SO I JUST HAD TO POST THIS

I have started work on a book, taken to practicing my piano and singing while getting ready for a performance in January and I have started a large project of digging through a lot of video and pictures to make a Darfur video. So, I have neglected my blog. I have wanted to write here as it brings me pleasure and it has taken discipline not to spend time here. Tonight, as I was also getting back to my free weights I was upstairs on the bench press and in between sets, I was reaching into a shoe box filled with letters from various people from my past. It is part of my research for my book, but it is also just
so
much
fun
to read.

I can't tell you.

And also I scanned 234 pictures tonight of Darfur rallies in Washington, D.C. and New York City's Central Park, but also pictures of childhood, family and just people from my past. That also is fun and brings back so many memories that are rich with emotions and heart-felt affection. As my printer has not been working, I had to go to a store to scan them and only stopped because the store was closing.

Oh, and yesterday, I wrote a letter to the President and copied it to the Vice Presdent Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and U.S. Special Envoy Scott Gration. It isn't my best letter, but just felt another letter was needing to be written. It is posted below.

Okay, this is a quick post. I wasn't going to post tonight....it's late and I have to still practice the piano and singing before the typical cookies and milk before getting ready for bed.

But I found this video and had to post it.

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Uploaded by MartinaE26

Support Site for Heath's Final film
www.imaginariumofdrparnassus.com

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Coming Soon to Rhode Island
www.avoncinema.com


Okay, so I love this one too....
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Uploaded by buhtichki

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GENOCIDE IS NOT OKAY

NOT IN THE PAST,

NOT NOW,

NOT IN THE FUTURE

SO . . .

USE YOUR VOICE
TO CALL UPON OUR LEADERS
TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT
ABOUT SOMETHING THAT IS VERY WRONG

Rhode Island

December 17, 2009

Genocide Stops With Us

President Barack Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Obama,

I write to you about a deeply defining issue. Genocide and our response to it as a moral nation who chooses to live by principles.

I believe what we do, as well as what we don’t do, defines who we are individually and as a nation. As you know, the Darfur genocide has been ongoing since March 2003 – seven years March 2010. And yet what have we and the planet’s people and leaders done to end it with any effective results? I believed you would make the difference in this tragedy, that your heart and leadership would move us toward the healing for the Darfuri people. And I have been disheartened by your lack of active, personal engagement. And regretfully, I must say, thoroughly disappointed in our Special Envoy Gration.

Our being silent is used as a tool in the arsenal of Bashir. And Bashir takes the Bush and, now, the Obama administration’s lack of consistent determination to end the atrocities the same as our being silent. It is license for Bashir and his associates to continue business as usual.

Genocide in our time must be noticed, must be reported by our media, must have the leaders of free nations use their political power to end the Darfur genocide and actually put some meaning to the words “Never Again”. Words we love to use at the languishing end of each genocide that this planet has hosted.

There has been no acceptable genocide. Complicity is not a policy. Complicity comes from a lack of will. It comes from an administration that has lost its moral compass.

It comes from a world too wrapped up in its self-importance to stop and contemplate just what human disaster will we condemn, if not genocide.

Choosing to live in a world where it is okay to murder, torture, rape and starve to death a group of human beings truthfully means we live in a world with a moral vacuum.

Just exactly when is genocide not okay with us? Just exactly which ethnic group of people can genocide be used to rid the earth of them and just exactly which group of people can we turn our backs on - and the definition of genocide fits our values?

A moral nation needs to stand up for what is right and know that genocide flourishes when there is no accountability. 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. One voice won’t stop a genocide, but that is no excuse to be silent. Our political will regarding Darfur has been underwhelming. Almost all of what is written above is from a speech I gave April 28, 2007 in Newport, Rhode Island. Unfortunately, it is just as true and relevant, today.

