|
Blair urged to 'save lives'
22/08/2005 11:36 - (SA)
London - Oxfam urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday to press the United States into backing a United Nations accord to stop genocide.
The British charity praised Blair's government for supporting the agreement, which would commit states to action should another mass murder such as that in Rwanda were to reoccur.
But it urged Blair to use his influence to convince doubters to join in.
The US is trying to water down the agreement while India, Russia and Brazil have tried to block the measure, Oxfam said.
The deal is on the agenda for the September 14 to 16 UN summit in New York, with final negotiations to start on Monday over what the biggest-ever gathering of world leaders will announce.
Preventing future genocides
"This is an opportunity for the prime minister to show his commitment to a progressive foreign policy agenda," said Oxfam director Barbara Stocking.
"As negotiations resume today we're urging Britain to use every diplomatic resource at its disposal to secure an agreement designed to stop future genocides.
"It is now crunch time in the negotiations. The government must use whatever influence it has with Brazil, Russia, India and the US to get them to support this vital agreement.
"The prime minister has had a close working relationship with US President George W Bush in particular. We hope that this is an issue where the prime minister will use this relationship to secure agreement on a foreign policy objective that could help save millions of lives."
Responsibility to protect civilians
The deal would commit signatories to collective responsibility to protect civilians facing genocide or atrocities where the government was unable or unwilling to act to halt the killing.
Britain, along with Japan, the European Union, Rwanda, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Kenya have strongly supported the accord.
Oxfam warned that failure by governments to pen the agreement would send a message that they were no more ready or willing to act to stop genocide than they were in 1994, when some 800 000 mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were slaughtered in a 100-day killing spree in Rwanda.
- AFP
|
News
