USA JOURNALISM UNDER REPORTING DARFUR STORY - THEIR EYES ON IRAN

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Day 6 iACT8 in Darfuri refugee camp - Djabal
June 20, 2009 ~ World Refugee Day
Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

Firefox has been crashing for me all day. I can't upload pictures, because every time I try to save a picture or add a picture to this blog, Firefox shuts down. You can find the pictures here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stopgenocidenow/3642642729/

Day 6 Action: Act in Solidarity

Posted by Katie-Jay on June 20th, 2009

Today is World Refugee Day. i-ACT is providing live video feed from refugee camps in Chad and there are events all around the world to honor the lives and the daily struggles of refugees. Each moment you spend getting to know a Darfuri brings you closer to the reality of today’s theme: Real People, Real Needs.

Today we invite you to go deeper by joining Darfur Fast for Life. For at least one day, 24 hours, fast on water-only or refugee rations in solidarity with the people of Darfur. Today, even as we honor them, they have few choices compared to ours.

To learn more about refugee rations and to join Darfur Fast for Life visit the website.

Letting Go

I’m angry. And I’m tired. My mind and my heart ache. It’s always a combination out here of emotional ups and downs from being around the refugees and then being personally challenged by exhaustion. I am at the point of constantly wanting to cry, and spending energy trying to hold it back.

I am not sure that by simply sleeping I would recover. I am not sure what I need to do or how to go about getting it. I just know that I am sad and emotional.

Taking a shower is an amazing thing. It did help, and although I am not magically ready to take on the world, I feel a bit better. I cried a bit in the shower. That probably helped too.

Walking through the camp today I heard my name a lot. There are many Khadijas in this camp, but only one “Hawaji” Khadija (the white one). They just don’t stop calling my name. I think mostly it’s that it is easy to remember, and I am easy to spot. I take their pictures, show them, and chase after them. I can’t help but play with the children. Today I saw Ibrahim who I met in March.

As we walked out of the school today, a tear ran down my cheek. I wasn’t able to hold it back. I want to suck it back in, smile and continue to play, but I didn’t have the power, it had been released.

After showering, I lay on my back in the dark of our new guest house at Feed the Children I close my eyes and reflect. I can be both sensitive, and strong. I can shed tears, and work hard to bring that passion and emotion through my work to others.

The generator begins to hum and think, “My heart is not aching, it is growing bigger.”

Paz, ktj

They are continuing the live feed (as in a loop) - which is a video of the live feed from earlier today for World Refugee Day - June 20, 2009 at
http://www.refugeedaylive.org/

For me at this website, much of the video has no picture, but only sound. This seems to be from the parts that were video and not live streaming from today's presentation. Much of that video can be seen at http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7/
as well as on Youtube, such as this one:
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iACT 7, Day 6 Reunion with Adef's family March 28, 2009
Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

Test below is from Mohamed Suleiman, June 20, 2009. Mohamed is Darfuri, who has family still in Darfur being affected. Mohamed lives currently in the United States.

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 statement 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.

While We Wait



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iACT 2007, Day 6
Visit to the camp primary camp
Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

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iACT 6, Day 9
The monthly food is rationed out to Darfuri refugees
August 09, 2008
Uploaded by stopgenocidenow
Darfur refugee Husna receives her food rations at Camp Oure Cassoni in Eastern Chad. For one month, she and her family of five will have to survive on:

2.5 oz of salt
6 cups of sugar
11 lbs of cereal
8 cups of oil
25 cups of yellow split peas
70 lbs of sorghum (grain)

Below is from http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact5/

We’re Going Back

Posted by Gabriel on May 28th, 2008

I’ve told you “we’re going back” three times in the past, but this one is a little different. The last time we left Chad after our visits to the refugee camps in the east, we left on a French military plane, being evacuated in the middle of an all out coup attempt that left an already unstable country and region in even worse conditions.

Soon after, the Sudanese government attacked Darfuri villages, displacing tens of thousands of more civilians. This was in February 2008. Of the over 13,000 that reached the border between Chad and Darfur, 8,000 are still sitting in the desert, waiting to be transferred to camp Mile, according to UNHCR. The insecurity has stopped the transfers indefinitely.

Services have been reduced and interrupted at almost all of the camps in Chad. Chadian security officers working at the camps have been attacked and killed, and humanitarian aid workers have been targets. Our friends in the camps, mostly women and children, continue to live the life of a refugee—but the life of a refugee in grave danger.

We are returning after ourselves having been in some danger. That also makes it different. Our experience at the hotel in N’Djamena had an effect on Katie-Jay and I and on all the people around us. We are not taking this lightly. We will take all precautions possible and will make decision based on the best information from experts on the ground.

We want to continue putting a face on the numbers and allowing the voice of the victims to be heard. The innocent civilians of Darfur need immediate protection, and sovereignty cannot be an excuse for inaction from the entire world.

Join us for i-ACT, staring June 10th and for twelve consecutive days of webcasts, interactive blog, and opportunities for action. Scott Warren, the outgoing National Director of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and Colin O’Brien, who served as the National High School Outreach Coordinator for STAND, will be going with us on the journey. Students have been the leaders of the Darfur movement, and we are looking for students and their communities to increase the heat and raise the noise this summer to bring peace to Darfur.

