❧❧❧ Whatever you can do or dream, you can BEGIN IT. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe ❧❧❧
❧❧❧ You were born whole, not broken. Sandra Hammel ❧❧❧
Friday, February 8, 2013
DEAR PEOPLE ON EARTH, WILL YOU PLEASE CARE ABOUT OTHERS IN NEED?
NOTE: This blog is nearly at its end as the 5 GB free space is 88% full. Which at the time I run out of space on this blog, I will most likely begin a blog somewhere else. At that time, I will put a link here to the new blog.
As we plan for a blizzard here in the northeastern USA, in Sudan, they can't even make plans to remain in their homes and neighborhoods. Their government has been bombing their homes for many years and humanity has done nothing and worse isn't even aware of the news that our media has ignored increasingly over the last several years.
A child's drawing of the homes of their community.
As head of the UN in Sudan in 2003-4, Professor Mukesh Kapila blew the whistle on the Darfur crisis. Now the Aegis Trust's Special Representative on Crimes Against Humanity, in January 2013, he took this journey back to Sudan to visit the forgotten warzones of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, Blue Nile State, and South Sudan's frontier with Darfur. Meeting civilians bombed out of their homes and cut off from international humanitarian relief for over 18 months, he saw extensive evidence of war crimes on the part of Omar Bashir's government in Khartoum, and witnessed the consequences of the international community's failure to respond effectively to Sudan's ongoing crises. All filming and photography by Tim Freccia, commissioned by the Aegis Trust.
A video I put together April 8, 2011 for a submission to the Compassion Film Festival in Newport, Rhode Island, screenings at the 494 seat Jane Pickens Theatre, April 8, 2011. The Festival rules limited the video submissions to 5 minutes. Unfortunately the lips and audio became out of snyc due to compression of uploading here at Youtube. Fortunately, the DVD of this video is in sync.
Will you and your group join a fast in solidarity and to strengthen our commitment to Sudan?
Once again, i-ACT and Stop Genocide Now are launching a 100-Day Fast for Darfur (http://www.iactivism.org/100-day-fast-darfur/). It will begin on April 6, the day the Rwandan Genocide started and end July 14, 2013. We hope people will join by fasting water-only or refugee rations of 1000 or less.
February will be 10 years of targeted killing and violence against Dafuris in Sudan. There will be many opportunities to act in the coming months, and we hope that you conceder fasting as one of those. If you are part of a group or organization, please share your commitment to fast with them and invite them to join.
............................................................... Click hereto see in bigger screen size
This is a submission to the "Compassion Film Festival" in Newport, Rhode Island, screenings at the 494 seat Jane Pickens Theatre, April 8, 2011.
The Jane Pickens Theatre 49 Touro Street Newport, RI 02840 (401) 846-5252 Bus: Touro Near Side Clark
The Festival rules limited the video submissions to 5 minutes. Prizes will be awarded for the top 3 juried places and also an Audience Choice award chosen directly by the audience.
Unfortunately the lips and audio became out of snyc due to compression of uploading here at Vimeo. Fortunately, the DVD of this video is in sync.
I always put credits at the end and couldn't because of the limit I had to get my message across.
Here are more complete credits:
❧ Special thanks to ❧ Eric Reeves for Open Letter excerpts Mohamed Suleiman for Darfuri sayings Photos ~ Mia Farrow Gabriel Stauring Sandra Hammel ♫ Music ♫ Bridge Over Troubled Water Performed by Eva Cassidy Available at itunes Krista Powell Presented by Sandra Hammel
Genocide flourishes when there is no accountability. It has been flourishing in Darfur since February 2003.
One voice won’t stop a genocide, but that is no excuse to be silent.
Please, use your voice to call upon our leaders to do what is right about something that is very wrong.
Contact President Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden or First Lady Michelle Obama
Contact me if you would like a DVD of the above video.
............................................................... ............................................................... Was Scott Gration Good for the Darfur Peace Process?
............................................................... ............................................................... See more videos of Darfuri refugee camp Goz Amer taken March 23 - 31 +, 2011 stopgenocidenow
Learn more about the sister schools program for Darfur refugee camps at Darfur Dream Team
Photo credit Gabriel Stauring Goz Amer School Classroom in a refugee camp Proof that ~ Where there is a will there is a way.
