STOPPING THE DARFUR GENOCIDE: We need ANSWERS to these QUESTIONS:

[Nothing Without Hope]

I posted this list of questions yesterday near the end of what has become a thread full of information and resources on the Darfur situation:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3692135
Thread title: “Genocide update: "NATO on alert to provide help in Darfur" (Bush silent)”

I am reposting these questions to get your responses as a community of individuals with varying backgrounds, expertise and experience. There must be answers out there; I KNOW there are in many cases. But I believe that we need to find them and then meld everything together into a coherent plan for activism.

The long thread linked to above has substantial background and links for getting more information on all of the questions. I urge you to read through all of it that relates to the issues that interest you most. For example, there are links for various charities, info on pending legislation, and much more. I am hoping that DUers will take on these questions and perhaps additional ones and report back on what they find.
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(first posted Tue May-24-05 12:26 PM as Reply #76, near the end of this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3692135
Thread title: "Genocide update: "NATO on alert to provide help in Darfur" (Bush silent)")

DARFUR: These are among the questions that we need answers for:

These are the points that are off the top of my head. I invite you to discuss them and put forward your own:. I will number them to make them easier to refer to, but they are in no particular order. Please read them, think about them, put your own into play, and start the process that will lead to better understanding.

1. Donation/Charities: Which are the best places to donate? There needs to be a complete and efficient conduit to the people who need it most. This in turn requires not only a well-run and honest organization, but ACCESS and COMMUNICATION. I don't know what the various aid organizations are doing in this arena. We need to find out.
   
   
2. Legislation: Upthread I have given summaries of three bills and a resolution in the US Congress that are specifically directed at the Darfur situation ( http://tinyurl.com/d2osl - and both of the "Darfur Genocide Accountability" bills are still in play). We need a legal/legislative maven to look at these and give us advice on what are the most important provisions, what needs to be pushed, and how to push it. Even I can see significant differences between the Senate bill and the House one, with the latter being more powerful. There are also about 10 additional hits in Thomas on a search with "Darfur." That means that Darfur is mentioned somewhere in them, even though their titles don't seem directly related. We need to know what is going on with those - there may be sections that are important.
   
   
3. Political associations with Darfur: Upthread entries also deal with the unsavory interaction of the Bush Administration and the butchers responsible for the policies driving the killing. We need to understand this interaction fully and unmask the connections. If our own government is in fact promoting the power of the butchers, we need to know it and expose it for what it is.
   
   
4. Disinformation by the Bush Administration: The Bush Administration has misinformed the American public about important aspects of the Darfur situation, such as consistently giving mortality estimates that are far too low ( http://tinyurl.com/7g7dd ). They also have a relationship with a faction there that has primary responsibility for the genocide (see the previous entry in this list). What other lies are they telling? And how are these being spread by the compliant news media?
   
   
5. Global response: How can the rest of the world best act to stop the horrors in Darfur? Specific requests have been made and some countries, like Canada, are already responding to them (Canada's response was described at the beginning of the first post). The US should not be a lone cowboy blundering around, we need to coordinate with other countries in a wise and well-planned way to alleviate the suffering and stop the horror. What should be the US priorities in dealing with Darfur? And how can we coordinate with other countries and with people within Darfur to best address this crisis?
   
   
6. Events and organized activism: There are sites with Darfur/Sudan-related events listed. We need to provide consistent and comprehensive links to such events. We also need to help spread the word on them through the media and blogs - one of our strengths. And we need to consider what forms of activism, with what specific target audiences and goals, we might initiate ourselves.
   
   
7. Reports and first-hand observation: To plan wisely, we must know what is going on in Darfur, a complex and ever-evolving situation. We need to find out sources for this information and organize a way to link to and report on it in a way that concerned but busy people can grasp and respond to appropriately.
   
