LETTER #5 TO PRESIDENT OBAMA - WILL HE BE DIFFERENT REGARDING DARFUR?

Letter #5 to President Obama
regarding his inaction about Darfur and Sudan

Sent via http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

When are you going to take the lead and do something about the Darfur crisis? We are counting on your word to actually take seriously the crisis. Are we wrong to count on your word?

We have been waiting for you to put humanity before politics. The people of Darfur have a far greater crisis than the most recent flu news frenzied reporting here in the USA. Your inaction is not only defining you and proving your lack of seriousness about the Darfuri situation, but it is defining me as a citizen of the USA. Don’t choose a stagnant approach to Darfur and Sudan. Be the leader we believed you would be. We who have worked for years in the grassroots network to prevent and stop genocide are losing faith in your good will and your words about Darfur.

We were among your strongest supporters during the campaign. We didn’t join your band of supporters because we were swept up with the crowds, but because we believed you were a man of your word and would do what it takes to respond in a timely manner regarding inhumanity of such a dire story.

"A big lie."

That's what Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations calls a U.N. report that there are "over one million people at life-threatening risk" due to the government of Sudan's decision to expel aid groups.

With a million Darfuris without food and water since March 4, 2009 and many at the mercy of diseases spreading through the huge IDP populations, time is running out not only for the unarmed civilian Darfuri refugees, but time is running out for our respect of you on this important issue.

Genocide by starvation, diseases and other "passive" means have been done before. It was done on the North American continent to the indigenous people:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/

Now it is being done to the Darfuris.

When are you thinking it would be beneficial to actually act for those living without water and food for two months? When they are dead it will only matter in history texts because when you could have done something to save them, you were too busy to act. Surely, not too uncaring.

I have written four previous letters to you about Darfur. And in each letter, I have been less and less formal and more and more expressive about my anger at your failing to show us you are going to be different than President George W Bush about Darfur. In his first term, after reading the report on the Rwandan genocide, he wrote in the report’s margin “Not on my watch.” And indeed it did happen on his watch. Will it be different with you? Or more of the same? “We can’t say ‘Never again’ and then allow it to happen again…when you see a genocide…that’s a stain on all our us.” I believe that. And you, Mr. Obama, said that.

Genocide will never stop without us being stewards of humanity. In Sudan, extermination by starvation, dehydration and diseases - which come because of the weakened bodies due to lack of water and food- is happening right now in Sudan and since March 4, 2009.
We are all the keepers of justice. In Sudan, there is an emergency in which human beings are dying to have their stories heard. Silence kills in its complicity to killing by treachery. Our silence and indifference are just as necessary to genocide continuing as having genocidaire perpetrators and weapons.

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King

We are watching you and your representatives be less than effective regarding our Darfuri brothers and sisters. We are the ones we have been waiting for and we are doing our part. You are the leader we thought would do the right things to help end this crisis of the human race – the most defining issue on three levels: 1) the perpetrators, 2) the ones who stand by and allow the perpetrators to carry on without accountability and 3) the human beings being victimized, rendered unimportant enough for others to act on behalf of justice and what are the right responses. Is this the human race you want to be a part of? Not me. I want to be a part of a human race that is on the side of truth and justice. And we are all a part of genocide until it doesn’t happen anymore. Matthew 25:34-45. (From verse 45: I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.)

From http://www.mandatedarfur.org/en/introduction.php
"Two imminent political events could undermine the unity of the country and worsen the crisis: national elections in 2009 and the referendum on self-determination of the South in 2011. If Sudan's situation further deteriorates, peace throughout the region (from the Horn of Africa as far as Nigeria to the west), will be at risk. The scale of humanitarian crisis will be beyond the capacity of the international community to manage. Any solution must begin with a resolution of the conflict in Darfur."

Don’t let the hope die around you regarding Sudan.
Thank you for not remaining silent and indifferent for the Darfuri people.

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You can write to President Obama

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

or at

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Call him at 202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE

Send a post card to President Obama
AddYourVoice.org

He is not going to act for Darfur without you and without me pressuring him

In this way, he is no different than other politicians.

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MANDATE DARFUR Conference

9 am — 5 pm (EAT)
12 — 16 May 2009

From Mandate Darfur introduction page
http://www.mandatedarfur.org/en/introduction.php

If Sudan's situation further deteriorates, peace throughout the region (from the Horn of Africa as far as Nigeria to the west), will be at risk.

The scale of humanitarian crisis will be beyond the capacity of the international community to manage. Any solution must begin with a resolution of the conflict in Darfur.

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Check out Mia Farrow's Fast for Darfur

miafarrow.org
fastdarfur.org