[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Crisis in Darfur, Sudan

[Alfred Kagan]

>From: "Leon Spencer" <woa at igc.org>
>To: <akagan at uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Crisis in Darfur, Sudan
>Date: Thu, 13 May 2004 12:19:32 -0400
>
>Dear friends on the Washington Office on Africa's Rapid Response Network,
>
>I am sharing with you a very helpful action alert prepared by the 
>Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns - a sponsoring organization of 
>WOA - which itself is based on a Human Rights Watch report, 
>regarding "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur by the Sudanese government. 
>I commend it to you for your own action.
>
>Yours,
>Leon
>
>****
>Human Rights Watch (HRW, www.hrw.org) recently released a report 
>stating that the Sudanese government is responsible for "ethnic 
>cleansing" and crimes against humanity in the western region of 
>Darfur. The following text is from Human Rights Watch.
>
>According to the report, "Darfur Destroyed: Ethnic Cleansing by 
>Government and Militia Forces in Western Sudan," the UN Security 
>Council should take measures to reverse this ethnic cleansing by 
>creating conditions for the safe return of more than one million 
>people already displaced.
>
>Human Rights Watch called on the Security Council to strongly 
>condemn the actions of the Sudanese government and demand that it 
>disarm, disband and withdraw the Arab militias that engage in ethnic 
>cleansing, frequently in conjunction with government forces. Two UN 
>missions that have recently returned from Darfur addressed the 
>Security Council last week on the human rights causes as well as 
>humanitarian consequences of the conflict.
>
>The 77-page report documents how Sudanese government forces have 
>overseen and directly participated in massacres, summary executions 
>of civilians, burnings of towns and villages, and the forcible 
>depopulation of wide swathes of land long-inhabited by the Fur, 
>Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
>
>"There can be no doubt about the Sudanese government's culpability 
>in crimes against humanity in Darfur," said Peter Takirambudde, 
>executive director of the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. 
>"The UN Security Council must not ignore the brutal facts."
>
>The Human Rights Watch report also documents how "Janjaweed" Arab 
>militias - whose members are Muslim - have destroyed mosques, killed 
>Muslim religious leaders and desecrated Korans belonging to their 
>enemies.
>
>Human Rights Watch spent 25 days in West Darfur and the vicinity, 
>documenting abuses in rural areas that were previously populated by 
>Masalit and Fur communities. Since August, wide swathes of their 
>homelands, among the most fertile in the region, have been burned 
>and depopulated. With rare exceptions, the countryside has now been 
>emptied of its original Masalit and Fur inhabitants.
>
>Villages have been torched not randomly, but systematically - often 
>not once, but twice. Livestock, food stores, wells and pumps, 
>blankets and clothing have all been looted or destroyed.
>
>The occupation of burned and abandoned villages by uncontrolled 
>Janjaweed has driven civilians into camps and settlements outside 
>the larger towns. But the HRW report documents how even in these 
>camps, the Janjaweed kill, rape and pillage with impunity. They 
>sometimes steal what few emergency relief items have reached the 
>displaced populations.
>
>For months, the Sudanese government has restricted international 
>media access to Darfur and has limited reports about the conflict in 
>the national press. Recently, the government has allowed minimal 
>access to the region for international humanitarian agencies but has 
>still failed to provide the necessary protection and assistance to 
>displaced civilians.
>
>"The humanitarian emergency in Darfur is immense," said 
>Takirambudde. "But a human rights crisis lies behind it. The 
>Security Council must demand that the Sudanese government take 
>immediate steps to reverse ethnic cleansing in Darfur."
>
>Possible actions:
>
>1) Call or write Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, and ask him to:
>
>* Exert strong pressure on the Government of Sudan in Khartoum to 
>seek a political settlement in Darfur which includes the cessation 
>of the reign of terror being carried out by both the government 
>troops and the government-supported militias.
>* Pressure the Government of Sudan to provide unimpeded humanitarian 
>access to the Darfur region where more than three million people 
>have been affected.
>* Continue to support the Inter-Governmental Authority on 
>Development's (IGAD) peace process between the north and the south.
>       
>The following internet link provides one way to send an email to 
>Secretary Powell:
>       http://contact-us.state.gov/ask_form_cat/ask_form_secretary.html
>
>The mailing address is: US Department of State, 2201 C Street, NW, 
>Washington, D.C. 20520; the telephone number is 202-647-4000.
>
>2)  Urge your representative to co-sponsor H Con. Res. 403
>
>On April 1, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) introduced a concurrent 
>resolution, H Con. Res. 403, condemning the Government of the 
>Republic of the Sudan for its attacks against innocent civilians in 
>the impoverished Darfur region of western Sudan. One week later, 
>Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Russell Feingold (D-WI) introduced 
>a similar resolution which passed in the Senate on May 6. The 
>resolution also calls on the international community to condemn the 
>Government of Sudan for the attacks in Darfur and to demand that 
>they cease; it also urges the Government of Sudan to allow the 
>delivery of humanitarian assistance in Darfur region; and urges 
>President Bush to direct the United States' UN representative to 
>seek a UN official investigation to determine if crimes against 
>humanity have been committed by the Government of Sudan in the 
>Darfur region.
>
>Send an email to your representative urging support of H Con. Res. 
>403 by accessing this site: http://www.house.gov
>
>or call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
>
>Related material:
>
>"Atrocities in Darfur must stop," May-June 2004 NewsNotes (page 12) PDF file
>http://www.maryknollogc.org/newsnotes/may-june04.pdf
>
>"Darfur Destroyed: Ethnic Cleansing by Government and Militia Forces 
>in Western Sudan,"
>HRW report, May 7, 2004
>http://hrw.org/reports/2004/sudan0504/
>
>"Darfur in Flames: Atrocities in Western Sudan," HRW report, April 2, 2004
>http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/sudan0404/
>
>"Q & A: Crisis in Darfur," HRW campaign document, May 5, 2004
>http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/05/darfur8536.htm
>
>"UN Must Quickly Focus on Darfur," HRW press release, April 29, 2004
>http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/29/sudan8517.htm


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu