Am I Not Human: Darfur

With aid groups barred from the Sudan, raising awareness is more crucial than ever.



Please add your signature to the many petitions calling for the President to end the genocide in Darfur. Here is one you can sign now

On behalf of the people of Darfur who are barred from communication, as well as lacking access to their technology, we ask:

Projects that have been active in aiding Darfuri refugees, that
can still use your help:


http://www.darfurdreamteam.org/

http://www.mercycorps.org/

http://www.enoughproject.org/

http://www.darfurstoves.org/

Keep Humanitarian Aid In Sudan

From Mercy Corps:

On Wednesday, the government of Sudan asked several humanitarian aid agencies, including Mercy Corps, to suspend operations in Darfur, a move that would threaten humanitarian assistance to millions of vulnerable men, women and children.

Mercy Corps provides lifesaving support to more than 200,000 people in displacement camps who have been forced from their homes by the violence in Darfur. Help keep aid workers where they are most needed in Sudan.

Add your name to the petition to ask United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to urge the government of Sudan to reverse its decision.

Please help, by signing this petition, and spreading the word.
Our participation is vital.

http://www.actioncenter.org/take_action/21

Bombing Darfur

Drumbeats from Amnesty International tell us that the Sudanese government used a Russian-made Antonov plane with the “UN” symbol on its wing to drop bombs on Darfur. This act shows that the Sudanese government does not intend to comply with the UN arms embargo. This is a clear violation of international humanitarian law and a clear example of why the current UN arms embargo needs to be expanded to cover all of Sudan.

Amnesty International issued its new report Blood at the Crossroads with accounts of Russian and Chinese weapons used to violate human rights in Darfur. In one case, the report describes Russian-supplied Mi-24 attack helicopters being delivered to the Sudanese government in 2006. Since then, the Sudanese government has used these helicopters in indiscriminate aerial attacks in Darfur.

It is undeniably clear that the current UN arms embargo cannot effectively restrain the arms flow into Darfur. At the same time, Sudanese armed opposition groups in Darfur are allegedly receiving their weapons from Chad. The innocent people of Darfur are left in the middle of this conflict.

With our encouragement, our Senator and Representatives can help stem the flow of weapons to Sudan. Senate Resolution 660 and House Resolution 1462 1) condemn the ongoing flow of weapons into Darfur and 2) call for an expansion of the UN arms embargo to cover all of Sudan. Leadership from the United States is necessary to signal to the rest of the world that ongoing violence in Darfur will not be tolerated.

Take action to stop the flow of weapons into Darfur.

Call on Investors: Stand Up for Human Rights in Darfur

We all know how our nation's dependence on foreign oil is bringing our economy to its knees. It turns out that the U.S. isn't the only country with a troubling dependence on oil.

In Sudan, the dependence on oil is literally a matter of life and death. We can use that dependence on oil to our advantage in the continuing struggle to end the human rights violations in Sudan.

I encourage all villagers to press some of the most powerful companies in the world to use their influence to help end the human rights catastrophe in Darfur. We need corporations to help ensure the speedy and full deployment of the UN-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) in Darfur. Khartoum must hear from key economic interests, including the oil companies that they depend on for revenue. To convince these oil companies to act, we must enlist their investors as our allies.

In the past year Amnesty International had success working with several top U.S. investment firms, including Morgan Stanley and T. Rowe Price, who have committed to raising concerns about Darfur with oil companies in which they are invested.

Perhaps it is time for us to add our voices. Perhaps, we can convince even those companies that ignore us to take a similar stand.

I encourage you to send email or letter to investors in Sudan’s oil industry. Ask them to follow the lead of companies like Morgan Stanley and T. Rowe Price to take a stand for the people of Darfur.

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NOTE: This is a cross-post from the Electronic Village.

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The next step is yours. What say u?

G8 Warns Sudan Of More UN Action

Yes. This is what we've been waiting for. Enforce the laws. Give the ICC the teeth it needs to stop crimes against humanity and genocide in their tracks.

