OBAMA IS FAILING IN THE CAUSE TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY

There was a time back in 2006 that I thought George Clooney wasn't needed to speak out about this issue. I was wrong. We need him and everyone else. President Obama is failing in the cause to speak out against crimes against humanity and genocide.

I feel President Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize at a time we had more hope in what he would do in the area of human rights and genocidal regimes.

The Nobel Peace Prize 2009 was awarded to Barack H. Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples".

ann-curry-george-clooney-visit-sudan
.............................................

.............................................

Africa's next deadly war does not have to happen. January 9, 2011, the people of Southern Sudan will vote for independence, taking with them up to three-quarters of the country's known oil reserves and placing millions of civilians in the potential path of war.

They've done it before. The north and the south fought a 20-year civil war that ended in 2005 only after 2 million people were dead.

Read the full article Endgame in Sudan

Communicate to the President
that he has a role to play

1-800-GENOCIDE
1-202-456-1111
www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Rahma, age 15
Darfuri refugee camp Djabal in eastern Chad

SO I JUST HAD TO POST THIS

I have started work on a book, taken to practicing my piano and singing while getting ready for a performance in January and I have started a large project of digging through a lot of video and pictures to make a Darfur video. So, I have neglected my blog. I have wanted to write here as it brings me pleasure and it has taken discipline not to spend time here. Tonight, as I was also getting back to my free weights I was upstairs on the bench press and in between sets, I was reaching into a shoe box filled with letters from various people from my past. It is part of my research for my book, but it is also just
so
much
fun
to read.

I can't tell you.

And also I scanned 234 pictures tonight of Darfur rallies in Washington, D.C. and New York City's Central Park, but also pictures of childhood, family and just people from my past. That also is fun and brings back so many memories that are rich with emotions and heart-felt affection. As my printer has not been working, I had to go to a store to scan them and only stopped because the store was closing.

Oh, and yesterday, I wrote a letter to the President and copied it to the Vice Presdent Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and U.S. Special Envoy Scott Gration. It isn't my best letter, but just felt another letter was needing to be written. It is posted below.

Okay, this is a quick post. I wasn't going to post tonight....it's late and I have to still practice the piano and singing before the typical cookies and milk before getting ready for bed.

But I found this video and had to post it.

.......................................................

.......................................................
Uploaded by MartinaE26

Support Site for Heath's Final film
www.imaginariumofdrparnassus.com

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Coming Soon to Rhode Island
www.avoncinema.com


Okay, so I love this one too....
.......................................................


.......................................................
Uploaded by buhtichki

>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>

>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:

GENOCIDE IS NOT OKAY

NOT IN THE PAST,

NOT NOW,

NOT IN THE FUTURE

SO . . .

USE YOUR VOICE
TO CALL UPON OUR LEADERS
TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT
ABOUT SOMETHING THAT IS VERY WRONG

Rhode Island

December 17, 2009

Genocide Stops With Us

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Obama,

I write to you about a deeply defining issue. Genocide and our response to it as a moral nation who chooses to live by principles.

I believe what we do, as well as what we don’t do, defines who we are individually and as a nation. As you know, the Darfur genocide has been ongoing since March 2003 – seven years March 2010. And yet what have we and the planet’s people and leaders done to end it with any effective results? I believed you would make the difference in this tragedy, that your heart and leadership would move us toward the healing for the Darfuri people. And I have been disheartened by your lack of active, personal engagement. And regretfully, I must say, thoroughly disappointed in our Special Envoy Gration.

Our being silent is used as a tool in the arsenal of Bashir. And Bashir takes the Bush and, now, the Obama administration’s lack of consistent determination to end the atrocities the same as our being silent. It is license for Bashir and his associates to continue business as usual.

Genocide in our time must be noticed, must be reported by our media, must have the leaders of free nations use their political power to end the Darfur genocide and actually put some meaning to the words “Never Again”. Words we love to use at the languishing end of each genocide that this planet has hosted.