Khartoum — A Sudanese organization called 'Youth for Change' made a call for demonstrations in all parts of Sudan on March 21st in a new bid to bring about a mass uprising similar to the ones in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
The group's spokesperson Magdi Okasha said that their ultimate goal is to topple the regime.
This came as opposition parties launched a fierce attack on the Sudanese government and vowed to push for change by mobilizing their supporetrs to take the streets.
Leaders from the opposition parties convened at the headquarters of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) in which they saw a replay of a video showing a female activist recounting her alleged rape by agents from the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).
Police and NISS officers cordoned the PCP HQ as families of detainees and opposition supporters lifted banners and shouting anti-government slogans.
The leaders of the opposition parties who form the National Alliance Forces called for the release of PCP leader Hassan Al-Turabi who remains in jail since January with no formal charges being brought against him.
Sudanese Communist Party (SCP) leader Mohamed Ibrahim Nugud expressed solidarity with the PCP "despite past bitterness" in order to work on the issue of freedoms, calling for dispatching a delegation to hold meetings with the revolutionary forces in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt for coordination and exchange of ideas.
The deputy Secretary-General of the Sudan people Liberation Movement (SPLM) Yasser Arman, echoed Nugud's call and voiced rejection of the concept of politically motivated arrests and torture by the NISS.
Arman made a demand for spreading democracy to fight against corruption and tyranny, noting that the Sudanese state "is a failed and outdated one that needs update and renewal".
He further suggested establishing a new capital other Khartoum describing it as the source of the wars waged throughout the Sudan.
For his part, the chairman of the Alliance opposition Farouk Abu Issa said a commission would be formed that would work on spreading freedom and defending against torture and preventing it, stressing that crimes of torture is punishable without statute of limitations.
Sudanese youth have called for anti-government protests which were violently dispersed by security forces starting on January 30. The movement failed to take on mass appeal and dozens of activists remain detained without charge.
Sudanese President Omer Hassan al-Bashir has promised to step down at the next election in four years, after 26 years in power. His party took over in a 1989 bloodless coup.
But growing voices of dissent, even from within his ruling party, are calling for more immediate action to prevent the kind of popular uprising that toppled long-serving leaders in Tunisia and Egypt and has spread to other nations including Libya.
On 10.10.10, that is October 10, 2010, people from all over the world who had access to a video camera and a way to upload it to ONE DAY ON EARTH (at Vimeo's video website) - uploaded their videos shot on that one day for a DVD project to illustrate the diversity of what went on ONE DAY ON EARTH. At this time you can go to Archive at One Day On Earth Videos and pick any one of the videos that were posted and watch them. I am including one of several here that I just watched. All were nice or great, but this one stood out to me.
.................................................... 16 YEAR OLD ETHIOPIAN MEBRAHTE BERAU ~ PLANS TO BE FIRST FEMALE PRIME MINISTER OF HER COUNTRY
The text with the video by the poster, Jered Love ~
One Day on Earth ~ One Day in the Life of Mebrahte Berau
Imagine1day is a growing global community of people making passionate contributions to ensure every child in Ethiopia receives a quality primary education by 2020. On 10.10.10., the imagine1day team filmed a day in the life of Mebrahte Berau, a 16-year-old girl from Wazza, a remote rural community in the region of Tigray, in Northern Ethiopia. Mebrahte is a student of imagine1day's Wazza Primary School She is in Grade 8 and is the first out of eight children in her family to attend school. You'll see in one day an incredible story unfold as she goes about her chores and works hard to be able to attend school.
Leilani Munter traveled to Taiji, Japan to bear witness to the needless slaughter of dolphins that occurs annually from September till March. These dolphins are rounded up to be sold to dolphinariums around the world and the dolphins that are not sold are killed and sold for meat. The meat that is gotten from these dolphins is toxic. These dolphins have high levels of mercury in them and poison those who eat the meat. We invite the viewer to travel to Taiji, Japan to also bear witness to this murder and to tell the world about what they've seen thru blogs, alerting the media and talking about it everywhere they go to raise awareness and stop this brutal and senseless killing of the dolphins and poisoning of the Japanese people.
PLEASE DO click on the post title and go to the world map and click on any marker to watch any video that was uploaded to participate in this project. Eventually, the team at ONE DAY ON EARTH will pick the best videos in their opinion and make a culminating DVD. You can order that DVD at the website.
