Stop Bashir – New Petition and Video
The Collectif Urgence Darfour have created this short video and new petition to Ban Ki-Moon at www.stopbechir.com. To sign the petition look for “Etats Unis” under country. Please watch it, and share it!
What’s wrong with this picture?
This is a personal response from Kathleen Scott, SGN team member since 2007, to Jeffrey’s Gettleman’s A Taste of Hope Sends Refugees Back to Darfur.
After following the situation in Darfur for many years, I found this article a rollercoaster of joy that crash-landed for me at a horrible realization. The article and statements like this seemed strangely nebulous and contradictory:
“But people who have been victimized and traumatized are sensing a change in the air and acting on it, risking their lives and the lives of their children to leave the relative safety of the camps to venture back to where loved ones were killed.”
I had to reframe my thinking before I saw a bigger picture. Like many in the international community I have been stunned to emotional numbness by the depth and breadth of the tragedy in Darfur. Unable to absorb the numbers and horror of the kind of violence, I have thirsted for any sign of peace or progress. I have what KTJ calls “Sudan Fatigue” but after meditating on the content of this article, a sickening analogy came to me about what I would endorse if I said this kind of homecoming was something to celebrate.
Imagine Darfur as a teenage girl who left home because she had rebelled against a neglectful and abusive father. When she asked to go to school or to the doctor, he beat her, killed her siblings, and had his friends gang-rape her. He trashed her room and shot at her. She fled and lived on the streets where she was further abused for nine years; systematically raped again and lived without adequate food, clothing, or shelter -let alone medical care and schooling. With no support for recovery from the original trauma, she is weary from being homeless, from the empty promises of neighbors to hold her father accountable. She decides nothing is going to change and besides she hears her father no longer rages in front of her bedroom; maybe if she is no longer rebellious about his neglect, he won’t hurt her anymore.
Starving, traumatized and exhausted, she returns to her family home, her children in tow – one whose father was killed by her father – and one fathered by rape. They hunker in her room; at least it is a familiar place. But down the hall they can hear her father assaulting her sister, Nuba, who had the audacity to ask for emancipation. Her father has not changed, he has not even admitted anything is wrong; Darfur can only hope her father will forget her like the international community did.
The “sense of change” is the problem. It is the emotional lie of the only thing the traumatized have to cling to- denial; and what those who have witnessed her trauma cling to- that the problem, and their guilt over not stopping the abuse, will “just go away”.
The father in the analogy, Omar al-Bashir- president of Sudan, has been issued an arrest warrant; but no one is willing to perform the arrest. The world is outraged at his behavior but not yet to the point of doing anything concrete. Darfur still weeps and waits for change that she is powerless to implement by herself. Her children will grow up and it is hard to believe they will not rage against the father and start the cycle over again.
SGN Talks: “It’s a Bad Name”
Stop Genocide Now has the amazing opportunity to speak on a one-on-one basis with many survivors of the Darfur genocide. In the many visits to the refugee camps, countless people have come up to us to tell their stories, their opinions, and their experience of what it means to survive one of the most horrific experiences a human can be subjected to.
In this new series, “SGN Talks,” we aim to share more of these stories we’ve caught on our cameras with those of you who want to hear it all from the people who have lived through it.
Some of the topics discussed on ‘SGN Talks’ may be difficult to hear.
These are their stories in their own words.
The World has Sudan Fatigue
Nicholas Kristof’s poignant reporting from Nuba Mountains has brought tears to my eyes once again. As I sit in a cafe, answering emails and encouraging participation in Act for Sudan’s April National Days of Action, I worry that it is all only preaching to the choir.
As Kritof mentions in the following video, “The world has Sudan fatigue.”
As March and April roll around, our exhibit Camp Darfur begins to travel across California and into Arizona. Leaders who have previously hosted genocide awareness and prevention month events will once again try to reach out to their communities and build support to stop the violence in Sudan, and around the world.
As we work hard to reach new people and empower them to act on behalf of those who are hiding in the caves of Nuba Mountains and living less then dignified lives in refugee camps, Bashir and his cronies continue with business as usual.
We must do more to stop the violence. We must work harder to take action for Sudan. Right now we are in the second phase of Act for Sudan’s They Can’t Wait campaign. Please use the power of social media to dominate the State Departments Facebook page for the fifth day in a row. If you don’t have a Facebook or twitter account, you can send her a message here.
Stay tuned for more actions, more updates, and more ways to reach out to your own community in the coming days and months. If we do not provide both protection and humanitarian aid, then so many more will perish.
best, KTJ
Tell Secretary Clinton: They Can’t Wait
Secretary Clinton had strong words for the UN Security Council this month, calling its failure to act in Syria a “travesty” and pledging to “redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations” to support the Syrian people. Sudanese civilians have waited too long for the same level of commitment by Secretary Clinton and the international community, as their government wages a genocidal war against them.
The Sudanese government is preparing a full-scale military assault on the Nuba people in South Kordofan. Hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk because evacuation routes are blocked in addition to the continuous blockade of humanitarian assistance by the Government of Sudan since June 5, 2011.
Tell Secretary Clinton, “THEY CAN’T WAIT!”
Post the following to the State Department’s Facebook page or tag them in a note on your own page (you will need to “like” the page first):
Dear Secretary Clinton: Like Syrians under attack by their own government, innocent civilians in Sudan need immediate protection from the Government of Sudan. Please Act for Sudan – protection and aid are needed now! Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake.
Tweet Secretary Clinton @StateDept
#SecClinton: Like Syrians, innocent civilians in #Sudan need immediate protection from gov attacks. Act now. @StateDept http://actforsudan.org/2012/02/22/secretary-clinton-they-cant-wait/