There has been no acceptable genocide. Complicity is not a policy. Complicity comes from a lack of will. It comes from an administration that has lost its moral compass.

It comes from a world too wrapped up in its self-importance to stop and contemplate just what human disaster will we condemn, if not genocide.

Choosing to live in a world where it is okay to murder, torture, rape and starve to death a group of human beings truthfully means we live in a world with a moral vacuum.

Just exactly when is genocide not okay with us? Just exactly which ethnic group of people can genocide be used to rid the earth of them and just exactly which group of people can we turn our backs on - and the definition of genocide fits our values?

A moral nation needs to stand up for what is right and know that genocide flourishes when there is no accountability. Stopping genocide is a choice.

What does it say about us if we choose to allow Darfuri families to live this 7th year of genocide as a way of every day life?

Where there is a will there is always a way. Where there is no will there is never a way. One voice won’t stop a genocide, but that is no excuse to be silent. Our political will regarding Darfur has been underwhelming. Almost all of what is written above is from a speech I gave April 28, 2007 in Newport, Rhode Island. Unfortunately, it is just as true and relevant, today.

I have been a citizen active in the genocide prevention issue since 2004, when I read much about our country’s awful response to the 100 day genocide in Rwanda. I have written letters to my Presidents, lobbied in person repeatedly with my U.S. Senators Chafee, Reed, Whitehouse, Representative Patrick Kennedy, worked for Rhode Island’s divestment, divested my own money, delivered petitions to Fidelity Investment Company in Smithfield, Rhode Island, organized walks for Darfur, given speeches at three rallies, many churches, minister organizations, at my public library, speak to people in stores and on the street about Darfur, spoken up when the easier thing to do is be quiet, organized the Rhode Island Torch Relay and Ceremony at the RI Capital as a part of a global effort, organized other events in Rhode Island as a part of the Global Days for Darfur, such as Quiet Riot for Darfur, Newport Darfur Walk and Gathering, volunteered in Washington, D.C. rally where you, yourself spoke, volunteered at the rally in Central Park in New York City, attended STAND’s conference in Washington, D.C, participated in a conference in D.C. with Save Darfur, STAND, and the Genocide Intervention Network, participate in national conference calls continually, sign petitions to numerous people, including Special Envoy Gration, post consistently on my on own blog, make youtube videos about Darfur, written and had published many letters to the editor, regarding genocide and the lack of media attention to it. These are just some of the things that I personally have done. Without pay.

I believe this issue and our standing by says in a core way who we are, whether we fall on the side of accomplishing nothing to make a change about it or whether we succeed with our efforts and voices.

I receive daily updates about Darfur. Do you? I talk with a Darfuri who lives in the USA because he has seen many of his family members die at the hands of the Sudanese government supported genocide. He has contacts in Darfur and reports daily on his blog. His name is Mohamed Suleiman and he recently responded to my requests of help to make a youtube video, which I am working on currently. One of my questions was what is needed today for the Darfuris and the following is his answer.

DARFUR - WHAT IS NEEDED NOW in 2009

1) Justice now. This is a paramount demand for the Darfuris, a society torn apart by atrocities and genocide.

To date (after 7 years of atrocities) not a single perpetrator is arrested or stood trial in the International Criminal Court.

2) The Government of Sudan is intending to dismantle the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps before the national elections in April 2010 - all under the disguise of the program, Voluntary Return. Leaders in the Darfuris refugee camps are intimidated, detained, and assassinated by the Sudanese Governments' Security Agents, in order to force the IDPs to desert the camps.

3) 2010 Elections in Darfur are not welcomed. This is stated by many leaders of the refugees. They (the refugees and their leaders) believe that elections under the current situation would be a sham only to legitimize the rule of Al-Bashir and his ruling Party, the National Congress Party (NCP).

4) Still the humanitarian aid is not to the level of providing decent living conditions in many refugee camps.