.................................................... I found this wonderful video by Jered Love who is the same poster of the video above. He has wonderful videos at his Vimeo account ~ Jered Love ~ regarding Ethiopia.
Darfuri Refugee LIVE Town Hall Meeting Sunday, Dec 12 at 10:00 a.m. USA EST. Join in a live conversation with Darfuri refugees from Camp Djabal, a refugee camp in eastern Chad. Participate in the meeting by sending questions. They have now lived as refugees for over seven years, and the violence and destruction continues in their lands. www.iactivism.org/2010/12/darfuri-refugee-town-hall
Check out the videos being uploaded from Camp Djabal - video taken by the youth at the camp vimeo.com/iactivism/videos Great opportunity to see the camp through their lens.
Katie-Jay, Gabriel and James are at Darfuri refugee, Camp Djabal in Chad. This is their 9th trip.
On Sunday, they are going to make available to us a Live Town Hall Meeting with the Darfuris there, who are living in exile during the genocide supported by Sudanese President Omar al Bashir. Sunday, December 12th, 2010. Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am USA, Eastern Time. 4:00 pm in Camp Djabal. Watch here on Sunday ~ iactivism.org
.................................................. Getting to a Darfuri refugee camp on the Chad and Sudan border is not easy.
President Omar al Bashir denies the stories these pictures express. The children draw what has happened to them.
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How long is too long for the world to tolerate genocide, and tolerate not only forced child labor, but forcing children to be child soldiers?
President Obama grants waivers to Chad, the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen, which use child soldiers but are strategically important to the US. The waivers mean military aid will continue.
As a senator, Barack Obama supported legislation requiring the United States to cut off military aid to countries recruiting and deploying child soldiers.
This week as president, Mr. Obama acted to ensure that four countries found to use child soldiers – but which are also considered key national security interests – do not lose their US military assistance. Obama heeded the recommendation of a State Department review and waived application of a year-old law on child soldiers in the case of Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen.
In a Oct. 25 presidential memorandum, Obama said he had “determined that it is in the national interest of the United States” to waive application of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act for the four countries.
U.S. President Barack Obama (R) speaks as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs (L) and senior adviser David Axelrod (2nd L) look on during a news conference at the White House briefing room December 7, 2010 in Washington, DC. Obama held a news conference after he had announced a deal with Republicans to temporarily extend Bush-era tax cuts to all tax brackets. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images North America
I am on the email list that receives frequent messages from the Obama administration. Today, I got one about the tax breaks issue with a video from President Obama and a form to write a comment. I took the opportunity to say some things off the cuff. I used to spend a lot of time, editing my letters to him. But this one is a quick message.
I am concerned about the division in this country, notably the racism that is rampant since people feared Barack Obama would possibly be President. And now, there are transparently many who feel they have constituent support to cause President Obama a failure, even at the cost of the "health" of the country. This is not the United States of America that Barack inspiringly said was not a country of blue or red states. It is a country that is facing loosed racism at the cost of saving any integrity as a country.
President Obama is in a tough position. Being the first African American President carries weight that no white person could imagine.
When I was in New Hampshire working for Obama for America, Barack Obama said that he couldn't do what needs to be done alone, that we as citizens needed to be part of the solution. And he also said, that when he was off track, he welcomed hearing from us. Well, he is hearing from us, today, I suspect. Especially those of us, who were with him, now we feel he is not with us.
December 7, 2010
To President Obama,
If I wasn't so frustrated with President Obama, I would be more outraged.The Republicans want to make President Obama's Presidency something that they can spin to their advantage and President Obama is playing on their team.
I am a 61 year old white woman - not in the demographic that voted him into office.And yet, I not only voted for him, I went way outside my comfort zone and knocked door-to-door for him in my state of RI and incurred the personal expense to work for his campaign for one week leading up to the New Hampshire primary.It was an economical hardship for me to do so.And I donated to his campaign repeatedly, though I shouldn't have, as I am in a financial situation that may cause me to lose my house this coming year when my pension gets slashed when I turn 62 years old.
I say all this, because I did all of this because I believed Barack Obama would be the President that he said he would be.But he hasn't been.To start with, I am a world citizen who is an activist to end genocide and he has been thoroughly disappointing regarding Darfur.General Gration has been a disaster of a Special Envoy and he still has that job.
