Genocide in Sudan

Old 2006 thread of mine, but i thought I'd share again, getting this blog caught up to today :)

I'm not an expert here...

I came with a plea to the forums, to ask a simple question.
What can, I, or anyone else, do here, to help?
And i mean really help, not just let our concerns be shared, which is simple... but help.


I want to accomplish something in this thread, besides talking.
Basically i have 3 goals.

1) Education
I want to eduacte myself more about the problem.
I want to know who to talk to and how to make a difference.
What exactly is the problem... and who is instigating it?
Is there a group, or person, who may be able to stop this now?

2) Support:
I want to support them in some way.
Whether that be monetary, spirtually, or maybe through letters.
Speaking of letters... who might we send one to?
Could the people recieve it?
What about the president of sudan?
Can we send any other type of support?

3) Recruit:
See if i can get anyone, to help me, along the way.
It doesn't have to be anyone here, it could be in RL, or maybe a senator.
Maybe my representative can help.
But find some other people to walk with me, through this. It's a big task, one person alone isn't enough, we need more.


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So first things first.... knowledge, I should share what i have thus far, i hope you all share your info as well.

The website to coordinate our energy:
http://www.savedarfur.org/content

Here is a nice read, about the conflict.. please, if you do nothing else, read this:
http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/background

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Know your enemies:

The sudanese government itself, and the Janjaweed militias. An alliance that has caused most of the destruction of the civilians.

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Support:

All i found and thought of was finding a support group, near your area, if you are in the U.S.

Suprisingly, my small city did have one, maybe i'll find that person and help organize an event.

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Final thoughts:

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“400,000 dead, 2.5 million displaced, 10,000 dying every month”
The latest UN estimates say that between 10 and 15 thousand people are dying every month.

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“Every few months we are driven away from one refugee camp to the other, so far in the desert where nothing, nothing at all exists. This is no way for a human being to live. No way to live in such a shocking place – uncultivated, waterless, treeless and barren region...! Everything is burning, Lord, around me, around us ... in me, in us ... Everything is barren, hell, hell...!” ~~ A darfarian women

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Fertile land continues to decrease as desertification (growth of the Sahara Desert) becomes more of a problem. Tensions between nomadic Arab tribes and African farming communities began, in part, because of the scarcity of usable land.

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As a response to the long-standing abuse from the government, rebels in Darfur rose in opposition to the government, attacking a government installation. President Al-Bashir responded by giving governmental support and money to Islamic militias, also known as the Janjaweed – or ‘Devils on Horseback’ in Arabic – to combat the rebels and civilians in Darfur instead of sending the military to intervene.
These militias have been accused of ethnic cleansing by systematically eliminating entire communities. Government air strikes frequently precede the militias’ vicious raids. Villages are razed; women, men, and children are raped, tortured, and murdered. The Janjaweed also target and destroy Darfurian food and water supplies, threatening the victims' hopes for their future survival.

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The Janjaweed militias steal cattle, destroy wells, and pursue a scorched-earth policy, where crops and buildings are destroyed. (UNICEF and the New York Times, 2005).

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Civilians who have survived village destruction have fled to camps lacking adequate food, shelter, sanitation, and health care in Darfur and across the border in neighboring Chad. Hundreds of thousands of Darfurians are at risk of starvation and disease.

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“Every day, women are sent outside the IDP camps to seek firewood and water, despite the constant risk of rape at the hands of the Janjaweed. Should men be available to venture out of the camps, they risk castration and murder. So families decide that rape is the lesser evil. It is a crime that families even have to make such a choice. Often women are sexually assaulted within the supposed safety of the IDP camps. Nowhere is really safe.” – Brian Steidle, former AU advisor

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80% of the children under five years old are suffering from severe malnutrition. Seventy percent of the deaths in the camps are children under five.

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Children, as well as young women, are abducted by Janjaweed, often with the complicity of Sudanese troops. Women are often forced into sexual slavery, and young boys are made to watch over stolen livestock. (Amnesty, Save the Children).

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Currently, the only security on the ground is an undermanned African Union (AU) force that cannot protect civilians or aid workers. Currently, the AU lacks adequate numbers of personnel and has limited logistical capacity. Currently, the AU’s mandate is to monitor the failed ceasefire in Darfur, not to protect civilians. Therefore, to be effective, the AU will need a stronger civilian protection mandate, a major increase in the number of troops on the ground, and a much larger logistical and monetary contribution from the UN, the EU, and NATO.

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Despite some action on behalf of the world community, more action is needed. Ten thousand people are still dying every month, and if nothing is done, two million people could perish. We need to act if we want this crisis to end.

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Look beyond the headlines, understand that a genocide is occurring right now, look for how we can support a solution – and ways in which we may be contributing to the problem.
These people need our help. As humans, we owe them our support and prayers. As Americans we owe them our courage and experience. We must do something to help those who suffer, and this time we can.

~~~~All quotes taken from the Save Darfur Powerpoint presentation, a must download.

Arm yourself with knowledge.... post a response on how we can help... actually help guys, don't b.s me.... and recruit each other to the side of the innocent civilians.

Thank you for your time, as always.

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Questions about whether this was a futile effort or not arised

In this case though, i must try and help the defenseless in some way i can, anyway really. Even if it ends in futile effort, some effort by my part must be tried.

Thank you all for your replies so far, help me to help stop this problem, I'm still lost in a confused world, wondering what to do next.

Someone shares their pain of the situation and their hopelessness:

It really pains me to think of the injustices that are being done here. To think of a poor, starving family huddling together in their one-room huts, as a firing squad blows their brains out one by one... the children killed first, to stop them from running away, and to shock the parents into hesitating, so they can be slaughtered in turn. (Eh... I'm pretty messed-up though... it might just be me)

That's why I don't want to think about it, really. There's nothing I can do, so I'm content to lead my sheltered life, playing RPGs on high-powered laptops. Me having nightmares about a country I've barely heard of doesn't help anyone. Even if I become a politician, or a peacekeeper, there's ultimately nothing anyone can do if people want to kill each other. Until we have infrared satellites that can identify a crime being committed anywhere on the face of the earth and fry the criminal with a microwave beam at any time, 24/7, there's nothing anyone can do about it.

United states admits to genocide:

The United States won't admit to a genocide being comitted in darfur, because it'll have to act once it does.

It actually has, it's the U.N that won't admit to it, basically because if it tries to draft such a resolution, it knows someone will veto it, specifically china.

There a little commentary about this on the savedarfur website, and I find it interesting.

Finally America admits there's a Geoncide.... yet does very little.

Darn that whole Iraq war and our currupt president for lying us into it.

If we only had the troops to help heal REAL problems, instead of lining corporate pockets.

~~Phoenix