A Tribute to Darfuri Refugees
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We Are The Children
Upload thanks to rachies
I've been busy polyurethaning my front door, repairing faucets, toilets, and calling plumbing supply companies over the last couple of weeks. And feeling overwhelmed. So, I have neglected positng here. But I did tune in to World Refugee Day live streams last Saturday and was in awe of seeing the Darfuri refugees in Djabal camp speak in real time to us. I am furious that our candy media doesn't see fit to report the Darfur story. But other stories are done ad nauseam.
I am behind on sharing iACTs trip to the Darfuri refugee camp and am posting the post they shared June 21, 2009 below. If you go to this link hwww.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day8 you can catch up on your own. Just click on the little video picture which will take you to each day's postings up until today.
I wrote the email below to Rachel Maddow and Ed Schultz of MSNBC. I have since stopped watching MSNBC. Never did watch FOX. CNN is the better of the poor news outlets on TV. BBC is better than CNN, but still not good enough. The network news stations tonight might as well been called "Entertainment Tonight". At this time, I don't have any reason to watch the USA supposed news shows, on any channel. It isn't news. It is pop culture type reporting and recently, Iran stories, affairs of politicians ~ that get the time on air. Now, it is all about Michael Jackson. I admit the Michael Jackson death news got to me, though.
See my Michael Jackson videos below. I am from Indiana and so is Michael. My love crush in 6th through 8th grade was with a boy from Gary, where the Jackson family was raised. The fact that I was white and he was not was forbidden by my mother.
I don't know Michael, but I think it is safe to believe that Michael had an internal tortured world. Something about his family is unhealthy emotionally. Like Michael, I was whipped throughout my childhood. The anxiety stays with us forever that is born in this kind of violence on our spirits who trust the one whipping us. Children who grow up in pain can find a harbour in the arts. I do. Michael did.
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Michael Jackson sings Heal the World
Uploaded by Roby76
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Michael Jackson sings Heal the World
Uploaded by Roby76
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DARFUR
Here is my complaint letter which tries to reach out and educate, but I think it is a lost cause with the people who "own" the air waves.
June 22, 2009
I write with respect, but with a question:
Why isn’t coverage for Darfuri justice from their own government just as important as Iranian justice? The news including your show has reported extensively about the Iran election and the aftermath. Some salient points reported are
• Injustice on the people by their own government is wrong
• Some Republicans are saying that Iranians should have the right to peacefully protest
• President Obama needs to say the Iranian powers-that-be are wrong
I agree with injustice being wrong and peaceful protest as a goal to be sought everywhere. The third point is useless unless President Obama has some action plan up his sleeve.
(Virginia U.S. Representative) Eric Canter (Republican Whip) says: "America has a moral responsibility to stand up for human rights around the world and to condemn the abuses that are occurring in Tehran today."
Criticism by John McCain, Eric Canter is more political than thoughtful. If it was thoughtful it would include Darfur. And I haven’t heard Eric Canter say
"America has a moral responsibility to stand up for human rights around the world and to condemn the abuses that are occurring in Darfur today."
I have heard politicians say that the “international community” needs to speak out about Iran. Okay. But what about Darfur? It has been going on under-reported for 6 years. Where has the “international community” been on this defining issue? Short of the ICC doing the right thing about President Omar al-Bashir, what have the “civilized” nations of the world done about genocide?
What do the Darfuri people have to do to get our attention…like Iran has right now? All die? I say that and it sounds harsh, but seriously what do the Darfuris have to do? They had hope during the U.S. Presidential campaign because they thought that Barack Obama meant what he said about Darfur and genocide. Now he has an administration that has two different views on Bashir, Khartoum and the genocide. They can’t even speak with one voice.
How more unjust can a government be than to support burning houses and entire villages down of their own people? Rape of the women and killing of the men – are used as a systematic way to exterminate the people who were asking to be treated fairly and equally by their own government. All possessions and land have been stolen and denied. Oppression by violence is commonplace and not reported to the outside world like we have seen the last week in Iran. Why is the story of Iran important and the story of Darfur only going out in dribs and drabs?
Scott Gration, President Obama’s U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan is a disaster. If he can’t support justice and take off the naïve blinders that he has been sporting, then he is the wrong one for the job. He needs to be replaced with someone who is up to the job. It is complex. And we need someone who listens to more than Khartoum. Gration’s extending a hand of friendship to the one who has perpetrated and supported the genocide certainly has left the Darfuri people out on a limb without the Obama hope that they had reason to believe in. Gration’s remarks about “remnants of genocide” are wrong. He should be talking to the refugees and the expatriates who are living in this country if he wants to know what is going on. Trusting Bashir’s version of the truth puts us off in the ditch of finding any resolution for the Darfuri families.
We have seen the videos taken with cell phones by people on the ground in Tehran, Iran on your show. We have seen the twitter effect as a source of news out of Tehran. What we haven’t seen is reporting from on the ground on your show inside the Darfuri’s lives at the many refugee camps. And reporting is especially needed since March 4th when the humanitarian aid agencies were expelled by the government of Sudan from Darfur and left the refugee population without water, food and medical attention. Some refugees in camps have been scattered because the camps have since been shut down. Where is the non-stop news coverag e on this story of injustice? And why don’t we care about it as much as Iran?
Saturday, June 20, 2009 was World Refugee Day and there was all day live streaming from camps. This was historical because it was a first time for this event.