I will not, not - go door-to-door or do phone banking (which I did in 3 states) for him next campaign.This time I will not vote “for” him, but “against” his opponent. And I believe he needs people like me to be excited about his Presidency.We were the backbone of his winning candidacy.
President Obama needs to "spin" better than the Republicans.And not only has he not done this, he hasn't even "sold" his "victories" that he has done.Unlike me, most citizens don't watch his every move, as well as members of Congress.So he needs to become a better salesman of what his administration has done and what needs to be done.Fire us up again or the fire we have building inside will be in opposition to a man we once voted for.
And the racism that has come boldly out of the closet needs to be addressed directly.It is not healthy for this country.
Respectfully,
Sandra Hammel
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2009 incomes of leading Republicans who are fighting for millionaires over middle class taxpayers
Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) Average $19,929,018 Rep John Boehner (R-Ohio) Average $3,570,547 Rep Eric Cantor (R-Va) Average $4,854,578
*This is unacceptable from any man with principle:
"President Obama grants waivers to Chad, the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen, which use child soldiers but are strategically important to the US. The waivers mean military aid will continue."
As a senator, Barack Obama supported legislation requiring the United States to cut off military aid to countries recruiting and deploying child soldiers.
This week as president, Mr. Obama acted to ensure that four countries found to use child soldiers – but which are also considered key national security interests – do not lose their US military assistance. Obama heeded the recommendation of a State Department review and waived application of a year-old law on child soldiers in the case of Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Yemen.
In a Oct. 25 presidential memorandum, Obama said he had “determined that it is in the national interest of the United States” to waive application of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act for the four countries.
Click the link to read the entire post.
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Obama White House pressured Spain to drop Bush torture prosecution, leaked cable shows
The Obama administration went to the mat to defend its predecessors from a torture prosecution in Spain last year, a leaked State Department cable shows.
The cable, released by WikiLeaks this week, shows that senior US diplomats teamed with Republican lawmakers -- including a former Republican Party chairman -- to put pressure on Spanish officials to drop a criminal investigation into the Bush administration's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques."
In the spring of 2009, Spanish Judge Balthasar Garzon launched an inquiry into six Bush officials linked to the torture policy. They were then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; Cheney adviser David Addington; Pentagon lawyer William Haynes; Pentagon official Douglas Feith; and Jay Bybee and John Yoo from the Office of Legal Counsel.
According toMother Jones' David Corn, US officials began to put pressure on Spain almost as soon as the probe was announced.
Soon after the request was made, the US embassy in Madrid began tracking the matter. On April 1, embassy officials spoke with chief prosecutor Javier Zaragoza, who indicated that he was not pleased to have been handed this case, but he believed that the complaint appeared to be well-documented and he'd have to pursue it. Around that time, the acting deputy chief of the US embassy talked to the chief of staff for Spain's foreign minister and a senior official in the Spanish Ministry of Justice to convey, as the cable says, "that this was a very serious matter for the [US government]." The two Spaniards "expressed their concern at the case but stressed the independence of the Spanish judiciary." Read more at the link above.
It was nice to see Yuen-Lin (YL) and Eric (E) live on our computers last night. We tested the three way communication using the equipment we’ll be using out in the refugee camps. It was quick and pretty simple. Out here, there’s no high speed internet. There’s no medium speed internet. There’s slow and slower. To be able get on a video conference with someone halfway across the world is, in reality, no simple task. Except that our tech team makes it easy for out here, even if we don’t exactly understand how they do it.
I remember when I first spoke with YL, using basic technology - a phone. He called me from Malaysia, where he was spending some time with his family. I told him how we wanted to come out to Eastern Chad, spend time in the camps with the refugees, and, oh by the way, we wanted to upload video from the middle of the desert, where there is no infrastructure at all. After hearing me, YL said, “Hmm…I see. It is not my area of expertise, but I will find a way to do it. I’m in.”
Back then, technology was not close to what we have right now, and it’s still quite a challenge to do what we do. We’re just lucky to have YL and E and our team.
Oh, I also have to thank VSee Lab, who provides the video conferencing software. It’s amazing that we can stream video through such low bandwidth! Thanks also to Eric Talman at SatellitePhoneStore.com, who has been great to work with for our satellite service. And, since I’m in thanking mode, thanks to the great team at the Darfur Dream Team office in DC! We are involved in a complex program, and they are managing so many parts of it, but it’s nothing but a pleasure to work together with them on this very basic concept, connecting people to people.