Paz,
Gabriel
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iACT 6, Day 3 ~ August 02, 2008

Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

Taking matters into their own hands

Text from this video

Today was the hottest day yet in Camp Oure Cassoni. Hardly anyone was out in the heat, even as early as 9am. Even then it was only to fill their jugs with water, and quickly retreat to the shade. We met 15 women working hard to build a brick school to replace the primary school their children attend. Behind their 1/2 built structure we can see a dozen or so make shift tents with stick structures and tarps sewn together. Most are flapping in the wind and the sand has begun to strip sections of the walls and roofs. Their basketball court is cracking, and their swing set no longer has seats to rest to on. The futbol field is empty. In the furthest Zone of Oure Cassoni, you can see the harshest reality of living in this environment. The wind shifts the sand so much that building walls around your four-year old tent is not a choice, but a necessity. The sand burns to the touch, and yet more than half of the children we met wear no shoes to protect their feet. Even when the rainy season consumes the rest of the country, Camp Oure Cassoni remains a desert.

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iACT6, Day 6
Tour of the outskirts of the Darfuri refugee camp
August 08, 2008
Gabriel takes us on a drive around the outskirts of Camp Oure Cassoni, just across the border from Darfur.
Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

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President Obama's Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration needs to be replaced.

US Tries to Walk Back From Comments Downplaying Genocide in Darfur

June 18, 2009 5:41 PM

Kristina Wong

--ABC News' Kirit Radia reports: Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration's comments yesterday that Darfur is experiencing only the "remnants of genocide," thus implying the troubled region's worst violence is in the past, have exposed a deep disagreement on the matter within the Obama administration.

Just two days earlier US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice described th e situation as "genocide" and at a press conference in Germany earlier this month President Obama used the phrase "ongoing genocide."

After Gration's comments yesterday, Rice was furious, according to US officials.

The remarks touched off a debate within the administration, which is working to complete its policy review on Sudan. The debate continued today, and even delayed the start of the State Department daily briefing by over an hour until language could be agreed upon at the National Security Council, officials said.

Today, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affair PJ Crowley walked back from Gration's comments when asked to explain the discrepancy.

"I think there is no question that genocide has taken place in Darfur. We continue to characterize the circumstances in Darfur as genocide," Crowley said.

When asked if Gration had misspoken, Crowley said: "there's room in the administration for a debate about the interpretation of the facts that go into that judgment."

Gration's comments also irked the Darfur advocacy community.

"President Obama and Ambassador Rice recently labeled the situation in Darfur as an ongoing genocide, and it is troubling that key players in the administration are not singing from the same song sheet with regard to this fundamental issue," Save Darfur Coalition President Jerry Fowler said in a statement today.

John Norris, Executive Director of the Enough Project, told ABC News today that his group believes genocide is ongoing in Darfur.

"We believe that the ongoing efforts by the government of Sudan meet the classic definition. That they, through their actions, not only through their support of the Janjaweed, government denials, denial of humanitarian aid, seem to be designed to destroy people in whole or in part," he said.

ABC News' Elizabeth Gorman and Devin Dwyer contributed to this report

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From Mohamed Suleiman

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 them 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.

Gration wants to redfine "Genocide".

Gration must go.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/-sudan-envoy-darfur-experiencing-remnants-of-genocide-says-aid-capacity-back-near-100.html

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I wrote the following on April 28, 2009

If Scott Gration reflects what Barack Obama believes, then I believe we have a problem. Scott Gration needs to be replaced in my opinion. We can't expect to make deals with Bashir and believe good will come of it. I am beside my self with frustration and anger.

I wrote the brief note below via http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Sent April 28, 2009

As someone who went to other states to help get Barack Obama elected, even though it was outside my comfort zone to go door-to-door and phone bank, as well as give money over and over, although I couldn't afford it - I am deeply in despair over Barack Obama's failure to act appropriately regarding the Darfuris.

Scott Gration needs to be replaced as envoy to Sudan.
"US State Dept. moves toward appeasement policy with Khartoum" at
http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article31006

These are my heroes:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/27/us-lawmakers-arrested-in-darfur-protest-at-sudan-embassy/

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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

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Find USA elected politicians contact information at this link:
www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

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www.stopgenocidenow.org


www.enoughproject.org
www.savedarfur.org
www.eyesondarfur.org

whilewewaitsudan.blogspot.com

THE BEAUTIFUL DARFURI PEOPLE SPEAK ON LIVE FEED JUNE 20, 2009 - AND SOUNDS LIKE SCOTT GRATION IS WORKING FOR KHARTOUM ADMINISTRATION?

Action: World Refugee Day - Saturday June 20, 2009

Posted by Katie-Jay on June 14th, 2009

World Refugee Day (WRD) is a time of celebration. To honor the survivors who were forced fled their homes and sought refuge and safety from violence. To recognize them as part of us. WRD is also a time to reflect on the root causes of mass atrocities and solutions to bring those who were forced to run back home. It should be a day of action, as action is the very best way to honor and celebrate the sorrows and triumphs of humanity by connecting with humanity in the toughest of times.