I have been a citizen active in the genocide prevention issue since 2004, when I read much about our country’s awful response to the 100 day genocide in Rwanda. I have written letters to my Presidents, lobbied in person repeatedly with my U.S. Senators Chafee, Reed, Whitehouse, Representative Patrick Kennedy, worked for Rhode Island’s divestment, divested my own money, delivered petitions to Fidelity Investment Company in Smithfield, Rhode Island, organized walks for Darfur, given speeches at three rallies, many churches, minister organizations, at my public library, speak to people in stores and on the street about Darfur, spoken up when the easier thing to do is be quiet, organized the Rhode Island Torch Relay and Ceremony at the RI Capital as a part of a global effort, organized other events in Rhode Island as a part of the Global Days for Darfur, such as Quiet Riot for Darfur, Newport Darfur Walk and Gathering, volunteered in Washington, D.C. rally where you, yourself spoke, volunteered at the rally in Central Park in New York City, attended STAND’s conference in Washington, D.C, participated in a conference in D.C. with Save Darfur, STAND, and the Genocide Intervention Network, participate in national conference calls continually, sign petitions to numerous people, including Special Envoy Gration, post consistently on my on own blog, make youtube videos about Darfur, written and had published many letters to the editor, regarding genocide and the lack of media attention to it. These are just some of the things that I personally have done. Without pay.

I believe this issue and our standing by says in a core way who we are, whether we fall on the side of accomplishing nothing to make a change about it or whether we succeed with our efforts and voices.

I receive daily updates about Darfur. Do you? I talk with a Darfuri who lives in the USA because he has seen many of his family members die at the hands of the Sudanese government supported genocide. He has contacts in Darfur and reports daily on his blog. His name is Mohamed Suleiman and he recently responded to my requests of help to make a youtube video, which I am working on currently. One of my questions was what is needed today for the Darfuris and the following is his answer.

DARFUR - WHAT IS NEEDED NOW in 2009

1) Justice now. This is a paramount demand for the Darfuris, a society torn apart by atrocities and genocide.

To date (after 7 years of atrocities) not a single perpetrator is arrested or stood trial in the International Criminal Court.

2) The Government of Sudan is intending to dismantle the Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps before the national elections in April 2010 - all under the disguise of the program, Voluntary Return. Leaders in the Darfuris refugee camps are intimidated, detained, and assassinated by the Sudanese Governments' Security Agents, in order to force the IDPs to desert the camps.

3) 2010 Elections in Darfur are not welcomed. This is stated by many leaders of the refugees. They (the refugees and their leaders) believe that elections under the current situation would be a sham only to legitimize the rule of Al-Bashir and his ruling Party, the National Congress Party (NCP).

4) Still the humanitarian aid is not to the level of providing decent living conditions in many refugee camps.

I hope that you will actually receive this letter and take to heart the passion many of us share about ending and preventing genocide.

I have already received three copies of the Darfur response letter that you send to people like me. Now, I would like to see you get personally engaged in this issue.

What will be the Obama administration’s legacy about genocide?

Thank you very much for your attention to this deeply defining issue.

Sincerely yours,

Sandra Hammel

Use Your Voice to Save Darfur Rhode Island

Founder, Director since 2004

CC: Vice President Joseph Biden

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

US Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration

Contact

The Whitehouse

202-456-1111

or

1-800-GENOCIDE

More ways to contact the President:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Please include your e-mail address

Phone Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

facebook.com/WhiteHouse

twitter.com/whitehouse

Speak Up

You Have A Voice

standnow.org
www.savedarfur.org

www.henryjacksonsociety.org/stories

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MEANS LOCAL JUSTICE

I watched THE RECKONING tonight. It is well worth watching.

It is on PBS' POV (Point of View) as a documentary.

THE RECKONING about the ICC (International Criminal Court online
http://www.pbs.org/video/video/1182396986/program/1154485580

John R. Bolton, George W Bush's United Nations Ambassador hopefully will glaringly prove his flawed thinking on this show. A reminder: The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag in the USA ends with the following words: "...and liberty and justice for all."

The United States needs to support the ICC. Below the information for the RALLY AT WHITE HOUSE IN SUPPORT OF JUSTICE FOR BASHIR is more information on THE RECKONING.


