Darfur Daily News: May 30, 2005

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Nothing from SAVE DARFUR today as it is a weekend. But DUers have been busy.

Sudan arrests MSF man over report posted by muriel_volestrangler

DU discussion here:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1510779


"Sudan has arrested the country head of the charity Medecins San Frontieres (MSF) Holland, over a report detailing rape cases in Darfur.

...

The state crimes prosecutor told Reuters that Mr Foreman was being arrested for failing to hand over evidence on which the report was based.

Pro-government militia in Darfur are accused of mass rape and killings, but the government denies complicity.

...

He could face up to three years in prison if found guilty of falsifying the report."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4593443.stm

BBC radio has just reported he has been released on bail.

NYT/Reuters: Thousands Greet U.N.'s Annan In Troubled Darfur posted by DeepModem Mom

DU discussion found here:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1507499


Thousands Greet U.N.'s Annan In Troubled Darfur
By REUTERS
Published: May 28, 2005
Filed at 10:42 a.m. ET


KALMA CAMP, Sudan (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of chanting refugees lined the muddy streets of Darfur's largest camp on Saturday to greet the U.N.'s Kofi Annan, who later listened as women raped during the conflict told their stories.

Men carried signs saying ``We are looking for freedom and justice'' and women ululated to welcome the U.N. Secretary General almost 11 months after his first visit to Darfur.

Annan listened as refugees complained about police and Arab militias who they said had attacked, killed and raped their families inside the Kalma Camp in South Darfur state.

The state has seen some of the worst recent violence in a three year conflict that has killed tens of thousands and forced 2 million from their homes, according to U.N. estimates.

``Since we came to this camp, they have killed 56 people,'' said Suleiman Abka Taha, a local tribal chief.

Taha, who was speaking in front of government officials, said he wanted Annan's guarantee he would not be detained for what he said....


http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-sudan-annan.html

A U.S. Faith Initiative for Africa posted by Robbien

Du discussion:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1509803


A U.S. Faith Initiative for Africa

" The effort was launched last week, when more than two dozen leading African American religious figures met privately with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior White House officials at the State Department, according to administration officials and meeting participants.

. . .

The Rev. O'Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach, Fla., and a longtime Republican, said Rice's decision to huddle with the pastors gave them a "mandate" to craft Africa policy. He said the group had laid plans to meet again soon with State Department officials.

. . .

Illustrating the political benefit of that relationship, White House officials injected some Capitol Hill strategy into the session. They solicited support among the black pastors for controversial legislation that would allow faith-based charities in the U.S. to discriminate in hiring based on an applicant's religious beliefs — a provision that has spurred opposition from some Democrats and civil rights groups.

"Compassion has a way of cutting across partisan lines," said James Towey, the top White House official in charge of the faith-based programs, who asked the pastors to sign a letter endorsing the legislation.

But rather than lowering partisan suspicions, the meeting raised them. The high-level session occurred the same day that the all-Democratic Congressional Black Caucus conducted a long-planned outreach meeting with 200 black pastors from across the country seeking to solidify bonds between the Democrats and religious leaders. Some saw the State Department meeting as an effort to upstage the black caucus."

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/men/la-na-ministers29may29,1,3057487.story?coll=la-health-mens&ctrack=1&cset=true

Day 141 of Bush's Silence posted by sabra


DU discussion:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=128881


By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: May 31, 2005
Nyala, Sudan

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/31/opinion/31kristof.html?hp

<<SNIP>>
A reader from Eugene, Ore., wrote in with a complaint about my harping on the third world:

"Why should the U.S. care for the rest of the world?" he asked. "The U.S. should take care of its own. ... It's way past time for liberal twits to stop pushing the U.S. into nonsense or try to make every wrong in the world our responsibility."

And while that reader wasn't George W. Bush, it could have been. Today marks Day 141 of Mr. Bush's silence on the genocide, for he hasn't let the word Darfur slip past his lips publicly since Jan. 10 (even that was a passing reference with no condemnation).

There are several points I could make to argue that it's in our own interest to help Darfur. Turmoil in Darfur is already destabilizing all of Sudan and neighboring Chad as well, both oil-exporting countries. And failed states nurture terrorists like Osama and diseases like polio, while exporting refugees and hijackers."


