WHEN HELL IS MAN-MADE IT CAN BE CHANGED BY MAN or not

WHAT
KIND
OF WORLD
HAVE
WE
ALLOWED?

I admit to anyone who reads this, that I am

discouraged.

Discouraged about the five year old genocide in Darfur, Sudan, that the world has allowed the perpetrators to successfully continue without consequences. Why should they stop when what they want is killing people who they want to silence? Killing is a great silencer. And all the "NEVER AGAINs" mean that we are hypocrites. Nothing more. They are words we use to dismiss our own feelings of guilt when the genocide stops. Read Samatha Power's book Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Chapter Ten is about the last time the collective "NEVER AGAIN" was used for Rwanda and the 1994 genocide there during President Bill Clinton's administration.

As a citizen, in the United States of America I am beside myself. For the Darfuri people and ending genocide, I have lobbied US RI Senators and Representatives, the President, organized rallies, volunteered in Washington DC. and New York City at nationwide rallies, emailed, called, contributed. And as a USA citizen, the world looks at me and sees my country perpetrating human rights abuse ourselves with my tax dollars and representatives.
NPR's Guantanamo Bay or GITMO
Abu Ghraib
and
Pictures of Abu Ghraib
HBO's Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

The following text was received from another activist today:

The genocide in Darfur has entered its sixth year. The Sudanese government has reinvigorated its campaign to frighten, displace and kill civilians, raising fears of an increasingly deadly cycle in the ongoing conflict.

Congress will soon determine funding levels of U.S. international assistance"money that can be used immediately to help meet the needs of the Darfuri people. AJWS needs your help to ensure that Congress provides adequate funding for both humanitarian aid and peacekeeping.

Click here to take action now.

While the Sudanese government drops bombs, their proxy militia, the Janjaweed, are raping, killing, looting and burning entire villages to the ground. Since the beginning of this year, an additional 75,000 Darfuris have been newly displaced. Today more than four million people are dependent on humanitarian aid for their survival. The newly deployed United Nations " African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) has brought hope to Darfur, but the mission is floundering because of Sudanese government obstruction and a lack of political will by the international community to provide much needed equipment and troops.

We cannot allow UNAMID to fail and we must ensure that Congress provides sufficient funding for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid to the millions in need in Darfur.

Please contact your legislators to demand that the U.S. plays its part by fully funding this urgently needed assistance.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to the people of Darfur, and for once again speaking out and taking action.

Call for UN to confront Sudan over alleged war criminals

Call for UN to confront Sudan over alleged war criminals

LONDON, March 31, 2008 (AFP) - Top legal experts urged the United Nations Security Council to confront Sudan over its refusal to hand over two alleged war criminals to international prosecutors, in an open letter Monday.

The letter, distributed by British charity The Aegis Trust -- which campaigns against genocide worldwide -- called on members of the Security Council to "visit Khartoum at the earliest possible opportunity to demand that the suspects are handed to the ICC (International Criminal Court)."

Among the signatories are Carla del Ponte and Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda respectively, former British justice minister Charles Falconer and former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler.

They called on the council to freeze the personal assets of Sudanese government officials harbouring the two suspects -- Ahmed Haroun and Ali Koshieb -- and any others suspected of committed war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region.

"The government of Sudan has no serious intention to investigate past or ongoing crimes in Darfur," the letter read.

Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs, and pro-government Janjaweed militia leader Koshieb have both been issued arrest warrants for war crimes by the ICC.

More than two million people have fled their homes and at least 200,000 have died from the combined effects of famine and conflict since Khartoum enlisted militia allies to put down a local revolt in Darfur in 2003, according to the UN.
Source: www.sudan.net LInk to "Latest News"

Images from Darfur taken by Jon Nicholson July 2007

IT IS UP TO YOU AND ME WHEN LEADERS DON'T LEAD

WE MUST BE THE CHAMPIONS

WE CAN'T WAIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT

"THE MOST IMPORTANT OFFICE IS THAT OF PRIVATE CITIZEN" I have seen this quote written slightly differently in different places, but is it attributed to Brandeis, Louis D. Supreme Court Justice (1856-1941)

Activist Mia Farrow on Darfur

Citizenship Quotes