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JULY 22, 2009

DARFURIS TO RALLY AT WHITE HOUSE IN
SUPPORT OF JUSTICE FOR BASHIR

Protesters to call on Obama administration to act immediately to help bring
justice AND peace to Darfur

WASHINGTON – Darfuris, other Sudanese and Americans who share a common concern about the Obama Administration’s lack of response to the ongoing crimes against humanity in Sudan and Darfur will gather on Wednesday in front of the White House. Participants will deliver a letter to President Obama. From there, participants will walk to the State Department with a letter to the Secretary of State.

The rally is sponsored by the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy in cooperation with American Darfur activist organizations from across the country. Americans from across the country will also be participating in a National Call-in Day in support of the Darfuri rally. These events are timed to coincide with Special Envoy Gration’s trip to the Sudan and the announcement of the much-anticipated decision on the boundaries of the contested Abyei region. It also falls on the same day as President Obama’s prime time press conference to encourage discussion of Darfur and the ICC case against Bashir at the news conference.

Spokespeople will be available for interviews before, during and after the protest.

WHO: Mohamed Yahya, Executive Director of Damanga Coalition for Freedom and
Democracy, of Washington, DC, originally from West Darfur

WHEN: 1:00PM ET
Wednesday, July 22, 2009

WHERE: Start at Lafayette Square for White House Rally then march to the State Department

WHY: To issue a plea to President Obama and Secretary Clinton
for an unequivocal statement from the United States government in support of the
following:

1. International cooperation with the ICC and its indictments of Omar al-Bashir
2. The immediate deployment of the 26,000 UNAMID Peace Forces to Darfur with a
full Chapter VII mandate, and all necessary support and supplies;
3. Pressure on the Government of Sudan to allow all expelled humanitarian
organizations back into Darfur without any delays or conditions;
4. Strict trade sanctions against Chinese oil companies, and all other companies
investing in Sudanese oil or exporting weapons to Sudan;
5. The end of attacks on Refugee Camps in Chad and Darfur and the return of all
confiscated land to its rightful owners.

REQUESTING HELP
The rally organized by the Damanga Coalition in support of justice and peace in Darfur is planned for this Wednesday - JULY 22, 2009. There are many Darfuris on the East Coast who would like to travel to DC for the day but lack funding for the ground transportation expenses. Susan Morgan of the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur is working with Damanga and other Darfuri groups to raise enough money to fund vanpools from key locations like NYC, Philadelphia and Virginia. She estimates that with $1000 we would be able to help 30 – 40 Darfuris attend the rally.

If you or your organization is able to contribute (any small amount will help) please respond to her at Susan@paxommunications.org and let her know your pledge amount. Susan will then send you her address to for the check. Checks should be make payable to the Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur so that they will be tax deductible. Thanks for any help you may be able to provide.

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Justice doesn't just happen.

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THE RECKONING - about the ICC

Film Description

Former child soldiers of the Thomas Lubanga UPC militia, Ituri, eastern Congo

The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court is an epic, nail-biting account of the new International Criminal Court's struggle to prosecute perpetrators — however powerful or concealed they may be — of crimes against humanity as the Court fights to establish its own credibility on the world stage. The film shows the lead-up to the court's most recent and sensational action, the indictment of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on March 4, 2009, for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Established by treaty in 2002 in response to the mass atrocities that stained the late 20th century, the International Criminal Court (known as the ICC) is the first permanent international criminal court created to seek justice for victims of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. But the Court, given a historic mandate by its founding 100-plus nations, was not given a police force or other enforcement arm. Moreover, the ICC faces major obstacles in pursuing its mission from nations that did not join the treaty.

Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo in the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands

The Reckoning's history of the ICC's founding will be as valuable to those familiar with the story as to those new to it. But the film's central drama concerns events that occurred after 2002. For three years, the filmmakers followed chief ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo and his team of investigators and prosecutors across four continents as they issued arrest warrants for Lord's Resistance Army leaders in Uganda, put an infamous Congolese warlord on trial, shook up the Colombian justice system and charged Sudan's al-Bashir with crimes against humanity. At every turn, Moreno-Ocampo and crew faced danger, hostility and resistance. The larger drama in The Reckoning is the fate of the ICC itself. Will this tiny court in The Hague succeed against the odds in forging a new paradigm for human rights and justice in the world?