The link is provided below to see video from the live stream of June 20.
Included is Djabal camp - a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad – where 17,000 refugees are trying to live and 13 year old Rahma shows us his home. iACT8 team of http://www.stopgenocidenow.org are the ones responsible for the live stream and video footage from Djabal camp. The founder, Gabriel Stauring’s email address is sgn.org@gmail.com He would welcome hearing from you.
http://www.refugeedaylive.org/
Highlights of World Refugee Day now available at this link.
Text taken from the website: For the first time in history, the world will be able to witness refugee camp life – real time, LIVE. In the next few days, content from the live webcast of June 20th’s World Refugee Day will be available at this link.
The schedule of viewing is on the left under the video.
Great daily videos are posted about the Darfuri refugee camp from June 15 to 24, 2009. Ten days a team is there on the ground reporting back to us via their website.
About the trip: iACT is the term used for the trips taken to Darfuri refugee camps by the team from http://www.stopgenocidenow.org ; This is their 8th trip so it is called iACT8 - from June 15 to 24, 2009. This trip is to Djabal camp - a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad – where 17,000 refugees are trying to live
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day7
See each of the daily videos here by clicking on the daily picture near the top, as well as read the team members’ daily journal entries at this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_h6jfUXtYw
Day 4 – June 18, 2009 - in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
The Darfuri Children, say “Hello Mr. Obama….are you there?”
“Is this hope?” campaign
Darfuri man speaking to President Obama “we request President Obama to do his promise, as he said in election… my message to President Obama: we need him to do more and more, to help Darfurian refugees, in order to grow back hope.”
iACT 8, Day 6 June 20, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0lc5-M-igI
World Refugee Day - shown is a musical instrument made at the camp with a cooking pot, they dance on the sand without shoes in 110 degree weather.
From live stream in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LLsTFWx7Sc
i-ACT8 Day 7, June 21, 2009
World Refugee Day Behind the Scenes – from live stream in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad. This is very interesting.
Below is from Eric who is with the iACT8 Stop Genocide Now team this trip and working as the technical person while they are at Djabal camp.
Here is Eric’s journal entry for Fathers Day
Focused and Determined
Posted on June 21st, 2009
Yesterday was World Refugee Day, and the people of Camp Djabal’s lives were intertwined with people from around the world in real-time. It was without a doubt the most important work I’ve ever done in my life. I haven’t had time to really process or absorb what I have been taking in on this trip, at least not as deeply as I know I eventually will.
Today is Sunday, Father’s Day, and I’m thinking of my Dad. I didn’t send him a card or a gift, but I know he knows I’m thinking of him. Yesterday morning in the hours before the start of the live video broadcast we sat on a mat and spoke with a group of men that are father figures of the camp. They told us about what they left behind in Darfur, and how they describe the beauty of Darfur to their young children so that they have at least a basic description of a home that they have never seen with their own eyes. They told us unanimously that there can be no peace in Darfur with there first being Justice. There was no debate, and they did not hesitate to state with complete confidence that everyone shared their non-negotiable demand for justice and accountability for Omar al-Bashir and a ll who have committed genocide and crimes against humanity. They voiced their support for the ICC and Luis Moreno Ocampo’s work.
I sat in awe listening and studying the faces of the men, astonished at how much pain, suffering, and evil their eyes had seen. We shared a mat on the ground. They shared their pain from the past, and their hope for the future. This was now on my shoulders. Focused and determined. It’s a weird metaphor, but one that I think people reading this will understand: This conversation was like the most inspirational pre-Superbowl motivational speech ever given by a coach to his team. Except, they didn’t know they were giving it. The conversation was totally impromptu, we didn’t plan on having it, it just happened… the way all things have happened on our trip. It happened for a reason. I left energized and focused on the task ahead — make sure that the stories of these men and those of the other people in the camp are beamed live across the world for all to see and hear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDE1bhcLkr8
Here is a video (41 seconds) of children and adults wishing President Obama “Happy Fathers Day” from Djabal camp - a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
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Below is from
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article31512
NCP supporters disrupt female students’ discussion of Darfur crimes
Tuesday 16 June 2009 04:10.
June 15, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – Several male supporters of the Nation al Congress Party disguised themselves as women in order to infiltrate and disrupt a gathering held by Darfur women students at the University of Khartoum today.
The Darfur students were engaged in a legal discussion on the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant issued to arrest the top member of the NCP, President Omer al-Bashir, for crimes against humanity in Darfur.
The students affirmed the legal liability of al-Bashir and his formal obligation to surrender himself to the ICC.
According to the Sudan Human Rights Organization (SHRO-Cairo), in the course of the discussion, male supporters of the ruling party, who had dressed themselves up in women’s clothes to be able to stay inside the discussion hall at the female section of the campus, violently attacked the Darfur women.
Under law, women are supposed to have the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly on campus. Earlier crackdowns against supporters of the ICC warrant occurred in March, soon after the warrant was issued, when security forces made incursions on campus to disperse public meetings about the issue.
On March 19, security forces and student backers of the NCP used steel bars to attack a meeting organized by the United Democratic Front (UDF), a student organization supporting the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Darfur rebel leader Abdel Wahid Al-Nur. Two students were detained in the assault.
"SHRO links this unprecedented violence with the permanent orders the President of the State and the NIF/NCP ruling party instigated to be forcibly executed by the Security and Intelligence Department against all citizens who spoke favourably for the ICC warrant of arrest," said the Cairo-based rights organization in a statement.
