TAKING A STAND ABOUT A HUMANITY-DEFINING SUBJECT

There are especially disturbing reports about the Government of Sudan planning to move millions of displaced Darfuris from the internal camps in which they live to areas where there is even less protection, less humanitarian aid support, and no eyes to witness any further atrocities.

Consider signing the letter drafted by George Clooney and John Prendergast to President Obama. Please ask friends and family to forward a request to also sign it.

For more action opportunities, please visit 100 Days of Action page.

The following is my letter sent to President Obama today via the link above and again at whitehouse.gov/contact

Subject: Sudan, Darfur and USA Leadership Responsibility

October 14, 2010

Dear President Obama,

I believe that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers. I have heard you use this phrase more than once yourself. I consider myself first a human being with compassion and empathy and politically I consider myself a Democrat. I believe Democrats historically have been compassionate to fellow human beings, and are not all out for ourselves, but after trying our best to live our lives responsibly, have expectations that the government should protect our interests with regulations and social programs. And I believe that duties of citizens include the responsibility to know what our politicians are doing in our name and that we must be actively and proactively involved. Furthermore, I believe that we must think about our responsibilities locally and globally, which includes how we address issues such as women’s rights worldwide, human trafficking and genocide.

Since 2004, I have been a community leader who has brought attention to the genocide upon the Darfuri people of Sudan in the state of Rhode Island. In my lifetime, I have watched USA President after President, tolerate genocide in spite of all the correct and moral promises, such as “Never again”. Unfortunately, we have never meant “never again”. We only have said those words when the time that “we” could have done something to divert the madness of genocide is over. We say those words, in order to make ourselves feel better about our lack of doing something. We feel guilty and we try then to assuage our feelings or explain away our behavior of staying away from “The Problem”.

On January 9th, Southern Sudan will hold its independence referendum. Both North and South are preparing for war, leaving civilians at grave risk of major human rights violations. Is this going to be one more time that that we, of the USA and the international community could have diverted another “hell on earth”, but chose not to?

I'm asking you to do all you can to help avert a terrible conflict there. Specifically, I hope you can do more in three areas:

1. Peacemaking: Intensify our support for the North/South peace process and dispatch a senior diplomat to revitalize the Darfur peace effort.

2. Protection: Focus the post-referendum UN peacekeeping mission on civilian protection, particularly in border areas where civilians are most vulnerable to conflict and rights violations.

3. Pressure: You have said there will be benefits for peace and consequences for war. These should be big enough to get the attention of the Sudanese or they won't matter.

Sincerely,

Sandra Hammel

Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI

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Here is a letter from George Clooney and John Prendergast asking us for the same proaction ~

If you had 90 days to prevent another Darfur, what would you do?

On January 9th, Southern Sudan will vote for its independence. The country is currently led by an indicted war criminal, Omar al-Bashir. Both north and south are preparing for war, leaving civilians at grave risk of major human rights violations.

Send a message to President Obama asking him to act now.

The U.S. Secretary of State has called the situation a "ticking time bomb." The Director of National Intelligence has said that "mass killing or genocide is most likely to occur in Southern Sudan." President Obama has said that "the stakes are enormous."

We have a brief window of opportunity to do something that has rarely been done: stop a war before it starts. But if the international community is too hesitant or too late in its efforts -- as was the case in Darfur -- hundreds of thousands could die. The last war between the North and South was ended by a U.S.-led peace process, but not before two and a half million men, women, and children perished.

What can we do? Take action now by emailing President Obama.

Republicans and Democrats stand arm in arm for this cause, a cause which does not require sending US troops or billions of dollars. In fact, a combination of international pressure and robust diplomacy ended the last North/South war in 2005. It can work again.

Tell President Obama that we support every effort to use robust diplomacy -- in coordination with all our diplomatic partners -- to ensure a successful referendum, and peace in the South and Darfur. Our President has the power to gather the political will to stop a genocide before it starts, and we must demand that he do so.

The international community was late to Darfur. Late to the Congo. Late to Rwanda. Late to Bosnia. Tell our President that the people of South Sudan can't afford for us to be late again.

Your voice can stop a war.

Send a personal message to the president on the Sudan Now website.