The Reckoning has a mythological opening. A man holding a human skull in a lonely field offers perhaps the most eloquent argument for the ICC. "Without justice," he says, "people have no respect for each other. If this is left unpunished, it will be repeated." He is speaking of the more than 5 million people killed in the wars that have torn eastern Congo apart since 1998. But he might as well have been speaking for the victims of mass murder in Guatemala (200,000), Cambodia (1.7 million), East Timor (200,000), Sierra Leone (50,000), Bosnia (200,000) and Rwanda (800,000), to name only the most notorious cases. It was the horror of these events — and the prospect of more occurring — that brought the world's nations together at the 1998 Rome Conference and set in motion the negotiations that would lead to the ICC's establishment in 2002.

The Reckoning shows that the idea for the Court goes back further, to the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi leaders following World War II, which the United States was the leader in establishing. This connection is uniquely expressed in the film by Ben Ferencz, who, as a 27-year-old lawyer, prosecuted 22 German officers at Nuremberg for murdering over a million people; all were convicted and 13 were sentenced to death. Ferencz never forgot the horror of the Nazi death camps and became a writer on world peace and a tireless campaigner for a permanent tribunal to prosecute crimes against humanity. He recalls the significance of Nuremberg: that the Allies sought justice through rule of law, establishing that no one was above the law and that not only was the killing of civilians a war crime, but the murder of people on the basis of their race, creed or class — genocide — was a crime of the greatest magnitude. Ferencz was there at The Hague on June 16, 2003, when Moreno-Ocampo was sworn in as the first Prosecutor of the new International Criminal Court.

Moreno-Ocampo himself brings unique experience and moral authority to the ICC — and an acute awareness of its historical roots. In 1985, a younger Moreno-Ocampo successfully prosecuted members of the Argentine military junta that, from 1976 to 1983, conducted a "dirty war" of murder, "disappearances" and torture against its political opponents. "It was the first trial of generals since Nuremberg," Moreno-Ocampo notes. Later, as district attorney for the Federal Circuit of the City of Buenos Aires from 1987 to 1992, he prosecuted the military commanders responsible for the Falklands War, the leaders of two military rebellions and dozens of high-profile corruption cases.

Moreno-Ocampo's team includes such savvy lawyers and investigators as former U.S. federal prosecutor Christine Chung, the ICC's first senior trial attorney, who has been a visiting lecturer and senior fellow at the Schell Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School. She is now a partner at the law firm Quinn Emanuel. Well aware of the obstacles facing the ICC, she describes the Court as a "justice start-up."

Three great powers — China, Russia and the United States — are not members of the Court. The United States actively opposed the Court during the George W. Bush administration. In The Reckoning, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton explains his rationale for the American campaign against it. He doesn't ever want to contemplate U.S. leaders in an international dock. For Bolton, national sovereignty cannot be compromised. For its part, China opposes the ICC arrest warrant indicting Sudanese President al-Bashir, and Russia remains skeptical about it.

The ICC's job, as a court of "last resort," is to support and push national judiciaries to investigate and prosecute alleged crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. Only when a country's justice system proves completely incapable of dealing with such crimes, and only when asked, does the ICC step in directly — and then gingerly. Where international justice conflicts with national sovereignty, the ICC must employ both clarity of purpose and political diplomacy.

Thus, in Colombia, where officials "at the highest levels" have been implicated in the political violence ravaging the country, the Court throws its prestige and resources behind Colombian prosecutors who are fighting to investigate the allegations in the face of political opposition. In Congo, by contrast, the Congolese government has asked the ICC to intervene because chaos prevents any credible judicial process. So the ICC investigates and issues its own arrest warrant for Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a notorious militia leader, for abducting children to serve as his child soldiers. To serve its warrant in Congo, the ICC must rely on local allies, in this case the government — making Dyilo the first war criminal brought to trial at the ICC's headquarters in The Hague.