Genocide flourishes when there are perpetrators, weapons suppliers and Leaders Who Lack the Will To Hold the Perpetrators Accountable.
At a time when the world is focusing on the January referendum on Southern Sudanese independence, Darfur must not fall off the agenda of policymakers around the world. Doing so could result in a repeat of history and unmentionable violence and despair for the people of Darfur.
Darfuri child's artwork of his experience during the Khartoum government's support of genocide on Darfuris
........................................................ Salve Regina University student ~ Edwin Mutanguha's speech about Darfur ~ From Rhode Island Torch Relay
Camera for speech: Sally Hanchett
Note: One jpeg image of a Darfuri child's experience of what happened to him in his life (with text: "Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice") is by a Darfuri child who lives in a refugee camp.
CORRECTION ~ The jpeg by Lucas is a painting made by a USA boy who made it for Darfuris.
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Make a Difference
Call 1-800-GENOCIDE ~ ask Secretary Clinton to immediately hire a high-level diplomat for Darfur.
Here's how:
1. Dial: 1-800-GENOCIDE 2. Follow the instructions on the recording to be connected to Secretary Clinton's office. 3. You'll probably be asked to leave a message. Here's what to say: * Say your name * Say the name of your state * Then say: "I urge Secretary of State Clinton to immediately hire a high-level diplomat for Darfur." Source: blog for darfur
Media Neglect
As has been true a lot, the Darfuri people have been forgotten and neglected in 2010 by the leaders of the world. As the attacks continue in 2010 upon the Darfuri people, most USA media neglects to cover the story. And the USA government has been a part of that neglect. With the attention on the two Jaunuary 9, 2010 referendums, where Southern Sudanese and Abyei will vote to separate from Sudan, the attention on Darfur is even less than has been the case. The website ~ stopgenocidenow
Stop Genocide Now i-ACT team is returning to the Darfur refugee camps on the Chad-Darfur border in late 2010. They will be uploading same day web casts from the camps. The SGN iAct team will also be establishing the school to school relationships for the Darfur Dream Team Sister Schools Program.
Help in donations for the trip to the refugee camp in December 2010. Donations are for the following ~ $20 - Rechargeable Battery Packs $30 - Digital Cameras $35 - Portable Video Cameras $100 - Flip Cameras $250 - Satellite usage for initial reporting
The digital and flip video cameras will be given out to refugee reporters (mostly youth). Through their eyes, we will learn about their lives. Information on the cameras will be uploaded and by satellite viewing will be available for the world to see. From stopgenocidenow
Tags trying to edit in: Salve Regina University, Edwin Mutanguha, ilovemylife Sandra Hammel, ACT NOW FOR DARFUR, Sudan, President Barack Obama, Omar al-Bashir,
I am trying to get the Pell Center in Newport, Rhode Island to sponsor Darfuri Mohamed Yahya as a speaker. The director of the Pell Center accepted the idea, then he resigned and now I am not sure what will happen. I just learned that the Pell Center is choosing their speakers by committee. This may make it difficult. As the previous director knew of me and my work and the committee does not.
This is my attempt tonight ~
Dear Michele and Pell Center "team",
I cannot convey in typed words why I care so much about ending, preventlng genocide and our response to it - or in our case as a country and international community, our lack of response to it.
This post/article by Eric Reeves is an example of why I care so much about this as a human being who lives on this planet while a genocide has been going on since 2003 on the Darfuri people....unarmed families.
I hope you and your team will take the time to read this. This is a humanity-defining issue. It says who we are as human beings....that we allow this to go on. We aren't truly free until all are free and this young boy that died by drowning in a refugee camp certainly is more free now than he was while living "on our watch".
I certainly hope you will consider having Darfuri Mohamed Yahya come and speak at the Pell Center. I have attached his bio and included a youtube video link where he talks with VOA's Ndimyake Mwakalyelye.Mohamed speaks near the beginning and later on the video link, which I include here
And here is the link to Radio Dabanga where he works: radio dabanga
Thank you for your humanity and consideration.
Sandra Hammel
“The Death of ‘Ahmed’ of Kassab Camp,” Dissent Magazine (on-line), February 15, 2010
The young boy from Kassab Camp is unnamed, unidentified except by the name of his camp. He drowned last week, and notice came only in the form of a brief announcement from Radio Dabanga, which has sources throughout Darfur:
“A boy died by drowning in Kassab Camp in North Darfur on Saturday. Several houses collapsed in the camp after heavy rains that fell on the region. A source said that dozens of displaced families are in the open after the loss of their homes.”
