SONGS about FIRE

A song I have liked for years ~ FIRE
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Bob Seger's The Fire Down Below

Click post title for Slow Hand

YOUR COMPLICITY HELPS OMAR AL-BASHIR PERPETUATE GENOCIDE

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Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, speaks on the role of activists in bringing to justice perpetrators of the crime of genocide.

Help Promote Justice

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir:

The Record Speaks for Itself

1-800-GENOCIDE

HOW TO BE AN OLYMPIC ATHLETE AND BRING THE DREAM TO DARFUR

Introducing Team Darfur

The buzz is building for this summer’s Olympics. There are many records set to be broken and many athletes will establish themselves as the future of their respective sports. However, some athletes have another thought in the back of their minds - the suffering men, women, and children in Darfur. Most of those athletes have joined with Team Darfur to raise awareness about Darfur and to encourage China, the Olympic host, and all nations of the world to take responsible actions to alleviate the suffering of so many Darfurians.

Team Darfur is an international coalition of athletes committed to raising awareness about and bringing an end to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan...

...Team Darfur now has over 380 athletes representing 63 countries from around the world, and the numbers continue to grow. Team Darfur athletes have shown their support for the people of Darfur by wearing Team Darfur gear, expressing their concerns to the media, participating in awareness-raising events, and recruiting their fellow athletes and competitors to join the movement. Many well-known athletes have joined the cause including Philip Dunn, an Olympic racewalker, who will be competing in his third straight Olympic Games for the United States. Doug Lennox II, an Olympic swimmer from Puerto Rico, has also served as an active voice for Darfur. Both athletes have signed the open letter that asks the international community to call for an Olympic Truce for Darfur.

...To date, athletes have participated in press conferences on Capitol Hill and at the Chinese Mission to the UN, met with members of Congress and members of the International Olympic Committee, and testified before the Senate. Team Darfur athletes were also instrumental in reversing a trend practiced by Olympic Committees in which they attempted to gag their athletes on human rights issues. The United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Belgium all made early attempts to ban political speech by athletes at the Olympics. This news quickly made its way to the press who were anxious to speak with Team Darfur athletes. The attention given to this issue has led both the UK and New Zealand to weaken or reverse their ban on athletes’ right to free speech...

...In just a few short weeks, over 60 Team Darfur athletes will be competing in Beijing. We hope you’ll join us in cheering on their efforts in their sports, and their efforts for the people of Darfur. You can show your support by wearing a Team Darfur tshirt or sweatband during the games, and by following Team Darfur’s athletes at www.TeamDarfur.org.
To read the full article

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China is providing Sudan with military assistance in the troubled Darfur region, A BBC Panorama investigation suggests. The UN has imposed an arms embargo against Sudan which requires nations like China to stop their military equipment from going to Darfur. Hilary Andersson reports from Darfur. See the video at this link.

WE ARE ALL THE KEEPERS OF JUSTICE

Without our diligence to work toward justice, justice will not happen.

We are all the keepers of justice.

Niemat Ahmadi Addresses the International Criminal Court

Niemat Ahmadi, Darfuri Liaison Officer at the Save Darfur Coalition today addressed an open meeting of the States Parties to the International Criminal Court at UN Headquarters in New York. The meeting comes just three days after the Chief Prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, announced that he is seeking an arrest warrant for Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir.

The prosecutor has charged Bashir with criminal responsibility for 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Ahmadi represented the Darfuri community, many of whom overwhelmingly support the prosecutor’s decision, and made a strong claim that both peace and justice are necessary and achievable. The event also included remarks by Moreno-Ocampo and the Secretary General of the U.N., Ban Ki-Moon. The full-text of her remarks is below.

The Danger of Enabling Al-bashir

As the slaughter in Darfur is in its sixth year, conditions continue to deteriorate for civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, even by the most conservative estimates. The United Nations officially puts the death toll at roughly 300,000, while Jan Pronk recently puts the number at no less than 400,000. Up to 2.5 million Darfuris have fled their homes and continue to live in camps throughout Darfur, or in refugee camps in Chad and the Central African Republic. Based on Sudan’s behavior over the past five years—indeed since al-Bashir assumed power in 1989, it is clear that unless the international community imposes massive political costs for al-Bashir’s intentional and calculated obstructionism, not to mention criminal behavior, his government will continue to buy time by accepting initiatives only to backtrack later or impose new conditions that render them useless.

