It’s about time this happened. We need more of this. A lot more.

June 20, 2008 (KAMPALA) — A coalition of Arab rights activists criticised the Islamic world for its silence on the atrocities and crimes committed in the troubled region of Darfur, Sudan.

In a statement issued on the sideline of the 35th OIC Council of Foreign Ministers Meeting, the Arab Coalition for Darfur blamed the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for focusing their concern on Iraq and Palestine.

“The suffering of Muslims in Darfur is as real as that happening in Iraq and Palestine,” the coalition said.

“The Islamic world’s response to the daily killings and suffering of millions of Muslims in Darfur has been largely silent, from both civil society as well as from institutions and majority of Islamic governments,” it said.

Yesterday the Ugandan President urged the OIC countries to accord some of their efforts and concern to Darfur crisis and southern Sudan peace process. He added that failure to resolve the Darfur issue would undermine the unity of the organisation.

The Arab rights coalition also underlined that negligence of Darfur crisis would not be good for the Islamic world. “The Islamic world must decide to end its wall of silence, before it is too late … More silence could be catastrophic on the Islamic community.”

The coalition is made up of human rights groups in Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait, Palestine and Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and disease and more than 2.2 million have fled their homes since the Darfur conflict broke out in February 2003.

Created by Arab activists last May in Cairo, the coalition urged the Arab heads of states to “use all their potential, relations and resources to stop the conflict.”

Initiated by the Arab Program for Human Rights Activists, the coalition includes rights activists from Sudan, Jordan, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, Kuwait and Egypt.

The European Union is getting impatient and is planning to take some much needed steps.

June 12, 2008 ( BRUSSELS) — EU foreign ministers are expected to warn Sudan of possible EU sanctions if it fails to cooperate on war crimes but will stop short of the immediate action demanded by rights activists, diplomats said on Thursday.

…In March, the Slovenian EU presidency said the EU would back sanctions if Sudan failed to hand over to the ICC Ahmed Haroun, its former minister for humanitarian affairs, and former Janjaweed militia leader Ali Muhammad Ali Abd-Al-Rahman, in connection with suspected crimes against humanity in Darfur.

… Sudanese human rights lawyer Salih Mahmoud Osman told the same briefing the international community had done little more than “gently air complaints” in the face of Sudan’s “clear and explicit defiance of the ICC”.

While welcoming EU moves towards sanctions, Osman, winner of the EU’s top rights prize this year, said: “I am at a loss to explain the lack of decisive response from the European Union, a powerful group of nations that has repeatedly declared its strong support for the ICC.”

The EU should go ahead and walk the talk.