On Saturday June 20, 2009, World Refugee Day will be celebrated around the world in internally displaced person’s camps and refugee camps throughout the world. This year’s theme is Real People, Real Needs. We ask you can be part of this day and to bring celebration and action into you life.

ACTIONS:

1. Participate in a live web streaming from Chad refugee camps. Follow our team as they capture the daily life and special WRD events. Ask questions via the live chat, and spread the word via your online social networks.

2. In solidarity with and in honor of the theme, Real People, Real Needs, fast from midnight to midnight for WRD - join here.

3. During the World Refugee Day web streaming, invite a few friends and family to your home to share in the experience. The live streaming and chat offer the opportunity for you to actively deepen the relationship between your community and refugees. Making our very large world personal is part of the long term solution that can create peace, justice and equality.

Pictures taken June 18, and 19, 2009 in Darfuri refugee camp
Camp Djabal
All photo credits: http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day5
Enlarge photos by clicking on them.

More information about the live feed June 20, 2009 in text of this email received:

Hello Family and Friends,

Watching today's video of the i-ACT field team connecting the people in Refugee Camp Djabal with Washington D.C I was ...well, I was going to use the word "inspired" but that word can't quite sum up the overwhelming emotions and renewed sense of commitment I felt while watching the video. These are everyday people who saw what was happening in Darfur and decided they needed to do something, even if it was something seemingly small, like signing a petition or posting a flier. The i-ACT field team has since been to eastern Chad eight times and on this particular trip used satellite technology to provide a two-way video conversation between our Darfuri friends in camp Djabal and an audience in DC with Angelina Jolie, Ann Curry, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, and hundreds of others. Pretty impressive for a group of "everyday" people like you and I.

Tomorrow (June 20, 2009) our i-ACT field team will be providing yet another real time satellite feed from Camp Djabal and this time YOU get to be the live audience.

DAY 5 ACTION:

Tomorrow is World Refugee Day 2009: Real People, Real Needs.

Tune in to the live feed from Camp Djabal. It's over several hours so please make time to join us. There will be an interactive, live chat and twitter feed through the website. Invite your friends.

"Don't tune out. Tune In."

Thank you for all you do,
Cory for the i-ACT Team

i-ACT 8: June 15 - 24, 2009

i-ACT Team is back in Darfuri refugee camps in Chad for 10 consecutive days of video webcasts.
Watch the latest video here »

iACT Stop Genocide Now team on twitter:

http://twitter.com/iact/statuses/2234256155

Set up for live feed from Camp Djabal to Washington, D.C.

Gabriel Stauring and friends at Camp Djabal

Above photos from Day 5 of iACT8
Credit: Stop Genocide Now
Gabriel Stauring

Above photos from Day 4 of iACT8
Credit: Stop Genocide Now
Gabriel Stauring

Day 5 Action: Tune In

Posted by Katie-Jay on June 19th, 2009

I have had many discussions in the past few years about why people choose to look the other way about Darfur. Or about most part a majority of the human rights violations and mass atrocities around the world. I think many times it’s because if we know, we bear the moral responsibility to act. But it is not just that. Once we know what is going on, we look at our own lives differently, we change, we grow, we hurt more, and we love more.

Tomorrow - June 20 ~ is World Refugee Day 2009: Real People, Real Needs.

Tune in to the live feed from Camp Djabal. It’s over several hours so please make time to join us. There will be an interactive, live chat and twitter feed through the website. Invite your friends with this flyer or leave them at a neighborhood coffee house.

Don’t tune out. Tune In.

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June 19, 2009
i-ACT8 Stop Genocide Stop Day 5
Preparation for Live Feed from Darfuri refugee camp - Camp Djabal to Washington, D.C.
Refugee friend, Rahma, and Annette Rehl from UNHCR are ready to go.
Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

Email received today:

Dear Friends and Family,

Walking the camps can be truly inspiring at times. The children laughing and smiling. Racing next to them or playing futbol or simply chasing them. Women balancing water or wood stop for a photo, then giggle when you show them.

Watch the video of children as they phone our president and laugh.

Camp Djabal is part of our community. Their smiles are shared with us, and also their hardships. I cannot know how they feel, but I know my heart aches when theirs does.

Watch the video of an old friend working through hard times. And take today's action to support him and every Darfurian.

ACTION:

Today, Thursday June 18, 2009, Secretary of State Clinton was scheduled for a special event in honor of World Refugee Day in Washington DC with Angelina Jolie, Ann Curry, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Anontio Guterres. i-ACT brought our friend Rahma and many of his friends from Chad, through video, to meet Secretary of State Clinton and the other VIPs. You too can be part of i-ACT by TEXTing Cinton at 90822. Send her this message:

Today, Rahma from Refugee Camp Djabal spoke to your Washington DC event. What are you doing to help him and his family return home to Darfur?

Much Peace,
KTJ

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Uncomfortable

Posted by Gabriel on June 19th, 2009

Abdulaziz had a small plate with cookies at the end of our live event with DC. UNHCR brought some for the refugees, and our teacher friends wanted to include us in the snacking. Everyone from i-ACT, in chorus, said no thank you and please give to the children that were still crowding around our makeshift movie theater.