–George Clooney and John Prendergast

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Darfur Daily News

AFP: War crimes-accused LRA chief likely in Darfur: think tank. The war crimes-accused head of the Ugandan rebel group Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, is likely in the southern part of Sudan's troubled Darfur, International Crisis Group said Wednesday. The International Criminal Court has an arrest warrant out for Kony for war crimes and crimes against humanity, with his outfit accused of massacres, mutilation, using child soldiers and taking girls as sex slaves. Kony is believed to be in the area of Daffak in southern Darfur where an attack took place September 2, according to information from Darfuri rebels from the Liberation and Justice Movement.

Bloomberg: Sudanese General Tanginye Holds Talks About Joining Southern Sudan's Army. A former Southern Sudan militia leader currently serving as a general in Sudan's army began talks with the semi-autonomous region's leader to switch sides ahead of an independence referendum next year. "We have not reached that conclusion, but we are in the process of negotiating," Sudanese Armed Forces Major-General Gabriel Tanginye said in an interview after a meeting today with Southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir in the capital, Juba. "The president is my brother and he is my leader," he said.

AFP: S.Sudan foes mend fences before independence vote. The south Sudanese leadership has been setting aside its differences with armed dissidents and civil war militia foes as a landmark referendum on independence for the region looms in January. Southern regional president Salva Kiir has offered an amnesty to rebel fighters and sought to reconcile with his leading political adversary, former foreign minister Lam Akol, in a bid to ease tensions in the run-up to the vote.

Reuters: North, south Sudan disagree over Abyei vote. A referendum on the future of Sudan's oil-producing Abyei region should be postponed, northern officials said on Thursday, but the south dismissed the proposal as unacceptable.

BBC: George Clooney call to freeze Sudan leader's assets. The Sudanese leader is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur - charges he denies. Mr Clooney told the BBC that freezing his bank accounts would be a good way of putting pressure on Khartoum. The Hollywood star has just returned from Sudan in his role as a UN messenger of peace ahead of January's referendum on secession for the south.

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Double click on video to to see in larger screen at Youtube

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STORIES ARE IMPORTANT AND YOU WON'T READ THIS STORY IN ANY NEWSPAPER TOMORROW MORNING

GENOCIDE ISN'T A SUBJECT
THAT PERPETRATORS
WANT US TO BE CURIOUS ABOUT

AND THEY HAVE PRETTY MUCH HAD THEIR WAY

AND OUR COMPLICITY IS NECESSARY

AND OUR SILENCE IS NECESSARY

AND OUR NOT HOLDING PERPETRATORS ACCOUNTABLE IS NECESSARY

TO HAVE AN ON-GOING GENOCIDE FOR OVER FIVE YEARS

AND THAT IS WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON IN SUDAN



I am just a person who believes like most informed people of this planet that there is a genocide that has been going on for too long upon our brothers and sisters of Darfur, Sudan. The U.S. government has called it genocide since 2004. I most recently wrote about it at this post And We've Known It Is Genocide and Yet.

I am an ordinary person who has taken this human rights cause on since 2004. I give speeches about this issue in my state, have lobbied my U.S. Senators and Representatives and President Bush repeatedly about it, attended and volunteered at national rallies in Washington, D.C. and Central Park in New York City, organized a Rhode Island Dream For Darfur Torch Relay and Ceremony in conjunction with the International effort of Torch Relays in countries that have had and are having genocides reign over their people, as well as other countries around the world, written many letters to the editors published in my local newspaper in Rhode Island, The Newport Daily News, blogged about this on-going crime, been an active member of

www.savedarfur.org

www.genocideintervention.net

attended the 2007 national STAND conference of

www.standnow.org

and as a community activist leader of www.savedarfur.org I receive updated information almost daily from the non-profit organization, but also from a Darfuri man, Mohamed Suleiman who has daily contact with those on the ground in Sudan and Chad. He keeps me and other citizen activists informed about the current crimes and torture that we would otherwise not know. Today, I received this email from him:

I was asked to work as a Darfuri in Radio Afia Darfur
in September 2008. 

Radio Afia Darfur is operated from MBN (Middle East 
Broadcast Network) facility in Virginia. The Radio
program is funded by  a grant from the U.S. State
Department to the BBG (Broadcasting Board of
Government - U.S. Congress).


I moved from California to Virginia while leaving my
family and shutting down my business.