I hope that you will actually receive this letter and take to heart the passion many of us share about ending and preventing genocide.

I have already received three copies of the Darfur response letter that you send to people like me. Now, I would like to see you get personally engaged in this issue.

What will be the Obama administration’s legacy about genocide?

Thank you very much for your attention to this deeply defining issue.

Sincerely yours,

Sandra Hammel

Use Your Voice to Save Darfur Rhode Island

Founder, Director since 2004

CC: Vice President Joseph Biden

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

US Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration

Contact

The Whitehouse

202-456-1111

or

1-800-GENOCIDE

More ways to contact the President:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please include your e-mail address

Phone Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

facebook.com/WhiteHouse

twitter.com/whitehouse

Speak Up

You Have A Voice

standnow.org
www.savedarfur.org

www.henryjacksonsociety.org/stories

OBAMA, GRATION, BASHIR AND YOU - ENOUGH OF THE NONSENSICAL HANDLING OF DARFUR ISSUES

Gration failing - it is not enough he lived in the Democratic Republic of Congo on continent of Africa when growing up

* GRATION COOKIES NOT WORKING
* Gration's remark of "Remnants of Genocide"
* Gration telling Darfuri refugees to go back to their torched villages without any safety measures in place

In regards to working to end the genocide in Sudan, Scott Gration said, "We've got to think about giving out cookies," said Gration. "Kids, countries - they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement..."

...U.S. diplomacy has remained mostly in the hands of Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, who is pushing toward normalized relations with the only country in the world led by a president indicted on war-crimes charges. Although Gration describes the approach as pragmatic and driven by a sense of urgency, his critics here and in the United States say it is dangerously, perhaps willfully, naive. "
Source: www.washingtonpost.com

From the Enough Project
"...the U.S. was offering honey to incentivize good behavior from Sudanese ruling party. This week, cookies and gold stars seem to round out the U.S.’s diplomatic arsenal in its dealings with Sudan. That is, if you ask the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Maj. General Scott Gration..."

Scott Gration has made so many blunderous statements, one might think President Obama has turned his back on Darfur completely, even with the so-called recently announced Sudan policy.

Gration tells refugees to return to torched villages
Suggestion Rejected by Refugees

NEW YORK, Aug. 5 -- The Obama administration's Sudan envoy is facing growing resistance to a suggestion he made recently to civilians displaced from Darfur that they should start planning to go back to their villages. Darfurian civilians and U.N. relief agencies say it is still too dangerous to return to the region where a six-year-long conflict has led to the deaths of more than 300,000 people.
Washington Post article on the this

abcnews.com ~Gration: "Remnants of genocide"

US's Gration Rewards the Genocidal National Congress Party (NCP)

.........................................................

..........................................................
Uploaded by StandAntiGenocide

STAND, the student-led division of Genocide Intervention Network, envisions a world in which the international community protects civilians from genocidal violence. At its core, the mission is to empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide.

President Obama assigned Scott Gration as U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan on March 18, 2009. And only after the public spoke up enough and Obama couldn't ignore our voices.

And then Scott Gration has been trying to be friends with the perpetrator of the genocide of the Darfuri people, Omar al-Bashir - with the purpose to resolve the problem. Some problem - a 7 year genocide, well-documented, that is supported by the Khartoum government in power and then Obama's Envoy has been trying to make bargains with the person doing the nasty work.

YOU

If you and I don't speak up and tell President Obama that we have had enough of the nonsense that he has allowed to go on regarding the handling and bungling of the Sudan quagmire by his Special Envoy Gration - then Obama's legacy will be identical with George W Bush's about genocide.

It is amazing what we will let stand. When enough of an outcry from the public doesn't happen, our leaders don't do what is right. Often.

We don't speak up and use the best power we have ~ Our Voices.

...................................................