Darfuris have been suffering, not only from an orchestrated campaign to eliminate them, but also from year after year of inaction by the international community. This week, Darfuris finally got a welcome bit of news: the prosecutor at the ICC charged al-Bashir with 10 counts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Let me be categorical about this: the people of Darfur wholeheartedly welcome and support this effort by Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo!

Unfortunately, this good news is being drowned out by the many voices that insist —falsely, I might add—that justice and peace for Darfuris are incompatible and that they can only have one at the cost of the other. Unfortunately, whether they realize it or not, the intellectuals, academics, and practitioners who are advancing this claim that peace and justice are mutually exclusive are helping al-Bashir and his inner circle avoid the consequences of their crimes, and therefore are unnecessarily prolonging the suffering of innocent civilians. Let me be clear about this as well: the people of Darfur categorically reject this approach in principle! We reject it because it is inaccurate, we reject it because it is unjust, and we reject it because it flaunts centuries of traditional Darfuri conflict resolution mechanisms that have been intentionally sabotaged by Khartoum.

Let me ask you this: what does peace mean to me as a Darfuri woman who was forced to flea her home in the dark of night? What does peace mean to the many thousands of girls and women who were repeatedly raped in a calculated effort to destroy a community? What does peace mean to those that are dying a slow agonizing death in the camps while strangers have taken over their land? What does it mean to hundreds of thousands of orphaned children? What does it mean to the millions of elderly, women and children who rely on the WFP and others to not starve? Let me tell you that to those people there is NO peace WITHOUT justice. It is important to listen to the voices of the victims, and those who have argued that justice will derail a non-existent peace have not done so.

I, and millions of Darfuris and other advocates of peace AND justice, commend Mr. Ocampo for his courage and diligence. I appeal to all states and all UN organs to not undo his great work through their inaction. On behalf of those millions who have died, suffered and continue to suffer as I speak to you today, I call on the ICC, the Security Council and all other relevant actors to not engage al-Bashir in the perverse calculus of justice OR peace. We want and deserve both justice AND peace. He has not taken meaningful steps toward either of those goals for nearly six years. It would be shortsighted to give him the benefit of the doubt now. Over the past few days, as many of you have surely seen and heard, al-Bashir has made some of the most conciliatory statement with regard to Darfur in the past six years. He is also calling on his allies in the African Union and the Arab League and China, not to help resolve the crisis, but rather to provide him with the political cover that he so desperately needs now. Al-Bashir has not had a change of heart, he is reacting to increased international pressure; now is the time to demand verifiable changes in Khartoum’s behavior, changes that will further both goals of peace AND justice…actions that will have a concrete and measurable positive effect for the people of Darfur who have suffered for far too long already.

Nobody can ask the people of Darfur to relinquish their right to hold the perpetrators of mass atrocities accountable in exchange for vague promises of peace and security in Darfur. Our people have witnessed too many peace initiatives fail and too many delays in the deployment of peacekeepers who can protect the vulnerable. We understand the difficulty at hand in dealing with an authoritarian and genocidal government such as the one led by al-Bashir. However, there are no moral or legal grounds to strip the victims of their rights for political expediency.

Thank you.

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• Darfur Investigator Finds Refugees' Voices In Tune with Sudan Indictment

  7/18/2008

  With the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo's application for an arrest warrant this week against Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the volley of threats between the international community and the Sudan government is intensifying.
• Prosecutor looks at 3rd war crimes case in Darfur

  7/18/2008

  UNITED NATIONS -- With an arrest warrant pending against Sudan's president, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor said Thursday he was focusing on another war crime case in Darfur involving two suspected rebel commanders allegedly directing attacks against peacekeepers.
• Prosecutor to Pursue Rebels in Next Case on Darfur Crisis

  7/17/2008

  UNITED NATIONS Days after seeking an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president, the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court said on Thursday that his next case on the conflict in Darfur would focus on the rebels thought to be responsible for a deadly attack on international peacekeepers in September.
• Sudan rules out deal with ICC over Bashir warrant

  7/17/2008

  KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan on Thursday rejected a deal with the International Criminal Court to hand over two indicted officials in exchange for dropping the court's arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir.
• Bush Warned He Might Send Troops to Darfur: Wade

  7/17/2008

  Filed at 5:34 p.m. ET DAKAR (Reuters) - Senegal's president said on Thursday George W. Bush told African leaders at one stage the United States might send troops to Sudan's Darfur if they did not act to halt what he saw as genocide there.
• Trying Sudanese President Poses Unique Challenges