<</SNIP>>

Action:

STOPPING THE DARFUR GENOCIDE: We need ANSWERS to these QUESTIONS: posted by Nothing Without Hope

We still need more ideas. We are acting on the ones we can. But more involvement would be excellent. For this DU discussion go to:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3724411

"In Larger Freedom": Decision Time at the UN" posted by Violet_Crumble

For this DU discussion go to:

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=116&topic_id=10177


Kofi Annan
From Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005

Summary: Dealing with today's threats requires broad, deep, and sustained global cooperation. Thus the states of the world must create a collective security system to prevent terrorism, strengthen nonproliferation, and bring peace to war-torn areas, while also promoting human rights, democracy, and development. And the UN must go through its most radical overhaul yet.

Kofi Annan is Secretary-General of the United Nations.

OUR SHARED VULNERABILITY

Ask a New York investment banker who walks past Ground Zero every day on her way to work what today's biggest threat is. Then ask an illiterate 12-year-old orphan in Malawi who lost his parents to AIDS. You will get two very different answers. Invite an Indonesian fisherman mourning the loss of his entire family and the destruction of his village from the recent, devastating tsunami to tell you what he fears most. Then ask a villager in Darfur, stalked by murderous militias and fearful of bombing raids. Their answers, too, are likely to diverge.

Different perceptions of what is a threat are often the biggest obstacles to international cooperation. But I believe that in the twenty-first century they should not be allowed to lead the world's governments to pursue very different priorities or to work at cross-purposes. Today's threats are deeply interconnected, and they feed off of one another. The misery of people caught in unresolved civil conflicts or of populations mired in extreme poverty, for example, may increase their attraction to terrorism. The mass rape of women that occurs too often in today's conflicts makes the spread of HIV and AIDS all the more likely.

In fact, all of us are vulnerable to what we think of as dangers that threaten only other people. Millions more of sub-Saharan Africa's inhabitants would plunge below the poverty line if a nuclear terrorist attack against a financial center in the United States caused a massive downturn in the global economy. By the same token, millions of Americans could quickly become infected if, naturally or through malicious intent, a new disease were to break out in a country with poor health care and be carried across the world by unwitting air travelers before it was identified.

No nation can defend itself against these threats entirely on its own. Dealing with today's challenges -- from ensuring that deadly weapons do not fall into dangerous hands to combating global climate change, from preventing the trafficking of sex slaves by organized criminal gangs to holding war criminals to account before competent courts -- requires broad, deep, and sustained global cooperation. States working together can achieve things that are beyond what even the most powerful state can accomplish by itself.

Those who drew up the charter of the United Nations in 1945 saw these realities very clearly. In the aftermath of World War II, which claimed the lives of 50 million people, they established at the San Francisco conference in 1945 an organization (in the words of the charter) to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war." Their purpose was not to usurp the role of sovereign states but to enable states to serve their peoples better by working together. The UN's founders knew that this enterprise could not be narrowly conceived because security, development, and human rights are inextricably linked. Thus they endowed the new world organization with broad ambitions: to ensure respect for fundamental human rights, to establish conditions under which justice and the rule of law can be maintained, and, as the charter says, "to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom."

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050501faessay84307/kofi-annan/in-larger-freedom-decision-time-at-the-un.html

Action:* don't forget to look for events in your local area and pass them on to us for general posting!!

Darfur Calendar June

- Local Events as of May 30th

Washington, DC - * Weekly

Every Wednesday from 5:30-6:30PM
A Sudan Speak Out and Vigil
Lafayette Park

This event is being organized by Africa Action
[email protected] 202 546 7961

Atherton, CA - May 31, 2005

10:45 AM
Presentation is given by Menlo-Atherton High School students. The Presentation includes a powerpoint and an open screening of Hotel Rwanda. Menlo Atherton High School 555 Middlefield Rd Atherton, CA 94027. Put on by students.