"Accused of supporting the ICC decision, a few human rights activists and several journalists had been arbitrarily arrested and/or put to trial by government authorities recently."
Today SHRO condemned "the illegal climate of violence the government has been spreading over the public life in pursuit of the President’s personal effort to silence all comments on the international prosecution and the warrant of arrest issued against him by the ICC."
SHRO is asking the government party and supporters "to act in accordance with the rule of law, the decent manners of Sudanese traditions, and the deserved respect to the female students in the university."
The rights organization urges the NCP supporters to be dealt with according to university laws, the Code of Ethics, and furthermore prosecuted under criminal law for any grievous injuries.
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Below is from Mohamed Suleiman (a Darfuri who presently lives in the USA. He still has family in Darfur being affected by the genocide). His blog is http://whilewewaitsudan.blogspot.com/
Two victims of rape still in Zalengie hospital. Raped by janjaweed using rape as a weapon to break the will of Darfur people. Government of Sudan tell the Janjaweed : You have to kill t hem savegly and violate their women, otherwise they will come back and claim their land.
Still bomb craters fresh in Furawiah when it was bombed just few days ago.
Gration is a hero in Khartoum. Champion of normalization.
Gration does not feel the pain of Darfur people who are still suffering from an on going Genocide.
I received in an email from Mohamed Suleiman on June 20, 2009 the following:
The IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in the refugees camps in Darfur speak out.
Leaders of refugees in IDP camps in Darfur in interviews with Radio Dabanga this morning asked The President of The United States of America Barack Obama to fire his Special Envoy General Scott Gration for his remarks on Wednesday. One leader from a camp in Zalengie (west Darfur) said since the expulsion of the NGOs "the rations are cut 50%, we live with our children under rain in torn shelters, we lack health services, how could the Special Envoys says the humanitarian conditions are improving, from where he got this 100% figure?!". Another Leader said that when Gration visited Sudan in his first trip he said that he came to learn from the Government of Sudan. The refugees' Leader said that it is evident that Gration has learned from GoS how to lie and distort facts about the humanitarian situation on the ground. The Leader challenged the Special Envoy to come to his camp or any other camp in Darfur not staged by GoS to see the real conditions for himself.
UNAMIDsaid in a statem ent that the incidents of attacks by armed militias against people in the IDP camps has increased dramatically. The UNAMID spokesperson Nurddin said in a separate interview to Radio Dabanga that there is serious lack of drinking water, blankets, shelter material, food, health care, and education in the IDP camps of Darfur. The spokesperson said that no one likes to live in these camps due to the bad living conditions there. He added that there is a lot to be done to improve the living situation there and/or work on the return of these refugees to their original homes.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
These female students were targeted solely because they are from Darfur discussing crimes committed against their relatives in Darfur.
- Last week, female students from Darfur in University of Khartoum convened a meeting to discuss crimes of GoS against the people of Darfur. The meeting was held in the girls dormitory in female residence in the University in Khartoum. NCP female supporters accompanied with male security agents disguised in female covers attacked the Darfuri female students with iron bars, bats, knives. It is forbidden by law and tradition for any male to enter the girls dormitories.
The Darfuri female students were savagely attacked, chased out of the compounds with bijamas and many bare footed, many bleeding seriously.
The toll of attack is as follows:
A- Seriously injured:
1- Nada Abdulrahman ---- four broken teeth (top), one broken tooth (bottom)-Facial injuries.
2- Aziza Adam Manice --- Beaten with iron bar on kidney, head, back.
3- Saadiah Idris -- injured on head by iron bar, underwent surgery and stitching.
4- Shadiyah Haroun --- Injuries all over the body, in critical condition.
5- Hawaa Aamir -- Injuries all over the body, in critical condition.
6- Howaida Dawood -- injuries on buttocks, back, arms.
7- Thurayah Abdulrahman -- injuries on arms, almost paralyzed.
8- Rawdah Mohamed Ali -- very serious injuries all over her body.
9- Thurayah Bakheit -- injuries on arms, buttocks, back.
10- Aayaat Adam Alnour -- injuries in the head, back, arms.
11 - Hagga Seleiman -- beaten all over her body.
12 - Tawassul Abdulrahman - Beaten with iron bars on head and back, now detained.
13 - Nadiah Abdulkarim -- Beaten on her stomach, legs, broken rib,now detained.
14 - Sagdah Musa - injuries on legs, now detained.
15- Samirah Ahmed Makki - beaten on stomach and legs.
16 - Aamnah Elddein -- beaten on the chest, neck, now detained.
17 - Susan Omer -- in critical condition now.
18 - Salwa Mubarak -- beaten with iron barall over her body.
19 - Mawahib Munsour Alnour -- beaten with iron bar, now in critical condition.
20 - Amani Mohamed Gumaa - Beaten with iron bar on the back, now in critical
condition.
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The text I sent to obameter@politifact.com is be low. I received this reply “Thanks for the tip. We will look into this. We have received e-mail from several readers alerting us.”
Angie Holan, staff writer
President Obama has broken Promise #430
I am shocked over President Obama's lack of leadership regarding Darfuri families. Extermination by dehydration, starvation and diseases of cholera, meningitis and diarrhea are happening increasingly since March 4, 2009.