In a matter of seconds, the moment Abdulaziz turned around, a cloud of sand kicked up from all the children rushing the plate with a few cookies, the cookies flying in all directions, and the children diving on the ground, pulling and pushing to get one little morsel. They had a serious, intense look in their eyes. There was no laughing.

It felt very uncomfortable to see that. Abdulaziz immediately asked the children to move back and put the plate up high, where they could not reach. The little boys and girls stepped back. As soon as Abdulaziz turned around, children crawled on the ground and started to dig through the sand to grab any crumbs that were left behind.

It makes me uncomfortable to even write this and have the images, so very clear, jump in and out of my mind.

Words people don’t like to hear vs. a comforting word.

Posted by Eric on June 19th, 2009

Genocide, murder, rape. These are all powerful words that are almost always used in an explanation of Darfur. These aren’t nice words that people like to hear. Many will do all that they can to avoid them, look away, turn and walk the other direction, change the channel on the TV.

“Home”

Did that scare you? Did you turn the channel?

“I want to go home”

That is one of the first phrases children learn in life. Except for wanting to be with one’s Mom, wanting to go home is probably the most universal human desire. “I want to go home to Darfur” is what we continue to hear from so many people in Camp Djabal. I don’t think that a lot of people really understand this desire to go home, and the paramount importance of it. I recently read a comment to a Darfur blog where the person suggested that maybe the refugee camps could be setup as new sovereign states with their own governments. The person was trying to be helpful, but in my opinion, that suggestion gets it all wrong. The people of Darfur have been expelled from their home, and they want to return. A whole population of people being driven from their homes by their own government and not allowed to return in safety and peace, is a violation of basic human rights.

Day to day protection and shelter are basic needs that everyone understands, but the long term goal of returning home in safety and peace is something that people also need to understand and remember.

At the Same Point in Time

Posted by Katie-Jay on June 19th, 2009

I didn’t feel like writing a journal today. I am tired, short on sleep, and could use a good meal. When I saw the video from today, I cried. Not because we were challenged by an obstacle totally out of our control 10 minutes before we were supposed to be live and pulled it off. But because I am so proud that we were able to virtually connect advocates and survivors across oceans to build one community, actually looking at one another, listening and feeling at the same point in time. This is i-ACT: Interactive-Activism.

In Rahma’s message to Washington DC he wished for three things:

1. “al-Bashir needs to go”;
2. Secondary schools and English teachers;
3. For Darfurians to go home.

I know they were listening. I know you’re listening. Seeing again the images in today’s video that Washington DC saw, I could not hold back the emotion. How powerful the possibilities are now to connect the world and its advocates to the most vulnerable populations. We are almost limitless in our ability to make an impact.

ktj

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Below, from iACT Day 4~ the parts that weren't posted yet when I uploaded my last blog post

Refugee Cool

Posted by Ian on June 18th, 2009

There’s a new kind of cool to me. It’s refugee cool. It’s not the type of cool you see in New York or LA night clubs, it’s not the attitude or the clothes or the accessories…it’s not having the new Wii game…it’s not the overly dressed yet laid back hipsters…it’s not even Wyclef or Lauryn Hill…it’s a moving target of X-factor’s.

In this case, it’s a teenager name Rahma whose mother is laying on a slab of concrete outside an old stone building, which serves as the hospital, sick from malaria; keeps on smiling and showing up for an on camera rehearsal for a live satellite feed to Washington DC. Rahma’s favorite thing in his world is school. That’s refugee cool.

Abdullaziz, rides a motorcycle, wears an Obama-USA belt, knows almost everyone in the camp, serves as a translator and good will ambassador to the i-ACT team, is the manager for the newly renamed Obama School Co-Education for Basic, and somehow knows how to control a crowd of over enthusiastic kids with a very subtle gesture or word, when no one else has the ability to do so. I call him the “Kid Whisperer.” What’s more, Abdullaziz will go on camera, anytime, anywhere, and call out Obama on his campaign promise to help the refugees of Darfur. His single largest trait is respect for his fellow citizens of Camp Djabal. That’s refugee cool.

The women that carry a heavy bucket of water on their head, and sometimes a sleeping baby on their back, two or three times a day, for their whole family…including the animals. Then a few kick in to shovel clay cement for the new shelter project for brick housing. That’s refugee cool.

A group of kids, that have probably never seen an iPhone, are game for a video gag to call President Obama, and pull if off as if they’ve all had iPhones. They’re ability to mimic the words and intention are unmatched, and their enthusiasm for trying something new is beyond belief. After the first few tries, I was no longer directing, the kids were directing each other. They knew what I was doing, and they were all pitching in their opinion on how to get the shot right. That’s refugee cool.

Nobody is complaining or saying they’re having a bad day, or getting depressed. They are producing and proactive about making their camp a better place to live.

So in the future, if you’re ever hanging out with me, and I say to you something is “Refugee cool,” I am paying someone or something the highest compliment possible.

Rahma!

Posted by Gabriel on June 18th, 2009

Rahma!

Rahma is one special boy. If you meet him once, you will remember him. “He is clever,” the teachers tell us. Rahma’s smile is what gets you first, but there is so much beyond that positive exterior. He is very thoughtful. He thinks about the outside world and wonders about his future in this big sphere he is so interested in knowing.