Contact Info: Mary Porzig [email protected]

For more details see the calendar at http://www.genocideinterventionfund.org

Brooklyn, NY - June 5, 2005

Day for Darfur is a day to educate ourselves on the crisis in Darfur and call on the U.S. government to awake from its slumber. St. Ann's School, Brooklyn Heights, 129 Pierrepont St. between > Clinton and Cadman Plaza. Organized by Daniel Frederick Levin, 3rd grade teacher, and other > concerned faculty/high school students.

RSVP or contact with questions at [email protected]

St. Louis, MO - June 9, 2005

7:30 PM (2 hrs)
Photo Exhibit in St. Louis, MO
STOP THE SLAUGHTER IN DARFUR Featuring- -Amnesty International Country Specialist Scott Edwards -Sudan/Darfur Photo Exhibit

For more details see the calendar at http://www.genocideinterventionfund.org

Abuja - June 10, 2005

NIGERIA-SUDAN: Darfur PEACE TALKS set to resume in Abuja on 10 June

Arlington Heights, IL - June 12, 2006

At 3:30 pm. Informal dinner to follow
Planning Meeting and request for volunteers. We will set goals and plan activities for the year. At 630 West Campbell Street. Event planned by the Chicago Alliance to End Genocide

Martha Cook [email protected]

Washington, DC - June 14, 2005

Tuesday, 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Survey of Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Key Findings and Recommendations (Not on Darfur per se but about the whole region including Iraq).At Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Put on by Woodrow Wilson Center & Freedom House.

To confirm time and place, contact Maria-Stella Gatzoulis on the day of the event: tel. [phone].

Check their page for the latest updates and notices. http://www.wilsoncenter.org /

All – Nationwide - June 20, 2005

World Refugee Day
UNHCR To find out about events in your area or to plan one go to:

http://www.unhcr.ch /.

Philadelphia, PA - June 20, 2005

Dinner, Panel Discussion & slide show.
Directions: 3420 Sansom Street Near the U of Penn in West Philly... Sansom St. is between Walnut & Chestnut Streets..between 34th & 35th Sts. Presentation by Dr. Jerry Ehrlich; Dr. Ibrahim Imam; Stephanie Nyombayire; Rev. Isaac Miller – (the rector of The Church of the Advocate and a founding member of The Darfur Alert! Coalition). Table Talks at 6 PM include a three course dinner, followed by the speakers and discussion from 7:30 – 9 PM. $38/person includes tax and gratuity. reservations with advance payment (its complicated – go to the site below)

For more details see the calendar at http://www.genocideinterventionfund.org

All – Nationwide - June 26, 2005

DENOUNCE TORTURE - Events
Contact Amnesty to find out about the events nearest you
Amnesty International

http://www.amnestyusa.org/events /

New York City, NY - June 26, 2005

Time: 10:00 to afternoon.
Please join the New York City Jewish community in an afternoon dedicated to raising funds for Emergency Relief in Darfur, Sudan, discussing strategies for activism, and reflecting on Jewish issues raised by the ongoing crisis. The initiating sponsors of the event are the American Jewish World Service, Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, and Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. All funds raised will benefit the American Jewish World Service's Sudan Emergency Appeal.

Additional details will follow. Inquiries about volunteer and co-sponsorship opportunities should be directed to Barak Epstein at [email protected]

For more details see the calendar at http://www.genocideinterventionfund.org

New York, NY - June 27, 2005

9:45 am - 11:45 am
New York, NY: A World Refugee Day Commemoration, Portraits of Suffering and Courage: Lifting Up Sudan. The Rt. Rev. Catherine Waynick, Bishop of Indianapolis and John Prendergast, Special Advisor to the President of the International Crisis Group and former Clinton Administration Advisor on Africa. The Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, between 43rd and 44th Streets.

For more information, call 212-716-6057 or send email to [email protected] .

To see original post: http://www.amicc.org/calendar.html#june05



Action:* don't forget to look for events in your local area and pass them on to us for general posting!!

Action:

Take 10 minutes for Darfur -- 10,000 a month are dying posted by WesDem

DU site for taking action:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3730018

Latest situation report:

UNITED NATIONS SITUATION REPORT - May 27, 2005 Site Report 145

http://www.unsudanig.org/emergencies/darfur/sitreps/data/2005/situation-report-145.pdf

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