At work, I found out that the 2 editors, who are in the
Darfur department are from the Nile North of Sudan:
1-Elzubair O. Altyeb (same tribe as Al-Bashir).
2- Zahrat Abuzeid (from the far Nile North).

Their region is very important when it comes to
Darfur.

From day one and on following days and months
they made it clear to us that:

1- Darfur is humanitarian problem, not genocide
and no ethnic targeting.

2- IDP (internal displaced people) and the refugees
when contacted should talk about peace and need
for clothes, water, etc.. but not to voice their opinion
about Sudan Governments actions ( this one and
before). This is for them is propaganda.

3- Ocampo and International Criminal Court are
out to destroy Sudan (which means to them
Khartoum and North Sudan).

4- Save Darfur and other advcocacy organizations
are seen as Jewish and Zionist organizations with
Agendas in Sudan.

5- Reports and news should be dumbed down
(focus on programs like culture and heritage).

6-We Darfurians are compelled to read news
and reports in high level Arabic language.
Arabic language in Sudan is symbol of the
dominant culture.

We Darfurians, the three of us, were vocally critical
of the blatant distortion. We were threatened that
they can replace us with any Darfurians and there
are tens of them lined for our jobs, then we were
marginalized. Elzubair and Zaharat started to do
almost everything and ignoring us. They work late
and six to seven days per week just to render us
useless.

They decided to make an example of their control.
On Tuesday December 16th ~ I was called to the
new manager's office (William Sabatini- started
December 1st) and there was Alzubair and
Zaharat with the personnel manager and I was
told that my employment is terminated effective
immediately. I asked the reasons and he said
this is the end of probation period and he
retrieved recommendations (meaning Elzubair
and Zahrat) to do that.

I said to him: 

Firstly I need the reasons in writing in a letter. 

Secondly, this termination is unfair and unjust and
has nothing to do with the work here and has
everything to do with what is going on in Darfur
and Sudan. 

I pointed to Zahart and AlZubair and
said: These are from the North, they are protecting
the status quo.

I asked Zaharat: how many people of your
relative lost their lives in Darfur Genocide?
She could not reply. 

I said I know by name 31 of my relatives
perished in this Genocide. The manager's
demeanor changed and said: I apologize
to hear about your loss there. 

I said Genocide still is going on. Alzubair
laughed. I said to the manager: you see -
he is laughing!  That is how insensitive
they are to what is going in Darfur.

Again I asked about the written letter of
termination.  Already Alzubair and Zaharat
had interviewed Darfuris from tribes not
targeted by the government and
Janjaweed. Those who can be as tokens
to them.

I will never sell out those who are toiling
in the camps in Darfur and eastern Chad.
 
NEVER.

End of Mohamed's email.

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

If you would like to get more information about Mohamed, please let me know.

This should not be happening here in the USA.

Join one of these groups to be a part of the answer to stopping genocide
www.savedarfur.org

www.genocideintervention.net

www.standnow.org

1-800-GENOCIDE

IS GENOCIDE OKAY AS LONG AS IT ISN'T HAPPENING TO YOU?

I took the text I have below from a previous post of mine (March 22, 2007):

Where There Is A Will There is Always A Way

“We don’t have to wait for some great politician to be our champion.

We ARE the Champion we’ve been waiting for.

Let us Stop Waiting for Someone Else to Make the Difference

Let us STOP “Waiting for the World to Change”.

Get Inspired

By

BEING the INSPIRED

The Sudanese self-appointed, President Omar al-Beshir has an ally, China

who has been in the business of supporting the al-Beshir regime in order to get Sudan’s oil.

The collaboration of the Sudanese government with the Arab Janjaweed have been targeting the Darfuri people - targeting that fits the definition of genocide - for six years this February.

The international community of governments has virtually done nothing affective to show that genocide is unacceptable.

And all genocide needs to thrive -

is what has been happening. No accountability.

Words with no integrity.

Words of care by President Bush have proven to be just words.

You and me.

If WE care – what difference can we make?

Plenty.


Get informed.

Be moral.

Join one of these groups
to be a part of the answer to stopping genocide

www.savedarfur.org

www.genocideintervention.net

www.standnow.org

1-800-GENOCIDE

We have been called to be human in the most basic way on this subject.

Where there is a will - there is always a way.

And where there is NO will - there is never a way.

This is not so much a religious principle, as it is simply a virtue of character.

