Reply #27: May 24 2005 Open Letter to Bush to halt the genocide

[Adelante]

An important "open letter" to President Bush, demanding that he do more to halt genocide in Darfur, will be released (along with a full list of signatories) at a media briefing hosted by Africa Action in Washington, DC on May 24, 9:30am in the John Hay Room at the Hay Adams Hotel, 16th and H Streets, NW. The letter has support from several members of Congress, as well as many national organizations and religious denominations.

http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=9675

This is Africa Action's petition:

Please Sign PETITION Demanding U.S. Action to Stop Genocide in Darfur!
We seek 400,000 signatures demanding President Bush take action

Dear Friends,

Recent reports confirm that up to 400,000 people have died in Darfur as a result of the government-sponsored genocide. More than 2.5 million people have been displaced from their homes. A deadly government-engineered famine is imminent, and it threatens to kill many more people. Nothing short of international intervention can protect the people of Darfur. We must demand that the U.S. government do everything necessary through the United Nations (UN) to ensure an urgent multinational intervention to protect civilians in Darfur.

In commemoration of the 400,000 dead in Darfur, we are launching a petition drive to raise 400,000 voices of conscience across the country demanding immediate action to protect the vulnerable people of Darfur. The Darfur genocide petition calls on the President to assert U.S. leadership by taking every step necessary through the United Nations to:

- Establish a mandate for an international force to protect civilians

- Deploy such a force in support of existing African Union efforts in Darfur

The United States has a unique capacity and clear obligation to take immediate action. Unless there is an urgent international intervention in Darfur, up to a million people may be dead by the end of this year.

We are hoping not only that you will sign the petition, but also actively help secure signatures from your friends, families, colleagues and strangers. We are seeking at least 400,000 signatures. Every signature can help stop the genocide in Darfur. Government officials who remained silent during the Rwandan genocide regularly claim that if Americans had clamored for more government action, the U.S. would have been forced to work with the UN to intervene, and could have saved thousands of lives. We have the power to guarantee protection for the people of Darfur.

You can sign the petition online by filling out your information below and sending your demands directly to the President. Please forward this email to solicit signatures. You can also download a copy of the petition to use for collecting signatures. If you want hard copies mailed to you, email us at [email protected] .

Last year, Africa Action sponsored a petition drive aimed at former Secretary of State Colin Powell demanding the Darfur crisis be recognized as genocide. That petition drew 30,000 signatures in three weeks, and directly contributed to the acknowledgement by the Administration that genocide was occurring in Darfur.

Now the United States has started to backtrack on its statements. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick recently refused to describe the crisis as genocide and has actually been engaging the genocidal regime in Sudan. In March, a White House official insisted the President was “still very focused” on Darfur, but added, “there are other issues that the president finds more pressing.” What could be more pressing than genocide?



Sign Here:

http://capwiz.com/africaaction/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7495271