...................................................
Posted April 5, 2009
Uploaded by NTDTV

Preventing Genocide: A Conversation with U.S.A. United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice

LIVE WEBCAST

Thursday, December 10, 2009, 7:00 pm. USA EST

On Thursday, December 10 at 7:00 p.m., please join us at www.ushmm.org/webcasts/rice for a live webcast of a special program with U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations Susan Rice. Michael Abramowitz, Director of the Museum’s Committee on Conscience, will interview Ambassador Rice, discussing her work at the United Nations and her experiences working on issues of genocide and mass atrocities and what can be done to prevent such crimes in the future.

Help spread the word about this special webcast

Tell your friends to watch by visiting this page, www.ushmm.org/webcasts/rice

You may also follow the program and share your thoughts via @HolocaustMuseum on Twitter. If you cannot join us for the live webcast, video will be posted to this website after the event.

If you missed the live webcast, you can still watch it at www.ushmm.org/webcasts/rice

It is recorded.

...................................................

...................................................

In a subcommittee of the House Foreign Relations hearing on Sudan, Special Envoy Scott Gration reverses his previous stance and admits that genocide is still occurring in Darfur.

Uploaded December 3, 2009 by ENOUGHproject

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SUDAN:
U.S. Envoy Faces Intense Scrutiny over Darfur Policy

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49546

Matthew Berger

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (IPS) - As U.S. special envoy to Sudan Scott Gration defended the Barack Obama administration's new policy toward the war-torn country on Capitol Hill Thursday, NGOs and a U.N. official reacted with disappointment and impatience.

Before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Gration faced persistent questioning from some members of Congress over the policy's inclusion of carrots alongside the sticks favoured by most international organisations.

The policy, announced Oct. 19, aims bring the conflict in the western-central Darfur region – which the U.S. and others have labeled as genocide – to an end as well as maintain the peace between the northern and southern Sudan that was established by a 2005 treaty.

This peace is thought to be threatened as tensions rise ahead of elections in April 2010 -the country's first since 1986 – and a referendum on possible southern secession the following year.

But the policy's path toward achieving these goals traces a controversial route between sanctions, whose effectiveness is more widely accepted, and a strategy of negotiating with Khartoum, for which Gration reportedly advocated and for which he has come under fire from advocacy groups. Gration, a retired Air Force major general, said in September that the U.S., in order to secure the cooperation of President Omar al-Bashir's government, should "think about giving out cookies. Kids, countries, they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement".

Thursday, Senator Sam Brownback, who was allowed to participate in the House hearing, led Gration down an accusatory and intense chain of logic which culminated in the question, "You are dealing with a government that is conducting an ongoing genocide, is that correct?"

"I am dealing with a government," said Gration.

After a brief back and forth, Gration repeated, "I am dealing with the government in Khartoum of Sudan."

"Which is currently conducting a genocide in Sudan, is that correct?" said Brownback.

"That is correct," Gration conceded.

While these meeting are "in an effort to end the conflict, in an effort to end gross human rights abuses", as Gration told Brownback, these objectives have not been enough to get advocacy groups off the envoy's back.

They were particularly upset Thursday that Gration did not reveal details of the carrots or sticks that were supposedly included in the administration's Sudan policy.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had spoken in October of a "classified annex" that listed the incentives that would be on the table for Khartoum.

"There is no annex," Gration said Thursday. "I'm telling you that I've never seen one."

"The big surprise was there is not a classified annex. And that suggests there is a big hole at the center of the administration's strategy. They haven't clearly articulated for themselves, international partners, Khartoum and other actors what the benchmarks are for progress," said Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition.

Sam Bell, executive director of the Genocide Intervention Network, echoed Fowler: "After hearings in the Senate and House of Representatives and the public release of an administration policy, we still haven't heard what specific benchmarks Special Envoy Gration is using to measure progress in Sudan. It is also alarming to hear there might not be a classified annex given the prominent announcement of it at last month's policy roll-out."