We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers.

Picture this:

It is before dawn and you are sleeping.

Without any reason or warning, you wake up to the sound of planes bombing

your house, your neighborhood.

Just then - Janjaweed come in on horseback and camels -

pillaging and violently attacking everyone indiscriminately.

Your house and every house on your street,

in your town are burning to the ground.

You are farmers with livestock

and all your livestock are being stolen.

All of your possessions are being stolen.

You are seeing your father and brothers shot -

right in front of your eyes,

your sister is being raped in front of you.

Everyone is running away while being chased. You are scared and have no one –

you are running alone in the instant madness.

After days and days of walking you come to a barren land

where others are assembled.

You have nothing. They have nothing. But there you are.

With no food, medical help, water, no spare clothes, no facilities.

And now it has been four years that you are living like this.

You have a 4 year old child who has known nothing else...

Born of a rape.

And you wonder why no one seems to care.

This is western Sudan in Darfur and eastern Chad.

And our government and the rest of civilization stands idly by.

The end of my writing, here.

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SCREAM BLOODY MURDER

SEE IT

FIRST AIRED DECEMBER 4, 2008 at 9:00 p.m. USA - Eastern Standard Time

AND

Midnight - 2:00 A.M.

AND

3:00 A.M. - 5: 00 A.M.

AND CONTINUES TO BE AIRED - SEE MORE TIMES BELOW


The source of the links that I have below:

www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/scream.bloody.murder
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CNN Scream Bloody Murder
Uploaded by ArmenianNetwork

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WITNESS TO EVIL

• The world's most heinous crime
• Amanpour: Voices of hope in the face of evil
• Polish Jew gave his life defining, fighting genocide
• Priest tried to warn of Cambodia's insanity
• 'Idealist' tried to halt Saddam's Kurdish slaughter
• Read once-secret Reagan administration documents on Iraq
• 'Bombs for peace' after slaughter in Bosnia
• As genocide raged, general's pleas for help ignored
• 'A horror movie and a snuff movie'
• They killed their neighbors: genocide's foot soldiers

STORIES OF SURVIVAL

• Genocide survivor keeps memory of victims alive
• Woman opens heart to man who slaughtered her family
• Survivor recalls horrors of Cambodia
• Nusreta's story: 'We could see the blood everywhere'
• Sex slave: 'Every day we were raped'
• Color, hope return to war-ravaged city
• Buchenwald liberator, American hero dies at 83

LIFE AFTER DEATH

• 'Killing fields' survivor documents Cambodian genocide
• Former Khmer Rouge: 'If you don't do what they say, you die'
• From child refugee to reconciliation president of Rwanda
• Bone detectives seek genocide answers
• Albright, Cohen: Leadership key to preventing genocide

About the Show

CNN's Christiane Amanpour traveled to the world's killing fields to understand the world's indifference, even as courageous voices tried to "Scream Bloody Murder." A worldwide investigation and two-hour documentary, premiering on CNN/US at 9 p.m. ET/PT December 4 and on CNN International at 0200 GMT December 5.

Additional dates and times:
• CNN/US: 8 p.m. December 6; 3 a.m. and 8 p.m. December 7; and 3 a.m. December 8 (All times ET)
• CNN International: 1000, 1700 December 5; 1200, 2000 December 6; 0100, 0600, 2200 December 7 (All times GMT)

Cambodia Journal »

Reporter's Notebook

Interactive Map »

The world's killing fields
ALL ABOUT ...

1. Genocide
2. War Crimes
3. Peacekeeping and Security
4. The Holocaust
5. Darfur
6. Rwanda
7. Bosnia
8. Cambodia
9. Iraq

more topics »

Additional dates and times:
• CNN/US: 8 p.m. December 6; 3 a.m. and 8 p.m. December 7; and 3 a.m. December 8 (All times ET)
• CNN International: 1000, 1700 December 5; 1200, 2000 December 6; 0100, 0600, 2200 December 7 (All times GMT)

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'Scream Bloody Murder': CNN's Unblinking Look at Genocide

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

By Tom Shales

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 4, 2008; Page C03

Offered perhaps as a grim antidote to all the chirpy, cheery holiday specials glutting the airwaves this time of year, "CNN Presents: Scream Bloody Murder," a definitely unflinching history of genocide, premieres tonight on CNN. The network's chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, conducts the class, calling genocide "the world's most feared crime."