The Sudan/Darfur case was referred to the ICC by the U.N. Security Council. Since many around the world see Darfur as a clear case of genocide by the Sudanese government against indigenous Darfurians, the government's open defiance of the ICC's warrant for al-Bashir forces the ICC to return to the U.N. Security Council itself to get the international community to bring pressure to arrest al-Bashir. At that point, the clarity provided by law and the U.N. is caught up in murky realpolitik.

In the case of Uganda, an even more difficult contradiction threatens to derail the ICC's work. The government of Uganda asked the ICC to investigate and bring the leaders of a rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), to justice. After 50 investigative missions documenting some 2,200 murders, the ICC prepares to bring warrants when the LRA leaders, clearly worried, try to turn the situation on its head. They come in from the bush, offering negotiations and a new era of peace and stability — but only if the ICC warrants are lifted. After so many years of war and death, even surviving victims of the LRA's worst atrocities find it all but impossible not to take the bait.

ICC prosecutors go on a campaign to convince Ugandans that, in the long run, there will be no peace or stability if the LRA leaders are allowed to get away with their crimes. Ultimately, whether speaking to the august ambassadors of state at the U.N. or to maimed villagers in Uganda, the ICC holds fast to the simple principle spoken by that Congolese man in the field: "Without justice, people have no respect for each other."

Nothing less than a real-life thriller, The Reckoning keeps you on the edge of your seat with two riveting dramas — the prosecution of three cases of unspeakable crimes against humanity and the ICC's fight for its own survival and effectiveness. Senior Trial Attorney Chung reveals the stakes that still hang in the balance when she wonders if the ICC will emerge as an effective institution for justice or simply a symbolic one, a "shadow" of what it was meant to be.

"I started out thinking that The Reckoning would be about the ICC's cases and trials, like any good crime thriller," says director Pamela Yates. "I quickly realized I had to expand the film's vision to include the far-reaching effects the ICC was having at the local level, with the tremendous amount of controversy as well as hope that its investigations were causing. The Court itself became the protagonist of The Reckoning, and all the cinematic elements were developed in realizing this idea."

The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court is a production of Skylight Pictures. Visit the filmmakers' site, IJCentral if you want to support the international justice movement and join in their action campaigns.

• Posted on June 8, 2009
• Updated on July 17, 2009

ICC Timeline
Put the ICC in historical perspective with this multimedia timeline.

Filmmaker Interview
Filmmakers Pamela Yates and Paco de Onís talk about the challenges of making a film about the ICC.

International Justice and Human Rights
Scholars, human rights organizations and political analysts discuss issues raised by the fil

Q&A with Christine Chung
Former ICC attorney Christine Chung answers questions about the court, the Obama administration’s policy towards the ICC and more

• Episode links

  • • POV website
  • • The Reckoning homepage
  • • Lesson Plan
  • • Links & Books
  • • Discussion Guide (PDF)

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

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:

www.stopgenocidenow.org

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

UNITED NATIONS PULLED GEORGE CLOONEY'S SECURITY DUE TO FEAR HE MIGHT CRITICIZE GENOCIDE

"When the people relegated to doing good 'run' from doing good, the rest of us need to pick up the slack." Sandra Hammel
See below *

"The United States has a moral obligation anytime you see humanitarian catastrophes..." Barack Obama
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Barack Obama answers the Save Darfur Coalition about his plan to end the genocide in Darfur
Posted on November 26, 2007 by savedarfurcoalition

"...And when you see a genocide whether it's in Rwanda, or Bosnia or in Darfur - that's a stain on all of us, that's a stain on our souls...

I think the level of commitment and the way that I've spoken out on this issue indicates not only knowledge but also passion in bringing an end to this crisis.

It's very encouraging to see activism based not on self interest but on a moral imperative. And it's especially heartening to see the young people engaged in expressing their idealism through this movement.