Hearing what our Special Envoy Gration said on his trip to Khartoum, I find myself in disbelief. Gration used the word “friendship” when referring to a man Barack Obama said was behind the genocide on his own people. Is diplomacy with the perpetrators of the genocide really going to be the Obama administration's policy for ending a genocide? I am sure President Obama knows the history of Bashir saying one thing and doing another. Why is Obama's administration disregarding the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant out for President Bashir and his genocide associated crimes?
How can President Obama believe that we can affectively use diplomacy with a génocidaire? When he ran for President, Obama said he wanted, we the people, to let him know when he is wrong. He is wrong on Darfur. He is wrong because he is not taking the lead on handling the Darfuris situation. He is wrong because his administration is talking as if Bashir is a rational human being who can have a shred of trustworthiness. We need President Obama's leadership regarding Sudan and the Darfuri families. We need his leadership for the short term. We need it for the long term. We need Obama to be the man he claimed to be on this defining issue. It defines all of us because of what President Obama chooses to do and what he chooses not to do. I don’t want to be defined by another administration who says “never again” and means it only in the terms of what sounds good in the immediate moment.
"The United States has a moral obligation anytime you see humanitarian catastrophes...We can't say 'never again' and then allow it to happen again and as President of the United States I don't intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.” Barack Obama Where is this man? I would stand with him in any kind of storm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEd583-fA8M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPDUIWRIf0Q
A letter I sent to President Obama March 12, 2009. I read it aloud on this video.
Links to Djabal camp videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZN0rqp4Dnw
Day 2 – June 16, 2009 - in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
Arriving in Djabal camp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W97sc0tL4zM
Day 3 – June 17, 2009 - in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
Water station and building a home in the camp
Won't you consider this story of the Darfuri people? If you will look at the videos of Djabal camp, you will see as I do, lovely people living lives of oppression at best and at worst dying due to a world disinterested in genocide and simple human rights.
Thank you for your kind attention to this deeply defining issue.
Sincerely,
Sandra HammelI write with respect, but with a question:
Why isn’t coverage for Darfuri justice from their own government just as important as Iranian justice? The news including your show has reported extensively about the Iran election and the aftermath. Some salient points reported are
• Injustice on the people by their own government is wrong
• Some Republicans are saying that Iranians should have the right to peacefully protest
• President Obama needs to say the Iranian powers-that-be are wrong
I agree with injustice being wrong and peaceful protest as a goal to be sought everywhere. The third point is useless unless President Obama has some action plan up his sleeve.
(Virginia U.S. Representative) Eric Canter (Republican Whip) says: "America has a moral responsibility to stand up for human rights around the world and to condemn the abuses that are occurring in Tehran today."
Criticism by John McCain, Eric Canter is more political than thoughtful. If it was thoughtful it would include Darfur. And I haven’t heard Eric Canter say
"America has a moral responsibility to stand up for human rights around the world and to condemn the abuses that are occurring in Darfur today."
I have heard politicians say that the “international community” needs to speak out about Iran. Okay. But what about Darfur? It has been going on under-reported for 6 years. Where has the “international community” been on this defining issue? Short of the ICC doing the right thing about President Omar al-Bashir, what have the “civilized” nations of the world done about genocide?
What do the Darfuri people have to do to get our attention…like Iran has right now? All die? I say that and it sounds harsh, but seriously what do the Darfuris have to do? They had hope during the U.S. Presidential campaign because they thought that Barack Obama meant what he said about Darfur and genocide. Now he has an administration that has two different views on Bashir, Khartoum and the genocide. They can’t even speak with one voice.
How more unjust can a government be than to support burning houses and entire villages down of their own people? Rape of the women and killing of the men – are used as a systematic way to exterminate the people who were asking to be treated fairly and equally by their own government. All possessions and land have been stolen and denied. Oppression by violence is commonplace and not reported to the outside world like we have seen the last week in Iran. Why is the story of Iran important and the story of Darfur only going out in dribs and drabs?
Scott Gration, President Obama’s U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan is a disaster. If he can’t support justice and take off the naïve blinders that he has been sporting, then he is the wrong one for the job. He needs to be replaced with someone who is up to the job. It is complex. And we need someone who listens to more than Khartoum. Gration’s extending a hand of friendship to the one who has perpetrated and supported the genocide certainly has left the Darfuri people out on a limb without the Obama hope that they had reason to believe in. Gration’s remarks about “remnants of genocide” are wrong. He should be talking to the refugees and the expatriates who are living in this country if he wants to know what is going on. Trusting Bashir’s version of the truth puts us off in the ditch of finding any resolution for the Darfuri families.
We have seen the videos taken with cell phones by people on the ground in Tehran, Iran on your show. We have seen the twitter effect as a source of news out of Tehran. What we haven’t seen is reporting from on the ground on your show inside the Darfuri’s lives at the many refugee camps. And reporting is especially needed since March 4th when the humanitarian aid agencies were expelled by the government of Sudan from Darfur and left the refugee population without water, food and medical attention. Some refugees in camps have been scattered because the camps have since been shut down. Where is the non-stop news coverag e on this story of injustice? And why don’t we care about it as much as Iran?
Saturday, June 20, 2009 was World Refugee Day and there was all day live streaming from camps. This was historical because it was a first time for this event.
The link is provided below to see video from the live stream of June 20.