JAPAN: Group of Eight powers warned Friday they could take further action against Sudan at the UN Security Council unless it complies with demands to bring Darfur war crimes suspects to justice. Foreign ministers of the industrial powers called for an immediate ceasefire in the parched province, where the United Nations estimates that up to 300,000 people have died since the conflict broke out in 2003. Sudan has refused to comply with UN Security Council demands to hand over two suspects to the International Criminal Court who are accused of 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, torture and rape. "We call on all parties concerned to abide by their obligations under the relevant UN Security Council resolutions; we would otherwise support further appropriate action in the UN Security Council," a G8 statement said after two days of talks in Kyoto, Japan. "We urge the government of Sudan and all other parties to participate fully with the International Criminal Court in order to put an end to impunity for the crimes committed in Darfur," said the ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime and state-backed "Janjaweed militias, prompting a clampdown that the United States has branded as genocide.

-IndiaTimes

More weapons, more lives lost in Darfur

A Call to Action from Amnesty International

The current U.N. arms embargo in Darfur has not stopped the government of Sudan from assisting allied militia in smuggling prohibited weapons into Darfur.

This June, expand the U.N. arms embargo to cover not just Darfur, but all of Sudan

Weapons enter the country of Sudan; increased bloodshed follows in Darfur. The relationship between weapons transfers and increased violence is easy to see. Stop the flow of weapons into Darfur. Call on Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. representative to the United Nations, to lead the U.N. Security Council in expanding the arms embargo to cover not just Darfur, but all of Sudan. Despite the current U.N. ban on weapons to Darfur, arms continue to find their way into this conflict-torn region. The government of Sudan in particular continues to violate the embargo by delivering prohibited arms to allied militia. The proliferation of arms and militarized vehicles in the region has led to an increase in violent attacks on civilians and humanitarian convoys. Heavy weapons, small arms, ammunition, and other military equipment, including Antonov planes and M-24 helicopters, have been entering Darfur from other countries and other parts of Sudan. It is clear that the limited scope of the U.N. arms embargo cannot effectively restrain the arms flow from reaching Darfur. Urge the U.N. Security Council to broaden the arms embargo to cover all of Sudan. Ambassador Khalilzad, as president of the U.N. Security Council for the month of June, gives the U.S. a unique opportunity to shape and lead a renewed commitment to halt the flow of arms into Darfur. Write to Ambassador Khalilzad and ecourage the U.S. to take the lead in expanding the arms embargo to cover all of Sudan. Stop the arms flow into Darfur. Urge the U.N. Security Council to expand the arms embargo to cover not just Darfur, but all of Sudan. ©Scott Nelson/Getty Images More weapons means more lives lost in Darfur. Stop the arms flow into Darfur. Sincerely, Meredith Larson Darfur Campaign Director Amnesty International USA Subscribe to our RSS feeds. © Copyright 2008 | Amnesty International USA | 5 Penn Plaza | New York, NY 10001 | 212.807.8400

'On Our Watch' Airs On PBS

Watch the full program online through this website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darfur/?
campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_frontlinebronourwatch_2008-06-09



PBS' June 2008 update

Nearly a year has passed since the U.N. Security Council ordered the creation of a joint U.N.-A.U. peacekeeping force of 26,000 troops. The force still has only 9,000 troops, lacks equipment that it has requested from member states and continues to be stymied by political obstacles.

Meanwhile, two men indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court remain at large: Ahmad Harun was named minister of humanitarian affairs -- giving the suspected janjaweed organizer oversight of peacekeepers and refugees -- and Ali Kushayb was captured but released. Another suspected janjaweed ringleader, Musa Hilal, was named as a special adviser to the Khartoum government. Sudanese ambassador to the U.N. Abdelmahmood Abdelhaleem has denied that the government is interfering in peacekeeping efforts and insists that the charges brought by the ICC are false.