Gration did, however, mention "classified working papers" on which he would be willing to brief members of Congress privately. He also said the administration has told China, which has significant investments in oil-rich Sudan and reportedly sells arms to the country, that they should join the U.S. in imposing sanctions.

"We have. We have, indeed," Gration responded when pressed on the question. He said President Obama and Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao discussed the matter in private during their meetings in Beijing last month.

But Enrico Carish, coordinator of the most recent U.N. Panel of Experts on Sudan report, told the committee later in the day that "the United States appears to have now joined the group of influential states who sit by quietly and do nothing to ensure that sanctions work to protect Darfurians."

He contrasted this with actions of the Bush administration, particularly in 2004 and 2005.

Carish was less than enthusiastic about a mixed sanctions-negotiations approach. He said the U.S. and others have backed off their enforcement of a U.N. arms embargo against Sudan, allowing weapons from countries like China and Chad to illegally enter the country in recent years.

"Increasingly it looks like poorly understood and under-enforced U.N. sanctions are being sold out in favour of mediation whose success is far from ensured," Carish said.

Gration also noted that U.S. officials would meet in January for a quarterly evaluation of Khartoum's progress toward the goals laid out in the U.S. policy.

In terms of the upcoming elections, he said he was concerned about not only escalating violence ahead of the votes but also procedural disagreements and the contested census results that are slowing voter registration. "We are deeply engaged with the parties through the trilateral process to resolve these outstanding issues," he said.

The 2005 treaty, known as the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ended a 21-year civil war between the north and south in which two million people are believe to have died. It also laid out a path toward elections – a path which has proven to be rockier than hoped.

In his testimony Thursday, John Prendergast, co-founder of the Center for American Progress' Enough Project, focused on the importance and difficulty of free and credible elections.

"The parties should agree to delay the election until the conditions mandated by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement exist, because the U.S. and international community should not recognize any election that does not meet basic standards," Prendergast said.

To reach these conditions, he said, "Sanctions on the Sudanese government should be ratcheted up, including enforcement of the arms embargo, denial of debt relief, and greater support for further International Criminal Court investigations and indictments."

Bashir has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Gration said reports have placed the number of Sudanese registered to vote at 12 million, though the numbers vary greatly "across constituencies". Voter registration will conclude next week.

But in Darfur, two million people have been driven from their homes and 300,000 have died since the conflict began in 2003, according to the U.N. Darfuris, and millions of other Sudanese, are expected to be largely left out of the election.

Source: http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=49546

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

CNN: Sudan rejects war crimes warrant for leader. Sudan will never comply with a warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) to hand over President Omar al-Bashir to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday. "That would never happen," Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad said. "And the United States itself is not a member of the ICC. Let the government of the U.S. join the ICC." The Sudanese ambassador strongly criticized American lawmakers such as Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, for asking pointed questions of the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, former Air Force Gen. Scott Gration, about whether or not Khartoum is conducting an ongoing genocide. Mohammad said it's an "over-exaggeration" to suggest that the central government is targeting Southern Sudan and its leaders. But he added that Khartoum does not want the country to break apart. "Our priority, in accordance with the (peace) agreement, is unity of the country." He said the idea that the south may vote to secede in 2011 is only a "hypothetical question."

Politico: Envoy rebukes Sudan, Admin condemns crackdown. The State Department issued a statement Tuesday afternoon condemning the Sudanese government's crackdown against protestors demanding elections in 2010. Special Envoy Scott Gration, who has been criticized as overly deferential to the regime in Khartoum, said: "I am deeply concerned about these developments and urge all parties to exercise restraint. Negotiations on issues of urgent importance to all of the Sudanese people cannot proceed in an atmosphere of intimidation." Spokesman Ian Kelly said in the release: "We condemn all acts of violence in Sudan and call for restraint and dialogue among all parties... The United States calls on the Government of Sudan to allow freedom of expression and peaceful demonstrations in the spirit of the Interim National Constitution...Freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and protection from against arbitrary arrest and detention are fundamental human rights that must be respected. Failure to do so threatens the chances of holding credible elections."