Included is Djabal camp - a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad – where 17,000 refugees are trying to live and 13 year old Rahma shows us his home. iACT8 team of http://www.stopgenocidenow.org are the ones responsible for the live stream and video footage from Djabal camp. The founder, Gabriel Stauring’s email address is sgn.org@gmail.com He would welcome hearing from you.
http://www.refugeedaylive.org/
Highlights of World Refugee Day now available at this link.
Text taken from the website: For the first time in history, the world will be able to witness refugee camp life – real time, LIVE. In the next few days, content from the live webcast of June 20th’s World Refugee Day will be available at this link.
The schedule of viewing is on the left under the video.
Great daily videos are posted about the Darfuri refugee camp from June 15 to 24, 2009. Ten days a team is there on the ground reporting back to us via their website.
About the trip: iACT is the term used for the trips taken to Darfuri refugee camps by the team from http://www.stopgenocidenow.org ; This is their 8th trip so it is called iACT8 - from June 15 to 24, 2009. This trip is to Djabal camp - a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad – where 17,000 refugees are trying to live
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day7
See each of the daily videos here by clicking on the daily picture near the top, as well as read the team members’ daily journal entries at this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_h6jfUXtYw
Day 4 – June 18, 2009 - in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
The Darfuri Children, say “Hello Mr. Obama….are you there?”
“Is this hope?” campaign
Darfuri man speaking to President Obama “we request President Obama to do his promise, as he said in election… my message to President Obama: we need him to do more and more, to help Darfurian refugees, in order to grow back hope.”
iACT 8, Day 6 June 20, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0lc5-M-igI
World Refugee Day - shown is a musical instrument made at the camp with a cooking pot, they dance on the sand without shoes in 110 degree weather.
From live stream in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LLsTFWx7Sc
i-ACT8 Day 7, June 21, 2009
World Refugee Day Behind the Scenes – from live stream in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad. This is very interesting.
Below is from Eric who is with the iACT8 Stop Genocide Now team this trip and working as the technical person while they are at Djabal camp.
Here is Eric’s journal entry for Fathers Day
Focused and Determined
Posted on June 21st, 2009
Yesterday was World Refugee Day, and the people of Camp Djabal’s lives were intertwined with people from around the world in real-time. It was without a doubt the most important work I’ve ever done in my life. I haven’t had time to really process or absorb what I have been taking in on this trip, at least not as deeply as I know I eventually will.
Today is Sunday, Father’s Day, and I’m thinking of my Dad. I didn’t send him a card or a gift, but I know he knows I’m thinking of him. Yesterday morning in the hours before the start of the live video broadcast we sat on a mat and spoke with a group of men that are father figures of the camp. They told us about what they left behind in Darfur, and how they describe the beauty of Darfur to their young children so that they have at least a basic description of a home that they have never seen with their own eyes. They told us unanimously that there can be no peace in Darfur with there first being Justice. There was no debate, and they did not hesitate to state with complete confidence that everyone shared their non-negotiable demand for justice and accountability for Omar al-Bashir and a ll who have committed genocide and crimes against humanity. They voiced their support for the ICC and Luis Moreno Ocampo’s work.
I sat in awe listening and studying the faces of the men, astonished at how much pain, suffering, and evil their eyes had seen. We shared a mat on the ground. They shared their pain from the past, and their hope for the future. This was now on my shoulders. Focused and determined. It’s a weird metaphor, but one that I think people reading this will understand: This conversation was like the most inspirational pre-Superbowl motivational speech ever given by a coach to his team. Except, they didn’t know they were giving it. The conversation was totally impromptu, we didn’t plan on having it, it just happened… the way all things have happened on our trip. It happened for a reason. I left energized and focused on the task ahead — make sure that the stories of these men and those of the other people in the camp are beamed live across the world for all to see and hear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDE1bhcLkr8
Here is a video (41 seconds) of children and adults wishing President Obama “Happy Fathers Day” from Djabal camp - a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Below is from
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article31512
NCP supporters disrupt female students’ discussion of Darfur crimes
Tuesday 16 June 2009 04:10.
June 15, 2009 (KHARTOUM) – Several male supporters of the Nation al Congress Party disguised themselves as women in order to infiltrate and disrupt a gathering held by Darfur women students at the University of Khartoum today.
The Darfur students were engaged in a legal discussion on the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant issued to arrest the top member of the NCP, President Omer al-Bashir, for crimes against humanity in Darfur.
The students affirmed the legal liability of al-Bashir and his formal obligation to surrender himself to the ICC.
According to the Sudan Human Rights Organization (SHRO-Cairo), in the course of the discussion, male supporters of the ruling party, who had dressed themselves up in women’s clothes to be able to stay inside the discussion hall at the female section of the campus, violently attacked the Darfur women.
Under law, women are supposed to have the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly on campus. Earlier crackdowns against supporters of the ICC warrant occurred in March, soon after the warrant was issued, when security forces made incursions on campus to disperse public meetings about the issue.
On March 19, security forces and student backers of the NCP used steel bars to attack a meeting organized by the United Democratic Front (UDF), a student organization supporting the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Darfur rebel leader Abdel Wahid Al-Nur. Two students were detained in the assault.
"SHRO links this unprecedented violence with the permanent orders the President of the State and the NIF/NCP ruling party instigated to be forcibly executed by the Security and Intelligence Department against all citizens who spoke favourably for the ICC warrant of arrest," said the Cairo-based rights organization in a statement.