  7/17/2008

• China boosts peacekeepers in Darfur

  7/17/2008

  KHARTOUM (AFP) - Extra Chinese engineers were en route for Sudan's war-torn western region of Darfur on Thursday, set to boost the number of UN-led peacekeeping troops to more than 8,000, a spokeswoman said.
• Prosecuting Genocide

  7/17/2008

  Many aid workers and diplomats suffered a panic attack when the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court sought an arrest warrant this week for the president of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for committing genocide.
• Warrant for Sudanese Is Talk of Security Council

  7/16/2008

  UNITED NATIONS Russia and China voiced concerns on Wednesday about the pursuit of Sudans president by international prosecutors, raising the possibility that the United Nations Security Council could intervene to forestall the prosecution, diplomats said.
• Another peacekeeper shot and killed in Darfur as UN debates extending the peace mission

  7/16/2008

  UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ Gunmen in Darfur shot and killed another United Nations-African Union peacekeeper Wednesday, just as the U.N. Security Council voted to condemn the killing of seven Darfur peacekeepers a week ago as a possible war crime.

Source: blogfordarfur.org/2008/07/18/ahmadi-addresses-icc-meeting

BBC Uncovers Chinese Role in Darfur

Earlier this week, the BBC found the first pieces of evidence suggesting that China has been providing Sudan weapons that are used to carry out the genocide - in violation of a U.N. arms embargo.

Read more on the Save Darfur Blog for Darfur - July 15, 2008 - Save Darfur blasts Chinas on- going military links with genocidal regime

Matthew 25:31-46

GENOCIDE ONLY CAN HAPPEN WHEN THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY

Darfuri Leaders Network: ‘We implore the U.N. Security Council to take no actions that would impede the work of Mr. Moreno-Ocampo and the ICC.’

In an effort to ensure that their voices were heard, the Darfuri Leaders Network, a broad-based alliance representing Darfur diaspora organizations across the United States, responded yesterday with a letter that was delivered to U.N. Security Council member states.

WASHINGTON –The Darfuri Leaders Network, a broad-based alliance representing Darfur diaspora organizations across the United States, today weighed in on the recent developments in The Hague – urging the U.N. Security Council not to obstruct the International Criminal Court’s action against Sudanese President al-Bashir. While many experts and opinion-makers have weighed in on the potential implications of the recent ICC actions against al-Bashir, a voice that has been utterly drowned out of the dialogue is that of the Darfuri people themselves.

In a letter delivered to the Security Council member states, the DLN expressed its appreciation for the ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s formal request for an arrest warrant for President al-Bashir and reiterated that the council must ensure that peace and justice move forward concurrently. The group also called on the council to make clear that reprisals against the Darfuri people following the ICC actions will not be tolerated.

“Despite the immense magnitude of suffering and unimaginable pain of our people, we have witnessed many governments and international experts condemn Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s decision with some of the same justifications and rationales as President Al Bashir and the Government of Sudan,” the letter states. “These criticisms ignore the Darfuri voices that uniformly approve of the ICC’s efforts and view the ICC as the only available outlet to secure justice and accountability for the crimes committed in Darfur since 2003.”

The full text of the letter appears below.

July 17, 2008

Dear Members of the Security Council:

We write to you as members of the Darfuri civil society living in the diaspora. We are a network of Darfuri-led human rights and humanitarian organizations in the United States and around the world, united together to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur and to advocate for the rights of the people of Darfur to have security, justice and lasting peace in Darfur.

We write to you today to express our appreciation for the Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s formal request for an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the President of The Sudan Omar Hassan Ahmad Al-Bashir. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s unwavering commitment to seeking justice for the people of Darfur led him to this historic decision and we sincerely thank the UN Security Council for referring the case of Darfur to the ICC and providing Mr. Moreno-Ocampo with the mandate to carry out his assigned mission.

Our people have cried out for justice for the last five years only to see the humanitarian and political crisis worsen in Darfur. Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s request to examine the culpability of President Al Bashir for the genocide committed against our friends and families brings us some hope that the international community may finally match its rhetoric with actions that lead to real results in The Sudan. It is for this reason that we give our unequivocal support to Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s decision which aims to provide much delayed accountability for those responsible for the destruction of the lives and livelihoods of Darfuris.

Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s courageous act comes at a time when the situation in Darfur leaves our people increasingly vulnerable. Violence continues each day unabated, as the notorious Janjaweed and Government of Sudan forces attempt to intimidate the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). Indeed, we were sincerely saddened to hear reports about the deadly attack by such forces against UNAMID on July 8, 2008. We believe the Government of Sudan launched such a brazen assault as part of its on-going campaign to weaken the effectiveness of UNAMID. In addition to this attack, we are gravely concerned about the countless obstacles presented by the Government of Sudan to hinder the deployment of UNAMID.

Despite the immense magnitude of suffering and unimaginable pain of our people, we have witnessed many governments and international experts condemn Mr. Moreno-Ocampo’s decision with some of the same justifications and rationales as President Al Bashir and the Government of Sudan. These criticisms ignore the Darfuri voices that uniformly approve of the ICC’s efforts and view the ICC as the only available outlet to secure justice and accountability for the crimes committed in Darfur since 2003. Therefore, we implore the UN Security Council to take no actions that would impede the work of Mr. Moreno-Ocampo and the ICC.

We further ask the UN Security Council to provide global leadership to ensure that the campaigns for “peace and justice” in Sudan move forward together. Such an effort begins with sending a message to the Government of Sudan that the international community will not tolerate any reprisals against the people of Darfur on account of the proceedings at the ICC. Equally important, we believe that no one should ask the people of Darfur to relinquish their rights to hold their perpetrators accountable in exchange for unreliable promises regarding the establishment of peace and security in Darfur. Our people have witnessed too many peace initiatives fail and too many delays in the deployment of an effective peacekeeping mission to put all of our hope in only these two domains. We understand the difficulty at hand in dealing with an authoritarian and genocidal government such as the one led by President Al Bashir. However, there are no moral or legal grounds to strip our people – who are the undisputed victims – of their legitimate rights for justice. We have full confidence that with coordinated diplomacy and pressure from the members of the UN Security Council peace, protection, and justice can all be achieved for the long-suffering people of Darfur.

We believe that Mr. Moreno-Ocampo has greatly contributed to this effort, as he was requested to do so by the UN Security Council. It is our sincere hope that the member states of the Security Council will continue to support his efforts to reveal the truth about the genocide committed in Darfur as the proceedings of the ICC will help end the culture of impunity in Darfur and Sudan and assist all Darfuris and Sudanese in their efforts to end the Darfur catastrophe and build sustainable peace.

Sincerely,

Member Organizations of the Darfuri Leaders Network (United States)

Darfur Alert Coalition
Ibrahim Hamid
Treasurer

Darfur Association in the United States
Mahmoud Braima
President

Damanga Coalition for Freedom and
Democracy
Mohmamed Yahya
President

Darfur Association of Colorado
Ahmed Adam Ali
Secretary General

Darfur Association of Illinois
Mohamed Abdel Rahman
Secretary General

Darfur Association of Nebraska
Adam Omar

Darfur Association of Texas
Bashir Gamous Abdelrasoul
Branch Leader

Darfur Community Organization (Nebraska)
Bakheit Shata
Executive Director

World Relief Organization
Elgasim Salih
President

Darfur People’s Association of Iowa
Anwar Elnour
President

Darfur People’s Association of New York
Motasim Adam
President

Darfur Rehabilitation Project, Inc.
Elnour Adam
Projects Director

Fur Association of North America
Ishag Ahmed
President

Fur Cultural Revival
Mansour Ahmed
Secretary General

Western Sudan Aid Relief in the U.S
Abdeljabbar Seddik
President

Badawi Osman

Darfur Working Group
Philadelphia, PA

Darfur Community Development
Hamza Ibrahim
President

At-Large Members of the Darfuri Leaders Network in the U.S

Amal Allagabo
Washington, D.C.
Niemat Ahmadi
Washington, DC
Fatima Haroun
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Suad Mansour
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Marwa Salah Eddin
Portland, Maine
Mastora Bakheit
Indiana

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About the Save Darfur Coalition – The Save Darfur Coalition – an alliance of more than 180 faith-based, advocacy and human rights organizations – raises public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and mobilizes a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of people throughout the Darfur region. The coalition’s member organizations represent 130 million people of all ages, races, religions and political affiliations united together to help the people of Darfur. For more information on the coalition, please visit www.SaveDarfur.org. To obtain footage from the Darfur border region, coalition events, various interviews, and more, please visit the Save Darfur Coalition media gallery at http://media.savedarfur.org. All footage may be previewed in non-broadcast quality and may be purchased in broadcast quality by filling out the purchase request form provided on the site.

