Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Staring Genocide in the Face

By now, we're all familiar with the trend the Lance Armstrong Foundation's LIVESTRONG yellow wristband started. By buying a band, you're supporting cancer research; by wearing the band, you're raising awareness of the problem.

You can buy fund-raising wristbands for almost any charity, but one of the absurdities of our times has been the way uninformed people and greedy corporations have turned wristbands into fashion accessories with no meaning. In sportswear stores, I can buy a package of three colored wristbands that say nothing . . . just to accessorize my sports outfits and make it seem as if I were an informed, caring, generous, activist person.

Graphic of Save Darfur wristbandsThat kind of moral obtuseness turned me away from wristbands, until now. I've found a wristband I'm willing to buy and wear: Not on Our Watch--Save Darfur.

While I'd been aware of the atrocities of the Sudanese government against its people, this morning's op-ed by Steve and Cokie Roberts finally helped me overcome the sense of futility which had immobilized me. I may not be able to join Doctors Without Borders and go to the Sudan, but--damn it--I've got a checkbook and I'm not afraid to use it.

What is happening in the Sudan?

Since independence 49 years ago, Sudan has been a country of civil strife. But beginning in 2003, the strife grew heinous. Tens of thousands of Sudanese citizens have been murdered; thousands of women have suffered systematic rape; 1.5 million people have been driven from their homes and their towns destroyed. The CIA Factbook on Sudan estimates 4.367 million internally displaced people.

Worst of all, the violence has been perpetrated against its own people by Sudanese military or the government-sponsored militia called janjaweed (or janjawid). The government has deliberately inflamed ethnic conflict and impeded humanitarian aid.

An article from The New Yorker recounts the personal violence the Sudanese have endured:

When the janjaweed came, Abbas told me, her oldest child, a boy, had run ahead of her. She had carried her infant on her back, and she had taken one of her girls in each hand. This hadn't left her with a free hand for either of her younger sons, five-year-old Adam Muhammed and seven-year-old Hassan Muhammed. They trailed behind as the Arab soldiers threw matches onto the roofs of the huts. An Arab militiaman suddenly grabbed the boys, and Abbas pleaded that they be released. The gunman warned her that if she didn't shut up, all of her children would be killed. She backed away as instructed, but as she did so the man threw five-year-old Adam into the fire. 'Mama, Mama!' he shouted, as the flames consumed him. Hassan, his older brother, briefly escaped his captor's grasp, but as he ran toward his mother he was shot in the back twice and died instantly. --Samantha Power, "Dying in Darfur," The New Yorker

For those who escape sudden death, the refugee problem is horrific. The CIA Factbook estimates 108,251 have fled to Eritrea; 5,023 to Chad, and 7,983 to Uganda. Western Africa is an incredibly harsh, unforgiving landscape. Making it to a refuge camp does not guarantee survival, and it is in these camps that most of the world's relief efforts are focused. (See the photo essay "Staring Genocide in the Face" by Jerry Fowler of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.)

What can we do?

The Committee on Conscience of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum urges five actions to prevent holocaust:
  1. KEEP INFORMED. Find out more about what is going on from various news sources and organizations. Sign up to receive the Committee on Conscience electronic newsletter or regularly visit our Web site for updates ( www.committeeonconscience.org).
  2. CONTACT THE MEDIA. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or to other news outlets to comment on their coverage of Darfur or to express your views about the importance of public attention to the story.
  3. COMMUNICATE WITH THE GOVERNMENT. Contact your government representatives to let them know your views and concerns about events in Darfur.
  4. SUPPORT RELIEF EFFORTS. Find out more about relief organizations mounting efforts to help civilians affected by the crisis. They may have ideas of ways you can help. See the Committee on Conscience Web site for a link to listings of relief organizations operating in Darfur.
  5. GET ENGAGED IN YOUR COMMUNITY. Talk about Darfur to your friends, family, members of organizations you belong to, and coworkers—help spread the word. Look for groups within your community who may also be working to help address the crisis.

Posted by ms.dsk

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