Without this notice from one of the world’s more obscure news sources, the boy’s anonymity would have been complete—joining the hundreds of thousands who have perished in similar anonymity over the past eight years. And perhaps I should be more concerned about the “dozens of displaced families”—potentially hundreds of civilians—exposed in North Darfur during the very height of the rainy season, facing ominously high malnutrition rates. But there are times when I find the world’s inability to look with any particularity at the human suffering and destruction in Darfur a cause for rage, for a desperate urge to make this suffering and destruction into a recognizable, an undeniable, an inescapably disturbing portrait. So I will construct an all too plausible history for this boy from Kassab Camp, and his place in Darfur’s ongoing agony.
I’ll call him Ahmed, and he is twelve years old; he has been in Kassab for the past six years. He arrived in summer 2004, at the height of the genocidal violence, having seen his village destroyed and losing most of his family. His ten-year-old sister and mother were gang-raped by the Janjaweed in front of all the village men, including his father, who was later killed. His mother survives, but has been nearly disabled by the trauma of the gang-raping and loss of her husband; his sister died a painful death from the fistula that developed following the tearing of her vagina and anus. His younger brother was killed in the attack; he is not sure whether his older brothers are alive or dead. His nights are haunted by dreams of violence he cannot understand or escape.
He has had few, perhaps no educational opportunities, and recreational resources are nonexistent; the minimal psycho-social services for his mother disappeared when Khartoum expelled thirteen humanitarian organizations in March 2009. He has been increasingly hungry as the UN World Food Program cuts rations to half the minimum kilocalorie diet; malnutrition is rising in North Darfur and food has become too expensive for him or his mother to purchase. She is unable to work, and Ahmed has been too young to compete for the few jobs available in or near the camp. Daily life before his death was defined by hunger, a lack of properly maintained latrines, inadequate shelter against this summer’s slashing rains (August and September are the two rainiest months of the season), and fear. At times he has suffered from an unbearable loneliness and sadness.
His vision of the future is no more than a version of the past six years. As part of this vision, Ahmed is all too aware of the marauding presence of the Janjaweed militia, who have made travel outside Kassab too dangerous (they have military quarters just a few kilometers away), and the protection nominally provided by the UN peacekeeping mission (UNAMID) is widely regarded as a grim joke within the camp. Continual low-level conflict among the equally deprived camp residents is a source of continual anxiety for Ahmed. A renewed military offensive begun earlier this year by Khartoum and the Janjaweed in nearby Jebel Marra has created many more displaced persons; and Kassab, already inadequate to the needs of its more than 30,000 residents, has become dangerously overcrowded. A camp leader told Radio Dabanga in early June of this year that, “People [in Kassab] suffer from food shortages and water shortages with the influx of new migrants to the camp.” Things have only grown worse in the past three months.
Ahmed also senses a growing fear that Kassab itself may be attacked at some point, as Khartoum ratchets up plans to dismantle the camps and forcibly return displaced persons to villages without security, or to as yet unconstructed “new villages.” Indeed, two years ago Nicholas Kristof posted a dispatch from a visitor to Kassab:
“As I write this, Kassab camp (North Darfur) home to 25,000 unarmed civilians and the location of Darfur Peace and Development Organization’s women’s center, is under attack by Janjaweed forces. I spent time in the camp and know many people there. What do we do? Rebel forces are too distant and under-equipped to defend Kassab. UNAMID has only a small presence there. Who will be dead tomorrow?”
“Who will be dead tomorrow?” The question, even unarticulated, has haunted Ahmed as he watches his mother’s mental health deteriorate and people he has known die from one cause or another.
In March 2007, the UN’s most senior humanitarian official, John Holmes, attempted to visit Kassab. As the BBC journalist traveling with him reported:
“The UN’s new emergency relief coordinator John Holmes has been turned away from a camp in Darfur for those fleeing the Sudanese conflict. The UN envoy was refused entry by Sudanese soldiers to Kassab camp in northern Darfur, says the BBC’s Karen Allen, who is travelling with him. In the past six months the BBC has reported on mass rapes of women and young girls at the camp.... Within hours of arriving in Darfur, Mr Holmes was stopped at a checkpoint. His convoy was sent back and television groups covering the visit had their video tapes confiscated, our correspondent says.”