"Accused of supporting the ICC decision, a few human rights activists and several journalists had been arbitrarily arrested and/or put to trial by government authorities recently."
Today SHRO condemned "the illegal climate of violence the government has been spreading over the public life in pursuit of the President’s personal effort to silence all comments on the international prosecution and the warrant of arrest issued against him by the ICC."
SHRO is asking the government party and supporters "to act in accordance with the rule of law, the decent manners of Sudanese traditions, and the deserved respect to the female students in the university."
The rights organization urges the NCP supporters to be dealt with according to university laws, the Code of Ethics, and furthermore prosecuted under criminal law for any grievous injuries.
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Below is from Mohamed Suleiman (a Darfuri who presently lives in the USA. He still has family in Darfur being affected by the genocide). His blog is http://whilewewaitsudan.blogspot.com/
Two victims of rape still in Zalengie hospital. Raped by janjaweed using rape as a weapon to break the will of Darfur people. Government of Sudan tell the Janjaweed : You have to kill t hem savegly and violate their women, otherwise they will come back and claim their land.
Still bomb craters fresh in Furawiah when it was bombed just few days ago.
Gration is a hero in Khartoum. Champion of normalization.
Gration does not feel the pain of Darfur people who are still suffering from an on going Genocide.
I received in an email from Mohamed Suleiman on June 20, 2009 the following:
The IDPs (Internally Displaced People) in the refugees camps in Darfur speak out.
Leaders of refugees in IDP camps in Darfur in interviews with Radio Dabanga this morning asked The President of The United States of America Barack Obama to fire his Special Envoy General Scott Gration for his remarks on Wednesday. One leader from a camp in Zalengie (west Darfur) said since the expulsion of the NGOs "the rations are cut 50%, we live with our children under rain in torn shelters, we lack health services, how could the Special Envoys says the humanitarian conditions are improving, from where he got this 100% figure?!". Another Leader said that when Gration visited Sudan in his first trip he said that he came to learn from the Government of Sudan. The refugees' Leader said that it is evident that Gration has learned from GoS how to lie and distort facts about the humanitarian situation on the ground. The Leader challenged the Special Envoy to come to his camp or any other camp in Darfur not staged by GoS to see the real conditions for himself.
UNAMIDsaid in a statem ent that the incidents of attacks by armed militias against people in the IDP camps has increased dramatically. The UNAMID spokesperson Nurddin said in a separate interview to Radio Dabanga that there is serious lack of drinking water, blankets, shelter material, food, health care, and education in the IDP camps of Darfur. The spokesperson said that no one likes to live in these camps due to the bad living conditions there. He added that there is a lot to be done to improve the living situation there and/or work on the return of these refugees to their original homes.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
These female students were targeted solely because they are from Darfur discussing crimes committed against their relatives in Darfur.
- Last week, female students from Darfur in University of Khartoum convened a meeting to discuss crimes of GoS against the people of Darfur. The meeting was held in the girls dormitory in female residence in the University in Khartoum. NCP female supporters accompanied with male security agents disguised in female covers attacked the Darfuri female students with iron bars, bats, knives. It is forbidden by law and tradition for any male to enter the girls dormitories.
The Darfuri female students were savagely attacked, chased out of the compounds with bijamas and many bare footed, many bleeding seriously.
The toll of attack is as follows:
A- Seriously injured:
1- Nada Abdulrahman ---- four broken teeth (top), one broken tooth (bottom)-Facial injuries.
2- Aziza Adam Manice --- Beaten with iron bar on kidney, head, back.
3- Saadiah Idris -- injured on head by iron bar, underwent surgery and stitching.
4- Shadiyah Haroun --- Injuries all over the body, in critical condition.
5- Hawaa Aamir -- Injuries all over the body, in critical condition.
6- Howaida Dawood -- injuries on buttocks, back, arms.
7- Thurayah Abdulrahman -- injuries on arms, almost paralyzed.
8- Rawdah Mohamed Ali -- very serious injuries all over her body.
9- Thurayah Bakheit -- injuries on arms, buttocks, back.
10- Aayaat Adam Alnour -- injuries in the head, back, arms.
11 - Hagga Seleiman -- beaten all over her body.
12 - Tawassul Abdulrahman - Beaten with iron bars on head and back, now detained.
13 - Nadiah Abdulkarim -- Beaten on her stomach, legs, broken rib,now detained.
14 - Sagdah Musa - injuries on legs, now detained.
15- Samirah Ahmed Makki - beaten on stomach and legs.
16 - Aamnah Elddein -- beaten on the chest, neck, now detained.
17 - Susan Omer -- in critical condition now.
18 - Salwa Mubarak -- beaten with iron barall over her body.
19 - Mawahib Munsour Alnour -- beaten with iron bar, now in critical condition.
20 - Amani Mohamed Gumaa - Beaten with iron bar on the back, now in critical
condition.
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The text I sent to obameter@politifact.com is be low. I received this reply “Thanks for the tip. We will look into this. We have received e-mail from several readers alerting us.”
Angie Holan, staff writer
President Obama has broken Promise #430
I am shocked over President Obama's lack of leadership regarding Darfuri families. Extermination by dehydration, starvation and diseases of cholera, meningitis and diarrhea are happening increasingly since March 4, 2009.
