DEAR PRESIDENT OBAMA ~ DEFINE TERRORISM IN TERMS OF GENOCIDE AND DARFUR

My text sent to President Obama today via whitehouse.gov/contact ~

Beyond an email to President Obama's inbox, I don't know where to express my feelings of anger and being thoroughly let down by Barack Obama.

I was on a White House conference call today regarding Sudan.

The fact that President Obama has betrayed moral integrity regarding the Darfuri people outrages me. As someone who campaigned for him because of Senator Obama's stand on Darfur, I now am nothing but thoroughly, starkly hopeless about President Obama doing anything right to end the injustice that Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir supports and engages in against his own people of Darfur. The government of Sudan’s bombings and the burnings of villages of the Darfur region have escalated since the referendum to split Sudan into two countries.

Obama has betrayed the Darfur people, including most recently waiving the protection for Darfuris created in an agreement ~ The Darfur Peace and Accountability Act- DPAA (Darfur_Peace_and_Accountability_Act explained) (H.R. 3127/S. 1462). This apparently has been done so that the USA can remove Sudan from a USA list of state sponsors of terrorism. This is WHILE the Sudan government bombs Darfur civilians because of their ethnicity, which amounts to a state sponsored terrorism all by itself. Rightly so, Senator Obama complained that Bush was selling out Darfur. And at that time, Senator Obama was proud of forcing linkage via DPAA to justice being done regarding Darfur. Obama, as President, is waiving the requirements within the DPAA to protect Darfuris.

Every time a government knows we, the USA, will not hold them to what we have said, they will continue to bomb, kill, rape, burn. That is just the way it is and always has been. It is no different than raising a child and not sticking to what we say will happen if behavior doesn’t stop. Al-Bashir can logically gamble that President Obama is not serious about sticking with the International Criminal Court’s indictment against Sudanese President al-Bashir of crimes against humanity. And why should he, when he is witness to such turnarounds of character and words by the standard bearer of human rights on the planet – the USA. We as a country and government are treating the Darfuri people and their tragic past, present and future as a part of a political chess game.

I am not proud of this, President Obama. This is not the country I want to be. Freedom and justice for all is not an easy concept to employ, but betrayal of the principles of justice and human rights is an insult to my vote for you.

The end of message to President Obama

Genocide will only stop with us demanding it

Our leaders have taught us this

"The most important things belong first, not last or never."

Words of the Earth by Cedric Wright

If you want peace, work for justice
إذا كنت تريد السلام ، أعمل من أجل العدالة

President Obama:

202-456-1111

1-800-GENOCIDE

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies,

but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Darfur Daily News
Sudan army surrounds, threatens to burn down UNAMID camp

SHANGIL TOBAYA

While we wait Sudan

A Sudanese army force of 200 soldiers on 40 vehicles surrounded the exit of an UN – African Union military camp yesterday in Shangil Tobaya. A senior officer at the head of the force then threatened to burn down the military camp and an adjoining refugee camp. The threat came at about 6:00 p.m., after the UN forces unsuccessfuly tried to prevent the army from threatening and arresting refugees at the neighboring camp. The army arrested three people in the camp.

“The SAF commander at the scene stated that they were carrying out their duties and intended to persuade the IDPs to return to their original camps. He then threatened to burn down the makeshift camp and UNAMID team site, if the peacekeepers continued to interfere,” UNAMID reported in an e-mailed statement yesterday.

The makeshift camp next to the UNAMID base sheltered thousands of people who had fled during the events of December 2010.

UNAMID also reported that it was unable to complete a “verification mission” from its Shangil Tobaya base to Tabit, where fighting broke out Monday, due to “resumption of aerial bombardment in the area.”

and

Government of Sudan conducts intensive aerial bombings in Darfur:

- Government of Sudan (GoS) is conducting intensive aerial bombings targeting villages south of Elfasher (Capital of North Darfur). There are clashes between GoS and rebels. Yet the GoS is going after the villages and civilians. Many villages were bombed, burnt, and destroyed by aerial bombings. These villages were then looted by Janjaweed. Thousands are fleeing now the bombed areas.
Via phone calls, these are the names of some of the villages (8 of them) that are bombed and completely destroyed: Tabit, Hashabah, Traney, Chemerry, Abu Talatin, Abu Gretion, Komis, Tangary.
Thousands of civilians of these villages are now on the run,

- Resident of Elfasher told me that the GoS stopped civilian flights form and to Elfasher because the Airport is busy with military air activities.

- UNAMID issued a statement that the GoS has prevented two of its convoys to reach the affected civilians in two separate incidents.

- Khartoum announced it is flying thousands of its "Popular Defense" para-military troops militias to Darfur to "secure the return of the IDPs".

