Survivors of genocides in Europe, Africa and Asia on Friday urged European leaders meeting in Finland to act urgently to stop the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region after accusing them of being too passive.
In an open letter published in European newspapers, 120 survivors of the Nazi Holocaust and genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia urged EU heads of government and heads of state to impose sanctions on the Sudanese government.
"We write to urge you to act now to end the genocide in Darfur," according to the letter published in Britain's The Times and other newspapers.
"Through the European Union you have the capacity to put real pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the killing. But so far the EU has done next to nothing," the group said in their letter.
The group urged EU leaders to agree to monitor and implement a United Nations-authorised air exclusion zone over Darfur and apply EU-wide pressure on Sudan to stop its current offensive, stop killing civilians and accept a UN force.
It also urged them to impose asset freezes and travel bans on those Sudanese officials responsible for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity as well as help strengthen the African Union force in Darfur.
And it urged EU leaders to set down a date for EU-wide trade sanctions if the Sudanese government fails to respond to the pressure.
"History has been a harsh judge of the reluctance of European governments to take meaningful steps to end the genocides of which we are survivors," the group said.
"The union founded in the wake of Europe's own genocide cannot ignore the threat of a new one," it said.
"We urge you to make today's EU heads of state meeting in Finland a turning point," the group urged.
The United States accuses the Sudanese government and the proxy Janjaweed Arab militia of carrying out a genocide in Darfur.
According to the UN, 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced due to the fighting and related humanitarian crisis in the last three years.
At a press conference organised by Aegis Trust, which campaigns against genocide and arranged for the letter to be written, four signatories of the letter and a Darfur refugee expressed their anger at EU inaction.
Martin Stern, who was arrested by the Nazis in 1944 when he was five years old, warned that history will not judge the Europeans kindly if they fail to stop the atrocities in Darfur.
"In a genocide we have people who are victims, people who are perpetrators, people who are rescuers, but the largest group generally is the people who are bystanders," Stern said. "The EU en masse is a big group of bystanders. These are people who are always condemned by posterity. Ignoring this genocide prepares the ground for the next one," he said.
Sakiba Gurda saw very strong links between the situation in Darfur and what happened in her native Bosnia more than a decade ago.
"During the three and half years of the war, Europe debated, discussed and looked on," Gurda said. "Most of all, the hesitations, the in-actions was giving gloomy signals to the perpetrators to continue and to take the brutality at a greater more horrific level."
Ynis Hassabullah left behind his three children when he fled his village in Darfur during a bombing raid in January 2004.
"Every single day, children, women, (old) people are killed by the government," he said.
"It's time to take action against the Sudanese government to stop killing innocent people."
During an informal EU summit in Lahti, southern Finland, British Prime Minister Tony Blair sought agreement on Friday for a strong line against the Sudanese government over Darfur, looking for "other ways to apply pressure" if necessary to accept a UN force in the troubled area.