“I want to learn,” Rahma tells us.

Today, the Rahma smile was not always there. After visiting his mother at the camp hospital where she has been for three days, sick with Malaria, he turned to me with a pained look in his face, one I had not seen before, and said, “I am angry today.” I believe he meant sad, but angry is also very appropriate.

I just asked my teammates, “Who will be mentioning Rahma in your blog today?” Everyone raised their hand.

Peace, G (that's G for Gabriel)

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Day 5 iACT Stop Genocide Now photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stopgenocidenow/3638920377/

Day 4 iACT Stop Genocide Now photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stopgenocidenow/3636461503/

Day 4 Tech iACT Stop Genocide Now photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stopgenocidenow/3633543292/
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Don’t forget to plan on checking in with our live video feed for Saturday June 20th, World Refugee Day, from Camp Djabal.

Help spread the word. Put a button on your blog. Go to this link to get the code for the button
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact

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Is this hope?

To enlarge click it.

Scott Gration, President Obama's Special Envoy to Sudan is a disaster. He needs to step down and President Obama needs to prove he was not just campaigning when he said

"The United States has a moral obligation anytime you see humanitarian catastrophes…we have the most stake in creating an order in the world that is stable...in which people have hope and opportunity and when you see a genocide whether it's in Rwanda, or Bosnia or in Darfur - that's a stain on all of us, that's a stain on our souls...I was the first along with Senator Brownback to focus on ratcheting up sanctions and getting an envoy in there who was serious. We worked diligently to get the Darfur Peace and Accountability act passed…I think the level of commitment and the way that I’ve spoken out on this issue indicates not only knowledge, but also passion in bringing an end to this crisis. It’s very encouraging to see activism based not on self-interest, but on moral imperative …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.”
See it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEd583-fA8M
November 2007


“It is not acceptable to put that many people’s lives at risk,” Obama said about the Darfuris and the expelled humanitarian agencies for the Internally Displaced People of Darfur. “We need to be able to get those humanitarian organizations back on the ground.” President Obama

If you want to help

Call the White House 202-456-1111 with this message:

I am extremely disappointed at the slow and weak response of the Obama administration to the crisis in Sudan and Darfur .

Please replace Special Envoy Gration with someone ready to take immediate action to pressure Sudan , as President Obama promised during the campaign.

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Below is from
http://paxcommunications.org/news/2009/06/19/gration-must-go-say-darfur-activists-from-coast-to-coast/

“Gration must go,” say Darfur activists from coast to coast

Darfur activists across the country are asking concerned citizens to join with them in calling upon the President to 1) replace General Scott Gration as Special Envoy to Sudan and 2) to follow through on his campaign promise to take IMMEDIATE action to PRESSURE Sudan to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. (Please take the suggested actions at the bottom of this post.)

According to leading Darfur activists, yesterday’s press conference with General Scott Gration confirmed their worst fears that he is the wrong person for the job. “I fear we are going from bad to worse with Envoy Gration,” said Eric Cohen, Chairperson of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur.

Cohen was responding to the very concerning article in the Washington Post which reports that Gration has advocated easing some American sanctions and upgrading U.S. diplomatic relations with Sudan’s government to induce cooperation. According to the Post, Gration’s conciliatory approach has stalled high-level talks within the Obama administration to finalize a comprehensive policy plan to be presented to Cabinet members and later to the president.

In Gration’s first press conference, he contradicted US policy by downplaying the genocide (referring to “remnants of genocide” only) and declaring over the humanitarian crisis that was brought on by GoS expelling 16 NGO (”we’ve closed the gap.”)

Having come to the Special Envoy role with no experience with Sudan nor diplomacy, one has to wonder what lessons Gration has learned from President Omer al-Bashir’s catastrophic 20-year reign of terror in Sudan.

Activists understandably feel betrayed by the Administration. Tough talk regarding Darfur helped get Obama elected. Then after a long delay, Obama finally selected Special Envoy Gration. Gration then travels to Sudan with “no preconceptions” and visits model IDP camps under the supervision of the GoS and proclaims, in essence, “it’s not so bad.” Gration has had no tough reactions nor suggested any consequences for the expulsion of 16 NGOs, the ongoing bombings, the executions of Darfuris without due process and other ongoing atrocities comitted by the Government of Sudan.

According to Darfuri sources here in the United States, the NCP leadership is doing cartwheels of delight following this press conference. Khartoum seems to have the man they want in Washington — Scott Gration.

Please contact the White House in any of the following ways immediately and call for the replacement of Envoy Gration with someone ready to take IMMEDIATE action to PRESSURE Sudan, as Obama promised during the campaign:

1) Call the White House at 202-456-1111. Lines are often busy. Keep trying.
2) Fax the White House at 202-456-2461
3) Email the White House at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
4) Become a fan of the WH Facebook page and post a comment at http://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse
5) Send a message via Twitter to @whitehouse. Follow at http://twitter.com/whitehouse

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

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

DARFURIS IN THIS VIDEO ASKING OBAMA TO DO WHAT HE SAID HE WOULD DO - SO WE'RE ALL WAITING FOR YOU, PRESIDENT OBAMA

Is this hope?

