NO QUESTION ABOUT DARFUR ASKED AT FOREIGN POLICY PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE IN MISSISSIPPI

The U.N. General Assembly opened on September 16 in New York City. Across town on Wednesday night, a stream of vans, buses and cars filled with Darfuri refugees arrived at Widdi Hall in Brooklyn. They gathered to eat together - along with a very important guest - after breaking the daily fast of Ramadan. The Darfuris came from Iowa, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and the Washington, DC area to meet the International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

The prosecutor entered the hall to a loud and cheering group of nearly 150 Darfuris holding signs and chanting, "Justice, justice for Darfur!"

Earlier this week, Darfuris held a press conference call wherein they provided their perspective on how justice and accountability will be realized in Darfur. A transcript of that press conference call is located here.

Lastly, Darfuri Diaspora organizations drafted a letter to the U.N. Security Council urging member states not to derail the pursuit of justice and accountability at The Hague. Their letter is located here.

For more information on other ways we are working to amplify Darfuri voices, visit here.

While George W Bush wrote in the margin of a report on the Rwandan genocide "not on my watch" when he began his first term as President of the United States of America, the government-backed genocide on the Darfuri people has been going on for five and a half years. It would have been appropriate for Jim Lehrer to ask a question about Darfur. Economy questions took up the first third of the foreign policy debate. The remaining two-thirds was spent on foreign policy questions with answers that included more economy as well as foreign policy points.

It appears that the USA citizens can't think of other things when the economy is in the ditch. And this includes the Iraq war, which has been a huge contributor to our nearly 10 trillion dollar national debt. Here is a link to the USA debt. Here is some debt news:

U.S National Debt Clock

The Outstanding Public Debt as of September 27, 2008 at 05:45:58 AM GMT is:

$9,852,321,078,024.33

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $2.32 billion per day since September 28, 2007.

But we as citizens, don't expect that our elected officials talk about it because we don't want to think about it. John McCain claimed in the debate that he and only he is concerned about taxes, but let's be honest, John didn't mention our debt growing primarily from the Iraq war.

As many USA citizens feel, I believe that our complicity in the genocide of the Darfuri families defines us in a way that should be humiliating. Our debt should be addressed. Yes.

But not taking leadership on terrorism - genocide - incriminates us to the bottom of the justice values that we think we are the standard bearer of.

www.savedarfur.org

1-800-GENOCIDE