Open Letter to President Bush on Darfur - 3/24/05

[Adelante]

National Leaders Release Open Letter to President Bush on Darfur
Tuesday May 24th, 2005 21:14.


Open Letter Signed by Scores of National Advocacy Groups, Members of Congress, Interfaith Leaders & Women's, Youth & Labor Organizations

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 (Washington, DC) -- Africa Action this morning hosted a media briefing, along with other national advocacy groups, to demand that President Bush take specific steps to stop the genocide in Darfur. The groups released an Open Letter to the President on Darfur, signed by 80 prominent national organizations and leadership figures, representing millions of Americans. The letter lays out the most important immediate steps that leading advocacy groups and leadership figures from across the U.S. believe the Bush Administration must take to stop the genocide & protect the people in Darfur.

At this morning's briefing, heads of leading advocacy organizations spoke about the urgency of the situation in Darfur and the necessary U.S. and international response. Salih Booker, Executive Director of Africa Action, said, "The President of the U.S. has recognized that genocide is occurring, but apparently there are more pressing matters requiring his attention. We must ask, what could possibly be more pressing than genocide? Unless there is an immediate international intervention in Darfur, up to a million people may be dead by the end of this year."

The Open Letter to the President on Darfur asserts the need for an urgent international intervention to support the African Union's mission in Darfur, in order to: (1) stop the killing and provide security for millions of internally displaced people (IDPs); (2) facilitate the urgent delivery of humanitarian assistance; (3) enforce the cease fire and provide a stable environment for meaningful peace talks to proceed; and (4) facilitate the voluntary return of IDPs to their land and the reconstruction of their homes by providing a secure environment.

The letter calls on the Bush Administration to (1) work through the United Nations (UN) to achieve a stronger civilian protection mandate for the African Union mission and for a broader international force, and (2) encourage the UN to quickly approve and assemble a robust international force to integrate or co-deploy with the African Union and reinforce its efforts.

-more-

http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=9745

[FrenchieCat]

1. Bush ain't gonna take those steps.....cause

he's not ever into doing the right thing.

A real pity!

None of these steps will be taken....ever!

The letter calls on the Bush Administration to (1) work through the United Nations (UN) to achieve a stronger civilian protection mandate for the African Union mission and for a broader international force, and (2) encourage the UN to quickly approve and assemble a robust international force to integrate or co-deploy with the African Union and reinforce its efforts.

[applegrove]

2. If we DUers pledge to participate in any local activity regarding

Darfur..we can make a difference. I pledge to go to at least two demonstration in my community in the next month. We can also connect with other groups while we are there and get used to standing side by side each other.

Anyone else!!

Kick! & Greatest!:shrug:

[Kipling]

3. I can just imagine his reaction to this...

"Hey, Dick, I got a letter! 1... Stop the killing and pro-vide sec-ur-it-y for mi... Hey, Dick, what's this word say? Millions, of course! of in... tern... all. All-y? Internolly dis...hmmm...place (remember, Magic E makes the letter in the middle sound like a capital).... peopply? Pee-opply. Whatever. Dick, is it bath-night tonight?"

[whosinpower]

4. His reaction....

Darfur.....Darfur.....is there any OIL in Darfur????????

No? Sucks to be them then.........my hands are tied - in Iraq you see.......

[Solly Mack]

5. they have oil...lots of it

[applegrove]

6. Yes oil in Sudan but in the South. Bush worked out a peace-treaty with

the South and Khartoum. And then Darfur in the West started up. And nobody wanted to rock the boat. You know..Oil/Peace Peace/Oil. And the South were Christian so it was even more complicated: Peace/Oil/Christians Oil/Christians/Peace Christians/Peace/Oil Peace/Christians/Oil Oil/Peace/Christians Christians/Oil/Peace ... my gosh it was hard to prioritize.

The problem with Bush is that he ends up playing footsie with people as crafty and cold as they are. And they end up getting played. President Carter would walk the walk right through crap like that. President Clinton would have pointed out that if Khartoum wanted the peace in the South - with all the Oil access it would give to Khartoum, they would have to clean up Darfur and stop the ethnic cleansing or NATO will come in a chop up the country and Khartoum could say bye bye to all that oil. It seems as if Bush may have 'just' tried to push that button and Khartoum is now beginning to panic.

A better man would have pushed that button at the get-go! Because a better man would not have had that ... 'blind spot' and all the confusion.


***hole!

[Vladimir]

7. There is oil in Darfur too

but China has a very large stake in what happens to it...

http://www.energybulletin.net/3753.html

[applegrove]

11. Point is that Khartoum doesn't have any oil of its own. That ***hole

played them all. And he is weak when it comes to 'don't give us an excuse to go in there and carve out all the Oil provinces from your Janjaweed ass and make it permanent'. The Khartoum government spent 2004 selling all the stolen cows to markets in the Middle East and making a killing (along with all the other killing).

Oh - and if American foreign policy regarding genocide is all tied up because of dependence of the Markets on Chinese buying treasury bills - then what does that say about Bush? And what he has done to the market by phony infusions into the market like tax cuts for the rich and war..to keep the 2002 recession at bay? He should have taken his medicine like a man and had a mild recession in 2002. The pile of dung the man sits under is so high and steaming so much..he can't see or smell anything anymore.

It is not like they couldn't have applied pressure. It isn't as if they don't know how to put on a big 'show' and rattle their ... baby rattles!

[Solly Mack]

9. Yeah, I know

I do a lot of research on Darfur, the Sudan, Exxon-Mobil, and Bush.

from my favorites:
Sudan says oil discovered in impoverished Darfur
http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/2005/04/sudan-says-oil-discovered-in.html

http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&trh=20040706&hn=10130

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/discover/dix51996.htm

[applegrove]

16. Now I know what Wolfowitz meant when he said "Rawanda was simple -

the genocide is not so simple in the Sudan".

[Solly Mack]

17. The more I research, the more layers I find.

The more I see that people are dying, and more will die, because no one wants to interrupt business as usual...

[applegrove]

18. I'm just starting. Was too blown away by so much (politics) than to

do more than read the posts. I'm a visual person. Been looking for a map. This one from 2004. Have you seen others? More recent ones.
Sometimes a map is a thousand words.

[applegrove]

19. Now that the Oil find has been announced.. you have to wonder

at how much the people there knew when they wanted autonomy or a deal like South had. Who knew what when? You know..the usual.

[PowerToThePeople]

8. My * letter - Take a long walk off a short pier you fascist S.O.B!!

n/t

[Adelante]

10. Among the signatories:

Among the signatories:

* Rep. Sanford D. Bishop (D-GA) Member of Congress

* Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) Member of Congress

* Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) Member of Congress

* Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) Member of Congress +

* Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-NJ) Member of Congress

* Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY) Member of Congress

* Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) Member of Congress

[applegrove]

12. I'm from Canada - don't you guys have any (R) people? No they

didn't sign.

[PowerToThePeople]

13. (R) People like death, they would never sign this...

The more people killed in the world, the closer to the (R)apture we get. That is what the (R) truly stands for...

[applegrove]

14. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr n/t

[applegrove]

15. What if we all at the DU pledged to go to all religious ran vigils on

Darfur. You know ... meeting and greeting with the Christians like we did at the turn of the century and the 1960s and pledge not to say boo about anything but Darfur. Make contacts. Work together on this issue?

Wouldn't that Grover and the Gang into action? They might be very, very :scared: I mean it isn't as if they understand anything else but politics! That is how all the policy is made and which 'issues' are purposely left unresolved.