   
8. Liaison/Cooperation among aid-giving organizations: What are the various Christian organizations doing in the Sudan? The Jewish? The Muslim? Other religious organizations? Other philanthropic organizations? The right and left hands need to know what each other is doing. This must be done in a way that reinforces the flow of aid into a smooth-flowing river, not a tangled miscellany of little rivulets. There needs to be a central place where all these good people can keep track of what is being done so that all needs are met without duplication or omission.
   
   
9. At Democratic Underground: On a much smaller but still important scale, we need to consider, with input from the admins at some point, how we can most efficiently organize here at DU to spread and maintain awareness of what needs to be done for the Darfur people and what can be done by the DU community. People here have good hearts but generally little time to try to figure out what they should do in a complex situation like this. Specific, practical goals need to be identified and plans made to facilitate reaching them. We all want to help the people of Darfur, but we need more practical and specific goals if we are to aim at them accurately and efficiently.

I invite you to discuss these points and put forward your own. I believe the format and size of DU as an activist community and communications network can make a significant contribution toward aiding the suffering people of Darfur, but we need to do some work to figure out exactly how we can best approach this.

I'm thinking that perhaps I should post this as a new thread later today. I think something like this needs to be done in order to facilitate discussion, taking care to cross-link to key posts within this thread and other info. This thread is getting pretty long for people with dialup modems anyway.

DUer applegrove has also included this list of Darfur questions as part of her valuable post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3722708#
Thread title: "Today's DARFUR posts: Getting Worse by the Minute"

[savannahana]

1. Kick: for urgent attention: action follows awareness

this is really excellent, Hope!

good to see you :hi:


:kick:

[Nothing Without Hope]

2. I really hope it starts a dialog and that people will split up the

questions and get answers that we can then use in making wise decisions on what to do as progressive activists. Some of it should be fast - like checking out the various charitable organizations linked to here and there in the long earlier thread (http://tinyurl.com/96s94) and finding what they are doing in Darfur, see if there are others, and compare them all to decide the best choices for donations.

The legislation question is also doable - needs a legal/US Congress maven to sort out the pending bills and advise on strengths, weaknesses, political factors, status, and where and when and about what we would be wisest to apply activist pressure.

I could go on, but it seems clear already that this is a divide and conquer situation. We need to work on this as a COMMUNITY.

I hope this thread stays visible and stimulates discussion. Thanks for your kick!

[FrenchieCat]

3. Read , nominated & Kicking....

Will look into one of those and provide what I can tomorrow.

This is a great thing to be doing!

We can make a difference, IF we want to!

Thank you NWH!

[paineinthearse]

4. The GD forum moves very fast

It is a place to get wide exposure but and may not be the place to contribute thoughts over time.

Witness 6 hours between the last and this post. Without constant input, posts go out of sight.

My suggestion would be to get 10 concerned DU'ers to agree to a mission statement and petition to forum a group.

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. A Darfur Group is a good idea, but at this stage the discussion must

be much more widely visible. I'll do what I can to keep this list of questions where it can be seen. After some people have committed to working on the issues, then a Darfur Group would be a good place to organize. But if it is set up and used now, I'm afraid the result would be that few people paid attention.

It's a problem - the transient nature of DU posts when something more stable is needed at times.

[Nothing Without Hope]

6. kick! GD moves so darned fast, it's a struggle to keep this visible long

enough to accomplish anything.

[Nothing Without Hope]

7. kick - I can't believe how fast this sinks! n/t

[Adelante]

8. Question #1: Donation/Charities (Partial Listing)

Humanitarian aid organizations working in Darfur:

Action Against Hunger
http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/

Africare
http://www.africare.org/

AirServ
http://www.airserv.org/airservhome.html

CARE
http://www.care.org/

Caritas Internationalis
http://www.caritas.org/

Catholic Relief Services
http://www.catholicrelief.org/

GOAL
http://www.goal.ie/

International Committee of the Red Cross
http://www.icrc.org/

International Crisis Group
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1141&l=1&CFID=4813854&CFTOKEN=35250142