AFP: US to recognize south Sudan, delist north.

Washington Post: Clashes in Sudan as southerners in army refuse to withdraw to north.

AFP: Sudan's crucial north-south trade under threat.

BBC: Southern Sudan minister Jimmy Lemi Milla shot dead.

VOA: Darfur: Thousands Displaced in North by Two Months of Fighting.

Reuters: South Sudan independence: Bashir seeks Darfur 'reward'. Sudan has hinted that the arrest warrant for President Omar al-Bashir should be withdrawn as a "reward" for him accepting the south's independence. Mr Bashir has promised to recognise Southern Sudan after 99% of voters backed secession. In a special meeting on Wednesday, the UN Security Council congratulated Sudan's government for its co-operation in the south's referendum on independence. "Shouldn't this be rewarded by your distinguished and august council by a new vision, a new vision that would reconsider the position vis-a-vis the hero of peace, President Bashir?" asked Sudan's UN ambassador Daffa Alla el-Haj Ali Osman.The US has suggested it would take Sudan off their list of states which sponsor terrorism, if it ensured a peaceful referendum. However it has linked promises to lift sanctions and normalise relations to a negotiated solution of the conflict in Darfur.

AFP: Sudan detains opposition leader: party official. Sudanese security services on Thursday arrested prominent government critic Mariam al-Mahdi, daughter of the prime minister whom veteran President Omar al-Bashir ousted in a 1989 coup, a member of her Umma party said. Mahdi was arrested as she went with a group of activists to petition the security forces for the release of protesters detained nearly two weeks ago, Habab Mubarak, the daughter of another leading Umma party member Mubarak al-Fadil, told AFP.She said the incident took place after around 30 women, among them the mothers of those still being held after anti-government demonstrations last month, set off to present their petition to the head of the Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services Mohammed Atta.

Washington Post: Report: Chad's army, rebels recruit child soldiers. Chad's armed forces and Chadian and Sudanese rebel groups are recruiting children as young as 13 to become soldiers, Amnesty International said in a report released Thursday. The children are recruited from camps in eastern Chad, which has suffered a spillover from the Darfur conflict in neighboring Sudan, Amnesty said. Recruiters use family or appeal to the children's ethnic loyalties to get them to join. Sometimes they use child soldiers already in their ranks to lure the new recruits with money, clothes and cigarettes, the report said. Not all of the child recruits fight, the report said, adding that some are used as porters or messengers for the soldiers and rebels.

AFP: Minnawi urges all Darfur groups to battle Khartoum. Minni Minnawi, the Darfur leader who tore up a 2006 peace accord with Khartoum in December, on Wednesday urged all the armed movements in Sudan's troubled western region to step up their struggle against the government. On Wednesday, the rebel leader accused the government of seeking to forcefully dismantle the camps for people forced to flee their homes in the eight-year conflict, of treating all the armed movements as military targets and of carrying out mass killing against the Darfuri people.Renewed fighting between rebels and the Sudanese army has displaced thousands of civilians and coincided with a deadlock in the Doha peace talks, which were suspended at the end of December when the government recalled its delegation, citing a lack of progress.

Op-Ed by Rebecca Hamilton featured in the New York Times: One Referendum, Two New Nations.

our humanity in the balance

PEACEFUL PROTESTS CALLED FOR IN EGYPT'S NEIGHBORING COUNTRY OF SUDAN

2007 map
Click on image to enlarge

BREAKING NEWS - The Facebook Organized Protests Have Begun In Sudan

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Student Protesters Want Ouster Of Sudanese President

Source: wsj

Updated: Sunday, 30 Jan 2011, 3:45 PM CST

Published : Sunday, 30 Jan 2011, 3:45 PM CST

KHARTOUM -- Student protesters in Khartoum clashed with police Sunday and called for the ouster of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, in a movement organizers said was inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

Communicating via the social networking site Facebook, organizers called for a street demonstration on Jan. 30 to protest Sudan's poor economic climate and political oppression. The date was chosen to coincide with the announcement of preliminary results for the south's referendum on whether to secede from the north. Over 99 percent of voters chose secession, according to those results, in line with overwhelming support for independence in southern Sudan.

A handful of demonstrations sprang up at various locations in Khartoum, including three of the main universities, and around the country. In Khartoum, participants reported via Twitter that police had attempted to disperse the crowd with teargas and Tasers. Images posted by a Sudanese website showed police clad in riot gear apparently hitting people with long batons.

Ahmed Musa, a police officer in Khartoum, said that students started protesting on campuses and attempted to move to the streets, but that police had stopped them. "The stubborn students wanted to start chaos," Musa said. "They sung songs praising protests in Tunisia and Egypt … They threw stones at the police, but we controlled them." Musa estimated about 120 students were involved in the protest and five had been arrested.

