The following is from Sudan: The Passion of the Present today. The photo is from BBC coverage of a refugee camp in Chad, on the Darfur Sudan border.
July 31, 2004
>An international failure of will
Forces from across the world are poised to help the people of Darfur, but no nation has the will to move forward.
We are in a tragic and signal moment, a catalytic moment,
where the world sees the need, has the means, and yet continues to
experience a failure of will. Giving the Sudanese government
30 more days–and then asking Kofi Annan for a report to the UN
Security Council–assures 30 more days of death and destruction. Given
the nature of the genocidal process being carried out in
Sudan–engineered, intentional famine and epidemic disease–30 more
days translates into months of additonal famine, and hundreds of
thousands of additional lives lost.
Now it is the public’s turn. It is our turn. The time is now
for our action. We must ask our leaders to act now, not in 30 days.
All key elements are in place, except the will to launch the rescue of Darfur in ernest.
1. High level sources in Washington tell us that the US administration and congress have privately agreed that a military force is needed immediately
to halt the genocide in Sudan. Key leaders have agreed to approve
whatever is required to enable such a force. This commitment has been
communicated to Kofi Annan. We believe that similar commitments have
been made by other nations.
Military and logistical preparations have been made
by the US, UK, France, Australia, and the Netherlands. The US and
France have coordination teams on the ground in neighboring Sudan, and
are now in position to provide technical assistance to the rescue
mission.
2. Key African Union members are signalling that they have reached the same conclusion, led by the powerful president of Nigeria–Africa’s largest nation–who is also the current head of the African Union.
An African Union force, supported by military and
humanitarian resources from around the world, is what the African Union
leaders are trying to put together.
It seems obvious that we ought to help them in their initiative.
The African Union faces its defining moment. The
African Union was founded two years ago this month, in July 2002, out
of the wreckage of the defunct Organization of African States. The
leaders of the African Union have from the beginning worked to form a
continental government that can solve important problems. African leaders recognize that Sudan is a crucial test of the organization’s ability to lead.
3. The AU has momentum on its side.
The AU already has placed independent observers in the country
who have in recent days reported on new attrocities and the further
collapse of the conditions of life for Darfur black citizens.
The AU has permission from Sudan to send into the country a small military protective force, which will land in the next few days.
The AU summit, currently meeting in Ghana, yesterday agreed to add an unspecified number of additional troops to the protective force. Nigeria and Rwanda have committed troops to the current force, and are willing and able to provide more.
The AU protective force can be expanded immediately into a
peacekeeping force, and begin to seriously help victims across Darfur.
4. We have the power. A top US congressional aid told me three days ago:
“What you people [all those
who have brought attention and care to Darfur, not just this site] are
doing on the web has been very very valuable. Thank you all. Your work
enables us [in government] to say to our colleagues, ’see, the public
cares and wants us to act. The public is with us.’ Please keep it up.”
We can focus public opinion and help leaders gather the personal strength to act.
We can help heal the failure of will. But we need to assert our own
will. We need to take two or three acts today and every day for the
next week, and ask our friends to do the same:
If you know someone with “influence” in government, ask them to help. This is the time to tap people in our networks of friends and acquaintances.
Do what you can to extend the reach of our community of concern. Call 50 friends and invite them to check out this site and other resources, such as Human Rights Watch.
Ask other bloggers to share their thoughts and feelings about Sudan daily for the next week. Repetition helps.
Pass helpful op-eds around, such as today’s in The Washington Post.
Call your local television station and ask them to cover the story, and/or to cover the story of your activism.
Call your elected officials and thank them for what they are already doing. The US Congress, after all, has been out ahead on this issue.
Write to your friends and relatives and tell them about what you are doing.
Send us your ideas and notes and resources we should link to, by way of comments for all to see, below,
or by email. Even if your idea is only half-formed, share it with
others in a spirit of creative brainstorming. Time is of the
essence–let’s use the public power of the web to move rapidly together.
—————
UPDATE: FRENCH TROOPS have begun to act to enable the relief effort on the Chad border, though they are not entering Sudan itself.
From correspondents in Ndjamena, Chad
August 1, 2004FRENCH soldiers stationed in Chad began airlifting aid to the border with Sudan’s Darfur region today..
French President Jacques Chirac ordered the mobilisation of his
forces yesterday to help the 1.2 million people driven from their homes
by Sudanese troops and Arab militia known as Janjaweed.Since then, troops in Chad had begun flying relief supplies to the
border town of Abeche and were preparing to send 200 troops to secure
Chad’s eastern frontier with Darfur, said army colonel Philippe Charles.However, the French action stopped short of entering Sudanese
territory. Sudan’s Government has warned it will send its army to repel
any foreign military intervention.
July 31, 2004 | Permalink
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Heartbreaking Wasington Post Editorial on Darfur this Saturday Morning, July 31
Here is a an editorial from The Washington Post this morning. The entire piece is worth reading, but here are excerpts:
Death and Deception in Darfur
By Daniel Wolf
Saturday, July 31, 2004SOUTH DARFUR, Sudan — On the morning of July 12, hell descended on
the village of Donki Dereisa. Shortly before sunrise, Fatima Ibrahim,
28, awoke to the deafening sound of exploding ordnance falling from the
sky. As she emerged from her mud hut with her 10-year-old daughter, she
saw fires blazing all around and scores of heavily armed men on
horseback attacking from every direction. With bullets whistling past,
Ibrahim and her daughter ran for their lives, ducking into a nearby
ravine, where they hid without food or water for the next two days.From the ditch, Ibrahim witnessed a horrific avalanche of violence that
will haunt her for life. With Sudanese foot soldiers at their side, the
mounted attackers shot the panicked and unarmed villagers in cold
blood. Approximately 150 people, including 10 women, were killed. But
the worst was to come.Ibrahim told Refugees International about a week after the attack
that among those captured during the assault were four of her brothers
and six young children, including three of her cousins. As Ibrahim
watched in horror, several of the attackers began grabbing the
screaming children and throwing them one by one into a raging fire. One
of the male villagers ran from his hiding place to plead for their
lives. It was a fatal error. The raiders subdued the man and later
beheaded him and dismembered his body. All six of the children were
burned. Ibrahim’s four brothers have not been heard from since.
———————-
..On July 3, the United Nations and the Sudanese government
issued a joint communiqu
