese to turn a deaf ear to the cries of the women and children of Darfur but it is utterly reprehensible of the West to ignore them.

As the crisis deepens daily, with air strikes from the Sudanese air force and the Janjaweed pursuing scorched earth tactics on the ground, the stony silence from the international community is shameful.

Inaction and unmet promises once more suggest that the letters UN are more fitting as a prefix for UN-fit and UN-willing than as an acronym for a concept as lofty as United Nations.

They have passed the resolutions and made the commitments to provide the troops: 20,000 peace keepers were pledged along with 4,000 police, fewer than half that number are in place.

Yesterday British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: “This is a humanitarian tragedy of colossal proportions, where the world must act….”

What is our Government saying, what does it propose? Must it be reminded that 200,000 people have already been slaughtered, and two million driven from their homes? What scale of atrocity is required to stir up a reaction?

Can we in conscience send our athletes to compete in an Olympics on which the Chinese have lavished €40bn to introduce itself to the international community as a modern super- power, the fanfare for which will surely drown out the suffering of the people of Darfur?

Nobody likes to link sport and politics but it is hard to shake hands with a host when his fingers are stained with the blood of the innocent.

John O’Shea,
GOAL