Darfur News

China 'fuelling war in Darfur'

Another peacekeeper shot and killed in Darfur as UN debates extending the peace mission

Sudan rules out deal with ICC over Bashir warrant

Darfur Investigator Finds Refugees' Voices In Tune with Sudan Indictment

GENOCIDE STOPS WITH US

www.savedarfur.org

WHEN HELL IS MAN-MADE IT CAN BE CHANGED BY MAN or not

WHAT
KIND
OF WORLD
HAVE
WE
ALLOWED?

I admit to anyone who reads this, that I am

discouraged.

Discouraged about the five year old genocide in Darfur, Sudan, that the world has allowed the perpetrators to successfully continue without consequences. Why should they stop when what they want is killing people who they want to silence? Killing is a great silencer. And all the "NEVER AGAINs" mean that we are hypocrites. Nothing more. They are words we use to dismiss our own feelings of guilt when the genocide stops. Read Samatha Power's book Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Chapter Ten is about the last time the collective "NEVER AGAIN" was used for Rwanda and the 1994 genocide there during President Bill Clinton's administration.

As a citizen, in the United States of America I am beside myself. For the Darfuri people and ending genocide, I have lobbied US RI Senators and Representatives, the President, organized rallies, volunteered in Washington DC. and New York City at nationwide rallies, emailed, called, contributed. And as a USA citizen, the world looks at me and sees my country perpetrating human rights abuse ourselves with my tax dollars and representatives.
NPR's Guantanamo Bay or GITMO
Abu Ghraib
and
Pictures of Abu Ghraib
HBO's Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

The following text was received from another activist today:

The genocide in Darfur has entered its sixth year. The Sudanese government has reinvigorated its campaign to frighten, displace and kill civilians, raising fears of an increasingly deadly cycle in the ongoing conflict.

Congress will soon determine funding levels of U.S. international assistance"money that can be used immediately to help meet the needs of the Darfuri people. AJWS needs your help to ensure that Congress provides adequate funding for both humanitarian aid and peacekeeping.

Click here to take action now.

While the Sudanese government drops bombs, their proxy militia, the Janjaweed, are raping, killing, looting and burning entire villages to the ground. Since the beginning of this year, an additional 75,000 Darfuris have been newly displaced. Today more than four million people are dependent on humanitarian aid for their survival. The newly deployed United Nations " African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) has brought hope to Darfur, but the mission is floundering because of Sudanese government obstruction and a lack of political will by the international community to provide much needed equipment and troops.

We cannot allow UNAMID to fail and we must ensure that Congress provides sufficient funding for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid to the millions in need in Darfur.

Please contact your legislators to demand that the U.S. plays its part by fully funding this urgently needed assistance.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to the people of Darfur, and for once again speaking out and taking action.

Call for UN to confront Sudan over alleged war criminals

Call for UN to confront Sudan over alleged war criminals

LONDON, March 31, 2008 (AFP) - Top legal experts urged the United Nations Security Council to confront Sudan over its refusal to hand over two alleged war criminals to international prosecutors, in an open letter Monday.

The letter, distributed by British charity The Aegis Trust -- which campaigns against genocide worldwide -- called on members of the Security Council to "visit Khartoum at the earliest possible opportunity to demand that the suspects are handed to the ICC (International Criminal Court)."

Among the signatories are Carla del Ponte and Richard Goldstone, former chief prosecutors for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda respectively, former British justice minister Charles Falconer and former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler.

They called on the council to freeze the personal assets of Sudanese government officials harbouring the two suspects -- Ahmed Haroun and Ali Koshieb -- and any others suspected of committed war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region.

"The government of Sudan has no serious intention to investigate past or ongoing crimes in Darfur," the letter read.

Haroun, Sudan's secretary of state for humanitarian affairs, and pro-government Janjaweed militia leader Koshieb have both been issued arrest warrants for war crimes by the ICC.

More than two million people have fled their homes and at least 200,000 have died from the combined effects of famine and conflict since Khartoum enlisted militia allies to put down a local revolt in Darfur in 2003, according to the UN.
Source: www.sudan.net LInk to "Latest News"

Images from Darfur taken by Jon Nicholson July 2007

IT IS UP TO YOU AND ME WHEN LEADERS DON'T LEAD

WE MUST BE THE CHAMPIONS

WE CAN'T WAIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT

"THE MOST IMPORTANT OFFICE IS THAT OF PRIVATE CITIZEN" I have seen this quote written slightly differently in different places, but is it attributed to Brandeis, Louis D. Supreme Court Justice (1856-1941)

Activist Mia Farrow on Darfur

Citizenship Quotes