We can't say 'never again' and then allow it to happen again. And as President of the United States, I don't intend to abandon people or turn a blind eye to slaughter."

A mother and her child crossing a river. They are among the thousands of displaced people seeking refuge in Dogdoré, Chad. Nicholas D. Kristof/The New York Times

"HERE IN A DARFUR REFUGEE CAMP"
posted by Ann Curry February 18, 2009
Source
................................................

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Link to video at MSNBC
1:32

Clooney, Curry keep hope for Darfur

Look for more of George Clooney's videos this weekend on www.nightly.msnbc.com

EN ROUTE TO DARFUR AND THINKING OF THE VICTIMS

Posted: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 1:41 a.m. by Daily Nightly Editor

by Ann Curry, NBC News

SOMEWHERE IN CHAD -- Our NBC News team has landed in Africa and is again heading to the edge of Darfur, gearing up to report a pivotal moment in this tragedy.

Anytime now the International Criminal Court will announce whether to issue an arrest warrant for the President of Sudan for the atrocities in Darfur, a region of Sudan.

About six years after a war between the government of Sudan and a rebel group unleashed systematic rapes, mass killings, and the burning of hundreds of villages, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed and millions are still waiting in camps in Sudan and Chad, waiting for hope and justice.

As our news team moves from planes to vans toward this world of desperation, I think of a woman named Myriam, who survived the burning of her village called Tamajour, just two days before we found her under a tree. Her 5-year-old daughter was traumatized and refusing to eat. When we took her back to her village to salvage what she could, it was still smoldering. The only life she had ever known was in ashes.

I think of Khamis, 13-year-old orphaned when his mother was killed and his father was lost in an attack. When we last saw him, he was a boy alone, surviving on his wits and the kindness of others in a refugee camp. Still he was able to be a good student in the camp's school.

I think of Aziza, raped as a virgin at 17, by an Arab wearing a Sudanese uniform. She said he first wanted to know what tribe she belonged to. He told her, "You are black. You have no place here. We will push you out of here. This land will remain for us." Then he grabbed her tightly and raped her, biting her arm and neck to mark her a victim of rape.

In the hospital, we found elderly Gida Zakaria, severely burned when her thatched roof was set on fire. White gauze was wrapped around her slender body. She told us her husband couldn't move fast enough and was burned to death.

Caption for photo just above: Six-year-old Khalid (left) recovers at a hospital after a Janjaweed attack, flanked by his mother and sister. Click here to see more photography by the NBC News team and Ann Curry during a 2006 trip.

In a nearby room, a young man lay motionless, both his eyes bayoneted. At his side, his wife was weeping and his children sat stunned.

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has argued Sudan's President Omar al Bashir masterminded genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur and should be brought to justice.

What will the court decide? And what do the victims have to say about it?

Who more deserves a voice than the victims of atrocities?

Ann Curry will be filing reports for Nightly News, TODAY, and msnbc.com this week. Click here to read her 2006 blog entries.

Source: nightly.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/02/17

Ann Curry on twitter

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Op-Ed Columnist

Trailing George Clooney

Nicholas D. Kristof/The New York Times

Children playing in a lake outside Dogdoré, Chad. This town on the Darfur border has become a refuge for thousands of people fleeing violence in the area.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: February 18, 2009

I was going to begin this column with a 13-year-old Chadian boy crippled by a bullet in his left knee, but my hunch is that you might be more interested in hearing about another person on the river bank beside the boy: George Clooney.

Mr. Clooney flew in with me to the little town of Dogdoré, along the border with Darfur, Sudan, to see how the region is faring six years after the Darfur genocide began. Mr. Clooney figured that since cameras follow him everywhere, he might as well redirect some of that spotlight to people who need it more.

It didn’t work perfectly: No paparazzi showed up. But, hey, it has kept you reading at least this far into yet another hand-wringing column about Darfur, hasn’t it?