Experts continue to debate the wisdom of intervention: Sudan scholar Alex de Waal, who critiqued the peacekeeping plan when he was interviewed for FRONTLINE's report, On Our Watch, wrote in his essay "Why Darfur intervention is a mistake" that "UN patrols around the displaced camps could stop many of these [civilian] killings and monitors following army operations can deter others. I am all for this. But let us not pretend that they would stop the war." And in a piece for The New York Times, Warren Hoge considers Darfur's wider implications for the United Nations' "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine.

Read More

Thankyou to Yobachi for sharing the link.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo Sees No Military Justification For War Crimes

Luis Moreno-Ocampo as the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court in the Hague, expressed intolerance for war criminals, in a speech to the UN Security council. Darfur: A Hell on Earth brings us a quote from that speech, where he points out very clearly that the Sudan has refused to relinquish Ahmad Harun (Indicted Minister), and Ali Kushayb (Janjaweed Leader), both war criminals:

“There is no military justification for bombing schools, no legal excuse for raping women. Those crimes have been carefully prepared, and efficiently implemented. Those are not mistakes. Those are not inter-tribal clashes. Those are not cases of collateral damage. Those are, simply, criminal acts against civilians, unarmed civilians."

Read the full story here:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article4075422.ece

Peacekeeper Found Dead

photo of Peacekeepers from pbase.com

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - A peacekeeper for the joint U.N.-African Union force in Sudan’s Darfur region has been killed for the first time since the troops deployed five months ago, the U.N. mission said Thursday.
A Ugandan policeman identified as John Kennedy Okecha was found dead in a vehicle for the UNAMID force in North Darfur Wednesday, UNAMID said in a statement. He had been shot three times in the neck, chest and stomach.
UNAMID described the killing as «an act of cold blooded murder» and appealed to all those with any knowledge of what happened to share it with the appropriate authorities so the perpetrators can be brought to justice.
-Pr-Inside

Big thanks to Cooper at Darfur: A Hell on Earth for the intel



Related News:



The World Campaign Feature George Clooney

crossposted at UU

Am I Not Human?

Instead of doubletalk let's just have a straight answer.
Are the people of re-developing countries human in the eyes of the corporations and governments that benefit from the horrific depopulation of an area, and profits from the sales of weapons used to do it? Is genocide good for corporate profit? Is that why sponsors who claim to seek safe and humane conditions for everyone, turn around and endanger the same people they claim interest in helping, by aiding their oppressors, and attackers? Do these corporations listed below find the stolen lives of children an acceptable reality because profit margins are their bottom line?

We're curious about that.
Because many of us have written to corporate sponsors about the Genocide Olympics but the sponsors seem content to avoid raising any issues about the conditions in Darfur, despite our letters.


And... we're curious about something else. Do these corporations consider Tibetan Nuns to be human, too? Do they share the same human and spiritual rights as say... middle and upper class Americans, or even some Americans living at or below poverty level? I mean... in the recent protest of 76 nuns calling for the return of the Dalai Lama on May 14th, 19 of the nuns went missing, while 54 were arrested.


Hmm...


Feel free to write to any of them and ask them if you're also as curious as we.
These are the names of the corporations supporting the Genocide Olympics.

Atos Origin
BOCOG
Coca-Cola
DB Schenker
General Electric
Johnson & Johnson
Kodak
Lenovo
Manulife
McDonald’s
Mizuna
Omega
Panasonic
Samsung
Visa

Send them all the same letter if inclined:
http://www.dreamfordarfur.org/
index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=85


Download the May 2008 ebook here:



crossposted at UU

Petition For The Arrest Of Suspected War Criminals in Darfur

As we continue to stand, we make our voices heard.

Ahmad Harun, Sudan’s former Minister of the Interior and current Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Janjawid leader Ali Kushayb, are charged with multiple counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Darfur. Amnesty International is campaigning for their arrest and surrender to the International Criminal Court (ICC) the Government of Sudan continues to refuse to do so. Call on U.S. authorities to take action to press the government of Sudan to arrest and surrender Harun and Kushayb to the ICC

-Amnesty USA

Sign the Petition so that suspected war criminals in Darfur are arrested.
Please spread the word.