Genocide might also be called the unthinkable inevitable, since it is always condemned when discovered and yet continues to recur, wiping out entire populations, entire generations, entire cultures. The word was not invented until 1944, Amanpour says, but of course, there were examples of genocide long before it was identified.

The vilest, most infamous and most organized commission of this ultimate crime was, inarguably, Adolf Hitler's attempt to eliminate all Jews from Europe during World War II. Amanpour says the United States and its allies were aware of the slaughter but "refused" to bomb the death camps or, as many people advocated, destroy the railroad tracks leading to them. A Holocaust survivor says Hitler's anti-Semitic rampage "wasn't a priority" for the Allies -- although after the war, the crime and some of the criminals were dealt with at Nuremberg.

Elie Wiesel is the world's best-known authority on the Holocaust, but he is also an advocate for other cultures wracked by genocide. He is seen early in the program during a segment on the genocide in Cambodia at the end of the Vietnam War. "Nobody believed us," an anguished priest laments, and Wiesel understands. "Better not to believe," Wiesel says, "because if you believe, you don't sleep nights." The nightmare that the Turks visited upon the Armenians is also covered, though briefly.

Later, Amanpour takes George Herbert Walker Bush and his administration to task for failing to intercede when Saddam Hussein rained terror down on Iraq's own citizens, the Kurds, in the late 1980s. Bush later turned the proverbial blind eye to mass murder in Bosnia, Amanpour says, with the president growling at a news conference that "we are not going to get bogged down in some guerrilla warfare."

Although Bush ignored the slaughter of the Kurds, he grabbed a saber and began rattling it when Saddam invaded Kuwait -- and thus threatened the flow of oil and wealth out of the Mideast. Now that was going too far! Oil-rich Kuwait plucked at Bush's heartstrings as the dying Kurds had not: "We're dealing with Hitler revisited," he declared, adding one of his trademark threats, "This will not stand."

But Amanpour is just as hard on Bill Clinton for his response to Rwanda when the military was found to have murdered "hundreds of thousands" of men, women and children there. The Clinton administration's policy was "a failure," Amanpour says, and she includes a scene from a Clinton news conference in which he treats one of her accusations snidely: "There have been no 'constant flip-flops,' Madame," he huffs. His indignation seems false and hollow now.

CNN is celebrating 25 years of reports by star reporter Amanpour, although to attach a documentary on genocide to anything resembling a "celebration" is not very good form. Nor is it encouraging to hear Amanpour implicitly praising herself and her own courage when dealing with genocide of recent years: "Day after day, I reported the story," she says of one crisis -- and later, she notes of the shelling of Sarajevo, "I was there, reporting on the scene."

The use of a dramatic musical score, though restrained, comes across as another unnecessary intrusion; pictures as dramatic as those showing the victims of genocide don't need any underscoring or audio hype.

Amanpour ends the program with a look at the United Nations and its role in preventing and condemning genocide throughout the world, a role she contends the organization has seldom embraced with zeal. In fact, Amanpour says, "the United Nations is powerless to force its members to act even in the face of mass murder." The special is timed to the upcoming 60th anniversary of the U.N. convention on genocide.

Some may find the program tough to take at holiday time, but in fact it seems especially powerful during a season in which "peace on Earth" and "good will toward men" are being extolled from street corners.

"Scream Bloody Murder" isn't subtle, but then the subject rather precludes subtlety -- and instead demands the kind of doggedly powerful approach that Amanpour brings to it.

CNN Presents: Scream Bloody Murder (two hours) airs tonight at 9 on CNN.

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Samantha Power speaks of responsibility regarding genocide
Uploaded by TEDtalksDirector

Join one of these groups to be a part of the answer to stopping genocide
www.savedarfur.org

www.genocideintervention.net

www.standnow.org

1-800-GENOCIDE

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Blowin' in the Wind sung by Odetta
RIP Odetta- who graced this earth
Uploaded by marinandrada
Another Blowin' in the Wind - Odetta with Liam Clancy

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We have a moral obligation in this country to speak out against our government's actions if we believe in our hearts that something is wrong or if our government needs to take a stand when it refuses to. That is who we should be and what we should have the courage to live out. I believe - it's an unspoken creed of decency.

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