Ahmed perhaps heard rumors of an important foreigner who might help Kassab, and perhaps bring protection, help for his mother, and more food and clean water. The bitter anger of the camps residents at the impotence of the African Union force (which would become the UN/African Union force [UNAMID] on January 1, 2008) would have been palpable, if largely incomprehensible.
Even more incomprehensible to Ahmed are the questions continually posed by his elders: “Where is the international community?” “Where is a real UN peacekeeping force?” “Why have we been abandoned?” Ahmed knows virtually nothing of the world that has so resolutely refused to see him or end the suffering of his people.
So the ignorance is mutual: the world that knows nothing of Ahmed or his death has created only the most tenuous presence in his own life. He can’t feel gratitude for the humanitarian assistance that alone has stood between him and death; although unable to say as much, his life barely seems worth living. When the heavy rains washed away his no doubt inadequate shelter, his last thoughts before drowning were not of the help that did not arrive, they were not even of his family. I imagine them simply as the confused, terrified culmination of six years of suffering and deprivation that he had come to believe was his lot in life.
For all the Ahmeds who remain, or who have already perished, this assessment is all too true.
[Eric Reeves is author of A Long Day’s Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide]
_____________________________ Eric Reeves Smith College Northampton, MA 01063
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-----Original Message----- From: Mohamed Yahya To: Sandra Hammel Subject: Re: Speaking in Rhode Island
Dear Sandra,
Thank you so much again for our excellent efforts trying to connect us and make the upcoming event possible. I'm very excited to hear about these good news. I will be honored to go and speak to your Community or the Congregation when possible. I'm sending you my bio that needed to updated by adding very few things..such as my recent nomination for the "2010 Dan David Pulitzer Prize". However, you can added the way you want. Even though I wasn't fortunate enough to compete with the top world leaders, such as the Italian president, Britain Tony Blair and other most Influential leaders and Actors..But I'm still proud to be one of the nominees..anyway..
I just wanted to let you know that I just arrived from a short trip to Boston, where I was invited to speak at one of the Universities about Darfur. I thought I passed through your area during my visit if you are from that Rhode Island...If so I really wished to meet you but the limited time given me no chance. I hope to see you next time soon...
Please keep up your good work forward and say Hi and thank you to Dr. Peter Liotta.
I will look forward to talk to you a bout anything else soon. Please let me know if there any questions.
Keep your good work forward.
Thank you.
Mohamed Yahya
BIO of Mohamed Yahya
Mohamed Adam Yahya is a refugee from the Darfur region of Sudan and is the founder and Executive Director of Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy.From 1995 to 2005, he was Chairman and spokesman of the Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile, which was the first human rights group to alert the international community to human rights abuses in western Sudan.
Mr. Yahya was born in a small village east of Al-Geneina, the capital of Darmassaleit (West Darfur state).Both as a child and adult, he experienced the brutal racism that permeates Sudanese society.In 1993, his village witnessed the first attacks of the Sudanese government's Arab militia raiders, known as janjaweed.Yahya's home was completely decimated and most of his relatives and neighbors were shot, raped, or burned alive in their huts.Yahya was studying at Al-Azhar University in Cairo at the time his village was destroyed. He received word that his parents were safe, but he lost 21 other family members.He subsequently began to receive firsthand reports of the terrible crimes that were being committed by the Sudanese government and its proxy force, the janjaweed.
It quickly became apparent to Yahya that Sudan's ruling regime was engaged in a campaign to rid western Sudan of its black African ethnic population.Yahya and other Sudanese students living in Cairo sought to alert the international community to the humanitarian crisis that had begun to unfold.In 1995, they formed the Representatives of the Massaleit Community in Exile (RMCE).The RMCE's founding members came from many different ethnic Sudanese backgrounds including the Massaleit, Fur, Dajo, Zagawa, Bargo, Gimir, Tama, Berty, Barno, and Meme, in addition to people from the Nuba Mountains, southern Sudan and elsewhere.