So I’ll tell you what. You read my columns about Darfur from this trip, and I’ll give you the scoop on every one of Mr. Clooney’s wild romances and motorcycle accidents in this remote nook of Africa. You’ll read it here way before The National Enquirer has it, but only if you wade through paragraphs of genocide.

The Darfur conflict has now lasted longer than World War II, but this year could be a turning point — provided that President Obama shows leadership and that the world backs up the International Criminal Court’s expected arrest warrant for Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir.

The stakes are evident in this little market town of Dogdoré, whose normal population of just a few thousand has swelled to 28,000 desperate, fearful people driven from smaller villages. They don’t think it’s safe here, but they find some reassurance in numbers — and leaving town isn’t an option, either, because flying out from the dirt airstrip is the only way to avoid rampant banditry on the roads.

Aid workers were pulled from Dogdoré in the fall because of violence in the area, leaving people on their own. Aid workers have just returned, but the entire town remains on edge.

One of the first persons we met was Qatri Ibrahim, a young woman who fled her village when the Sudanese janjaweed militia attacked and shot her 5-year-old and 8-year-old sons. “I’m afraid,” she said grimly. “But there are other people here, so I stay.”

Nicholas D. Kristof/The New York Times

Children at a refugee camp near the town of Goz Beida, Chad

In Darfur and eastern Chad, you can randomly approach any group of people and find heartbreaking stories. Mr. Clooney was clowning around with a group of boys bathing in the river — taking their photo and showing it to them digitally — and that’s when we met the 13-year-old boy with the bullet in his knee.

He’s Suleiman Ahsan, and he was wearing a pair of blue shorts — the only clothes he has. He also has a machete scar on his forehead; both it and the bullet date from a janjaweed attack on his village two years ago that killed his father.

Last year, Suleiman joined a militia and became a child soldier to avenge his father. “Recruiters come to the camps looking for boys like me to fight,” Suleiman told us. “Boys of 10 or 12 are old enough.”

Suleiman said that he learned to shoot but found the soldier’s life too grueling, so he deserted. Now he’s back to struggling to find food.

The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for President Bashir — widely expected in the coming weeks — has the area particularly on edge, for fear that Mr. Bashir could retaliate by using a proxy force to invade Chad.

The fact that Sudan’s state-sponsored slaughter of civilians goes on, year after year, in and out of Darfur, is a monument to the fecklessness of the international community. A spasm of that same fecklessness intruded on this trip with Mr. Clooney, who is traveling unofficially but is a United Nations goodwill ambassador.

* Apparently concerned that Mr. Clooney might say something strongly critical of Mr. Bashir — perhaps come down hard on genocide? — the United Nations called me on Wednesday to say that effective immediately it was pulling Mr. Clooney’s security escort as he traveled these roads along the border. Now that did seem petty and mean-spirited. A Frenchman working for Save the Children was murdered on such roads last year, and the U.N. requires a military escort for its own vehicles here.

If the U.N. is too craven to protect its own goodwill ambassadors — because they might criticize genocide — it’s not surprising that it and the international community fail to protect hundreds of thousands of voiceless Darfuris.

Oh, and now for the juicy truth about all of Mr. Clooney’s wild romances and motorcycle accidents. Darn — out of space. Wait for my next column from this trip on Sunday ...

I invite you to visit my blog, On the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook, watch my YouTube videos and follow me on Twitter.

A version of this article appeared in print on February 19, 2009, on page A27 of the New York edition.

Source: www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19

End of NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF article

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On the Ground

Nicholas Kristof addresses reader feedback and posts short takes from his travels.

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Nightly Newscast from February 19, 2009
which includes a report from Ann Curry about Sudan

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Genocide Ends

When Enough of Us

Stand Up Against It

JOIN US
1-800-GENOCIDE
www.savedarfur.org
www.genocideintervention.net
www.standnow.org

www.miafarrow.org


Write President Obama
www.whitehouse.gov

You can also call or write to the President:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Comments to President Obama:

202-456-1111

or

1-800-GENOCIDE

The White House available 9 AM - 5 PM EST weekdays

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Call your Senators and Representative Today!

