O’Shea urges Ireland to withdraw from United Nations

The chief executive of the Irish aid agency GOAL has called on the Government to withdraw from the United Nations in protest at its lack of action in the Darfur region of Sudan.

At least 20,000 people have been killed in the region and a million more have been displaced from their homes due to an on-going war between rebel groups drawn from the local black African population and Arab militias allegedly backed by the Sudanese Government.

The United Nations recently condemned widespread war crimes and human rights abuses in Darfur, but it stopped short of describing the situation as genocide, which would require the Security Council to take action.

GOAL chief executive John O'Shea said today that the United Nations was acting cowardly and the Government should make a point by withdrawing from the body.

"We've got to find courage from somewhere and I think if Ireland was to take this stand, maybe one of the bigger governments would applaud it," he said.