CNN: Fragile peace may unravel in Southern Sudan. High-ranking Western officials say an increase in tribal violence, pervasive hunger, lack of development and interference from the Khartoum central government in northern Sudan could cast autonomous Southern Sudan into free-fall even as southerners prepare to vote in January 2011 on whether to become an independent nation. They say violent tribal rivalries could engulf the south and lingering tension with the north could trigger a resumption of the civil war. The United Nations says more people have been killed in Southern Sudan this year than in the western region of Darfur, where a separate conflict drew international attention, prompted charges of genocide and led the International Criminal Court to indict the Sudanese president for war crimes. "A third civil war is very possible," said David Gressley, the United Nations' regional coordinator for Southern Sudan, if the key issues of oil, credible elections and north-south border demarcation aren't resolved.

Xinhua: Russia supports peaceful settlement of Darfur conflict: envoy. Russian special envoy to Sudan Mikhail Margelov said on Wednesday his country supports peaceful settlement of the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. "We support all efforts aiming at finding a peaceful settlement of Darfur conflict through political dialogue," said Margelov at a press conference following his meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum. He said the international community and the UN Security Council were exerting efforts to resolve the Darfur conflict, referring to the recent Doha-hosted forum involving Darfur civil community representatives. Russia also took part in the conference, according to the envoy. The Russian envoy urged the two parties which signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) -- the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) -- to work together to sustain stability and peace in the country.

..........................................................

..........................................................

Uploaded by StandAntiGenocide

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENOCIDE IS NOT OKAY

USE YOUR VOICE
TO CALL UPON OUR LEADERS
TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT
ABOUT SOMETHING THAT IS VERY WRONG

Contact

The Whitehouse

202-456-1111

More ways to contact the President:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please include your e-mail address

Phone Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

facebook.com/WhiteHouse

twitter.com/whitehouse

Speak Up

You Have A Voice

standnow.org
www.savedarfur.org

www.henryjacksonsociety.org/stories

or, Start a Petition

>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:>:

PUT DARFUR AND SUDAN ON THE LIST OF PRIORITIES

On Tuesday, December 9, 2008, I am organizing a lobby meeting with U.S. RI Senator Jack Reed's policy director for Darfur. My U.S. Senator is on the Armed Services Committee. He likes to talk about Iraq - that is the subject that he is asked to talk about on television often.

Senator Hillary Clinton (nominee for Secretary of State) questioned the current and future Secretary of Defense Gates about Darfur on February 6, 2007 in this youtube video :
.....................................................................

.....................................................................

This was at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. Link

On July 22, 2004 the United States Congress took an unprecedented step when it recognized that the ongoing atrocities occurring in Darfur were genocide. However—nearly 4 and a half years later—the genocide continues. So far this year, at least 1,200 people have been killed by direct violence and over 300,000 people have been displaced. 2008 also saw the continuation of the Sudanese government's offensive military overflights in Darfur with 43 attacks. Darfur peace initiatives have failed and the current peacekeeping mission is still largely ineffective.

What’s Needed in Darfur: a Three-Pronged Approach
Peace Surge: An expedited and robust commitment to peace is needed. This will require the selection of a senior official responsible for this issue. The United States must also reach out to interested parties with leverage in Sudan and the region, especially China, the United Kingdom, France and key African countries, to coordinate efforts.

Commitment to an Effective Peacekeeping Mission: UNAMID is failing to achieve its central goal of protecting the civilian population in Darfur. A robust force on the ground in Darfur, with a competent lead nation and a clear command and control structure, is essential for saving lives, creating an environment amenable to the peace surge and establishing the international credibility required to ensure that a broader peace strategy succeeds.

Accountability and Justice: Accountability for crimes against humanity in Darfur remains an essential element of a lasting peace in Sudan. A premature deferral of the cases against Sudan’s leadership through invocation of Article 16 of the ICC’s Rome Statute would set back the cause of peace. The U.S. should veto any UNSC resolution invoking Article 16.

