Darfur
February 7, 2009
One of the frequent readers on Vox Nova is actively involved with activism against genocide in the world, and he has brought to my attention the worsening situation in Darfur.
President Obama rightfully raised the issue of the Sudan in his campaign. The time for action is now, before it is too late. Let’s inform the President we expect action and not just talk. For more information and what you could do, click here.
11 Comments
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What action is required? I am not very familiar with proposed solutions.
I’ve put a link to a campaign on Darfur.
Henry,
I’ve done some clicking around and frankly can’t figure out what they are calling for. There is a lot of talk about STANDING and ACTING, and making CALLS, and even having RETREATS and COLLABORATING and UNITING. Heck, there’s even a section on ACTIVISM 101 (they seem to have a penchant for capitalizing numerous words).
There’s not a clear section: This is what needs to be done.
What needs to be done?
In the past I’ve tried to ask Darfur activists what, precisely, needs to be done and I never got concrete responses (though apparently asking for concrete steps of action makes me a Republican neo-con… but that’s a different story). I get the vague platitudes I capitalized above, along with vague references to the UN “looking at” the situation, as if the gaze of the UN will ends genocide. But what does it actually mean?
I’m seriously interested in this situation, but I seriously want to know what needs to be done.
There was also a place where you could e-mail for more answers. Since they are quite involved with this, they have more data and possible solutions they can provide to you than I could in a quick comments box response.
Certainly, there is drastic need of outside help, as anyone who has examined the situation knows. Ask Feddie sometime about this — he is strong on this issue as well. But again, I provided a place where one can go, and since they are significantly more involved with this, I would think that they can say more and better than what I could. And you could also suggest your own solutions.
To answer everyone’s questions, the following are some of the specific actions that STAND is asking the Administration to take:
1. Enforce a no-fly zone over Darfur to prevent the Sudanese air force from supporting the militias;
2. Provide funding to properly train and equip the United Nations peacekeeping force (UNAMID) to enable them to effectively protect civilians (they are in desparate need of helicopters and trucks);
3. Appoint a special envoy to Sudan with responsibility for mediating a comprehensive peace agreement in Darfur;
4. Convene a summit with China, Russia, and Europe to discuss the expansion of economic, political, and military sanctions against Sudan; and
5. Invest $250 million in crisis prevention and response and to facilitate open communication among the various agencies in the government to make sure that all relevant information pertaining to potential genocide is shared across the diplomatic, defense, development, and intelligence communities.
For more details, I’d suggest that you check out the page for the Darfur From Day One campaign, http://www.standnow.org/campaigns/dfd1. It explains our policy asks in greater detail, and provides several actions that can be taken by ordinary citizens to bring them about.
Thank you Mickey!
Thanks Henry for addressing this issue. I volunteer with my local Sudanese population, all recently arrived, and the stories they share . . . Dear Jesus.
RCM
You are welcome, but also thank STAND and groups like them which are promoting a discussion and activism about Darfur right now. I just hope more will see what is going on and become involved. This is a real tragedy in the making. The horror stories are beyond all imagination.
Thank you for this post, Henry.
Feddie,
You are welcome. It’s one of many things we do agree upon.