Samira Hassan, a political activist who participated in the protests, said that about 500 people, who included students and other civilians, gathered on a main street in Khartoum. Hassan said police beat them and arrested about 100 from the crowd.

"The police and security forces hit me and broke my hand, and others were badly beaten -- they were beating people viciously," she said, adding that one hospital that is affiliated with the police had refused to treat her because she had been involved in the protests.

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Mapping non-violent protests in Sudan: jan30sudan.crowdmap.com

• All Categories
• تجمُّع سِلمي.1 (Peaceful Gathering)
• إشتباكات.2 (Clashes)
• إعتقال .3 (Arrests)
• مقتل مُتظاهرين.4 (Demonstrators Killed)

How to Report

1. By sending an email to jan30sudan@gmail.com
2. By sending a tweet with the hashtag/s #Jan30 or #Sudan or #jan30sudan
3. By filling this form

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Sudanese police, students clash in the capital

From Isma'il Kamal Kushkush, For CNN

Source: cnn

January 30, 2011 -- Updated 1631 GMT (0031 HKT)

Sudanese riot police hold shields and sticks as students take to the streets in protests, spurred by events in Egypt and Tunisia.

Khartoum, Sudan (CNN) -- Sudanese police clashed with students Sunday as protests inspired by rallies in Egypt broke out in the capital.

The students protested at a university in Khartoum, chanting "No to high prices, no to corruption" and "Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan together as one."

About 100 students hurled rocks at police officers, who forced them back. Five people were arrested, authorities said.

Students resumed the protests and tried to engage bystanders as soon as police left the area.

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News at Operation broken silence

News at Radio dabanga

Related articles at:
njuice.com/Sudanese-police-students-clash-capital

af.reuters

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WikiLeaks cables: Sudanese president 'stashed $9bn in UK banks'

Speculation that Omar al-Bashir siphoned $9bn in oil money and deposited it in foreign accounts could fuel calls for his arrest

Source: guardian.co.uk

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From Sudan to Pittsburgh: A long journey home

Refugees watch changes in Darfur intently but say Pittsburgh has embraced them

Source: post-gazette

Sunday, January 30, 2011

By Sean D. Hamill, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Ismail Omar, foreground, prepares for dinner with Mohamed Idris.
Bill Wade/Post-Gazette

The question is simple: Would you like to return home some day?

The answer is simple, too, but loaded with history and emotion.

"I can't. There is no home," said Ismail Omar, waving his arms indicating his home -- his entire village -- is gone.

Home for Mr. Omar, 54, was the village of Amo in the Darfur, or western, region of Sudan, one of the most war-torn countries on the planet over the last 30 years.

After a 20-year journey by turns treacherous and fortuitous that took him through four countries, he now works in housekeeping at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and lives in a small apartment in Castle Shannon.

He shares it with three other men, including lifelong friend Mohamed Idris, 48; all are refugees from Darfur. In the apartment across the hallway are three more refugees, all seven of them from villages in the northern region of Darfur.

They all came here between May and August 2009, assisted by Catholic Charities of Pittsburgh. Though the region now has several hundred residents from the south region of Sudan, the seven are believed to be the first Darfurians to move as refugees to the Pittsburgh area in recent memory.

Their presence is appreciated by the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition, which formed six years ago to raise awareness of the genocide taking place in Darfur.

Before the Darfurians moved here, "we had to ask Darfur residents from Philadelphia to come speak at our rallies," said David Rosenberg, lead organizer for the coalition.

Having them here "helps people understand and makes it real to them," Mr. Rosenberg said. "It doesn't feel so far away anymore."

The men take language classes to improve their English, already pretty good, and search for more work. But Mr. Omar and Mr. Idris keep an eye and ear on their homeland, which is lurching toward peace.

Wednesday marks the end of a three-week-long referendum among residents of south Sudan, and expatriate refugees around the world, including in the United States, to decide if the predominantly Christian south will separate from the predominantly Muslim north.

Often lost in the coverage of that momentous referendum, which is expected to pass easily, is that it does nothing to solve the lingering trouble between the north of Sudan, which is ethnically Arab, and the Darfur region, which is ethnically African.

This past week, Mr. Omar and Mr. Idris sat down in their apartment to talk about their history, and the future of their country.

Both are members of the Fur tribe, the largest tribe in the region of Darfur, which literally means "land of the Fur." Their native tongue is Fur, despite the Sudanese government's effort to stamp it out and make them speak only Arabic.

They spoke in English, and for more complex questions in Arabic translated by a friend.

