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Sunday, July 26, 2009

HEY! HEY! O! O! SCOTT GRATION HAS GOT TO GO


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Darfur: We Won't Get Fooled Again from Darfur on Vimeo.


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Monday, July 20, 2009

Day 104 - July 20th


- The Special Envoy of the President of U.S.A., General Scott Gration, visited IDP camp in Kass area (West Darfur). He met with some refugees in the camp. A leader said to Radio Dabanga that the American Special Envoy asked them to return to their original villages and catch up with the rainy season to farm their lands. The refugees told the Special Envoy that the janjaweed who drove them from their villages are still there occupying their lands, the Leader told Radio Dabanga.

- In Kalma the day before ( Saturday 18th), Gration heard the same message.
From Sudan Tribune:

Darfur IDPs tell US envoy no peace without security
Tuesday 21 July 2009 04:30.


July 20, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Darfur internally displaced persons (IDPs) told the US envoy to Sudan they consider peace in Darfur could not be achieved without a lasting solution for the security issue.

Scott Gration who is visiting Sudan currently, met with 48 IDPs representatives of Darfur camps in Kalma on Saturday July 18. The US official sought to hear their claims and points of view on the Doha peace process.

According to the UN estimations there are some 2.7 million residents in Darfur camps who fled their homes after indiscriminate attacks breaching the laws of war by the pro-government militias.

"We told him (Gration) that as long as these militias are not disarmed there would be no peace in Darfur even if a peace agreement is concluded because we are not sure they would lay down their arms after peace," said Hussein Abu Sharati, the IDPs spokesperson.

Since the end of the nineties, the increasing attacks by the armed militias against the farmers triggered the affected people to accuse the government of supporting the janjaweed attacks and decided to hold arms against government in 2003.

The founder of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Abdel Wahid Al-Nur who defends the IDPs position and refuses to take part at Doha talks before the disarmament of the government backed militias is seen by the displaced as their unique representative.

Hussein said that Gration asked them about their positions and demands for the peace talks.

"The IDPs delegates told him the government is negotiating with movements that do not represent us and not mainly concerned by our demands," said Abu Saharti.

"We also stressed the need to see the expelled aid groups back in Darfur and we particularly insisted on MSF’s return because they were taking care of the health of our people." However we also welcomed the arrival of new US NGOs because we need more than 13 aid groups," he added.

Following the International Criminal Court arrest warrant against President Omer Al-Bashir, the Sudanese government evicted 13 aid groups and banned two Sudanese NGOs in Darfur. The decision affected the humanitarian situation but Khartoum pledges to allow new US aid groups to replace them.
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TOWARD A COMPREHENSIVE
STRATEGY FOR SUDAN

Hearing before the

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION

Thursday, July 30, 2009
10:00 A.M.
Place: 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Presiding: Senator Kerry

PANEL 1
+General Scott Gration, USAF (Ret.)
Special Envoy to Sudan
Department of State
Washington, DC

+Earl Gast
Acting Administrator for Africa
U.S. Agency for International Development
Washington, DC

PANEL 2:
+The Honorable David Shinn
Adjunct Professor
Elliott School of International Affairs
The George Washington University
Washington, DC
+Mohammed Ahmed Eisa, M.D.
Physician
2007 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Award Laureate
Sudan Organization for Rights and Peace-Building
Washington, D.C

Contact information:

U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6225

Majority Phone: (202) 224-4651
Minority Phone: (202) 224-6797


Source: foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009

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Hey World - Don't Give Up On Darfur from Darfur on Vimeo.


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Music: "Hey World, Don't Give Up" - by Michael Franti & Spearhead

Lyrics

Tell me why the grass was greener
Years ago I swear it used to grow here
But no more here
Tell me why on this hill
All the birds they used to come to fly here
Come to die here

And tell me why I need to know
Sometimes I wish i didn't have to know
All you've shown me

Hey world what you say?
Should I stick around for another day or two?
Don't give up on me, I won't give up on you
Just believe in me like I believe in you

Tell me why on the corner
All the kids that used to come to run here
Load their guns here
And tell me why it's OK to kill in the name of the Gods we pray
Tell me who said it's OK to die in the name of the lies we say
Tell me why there's child soldiers
Tell me why they closed the borders
Tell me how to fight disease and
Tell me now, won't you please
The only thing I want to do
Is to be in the arms of someone who believes in me
Like I believe in you

And I say
Hey world what you say?
Should I stick around for another day?
Hey world what you say?
Should I stick around for another day?
Hey world what you say?
Should I stick around for another day or two?
Don't give up on me, I won't give up

And I try, I try, I try, I try
I try, I try, I try, I try
For you
Don't give up on me

And I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry
I cry, I cry, I cry, I cry
For you
Just believe in me like I believe

Hey world what you say?

Should I stick around for another day?
Hey world what you say?
Should I stick around for another day or two?
Don't give up on me, I won't give up on you
Just believe in me like I believe in you
Don't give up on me

Hey world what you say?


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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

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

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

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Introducing_Mohamed Suleiman

Mohamed Suleiman's blog: while we wait sudan

The Purpose of Mohamed's blog:

On April 8, 2009, it was reported that General Scott Gration, the US Special Envoy to Sudan, proposed a resolution to fill the gap left by the Government of Sudan's decision to expel 16 aid groups from Darfur. The purpose of this blog is to provide daily updates on how Darfuri lives are affected as they wait for aid to be restored.