Believing that the pen is mightier than the sword, the RMCE sought to protect the people of Darfur through peaceful means, including advocacy and public education.With no financial resources, Yahya and other members of the RMCE began this work by writing reports and circulating them on foot to all the international embassies in Cairo.Their first major open letter to the international community, "The Hidden Slaughter and Ethnic Cleansing in Western Sudan,” was distributed this way in 1999.Over the next couple of years it was widely referenced by the United Nations General Assembly and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, along with organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.In this way, Yahya and other members of the RMCE were the first people to awaken the world to the unfolding genocide in Darfur.
Between 1999 and 2003, working in Cairo with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Yahya and the RMCE were also able to sponsor more than 20,000 refugees from various parts of Sudan.They helped ensure that nearly 95% of the people fleeing Sudan received political asylum and resettlement in Europe, Canada, Australia and the United States.
In 2002, fearing reprisal from the Sudanese government for his humanitarian and advocacy work, Yahya sought political asylum in the United States.After his relocation to Charlottesville, Virginia, Yahya founded Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, in order to continue and expand on the work of the RM
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfuri men were shot dead at point blank range during a surprise Arab militia raid on a busy market this month in which at least 39 people were killed and almost 50 injured, eyewitnesses said on Friday.
The attack on civilians was reminiscent of the early years of the counter-insurgency operation in Sudan's west, which took up arms against the government in 2003, complaining that the region had been neglected by Khartoum
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has since issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for genocide and war crimes in Darfur, charges he denies.
Details of the September 2 attack on the market in the village of Tabarat have not previously come to light. The government prevented peacekeepers from visiting the site until days later.
But five survivors of the attack told Reuters that heavily armed Arab militia had targeted male victims and shot many at point blank range.
One diplomat said the militia were likely from among those armed and mobilised by the government to quell the rebels. Those militia, known as Janjaweed, were responsible for mass rape, murder and looting. Many of the tribal militia still support the government but Khartoum has lost control over some.
In Tabarat, men were rounded up by militia wearing military uniforms who rode into the market on horses and camels pretending to be buying goods before spraying the shops with gunfire. Then vehicles mounted with machine guns and carrying militia fighters appeared and rounded up some of the men, survivors said.
"They laid them down and they came up close and shot them in their heads," Abakr Abdelkarim, 45, told Reuters by telephone from the town of Tawilla, where many of the victims had sought refuge and medical help.
"(Those killed) were all men and one woman -- some men were tied with rope behind the cars and dragged until they died."
RUN FOR HIS LIFE
Adam Saleh said he had run for his life and hidden in nearby fields to watch from afar. "They were targeting men -- all of them were shot in the head and chest, only those who were running away got shot in their legs and arms."
Nour Abdallah, 45, said the attackers let most of the women run away. She could not escape and so lay face down in the dirt. "They told me not to lift my head up or I would be shot too."
Saleh and others said after the attack they had gone to the joint U.N.-African Union (UNAMID) peacekeeping base in Tawilla to ask peacekeepers to come to Tabarat but they had refused.
"They also refused to come and help us recover the bodies," Saleh added.
UNAMID has said both rebels and the government prevented it getting access to the area.
A UNAMID spokesman said he could not comment on the witness reports but an internal document seen by Reuters showed UNAMID had received similar witness reports of men being executed.
The only aid agency working in Tawilla, Medecins Sans Frontieres, said it could confirm 39 people died and it had treated 46 injured, many with "serious gunshot wounds".
"We saw only men," said MSF head of mission Alessandro Tuzza. He said he could not comment on how the victims were shot but that MSF was still negotiating with the government to get access to the area in North Darfur province.
The witnesses said they had buried 41 bodies in common graves but more were still in the bushes around the market.
Sudan's army denied involvement in the attack and said the local government was investigating. "The North Darfur government have formed a security committee to investigate this."
Presidential adviser Ghazi Salaheddin visited the area on Friday on a fact-finding mission.
Kidnapping and violent banditry have become frequent in Darfur where years of impunity and the ready availability of arms have fuelled a breakdown in law and order, with foreign workers targeted for abductions even in the main towns.
Bashir expelled 13 of the largest aid agencies working in Darfur after the ICC arrest warrant last year and many gaps in the humanitarian operation have yet to be filled.
"We are begging the international aid agencies to come and give us food, water. We have women and children here sitting in the sun for days with no shelter. We have nothing," said Abdelkarim.
I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music
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Khartoum, Sudan Stop Genocide Time
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RAFA NADAL -BRING BACK LONG PANTS - SLEEVELESS TOPS
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Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.
