Save Darfur

[NATO AIR]

the ancient aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk survived a typhoon earlier this week and is ready to arrive for a liberty port call on the Pacific island of Guam, (a US territory for any unfamiliar with it). internet is up for this e-4 and while time is limited, i'd love to get any updates anyone has on good news (especially olympic news) out of iraq or just how life is in the states... you can send it to [email protected].

now when i departed the board in mid-july for the fun of summer deployment, darfur was still burning with the fires of hatred and oppression. a month later, it still is and 1,000 innocent people are perishing every day there. the sudanese government is mixing the militias that has commited the majority of the genocide into the regular sudanese army. a few african nations are sending peace monitors in numbers like 100-200,which is good and great but the killing is still continuing, people are still starving to death, women and young girls are still being gang raped and villages are still being razed to the ground to prevent the return of the inhabitants.

so i've been out to sea, unable to do nearly as much as i used to for the people of darfur in raising awareness about their situation. the US congress passed concurrent resolutions calling what's happened a genocide and it seems that momentous act of intelligence by politicians has been ignored by the media and the government as a whole.

i am glad that i now see the EU and many of its members for what they are: cowards unable to face evil in the eye and take action, despite vast, lengthy rhetoric from their leadership about the evils of America and human rights. waffling on iran, waffling on sudan, waffling on russia, waffling on china, where does it stop?

but really darfur and the horrific, blood-soaked corners of the world that will follow it in the near future are proof of one thing: terrorism is not just a fundamentalist with a car bomb or a jet plane, not just a political enemy of the state with a truck bomb or anthrax... terrorism can also be leaders (and political groups in power) that decide to terrorize certain members of their populations for whatever nefarious reasons and motivations they have. burma, uzbekistan, sudan, zimbabwe, iran, etc etc. will we stop these mass murderers or will we allow fear and uncertainity to win the day? what good is a free iraq or iran when genocide is happening in sudan, when drug lords are taking over columbia, when a neo-facist is consolidating power in zimbabwe and when china's communists are killing freedom and justice?

until next time (probably when we pull back into yokosuka sometime in the autumn)

btw if you'd like to help darfur and stand up for justice and freedom: here's how....

The Save Darfur Coalition has identified Wednesday, August 25, 2004 as Sudan: Day of Conscience. On that day, communities across North America are urged to engage in interfaith activities to raise public awareness about the horrific situation in Darfur and to demand that the international community take immediate and decisive action to stop the killing, the rape, and the destruction of villages, and to assure that humanitarian relief reaches all those in need. Of course, if it is not feasible to hold such activities on August 25, please schedule them on a date that works best for your community. Call your clergy now!

(from savedarfur.org .... a lot of great resources on that site)

 

[preemptingyou03]

There is not a word in your post I disagree with.

 

[Annie]

Everytime a tyrant says he'll do whatever, the UN says, "Ok." Then when the promise is broken, they are like shocked! 60 years of these.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sudan/story/0,14658,1287074,00.html

Excerpt:

Sudan accused of breaking its word as more refugees flee

Jeevan Vasagar in N'Djamena
Friday August 20, 2004
The Guardian

The UN refugee agency accused Sudan yesterday of breaking its promises in Darfur, as more refugees fled to neighbouring Chad from a fresh wave of attacks on civilians.
Hundreds have crossed the border in recent weeks after assaults on 11 villages which fitted the pattern of the government-sponsored campaign of ethnic cleansing in the westerrn region.

The UN fears that a further 100,000 refugees may head for Chad in the coming months and has drawn up contingency plans to build a further seven camps near the border.

There are already nine vast camps along the border, holding an estimated 190,000 people, and a tenth is being built.

Lino Bordin, deputy representative of the UN high commissioner for refugees in Chad, said the villages had been attacked in waves, beginning with an aerial bombardment.

"The refugees said that 11 villages were attacked from the 2nd to the 10th of August. They were attacked by plane, and after that by cars full of soldiers, and after that by the Janjaweed [militia]," he said.

"These are broken promises by Sudan. They promised that they would start to solve this situation, but that has not happened yet.

 

[Annie]

Excerpt:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cg...ction_id=268448413&slug=sudan20&date=20040820

Darfur humanitarian crisis easing, U.N. says

By Laurie Goering
Chicago Tribune

KHARTOUM, Sudan — While violence remains a major concern, the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region is easing and large-scale deaths from malnutrition and disease are likely to be averted as international assistance pours in, U.N. officials said this week.

Many of the 1.25 million people driven from their homes in conflict-torn western Sudan still lack decent shelter, and only about a third have reliable access to clean water, according to a U.N. report released yesterday. But as food aid arrives, malnutrition is dropping back toward levels before the conflict in Darfur, and access to health care for many families is better than it was before attacks by government-backed militias began, U.N. officials said.

"I feel we are slowly but surely getting on top of [the health crisis]," said Mike McDonagh, who manages the Darfur relief effort for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum....

The government denies it backs the Janjaweed, blames the violence on the rebels and says descriptions of the violence have been exaggerated.

 

[Annie]

How long before they change their mind?

Excerpt:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/serv.../20040823/SUDANTALKS23/TPInternational/Africa

Sudan enters peace talks with promise to reduce forces in Darfur


By MOHAMED OSMAN
Associated Press


UPDATED AT 5:45 AM EDT Monday, Aug 23, 2004


KHARTOUM -- In a goodwill gesture on the eve of peace talks, Sudan said yesterday that it will reduce paramilitary forces in Darfur by 30 per cent to try to ease tensions in the western region.