Here are some questions and the preferred answers that cabinet nominees hopefully will be asked at hearings and confirmation meetings in regards to Darfur and Sudan:

Question 1: Is ending the genocide in Darfur a top-five foreign policy priority for the Obama administration?
• Genocide in Darfur has greatly contributed to instability in the entire region. Instability, particularly on this scale, should be a serious concern as it relates to U.S. security.
• Iraq and Afghanistan are important foreign policy priorities, but Darfur should be too.
• The U.S. does not need to send troops to Darfur, but we need a concerted diplomatic effort to get an international peacekeeping force on the ground, get an inclusive peace process, accountability for perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity.

Question 2: Under what circumstances would the Obama administration consider Article 16 for the case of Sudan?
• Support vetoing Article 16.
• If Article 16 is going to be invoked, worries that the following won’t happen:
o Peace deal
o Alternative mechanism for accountability
o Evidence that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement has been implemented

Don’t trade accountability for war crimes for empty promises from Khartoum.

Question 3: What steps will you take to reinvigorate UNAMID?
UNAMID, the hybrid U.N.-African Union mission in Darfur, is failing to achieve its central goal of protecting the civilian population in the region.
• Sudanese government cannot be allowed to dictate the terms of UNAMID. We must not allow Khartoum to decide the mission’s force size, national composition, the extent of AU versus international participation, timeframe for deployment, or civilian protection mandate.
• We need a robust force on the ground in Darfur with a competent lead nation and a clear command-and-control structure is essential for saving lives, creating an environment amenable to the peace surge. This will establish the international credibility required to ensure that a broader peace strategy succeeds.

Question 4: Who will have the Sudan portfolio in an Obama administration? To whom will that person report?
• We need a senior U.S. official within the Administration (as high up as possible) to take responsibility for the “Darfur/Sudan Portfolio”. This person will make this issue progressively improve from the day he or she is assigned to the Sudanese issues.

• The reporting structure should reflect the importance of the issue by ensuring that a lead decision-maker in the Administration is readily made aware of any changes on the ground.

Question 5: In 2008, there were 43 reported aerial attacks in Darfur. What will your administration do to enforce the UN ban on military offensive overflights by the Government of Sudan?
The U.N. Security Council has demanded an end to offensive military flights several times, most recently in Resolution 1769, which authorized UNAMID. UNAMID has not enforced that demand. It is clear that the Obama administration and the U.N. Security Council need to consider how best to counter these continuing aerial flights and provocations and then make the plans work.
• What are the nominee’s thoughts on a no-fly zone? What would a no-fly zone entail? How else might offensive military overflights be stopped?

Question 6: Given its dependence on Sudanese oil, China has an interest in a peaceful Sudan. What steps will you take to work with China to ensure that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement holds and that the crisis in Darfur is ended through a negotiated solution?
• We need to change the conversation with China. In other words, appeal to China’s economic interest in Sudan. Use China’s economic interest, as a starting point to work with China on an initiative for peace in Sudan.