Find your elected politicians contact information at this link:

www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected

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To call the USA Secretary of State

202-647-6575

The USA State Department public comment line

works 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

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Sample of what to say:

* I'm calling to ask President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton and Ambassador Rice to protect innocent civilians in Darfur in the wake of Bashir's arrest warrant. Please issue immediate warnings to Bashir and the government of Sudan specifying consequences of attacks on civilians. Please also prepare an emergency response plan to address further violence and appoint a full-time senior level envoy. Lastly, please stand firm in support of the ICC indictment and veto any delay in the prosecution of Bashir.

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IF NOT,

THEN,

YOUR SILENCE

CONTRIBUTES

TO

ANOTHER

GENOCIDE.

www.savedarfur.org/content

JUSTICE IS JUST A WORD AND SO IS GENOCIDE WHEN THE WORLD HOLDS NO ONE ACCOUNTABLE

The World Does Virtually Nothing for Five Years Regarding Darfur

Sudan gives militia leader government post

Source: Reuters

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Jan 20 (Reuters) -

Some analysts suspect Hilal could be charged by the International Criminal Court, which has already issued arrest warrants for junior minister Ahmed Haroun and an allied tribal leader in Darfur, Ali Koshayb, for war crimes in Darfur.

Sudan has appointed Musa Hilal, a man Washington accuses of coordinating Darfur's marauding militias, to a central government position, a move which could undermine peace efforts and anger the international community.

Minister of Federal Affairs Abdel Basit Sabderat confirmed Hilal had been picked as his new adviser. The presidency had earlier denied the appointment. "Yes he is appointed ... advisor to the minister," Sabderat told Reuters, but gave no further details.

Hilal is the leader of the Mahamied clan, part of the powerful Arab Rizeigat tribe in Darfur. Hilal told Reuters he would be based in Khartoum, but said the post could require travel to outlying regions. The ministry coordinates regional administrations with central government.

Washington says Hilal is the coordinator of the Janjaweed militias accused of war crimes in Darfur. He denies atrocities and says he mobilised his tribesmen to defend their lands after a government call to "popular defence".

Gamal Nkrumah, Africa expert at Egypt's al-Ahram weekly newspaper, said Hilal's appointment threatened to undermine upcoming peace talks between the government and Darfur rebels, and strain Khartoum's already troubled international relations. "It was a surprise decision and a very unpleasant surprise," he said. "It's very negative and it just shows the complete intransigence on the government's part," he said, adding the move would also alienate Darfur's rebels.

Rights groups say they have interviewed witnesses putting Hilal at the scene of atrocities during the five-year Darfur conflict, a charge he denies.

Sudanese columnist Mekki al-Maghrabi said Hilal's appointment was worth the political risk for the ruling National Congress Party, even if he might be tried by the world court.

As a tribal elder, Hilal had the kind of clout that was needed to speak to affected tribes in Darfur and resolve the conflict. "The transfer of a tribal leader to a political post is a good step which will open the door to more settlements (of disputes)," Maghrabi said.

International experts estimate some 200,000 have died in Darfur from hunger, disease and violence. About two-thirds of Darfur's population relies on the world's largest humanitarian operation for food, shelter or medical care.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect. Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab tribes to quell the revolt. But some Darfur Arabs complain they have been left out of a peace process mediated by the United Nations and African Union. They say they also incurred losses during the war and should be consulted on compensation and aid for their people too. (Editing by Caroline Drees)

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Barack Obama on Darfur

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Hillary Clinton on Darfur
Bill Clinton allowed the 1994 genocide in Rwanda to go on with absolutely no action. His administration parsed words over it being "acts of genocide" and not genocide. In Samantha Power's book A Problem from Hell, it is clear that Bill Clinton did nothing because he felt he would suffer nothing politically if he chose to do nothing. He was also in the middle of the Monica Lewinsky "I had no sexual relations with that woman" situation at the very time. We also listened to him answer "it depends on what the definition of is is".

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John Edwards on Darfur

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John McCain on Darfur

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How Will History Judge Us?