President Obama said many things during his campaign. He claimed he would be a leader regarding Darfur. And yet, he has only led with his silence and appointing a hugely ineffective Special Envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration.

Obama apparently believes he has little political price to pay for ignoring his own words about stepping up to the plate regarding Darfuris. As one who went door to door for his Presidential campaign even though it was completely outside of my comfort zone, I know this: I will never go door to door for him again. I believed him when he said:

"The United States has a moral obligation anytime you see humanitarian catastrophes…we have the most stake in creating an order in the world that is stable...in which people have hope and opportunity and when you see a genocide whether it's in Rwanda, or Bosnia or in Darfur - that's a stain on all of us, that's a stain on our souls...I was the first along with Senator Brownback to focus on ratcheting up sanctions and getting an envoy in there who was serious. We worked diligently to get the Darfur Peace and Accountability act passed…I think the level of commitment and the way that I’ve spoken out on this issue indicates not only knowledge, but also passion in bringing an end to this crisis. It’s very encouraging to see activism based not on self-interest, but on moral imperative …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.”
See it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEd583-fA8M
November 2007

..................................................................................................
i ACT 8 Day 4
"Hello, Mr. Obama" - say the Darfuri children. Malaria - more people suffering from malaria.
Is this hope? - Humanity United asked President Obama
Uploaded by stopgenocidenow

What irony this article headline is
Adding Pressure to Sudan, Obama Will Tap Retired General as Special Envoy
Read the article here http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/world/africa/18prexy

Gration has not only NOT added any pressure to Sudan, he has lessened the pressure, which was already nil. Gration needs to be replaced.

Will the Obama Administration Basically Ignore Darfur?
democraticpiece.com/2009/04/09/will-the-obama-administration-basically-ignore-darfur/

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See the May 30, 2009 pictures at Mia Farrow

Mia Farrow's photos of Darfuri Refugee Camps that she has visited

Mia Farrow's Brother Found Dead
www.people.com

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Remember Darfur - nationalreview.com

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.................................................
i ACT 8 Day 3
Uploaded by stopgenocidenow
http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact8/day3

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The Stop Genocide Now iACT 8 team is on the ground now in a Darfuri refugee camp - Camp Djabal
These are journal entries from their website

Day 3 Action: Tell Gration it’s Personal

Posted by Katie-Jay on June 17th, 2009

For seven years we have advocated on every level for new policies, new pressure points, for carrots and sticks that may shift or create change on the ground in Darfur. Yet the situation has only gotten worse, not better. As US Special Envoy to Sudan, General J Scott Gration bears the responsibility to personally hold accountable those who are abusing their power in Khartoum and slowly exterminating a valuable culture.

Call General Gration 202-647-4531 and tell him of the conditions in the camps and of the refugees lives. Describe what you have learned through the videos and journals. Make Darfur personal, it is not just a region, it is an entire culture.

To learn more about specific policy asks, please visit the ENOUGH Project.

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Night and Day

Posted by Gabriel on June 17th, 2009

At about 4:30am, I start to hear the roosters compete for loudest. Then the donkeys follow with their heehawing, along with some confused horses jumping in to the fray. I toss and turn for about an hour, on my foam mattress on the floor, trying to get just a few more minutes of rest before starting another long day. I give up.

The night sky was amazing. The dark dome was completely filled with stars of all colors and brightness, and I had never seen a milkier Milky Way. Although I could really use electricity to work during the night, I was OK with trading those extra hours on our powered-up machines for that view of the vertigo inducing sky.

Today will be another full day at the camp. We have to prep for a live video conference that will happen tomorrow, connecting a Washington, DC VIP event with the camp and our VIP refugee friends, celebrating World Refugee Day. The camp has about 17,000 of these VIPs, so we can only invite a few.

We are also preparing for a marathon of live-streaming on the actual World Refugee Day, June 20th. We will show camp life, walking the camp, as we regularly do for i-ACT, but this time with a camera that is feeding a live stream through the web. You can see this at refugeedaylive.org, with the show starting at 9am EST. You get to walk the camp with us!

On our walk yesterday, I met an older woman named Jimya. She has one sick eye and two sad eyes. She lives alone. When she thinks of home, she sees her field full of trees and vegetables. Everything was destroyed by janjaweed, but she still sees it. She wants to go back, but not now. Peace first, she told me. She was collecting water. Jimya had the two smallest container from all the women at the water station. It’s all she can carry.

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Laughter

Posted by Ian on June 17th, 2009

Since arriving in Goz Beida, the last two days have been a blur, more so than the five days of travel to get here. My overwhelming impression is that for a group of people that have been displaced from their homes and forced to live in a refugee camp, the residents of Camp Djabal still have a trust and openness I rarely find. Without fail, every single person smiles back when I acknowledge them. They let me in. I hold a grudge over things and lose trust in humanity for things so small, and here I’m meeting a group that has every reason not to see another human being without thinking there’s a large risk, yet they continue to show love like nothing has happened. I need to learn that trick.

Of course, it’s not a trick. It’s a way of life.