Updates and comments about the crisis are provided by Mohamed Suleiman, a US-based Darfuri with a broad network of Darfuri contacts from the Diaspora and from IDP camps in Sudan and refugee camps in Chad.

Post from his blog: Saturday, July 25, 2009

- A leader in the Internal Displaced People (IDP) camp of Kassab (North Darfur) said the camp is facing serious living conditions. He told Radio Dabanga that there is acute shortage in food and shelter materials. He added that for 70 days they have not recieved any food supplies and last time they received shelter material and tents was 6 months ago. He further said the national NGOs came one time since the expulsion of the 13 NGOs and never came back.

- Refugees from the village of Shattayah (West Darfur) who are now in IDP camps in Kass ( West Darfur) said the Government of Sudan (GoS) is lying about their voluntary return to their original villages. Two women and a man spoke to Radio Dabanga and said that they heard Radio Omdurman ( GoS state radio) saying that the Shattayah people are back to their villages and farming their lands. The refugees said that is a propaganda from GoS to decieve the international community. They said that Shattayah now is occupied by Janjaweed (pro GoS) and their fertile lands are given to the supporters of GoS.

More Information:

genocide.change.org

www.stopgenocidenow.org

www.enoughproject.org
www.savedarfur.org

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EDUCATED PEOPLE FAIL AT BEING HUMAN WHEN WE ALLOW GENOCIDE TO GO ON and on

GENOCIDE IS OUR TEST AT BEING HUMAN

My previous post included the following:


On the first day of the new school year, all the teachers in one private school received the following note from their principal.

Dear Teacher,

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no man should witness:


Gas chambers built by learned engineers.


Children poisoned by educated
physicians.


Infants killed by trained nurses.


Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates.


So, I am suspicious of education. My request is: help your students become human. Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmanns.


Reading, writing and arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.



From Haim Ginott's book,
Teacher and Child. It is the book's epilogue.


and



these words by Charles Silberman, from his book,
Crisis in the Classroom:


Thinking alone, does not make a human being human. Feeling is also needed


What tomorrow needs is not masses of intellectuals, but masses of educated men...men educated to feel and to act as well as to think.


and then I just received this email from a Darfuri living in the USA:


Hi Sandra,

These are the men around Al-Bashir, the Architects of Darfur Genocide:

1- Salah Abdallah Gosh - Head of Security - Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering.
2- Dr. Ghazi Salahuddin - Presidential advisor - MD, PHD. in BioChemistry (was in Washington last month).
3- Dr. Nafi Ali Nafi - Senior Presidential Assistant and Deputy Head of NCP- PHD. Agriculture.
4- Dr. Awad Algaz - Minister of Finance (Genocide financier)- PHD. in Public Relations- UCLA.
5- Ali Osman Taha - Vice President - Bachelor of Science in Law - University of Khartoum.
6- Ali Karti - External Security affairs - Bachelor of Science - University of Khartoum.
7- Dr. Mutraf Siddig - Deputy Foreign Minister (The defacto Foreign Minister) - MD. Bsc.- University of Khartoum.
8- General Abdulrahim M. Hussein - Minister of Defense - Masters' Degree in Military Studies.
9- Ahmed Haroun - Minister of Humanitarian Affairs (til recently) - Bachelor of Science in Law - University
of Zagazig - Egypt.
10 - Dr. Mahdi Algutbi - Presidential Adviser (during the height of the massacres in Darfur) - PHD- U.S.A.
11- Dr. Kamal Obeid - Minister of Information Affairs (Propaganda Ministry) - PHD Degree.

This is the top tier.

Second and third tier many highly educated NCP members had directly or indirectly participated in planning, executing, covering up, of the Genocide in Darfur.

Many Generals in the Army, air Force, Security, Popular Defense Forces, Intelligence, were complicit.

Gration has NO idea of the team he is against.
If he knows, that is even worse.

Best,
Mohamed Suleiman


Mohamed's blog: while we wait sudan

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Educated people fail at being human, when we allow genocide to go on.

And we have.

Many times.
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Sunday, July 26, 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be on Meet The Press

I submitted the text below to

for the show's consideration regarding Secretary Clinton and what she will do to bring peace to Darfur and all of Sudan.


Justice doesn't just happen.

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Genocide in our time MUST Be Noticed, must be reported by our media, must have the leaders of free nations use our political clout to end the Darfur genocide and actually put some meaning to the wordsNever Again”. Never Again” - words we love to use at the languishing end of each genocide that this planet has hosted.

Genocide is not only a word, it is crying of the whole human race. There is nothing redeeming about being silent or not being a part of the ending of genocide. The honor and integrity of the human race and our country rely on it. Complicity is not a policy. Complicity comes from a lack of will.

Just exactly when is genocide not okay with us?

A moral nation needs to stand up for right and know that genocide flourishes when there is no accountability. So far, the Obama administration has effectively been a tool in the arsenal of Bashir on the Darfuri families. Our Special Envoy Gration has been wrong in his approach to the Government of Sudan and Darfuri people.

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.

What are you Secretary of State Clinton going to do about Darfur? And when?

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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

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

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

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

More Information:

genocide.change.org

www.stopgenocidenow.org

www.enoughproject.org
www.savedarfur.org

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