Dear Ones,
This is VERY close to my heart. As many of you know the Sudan is the "Original" Egypt, one of the hot beds of current era slavery and now genocide.
Urge Colin Powell (a distant son of Africa, even if he and his son don't act like it all the time) to declare the atrocities genocide. Make a tax-deductible donation too if you can. All the research and easy links, Colin's contact phone numbers as well as for AL Senator and Representative numbers.
For those outside of AL who do not have easy access to their Senators and representative's phone numbers, contact moveon at the link below.
Know Justice, Know Peace,
E-K. Daufin
For Your $5,000 Tax Refund go to: www.sohotaxes.net/daufin
Physical & Emotional Wellness: www.mylegacyforlife.net/thedaufin
Workshops, Poetry and All That Jazz: http://home.earthlink.net/~ekdaufin/
A major human tragedy is unfolding in Sudan, one that has reportedly
claimed at least 30,000 lives, and could claim up to one million
unless the world community works together, starting immediately,
to end it.
One thing we can do is give to Oxfam's Sudan Crisis Relief Fund, which
is providing urgently needed help to people there. You can make a
secure, tax-deductible gift at:
https://secure.ga3.org/02/sudan04?source=mo
A gift will make an immediate difference, but we must also take action
to stop the bloodshed.
Although Secretary of State Colin Powell has been in Sudan this week,
he has yet to declare that the atrocities there constitute genocide
[1]. Such recognition would make a huge difference, catalyzing the
world community to help end the killing. Powell should also publicly
condemn the genocide. But so far, he has stopped short of this.
This week, on NPR, Powell said: "Why would we call it a genocide
when the genocide definition has to meet certain legal tests, and
based on what we have seen, there were some indicators but there was
certainly no full accounting of all indicators that lead to a legal
definition of genocide, and that's the advice of my lawyers..." [2]
Please call Powell today at:
Secretary of State Colin Powell
202-647-4000 or 202-647-6607 or 202-647-6575
Urge him to:
- Immediately declare the atrocities in Sudan to be "Genocide"; and
- Publicly condemn them.
Please also call your Senators and Representative:
Senator Richard C. Shelby
Washington, DC: 202-224-5744
Senator Jeff Sessions
Washington, DC: 202-224-4124
Congressman Michael D. Rogers
Washington, DC: 202-225-3261
Urge them to demand that the United States recognize the genocide and
condemn it.
Please let us know you're calling, at:
http://www.moveon.org/callpowell.html?id=3039-1258581-_ejbfEV7oROu9oleocYnwA
Sudan's government is orchestrating a genocide against people
living in the country's Darfur region, who have challenged the
government's authoritarian rule. In addition to tens of thousands of
killings, there is widespread rape, and poisoning of water systems.
Up to one million people have reportedly been displaced from their
homes. Andrew Natsios, head of the U.S. Agency for International
Development says, "if nothing changes we will have one million
casualties. If things improve we can get it down to about 300,000
deaths." [3]
More than 130 countries are obligated by the 1948 Genocide Convention
to prevent and punish such crimes against humanity. So even if the
United States sends no troops to Sudan, formally recognizing the
genocide would enable the U.N. security council to authorize other
countries, like Germany, France, and Spain, which don't have troops
to Iraq, to help stop the killing in Sudan.
We could also take another simple step, and publicly condemn the
genocide. This would send a powerful signal that the world is
watching, not looking the other way. "Genocide is still calibrated to
the international reaction," writes Nicholas Kristof in the New York
Times.
Whenever genocide has occurred before, the world community has vowed,
"never again." Yet today, it is happening again.
The Bush administration is failing so show leadership on Sudan. Is
President Bush now so preoccupied with Iraq that his administration is
incapable of action on emergent issues of the day? Sadly, the answer
appears so far to be yes.
Please help stop this genocide, by making your calls today.
Sincerely,
- Carrie, Joan, Lee, Noah, Peter, and Wes
The MoveOn.org team
Friday, July 2nd, 2004
P.S.:
A photo gallery depicting the situation is at:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5305166/site/newsweek/
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has written a moving series
of columns from Sudan, many of them focusing on the personal experiences
of a young woman there named Magboula. You can read them at:
1. "Dare We Call It Genocide?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/16/opinion/16KRIS.html
(Archived and available for purchase)
2. "Sudan's Final Solution"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/19/opinion/19KRIS.html
(Archived and available for purchase)
3. "Magboula's Brush With Genocide"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/23/opinion/23KRIS.html
(Archived and available for purchase)
4. "Dithering as Others Die"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/26/opinion/26KRIS.html
Newspapers everywhere are calling for action:
The Washington Post: "As Genocide Unfolds"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54947-2004Jun19.html
The New York Times: Time for Action on Sudan
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/18/opinion/18FRI1.html?th
(Archived and available for purchase)
Calls for action from newspapers throughout the country have been
compiled by the Center for American Progress, at:
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=97645
Footnotes:
[1] Genocide is commonly defined as "the systematic and planned
extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic
group." - Dictionary.com
The formal definition of genocide, under the United Nations'
1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, is:
"any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in
whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,
as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in
part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."
Source: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/p_genoci.htm
[2] http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3057010
[3] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5288549/
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