They met the friend, Benedict Killang, since moving here. He is a leader among the south Sudanese community here. Three weeks ago, Mr. Killang and fellow south Sudanese went to Virginia to vote in the referendum, something not lost on Mr. Idris and Mr. Omar, who say they weren't envious.

"We were happy for him," said Mr. Idris, who works in housekeeping at Rivers Casino. "It will be better that they separate, because since 1955 [when England gave up colonial rule of Sudan] there has only been death. So this will enable them to stay in peace."

As for their hopes for their homeland, like Darfurians around the world, they can't agree on what should happen.

"That is a tough question," Mr. Idris said. "Maybe Darfur and the south will join together, and later rejoin with the north."

Mr. Omar can't fathom that, not after genocide, not after he lost his father and two brothers in the early fighting in 1987.

"I hope for a separate state, like the south will have. This is my hope," he said.

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Though international officials, pundits and historians like to debate the real reasons behind the fighting in Darfur, to Mr. Omar and Mr. Idris, there is no disagreement about what was really behind it.

"The government [in the north] wanted to completely destroy our African culture and bring the Arab culture in and use Darfur as the gateway for Arab Islam to get into the whole of Africa," Mr. Idris said.

"My religion is Islam, like it is in the north, and I speak Arabic, like in the north, but my roots are not Arab. I am African," he said. "And since we became an obstacle to what the government wanted, they fought us."

His friend, Mr. Omar, nods in agreement.

The two men have known each other nearly all of their lives. They were both farmers in separate villages in northern Darfur, "about a three- or four-hour walk apart, maybe two by camel," Mr. Idris said.

Mr. Idris first left his village, Einseiro, for the larger town of Kutum in 1985, after fighting broke out near home. When it worsened, he left Sudan and headed to Egypt. He eventually made his way to Iraq in 1998, living for a time in a refugee camp in the desert, "where only the American military helped us, gave us food."

Eventually he got a job in a hotel nearby, staying for a decade before heading to a refugee camp in Romania. From there, in 2009, he finally was approved to come to the United States.

Mr. Omar followed roughly the same path, though he left four years later, in 1989, joining up with Mr. Idris in Egypt and then Iraq and Romania before leaving for the U.S. But he couldn't persuade his mother, who is living in a refugee camp, to apply to leave with him.

"She says she will never move," he said. "She wants to go back to our village and die, even though I tell her it is destroyed."

Mr. Omar also worked in a hotel in Iraq, work that made them appealing hires when they came to the United States.

"Unlike some other refugees we work with, every time I took them somewhere for a job interview, everyone was just amazed," said Kheir Mugwaneza, a refugee case manager for Catholic Charities, which provided financial support when they first arrived with almost no possessions. "They spoke some English. They had more than 10 years experience working in hotels. They would do anything and were eager to work. It wasn't hard to find them jobs."

Catholic Charities found them an apartment just a couple blocks from the T line that runs through the South Hills, and the jobs have given them a base, but life remains a work in progress.

Both worry their limited English will prevent them from getting better jobs: "I want people to understand me with everything I say," Mr. Idris said.

But Western Pennsylvania has been very welcoming, Mr. Omar said, so much so that when he heard from his friend Mr. Idris that New Hampshire, where he was first settled, was not a good fit, he persuaded him to move here.

"It was very, very cold there," Mr. Idris said, and the people there were indifferent.

Mr. Omar described a different life in Western Pennsylvania to him.

"I told him, the citizens of Pittsburgh are good. They like helping others," Mr. Omar said.

A big part of that were the exchanges he began having with Mr. Rosenberg and the people, like Mr. Killang, he met through the south Sudanese community.

Finding the coalition here "was a surprise," Mr. Omar said. "I didn't expect there would be people here worried about Darfur."

"One of the reasons I feel I belong to Pittsburgh and it is my land now is knowing [the coalition] is here," he said.

He told Mr. Idris about the coalition before he came here, too, and it helped persuade him to move.

"I was grateful there were people here who cared," said Mr. Idris, who has come to be a fan of the Steelers.

Of course, they miss their homeland, their families, their food -- "We can't find any millet to make our food like at home," Mr. Idris said -- and their music, kushoke, a drum-based music played for celebrations.

But neither can they see ever returning for anything more than a visit. Even if peace is achieved, too much time and history have passed, and because so many have died, they wouldn't know whom to trust.

"Here," said Mr. Omar, pointing around the table in his apartment at Mr. Rosenberg, Mr. Killang and Mr. Idris, "I know he is my friend, and he is my friend and he is my friend. I know that. But there, so many of my friends died.

"I think, now, this is my home."

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read the full article Endgame in Sudan

Communicate to the President
that he has a role to play

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

Rahma, age 15
Darfuri refugee camp Djabal in eastern Chad