Over the blur of images from the last two days, I have images of endless smiles and the sound of continuing laughter. The kid’s are obsessed with the blonde hair on my arms, and they are constantly running their hands along to make sure it’s real. I had expected, as said in my previous entry, that white people entering the camps with video cameras was a common site, but every time I show anyone their own image on the video, it’s like magic. They are so overjoyed to see their faces, that one might suspect Darfurians are narcissists, but it’s obviously not that. I believe they are just pleased to be acknowledged, even if it’s by an inanimate object like a digital video camera. And of course, I like anyone who thinks I’m funny. They’re either laughing at me or with me, but I don’t care.

One clear preconceive notion that has been wiped immediately away is that this is not a group that needs pity. They are not helpless. Not even close. Neither I, nor those westerners that have walked here before me are any types of saviors to be put on a pedestal. We all merge into the cacophony of support that any human would need being in a refugee camp, but are mostly witnesses to an undeniable force of endurance and adaptability. The 17,000 people in this camp are not waiting around for the western world to save them…there is no moss growing on these rolling stones. They are hard at work, educating themselves, creating homes out of the environment, and keeping the family unit in tact, all while advocating to anyone that will listen that they want one simple thing….to go home.
Ian

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Sustainable Beauty

Posted by Katie-Jay on June 17th, 2009

This environment is unforgiving. I have been in Chad during various seasons, and in June twice. This trip is one of the hottest I have experienced. An almost humid, but also dry heat that you just cannot escape or cool down from. When there is a breeze, you almost always miss it for one reason or another. This is an environment in which only a few cultures can survive sustainably.

My culture would try. But without the vast experience of generations passed down from those who have cultivated from this land, I feel we would not be able to do it.

Women do much of the daily work, and many times most of any type of work in the camps. Today men worked together on two prototype homes that would better protect them from fires that have swept through the closely-knit sectors, destroying many straw tukuls at a time. In my experience here, this image of men working is a rare one. It is usually the women who dig the dirt, add water, mix, and form bricks. Carrying one or two upon their heads, laying the foundation, and solidifying the structure with “poto poto” or clay.

The women and girls are the ones who fetch, and carry on their heads water for the day. Each and every day they do this. Many must leave the camp to collect firewood and we continue to hear stories of the threat of violence against them for doing so. This journey takes anywhere from several hours to the entire day. Some are lucky enough to have donkeys to help carry wood. Several women I have seen this trip carry the wood upon their heads. How many miles did they walk?

In Darfurian culture, like in most, the women make the meals. We saw vendors at the camp market, many were trading their rations for other things, like meat, dried okra, or sun-dried tomatoes. Items we think of as everyday necessities – vegetables and protein like meat – are a rarity for the average Darfur refugee. They hand grind the sorghum rations with a standing mortal and pestal.

The government of Chad has allowed them a few kilometers to cultivate this season, and many are beginning to plant before the rains come. At least they can do this here, rather than risking their life to return to Darfur for the extra food. The walk to the garden is far and long, but worth the energy.

I am constantly and consistently amazed at the work ethic in this culture. I am not sure I would be able to do all the same things in one day and still smile and exude the beauty of the Darfur people of Djabal. I am not sure very many people would be able to survive in this land. Let alone in a way that is so different from their traditional life.

The strength, the stamina, the courage, the beauty of the Darfur people needs to be preserved and fostered. It must survive.

Our world gets smaller as cultures are lost. Our world must remain big and full, as we all still have so much to learn.

Paz, ktj

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Pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stopgenocidenow/3632802551/

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Journal Entries, posted so far for Day 4

Day 4 Action: Text Clinton

Posted by Katie-Jay on June 17th, 2009

Today, Thursday June 18, 2009, Secretary of State Clinton will be attending a special event for World Refugee Day in Washington D.C. with Angelina Jolie, Anderson Cooper, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Anontio Guterres. i-ACT will be bringing our friend Rahma from Chad, through video, to meet Secretary of State Clinton. You too can be part of i-ACT by TEXTing Cinton at 90822. Send her this message:

Today you met refugees from Camp Djabal. What are you doing to help them return home to Darfur?

Don’t forget to plan on checking in with our live video feed for Saturday June 20th, World Refugee Day, from Camp Djabal.

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Childhood Truth

Posted by Katie-Jay on June 17th, 2009

When I was younger, and voicing my concerns about a situation, I would whine, “It’s not fair.” And my mother would simply state the truth, “life is not fair.” My complaints were trivial, but her answer could not have been more true.

All the paths of a refugee camp end up looking the same. Especially in Camp Djabal where high straw fences line the camp and section off compounds. We cannot find Rahma’s house on our own instinct, and we soon give up and ask a group of boys huddled under a tree.

They repeat Rahma’s full name, and begin walking. We follow. Gabriel finds a photo of Rahma on his camera and we are assured we are heading in the right direction. We pass through many alley ways and by tents, and straw tukuls, drying clothes flapping in the wind, and women conversing with one another in the shade.

“Rahma!”

“Gabriel”

“Rahma”

“Khadija”

I embrace him with friendship. Gabriel is smiling. Rahma is smiling. Eric and Ian are smiling. New friends and old reunited! The feeling seems mutual. Rahma talks with us for a moment and asks how are our families and the people in America. His English has approved so much.