Hearing what our Special Envoy Gration said on his trip to Khartoum, I find myself in disbelief. Gration used the word “friendship” when referring to a man Barack Obama said was behind the genocide on his own people. Is diplomacy with the perpetrators of the genocide really going to be the Obama administration's policy for ending a genocide? I am sure President Obama knows the history of Bashir saying one thing and doing another. Why is Obama's administration disregarding the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant out for President Bashir and his genocide associated crimes?
How can President Obama believe that we can affectively use diplomacy with a génocidaire? When he ran for President, Obama said he wanted, we the people, to let him know when he is wrong. He is wrong on Darfur. He is wrong because he is not taking the lead on handling the Darfuris situation. He is wrong because his administration is talking as if Bashir is a rational human being who can have a shred of trustworthiness. We need President Obama's leadership regarding Sudan and the Darfuri families. We need his leadership for the short term. We need it for the long term. We need Obama to be the man he claimed to be on this defining issue. It defines all of us because of what President Obama chooses to do and what he chooses not to do. I don’t want to be defined by another administration who says “never again” and means it only in the terms of what sounds good in the immediate moment.
"The United States has a moral obligation anytime you see humanitarian catastrophes...We can't say 'never again' and then allow it to happen again and as President of the United States I don't intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter.” Barack Obama Where is this man? I would stand with him in any kind of storm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEd583-fA8M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPDUIWRIf0Q
A letter I sent to President Obama March 12, 2009. I read it aloud on this video.
Links to Djabal camp videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZN0rqp4Dnw
Day 2 – June 16, 2009 - in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
Arriving in Djabal camp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W97sc0tL4zM
Day 3 – June 17, 2009 - in Djabal camp – a Darfuri refugee camp in eastern Chad
Water station and building a home in the camp
Won't you consider this story of the Darfuri people? If you will look at the videos of Djabal camp, you will see as I do, lovely people living lives of oppression at best and at worst dying due to a world disinterested in genocide and simple human rights.
Thank you for your kind attention to this deeply defining issue.
Sincerely,
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From iACT's day 7 of current trip to Darfuri refugee camp - Djabal:
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day7
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Darfuris, Genocide and Living in a Refugee Camp for 6 Years
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Father's Day
iACT Stop Genocide Now team in Darfuri Refugee Camp
Focused and Determined
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day8
Day 8 iACT - Stop Genocide Now
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day9
Day 9 iACT - Stop Genocide Now
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day10
Day 10 iACT - Stop Genocide Now
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day11
Day 11 iACT - Stop Genocide Now
CALL 1-800-GENOCIDE
Call President Obama
202-456-1111
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Write to President Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
You can also write to the President at:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
President Obama can be called:
202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE
The White House comment line is available
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. weekdays
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Find USA elected politicians contact information at this link:
www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.stopgenocidenow.org
www.enoughproject.org
www.savedarfur.org
www.eyesondarfur.org
whilewewaitsudan.blogspot.com
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From iACT's day 7 of current trip to Darfuri refugee camp - Djabal:
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day7
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Darfuris, Genocide and Living in a Refugee Camp for 6 Years
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Father's Day
iACT Stop Genocide Now team in Darfuri Refugee Camp
Focused and Determined
Yesterday was World Refugee Day, and the people of Camp Djabal’s lives were intertwined with people from around the world in real-time. It was without a doubt the most important work I’ve ever done in my life. I haven’t had time to really process or absorb what I have been taking in on this trip, at least not as deeply as I know I eventually will.
Today is Sunday, Father’s Day, and I’m thinking of my Dad. I didn’t send him a card or a gift, but I know he knows I’m thinking of him. Yesterday morning in the hours before the start of the live video broadcast we sat on a mat and spoke with a group of men that are father figures of the camp. They told us about what they left behind in Darfur, and how they describe the beauty of Darfur to their young children so that they have at least a basic description of a home that they have never seen with their own eyes. They told us unanimously that there can be no peace in Darfur with there first being Justice. There was no debate, and they did not hesitate to state with complete confidence that everyone shared their non-negotiable demand for justice and accountability for Omar al-Bashir and all who have committed genocide and crimes against humanity. They voiced their support for the ICC and Luis Moreno Ocampo’s work.
I sat in awe listening and studying the faces of the men, astonished at how much pain, suffering, and evil their eyes had seen. We shared a mat on the ground. They shared their pain from the past, and their hope for the future. This was now on my shoulders. Focused and determined. It’s a weird metaphor, but one that I think people reading this will understand: This conversation was like the most inspirational pre-Superbowl motivational speech ever given by a coach to his team. Except, they didn’t know they were giving it. The conversation was totally impromptu, we didn’t plan on having it, it just happened… the way all things have happened on our trip. It happened for a reason. I left energized and focused on the task ahead — make sure that the stories of these men and those of the other people in the camp are beamed live across the world for all to see and hear.
The team here on the ground has been wracking its collective brain with a simple question, how do we get people to care? I know, it’s not simple at all. So, we make it more manageable and ask, how do we get enough people to care just enough? Care just a little?
And from caring, to action.
“Out of the entire population of US, how many people do you think have called the White House?,” Ian asked. It has to be a fraction of 1%, is my guess.
Samantha Power, genocide scholar and now with the Obama administration, summarizes her key findings from researching for her book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide”:
- Despite graphic media coverage, most American policymakers, journalists, and citizens are extremely slow to muster the imagination needed to reckon with evil. Ahead of the killings, they assume rational actors will not inflict seemingly gratuitous violence. They trust in negotiations and traditional diplomacy. Once the killings start, they assume that civilians who keep their heads down will be left alone. They urge cease-fires and donate aid.
