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

GENOCIDE ESCALATING WHILE IN ITS 6TH YEAR IN SUDAN

Civilians are being rounded up by the Sudanese government, tortured, killed in order to intimidate Darfuris. The world continues to standby and continue to let this genocide continue. How many reports have you seen on television about the escalation in Sudan the last couple of weeks?

Here is a text of an email I received today:

A few days ago a massive mobilization
by the Government of Sudan and Janjaweed
in Darfur around city of Al Geneina in west
Darfur was reported.

UNAMID report that they were attacked on
Wednesday by horsemen with AK-47 and rockets.

This is ominous sign the worst is yet to come.

This is an attempt to isolate or neutralize
the UNAMID so that they will not intervene
in protecting the Darfur civilians.

Here is an article as reported by BBC :

Horseback raid on Darfur troops

There are numerous armed groups operating in Darfur

Armed men on horseback have attacked and stolen the weapons of Nigerian UN peacekeepers in Sudan's Darfur region.

The joint UN-African Union troops were ambushed by up to 60 men armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades on Wednesday, the Unamid peace force said.

It is not clear who was behind the attack, which has been made public for the first time.

The UN took joint control of the force in January but has not been able to bring peace to the region.

It has just 9,000 of the planned 26,000 troops.

"We are a peacekeeping organisation but there is no peace on the ground to keep," Unamid spokesman Noureddine Mezni told Reuters news agency.

He said the incident had been kept quiet while attempts were made to identify the attackers.

"We have bandits and we have armed groups and we have the [rebel] factions. With our very limited number of troops, it is not an easy job."

The attack happened near the West Darfur capital, Geneina.

The conflict began five years ago, when rebels took up arms in protest at alleged government discrimination against the region.

Pro-government Arab militias have been accused of widespread atrocities against the black African population.

But the rebel groups have split into numerous different factions, making a settlement difficult.

Source: news.bbc.co.uk/africa

Mohamed Suleiman 

The following letter was sent to our President:

Senator Specter Calls on George W. Bush
for Definitive Action in Darfur

May 22, 2008

President George W. Bush
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

Fourteen years ago the world watched as genocide
unfolded in Rwanda. Despite dire warnings and please
for help, 800,000 people were brutally killed in less
than one hundred days. Today the world looks back in
painful regret at its failure to take action. Yet,
we are likely to face a similarly harsh historical
judgment if we do not once and for all take action
against the genocide in Darfur.

The crisis in Darfur is now more than five years old.
In the time since it began, the world has once again
watched a horrific humanitarian crisis unfold.
Entire villages have been torched, their populations
displaced. Thousands have been raped and tortured.
Today, millions are living in sprawling refugee camps,
their livelihoods and families having suffered
unimaginable consequences. Over the years, you
and the Congress have rightly called the actions in
Darfur genocide. Both have said we must halt the
violence. Yet today, as we enter the sixth year of
this crisis, efforts to bring an end to the violence
are insufficient. The 26,000 member UN-African Union
peacekeeping team, which was agreed upon last July,
has put in place only a third of its forces. In
addition to Sudanese obstruction, deployment has been
delayed by a shortage of helicopters. It is simply
unimaginable that the United States cannot provide,
or work with allies to provide, a handful of helicopters
to help fully deploy this critical peacekeeping
force.

Some years after the genocide in Rwanda, President
Clinton visited the country and met with families
of the many victims. It was an honorable and important
decision. He said, "We in the United States and the world
community did not do as much as we could have and should
have done to try to limit what occurred in Rwanda in 1994."
Later in his life he said that the failure to act in Rwanda
was "my great regret in international affairs." If we turn
our backs on Darfur today as we did on the Rwandans in 1994,
we too will be left to face the harsh light of history.

We urge you to use all the power of the White House to
ensure that your legacy includes definitive action in Darfur.

Senators Durbin and Snow were the authors. Here's the full
list of Senators who signed the above letter to President
George W Bush:

Carl Levin (D-MI), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Bob Casey (D-PA),
Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Daniel Akaka
(D-HI), Russ Feingold (D-WI), John Sununu (R-NH), Diane
Feinstein (D-CA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), John Kerry (D-MA),
Susan Collins (R-ME), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ben Cardin (D-MD),
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC),
Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), Frank
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar
(D-MN), Barack Obama (D-IL), Joe Lieberman (ID-CT),
Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Hillary Clinton (D-NY),
Gordon Smith (R-OR) and George Voinovich (R-OH)

Things you can do to help:

Collect Signatures by June 1

Activists in more than 30 states are collecting signatures in their communities urging President Bush to help protect Darfuri civilians. Join our petition campaign and help us reach our goal of 75,000 signatures.

Send in your petitions by June 1, when the U.S. assumes the presidency of the U.N. Security Council. We have just one week left!

Click here to download the petition and pledge to collect as many signatures as you can.

June 20 Day of Action: Spotlight on the Sponsors

Sponsors of the 2008 Olympic Games must pressure China to do its part to end genocide in Darfur. On June 20, Darfur activists will protest the inaction of Coca-Cola, General Electric, Swatch, and Volkswagen.

Join us: Click here for more information

House Approves Funding for Darfur

The House approved $800 million for peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, and other assistance for Darfur - a huge victory for Darfur activists. The funding process now moves to the Senate. Call 202-244-3121 and urge your senators to support full funding for Darfur.

You can also use this number to call your senator:
1-800-GENOCIDE

Visit Save Darfur Coalition web site for more information

And...

Dream for Darfur and Save Darfur Coalition's
Spotlight on Olympic Sponsors Day


Available online is a Toolkit.

The toolkit includes background information on
Dream for Darfur and each of the four Olympic
sponsors targeted, as well as tips for creating
an event and a comprehensive timeline.

The Olympic Sponsors:
Coke
General Electric
Swatch
Volkswagen



Please visit 
http://tinyurl.com/59sfkb 
to obtain the toolkit and corporate sponsor
profiles.