Rahma is elated that we are here and we can see it dance in his eyes. But as Gabriel begins to ask about his life and family, sadness creeps in. A mixture of emotions. His eyes look down, and he points to the other side of the camp.

“My mother. She is sick. In the hospital.”

We begin to make our way towards the camp clinic. Rahma’s sister, Hawa, is near the entrance, and grandmother sits bedside. Hawa’s eyes are sad and her gaze serious. Their mother has been here for three days. Her aching body lies very still in bed.

“I am angry today,” Rahma shares with us. He doesn’t know what ails his mother.

We seek a doctor and meet with a very gracious and open man. The exchange is translated from French to Arabic to English. I can see the temperature chart. It was high, then down a bit, peaked, and has been going down, but still not stable. He reads off two types of medicine, one of which is the general antibiotic amoxicillin used for infections. Rahma’s mother’s suffers from a pelvic infection. The other medication is for malaria.

I am angry and very, very sad. Will the medicine work? How can her body, which most likely has a low immune system from dietary options, fight both at one time? I know these doctors, with so many patients and such few resources, are true heroes. But my heart reaches out to Rahma and his family. I wish she were some place else with more medical options.

It will be a short time before they know if the medications are working. If life appears to be coming back, she will go home in three days and continue the medication there. If she simply does not regain strength, then she will be transferred to the hospital in Goz Beida.

After many more hours in the camp and testing live video feed for both tomorrow’s event with Angelina Jolie and Secretary of State Clinton and Saturdays 4 1/2 hour live show, we return to our small compound for an hour to shower before heading to the UNHCR office to work, and sleep as we can. As the others shower, I sit, drink water and begin to cry as I think about Rahma and his mother.

I think of my own mother and the medical care she and I have access to. She is my only mother, and for so long, it was only her and I. I cannot imagine what it would feel like to be Rahma, or his sister, or grandmother. I cannot imagine my mother falling ill with such things that are easily cured and prevented, but could be life threatening here. All I can do is sit in the dark, watch the approaching lightning storm, wait for the rain, and cry.

Life is just not fair.

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Sudan Envoy: Darfur experiencing 'remnants of genocide' -- Says aid capacity back near 100%

I don't believe that aid capacity is back near 100%

June 17, 2009 12:22 PM

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/-sudan-envoy-darfur-experiencing-remnants-of-genocide-says-aid-capacity-back-near-100

ABC News' Kirit Radia reports:

President Obama's Special Envoy for Sudan Scott Gration, a retired Air Force general who grew up in Africa, today refused to describe the situation in Darfur as ongoing genocide.

"What we see is the remnants of genocide," he said, implying the wartorn region's worst violence is behind it.

"It doesn't appear that it is a coordinated effort that was similar to what we had in 2003 to 2006," Gration of the violence.

His hesitation stems from disagreements within the Obama administration, and pressure from interest groups like the Save Darfur Coalition.

Sources say Gration has reported back from his trip to Darfur earlier this year that the level of violence in Darfur does not currently warrant being called genocide, but officials like UN Ambassador Susan Rice, who served as top Africa official at the State Department during the Rwandan genocide, insist the situation should still be labeled as such.

In fact, just two days ago during a speech in Vienna, Austria Ambassador Rice described the situation in Darfur as "genocide."

At a press conference in Germany on June 5, a day after his major speech to the Muslim world speech, President Obama referenced his comments on Darfur in the speech as "genocide that's taking place."

The Bush administration frequently used genocide to describe the violence in the region after then-Secretary of State Colin Powell branded it as such in 2004.

Gration's approach appears to be more holistic than that of his predecessors, whose attention was mainly on the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region. Instead, Gration says he is working to address all of Sudan's problems, but it appeared his emphasis was on the deteriorating conditions in Southern Sudan, where a tenuous peace deal that ended Sudan's bloody civil war is up for referendum in 19 months.

Gration said violence in the south has seen an "uptick" and is now in fact greater than the violence in Darfur.

Gration said that aid capacity in Darfur is back up near 100% and may soon exceed capacity before 13 aid groups were expelled earlier this year. Sudan has allowed remaining aid groups in Darfur to beef up capacity and has allowed three new groups to come in and pick up the slack.

"We've been able to work with the government of Sudan and NGOs and United Nations to restore humanitarian assistance capacity in Darfur," he said. "We've essentially closed the humanitarian gap that existed in Darfur when the 13 NGOs were expelled."

He said much of the capacity now is emergency work, Gration warned, but he said he hopes soon that will be transferred to sustained aid projects.

--Kirit Radia

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Remarks by Ambassador Susan E. Rice

US Permanent Representative

on the UN Security Council and the Responsibility to Protect

at the International Peace Institute Vienna Seminar, June 15, 2009

Read Susan Rice's speech:
www.isria.com/pages/15_June_2009_47.htm

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Current Status of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and Recent Travels

Scott Gration

Special Envoy to Sudan

Washington, DC

June 17, 2009
Text of Scott Gration

The video of Scott Gration answering questions
http://www.state.gov/video/?videoid=26615130001

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

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