- It is in the realm of domestic politics that the battle to stop genocide is lost. American leaders interpret society-wide silence as indifference and reason that involvement carries steep risks while non-engagement is safe. Lawmakers, editorial boards, nongovernmental groups, and ordinary constituents do not generate sufficient political pressure to change that calculus.
- The U.S. government not only abstains from sending its troops, but it takes very few steps along a continuum of intervention to deter genocide.
- U.S. officials spin themselves (as well as the American public) about the nature of the violence and the likely impact of an American intervention. They render the bloodshed two-sided and inevitable, not genocidal. They insist that any proposed U.S. response will be futile, and may harm the victims and jeopardize other precious American moral or strategic interests. They brand as “emotional” those U.S. officials who urge intervention. They avoid use of the word “genocide.” Thus, they can in good conscience favor stopping genocide in the abstract, while simultaneously opposing American involvement.
The suffering that has been experienced during the last years in Darfur is far from an abstract. It is very real. I know that you care, since you’re here in our website reading this. How do we get more to care? How do we win the battle?
Paz, G
Yesterday was World Refugee Day. My friends got to speak to the world. Directly to anyone who logged in. To anyone who was following any of the many twitter updates. To anyone who was on the live chat - anywhere in the world. We had spent the days leading up to WRD preparing for the live video feed to Washington DC and then for the several hours of live video feed to the world.
We walked the camp, back and forth in the sand and the heat. We talked with refugees, asked them to gather their friends to be included and to control the crowd, and we tested tech equipment. We slept on the floor of an office, quite comfortably actually, and had only a few moments of down time and sleep over the past week.
It was all worth it. Broadcasting the voices of the refugees to world, live, offering interactions and question/answer sessions, all of this is why I am here.
At the end of the day, during the sunset over Djabal, Annette Rehl from UNHCR was saying the closing words for the day. This is when it hit me. The power of what we did today and possibilities for the future. The possibility that the world’s most vulnerable can participate in the conversations and peace processes that affect their lives most directly is real. It is very real. This is why I am here.
Thank you to those who tuned in, and if you didn’t get a chance, please check out the “on demand” or archived footage of the day. You will see all our friends speaking to the world.
Day 8 iACT - Stop Genocide Now
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day9
Day 9 iACT - Stop Genocide Now
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day10
Day 10 iACT - Stop Genocide Now
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day11
Day 11 iACT - Stop Genocide Now
CALL 1-800-GENOCIDE
Call President Obama
202-456-1111
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Write to President Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
You can also write to the President at:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
President Obama can be called:
202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE
The White House comment line is available
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. weekdays
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Find USA elected politicians contact information at this link:
www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.stopgenocidenow.org
www.enoughproject.org
www.savedarfur.org
www.eyesondarfur.org
whilewewaitsudan.blogspot.com
>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:
Michael Jackson
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Childhood ~ the song Michael Jackson wanted all to hear
He called this song autobiographical
Uploaded by Luluvine
Heal the World
Don't Stop Til You Get Enough
from michaeljackson
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Childhood ~ the song Michael Jackson wanted all to hear
He called this song autobiographical
Uploaded by Luluvine
Heal the World
Don't Stop Til You Get Enough
from michaeljackson
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Ben with the instrumental removed - just below is the same with the instruments
Uploaded by temps0
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Ben with the instrumental removed - just below is the same with the instruments
Uploaded by temps0
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Ben
Uploaded by mytube4yourtube
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Ben ~ over the years
Uploaded by ElegantMJJ
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Michael Jackson and Jackson Brown
Alice Miller
writes
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Micheal's video of his song ~ Childhood
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Ben
Uploaded by mytube4yourtube
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Ben ~ over the years
Uploaded by ElegantMJJ
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Michael Jackson and Jackson Brown
Alice Miller
writes
Child Mistreatment, Child Abuse
What is it?
Humiliations, spankings and beatings, slaps in the face, betrayal, sexual exploitation, derision, neglect, etc. are all forms of mistreatment, because they injure the integrity and dignity of a child, even if their consequences are not visible right away. However, as adults, most abused children will suffer, and let others suffer, from these injuries. This dynamic of violence can deform some victims into hangmen who take revenge even on whole nations and become willing executors to dictators as unutterably appalling as Hitler and other cruel leaders. Beaten children very early on assimilate the violence they endured, which they may glorify and apply later as parents, in believing that they deserved the punishment and were beaten out of love. They don't know that the only reason for the punishments they have ( or in retrospect, had) to endure is the fact that their parents themselves endured and learned violence without being able to question it. Later, the adults, once abused children, beat their own children and often feel grateful to their parents who mistreated them when they were small and defenseless.
This is why society's ignorance remains so immovable and parents continue to produce severe pain and destructivity - in all "good will", in every generation. Most people tolerate this blindly because the origins of human violence in childhood have been and are still being ignored worldwide. Almost all small children are smacked during the first three years of life when they begin to walk and to touch objects which may not be touched. This happens at exactly the time when the human brain builds up its structure and should thus learn kindness, truthfulness, and love but never, never cruelty and lies. Fortunately, there are many mistreated children who find "helping witnesses" and can feel loved by them.
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Micheal's video of his song ~ Childhood
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