Germany joined British and US calls today for more international pressure on Sudan and Zimbabwe, possibly including sanctions, but genocide survivors and human rights activists demanded action, not talk.
"On a day such as today, we think of the people in Zimbabwe and Darfur. The suffering there is unbearable," Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech at a summit in Berlin celebrating the European Union's 50th anniversary.
She said the EU was calling on Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to allow UN peacekeepers into the country and comply with UN resolutions.
"We must look at stronger sanctions," MS Merkel, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, told an audience of EU leaders, referring to both countries.
Musician and activists Bob Geldof told reporters in Berlin: "I am glad that Chancellor Merkel mentioned sanctions but frankly ... just do it."
Speaking in Berlin's Jewish Museum with survivors of wars and genocides, Geldof said EU leaders should ban Sudan's leaders from travelling to the EU, freeze their assets, and bar exports of luxury goods to Khartoum, before tougher UN sanctions.
Khartoum has come under fresh pressure from Western powers to ease the suffering in war-torn Darfur. Experts estimate 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes after rebels rose up in 2003, accusing the central government of neglecting the vast, impoverished region.
"Every time a genocide happens, leaders all over Europe, America, Britain, everywhere, they say never again. But these are empty words," Ishag Mekki, a Sudanese who lost family in the Darfur conflict, told the news conference.
"In reality it's happening and happening."