Sudan activists fear more arrests over war crimes case

02 Dec 2008 18:12:32 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Andrew Heavens KHARTOUM, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Sudanese rights campaigners are afraid the authorities will arrest more activists suspected of giving prosecutors evidence for a war crimes case against the president, a senior campaigner said on Tuesday. Amir Suleiman, of the Khartoum International Centre for Human Rights, said he and two other activists had been held and later released last week. "We fear that maybe other activists will be arrested," Suleiman told reporters. "We are under pressure all the time." International Criminal Court judges are considering a request made by the ICC's chief prosecutor for an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, accusing him of genocide and other war crimes in the western Darfur region. International experts say 200,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million left homeless in five years of fighting between mostly non-Arab rebels and government-backed militia in Darfur. Suleiman said security forces repeatedly asked him about his links to the Hague-based ICC during two days of interrogation last week. He denied supplying any evidence to the global court. U.N. officers told Reuters this week that aid workers faced increasing harassment in South Darfur where government officials have forced staff to hand over confidential files and emails to try to collect evidence of collaboration with the ICC. The Sudanese government's Humanitarian Aid Commission in the region denied any harassment had taken place. Commentators say the ICC judges may not reach a decision on the arrest warrant until the new year. Amnesty International said along with Suleiman, security forces detained and later released Osman Hummaida, a British citizen and the former director of Sudanese Organization Against Torture (SOAT), as well as activist Abdel Monim Elgak. (Editing by Katie Nguyen) There was no immediate comment from Sudan's intelligence services.


United Nations Sends Team to Subdue Violence at Darfur Camp

By Heba Aly

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations sent a team of armed peacekeepers to a camp for people displaced by war in Sudan’s western Darfur region to calm violence between residents and militia members.

A “quarrel” erupted on Dec. 1 between two so-called Janjaweed militiamen armed with a rifle and residents of the Hassa Hissa camp near the western Darfur town of Zalingei, the UN-led mission, known as Unamid, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. One camp resident was injured, a militiaman was severely beaten and later died, while the surviving militiaman was taken into police custody, Unamid said.

“As a result of the incident, about 30 armed Janjaweed marched toward the camp today, shooting sporadically in the air,” Unamid said. The militia set ablaze five water pumps supplying the camp. Another camp resident received a minor injury during the second incident.

Government-allied militia have been accused of some of the worst crimes in Darfur, where 300,000 are estimated to have died and close to 3 million others forced to flee their homes. Fighting in Darfur intensified in 2003 when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government, complaining of marginalization.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, or ICC, has accused Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir of committing genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur. Under the pretext of counterinsurgency, Bashir armed militias that subsequently burned villages, raped women and killed civilians, the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, alleged in his summary to the court.

Sudan’s government has said it will take unspecified legal steps to fight al-Bashir’s possible indictment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Heba Aly in Khartoum via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 3, 2008 03:46 EST

Aid Worker: No Easy Answers In Darfur

by Michele Kelemen

Listen Now [3 min 56 sec]

Morning Edition, December 3, 2008 · Jerry Farrell has lived in Darfur for three years and currently runs programs for Save the Children. He describes a lawless region, where peacekeepers can't even patrol camps, and bandits run off with just about anything they can steal. Asked what a new Obama administration could do, Farrell says there are no easy answers other than trying to restart peace talks.

Related NPR Stories

• Dec. 1, 2008
  U.N. Envoy Nominee Rice Known As Smart, Tough

Darfur Women Scarred By Fighting

Listen Now [15 min 25 sec] add to playlist

Enlarge

Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur, written by Halima Bashir and Damien Lewis. Random House Publishing Group

Tell Me More, October 23, 2008 · Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur is the first memoir written by a woman caught in the war in Darfur.

The author, Halima Bashir, was born into the Zaghawa tribe in the Sudanese desert.

She received a good education away from her rural surroundings. Halima excelled in her studies and exams, surpassing even the privileged Arab girls. With her love of learning and support of her father, a cattle herder, Halima went on to study medicine, and at 24 became her village's first formal doctor.

Yet, that, nor anything else, was enough to protect her from the encroaching conflict that would consume her land. Janjaweed Arab militias started savagely assaulting the Zaghawa, often with the backing of the Sudanese military. Then, four years ago, the Janjaweed attacked Bashir's village and surrounding areas, raping 42 schoolgirls and their teachers.

After treating the traumatized victims — some as young as 8 years old — Bashir spoke out, igniting a horrifying turn of events.

www.savedarfur.org

www.genocideintervention.net

1-800-GENOCIDE

Contact President-elect Obama:

change.gov

CALL PRESIDENT BUSH:

1-202-456-1111