Intermediate Technology Development Group
http://www.itdg.org/

International Medical Corps
http://www.imcworldwide.org/index.shtml

International Rescue Committee
http://www.theirc.org/

Kids for Kids
http://www.kidsforkids.org.uk/

Medair
http://www.medair.org/

Médecins du Monde
http://www.medecinsdumonde.org/


Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
http://www.msf.org/

Mercy Corps
http://www.mercycorps.org/home/

Norwegian Church Aid
http://www.nca.no/article/archive/40

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)
http://www.nrc.no/engindex.htm

OCHA - Office of the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Sudan
http://www.unsudanig.org/

Oxfam
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/

Presbyterian Disaster Relief
http://www.pcusa.org/index.htm

Refugees International
http://www.refugeesinternational.org/

Save the Children
http://www.savethechildren.org/

Secours Islamique
http://www.secours-islamique.org/

UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/emerg/index_15756.html

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home

World Food Programme
http://www.wfp.org/

[understandinglife]

9. Bookmarked. Nominated. This is such a valuable compilation. Thank YOU!

Peace.




Let's RAP!

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. kick - GD seems to be moving even faster than usual n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. this is frustrating - this thread disappears so quickly!

Please help keep it kicked and visible.

[Adelante]

12. kick with news

AU officials expect delay in resumption of Darfur peace talks
Wednesday May 25th, 2005 20:35.


ADDIS ABABA, May 25 (AFP) -- African Union (AU) officials said here Wednesday they expect a slight delay in next week's planned resumption of stalled peace talks between Khartoum and rebels in Sudan's troubled western region of Darfur.

The talks, which were suspended in December amid persistent allegations of truce violations on both sides, had been set to resume May 30 but will now not likely start until sometime after June 10 for logistical reasons, they said.

"It will not be the end of May, it will be in June," said el-Ghassim Wane, a senior AU official.

He said the exact date would be announced on Thursday during an international donors' conference aimed at supporting the pan-African body's peace mission in Darfur.

Another AU official, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the resumption in talks would not begin "before June 10" for logistical and organizational reasons.

The May 30 resumption date had been announced on May 17 in Tripoli after an African mini-summit at which leaders from around the continent urged the sides to return to the AU-sponsored, Nigerian-hosted peace talks.

Darfur's two main rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), did not attend that meeting but said they were ready to take part in the talks aimed at ending the crisis.

The negotiations broke down in December due to repeated violations of an April 2004 ceasefire.

An estimated 300,000 people have been killed and 2.4 million displaced since Khartoum launched a crackdown on an uprising by ethnic rebels in February 2003.

http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=9766

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. Please consider the list of questions and consider working on one n/t

[understandinglife]

14. Kick.

Peace.


Mr Lucas, it has happened


www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

15. kick

[applegrove]

16. For todays Darfur: Daily News May 25, 2005 go to this link to catch

up on a variety of news items.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3729757&mesg_id=3729757

[applegrove]

17. As to Questions #8. Is there a place that is a clearing house of

local events on Darfur. Is this something we could ask DUers to do?

Come up with a thread every night where the listings of events are advertised.

Just a thought!

[Adelante]

18. Question #3 Political Associations with Sudan

Our genocidal ally in Khartoum
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff052005.asp

Sudan Becomes US Ally in the Horn of Africa
http://www.geeskaafrika.com/sudan_17may05.htm

US rolls out red carpet for Darfur's executioner
http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=9541


Unruly allies trap US in foreign policy bind
http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=9737

An Ally from Hell
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0521,hentoff,64218,2.html

Sudan Becomes US Ally in 'War on Terror'
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0430-06.htm

The CIA's New Client in Sudan
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=2&ItemID=7847

Our new terrorist ally
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff112601.asp

The United States has long been an important ally of Sudan (Historical)
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1989/WR89/Sudan.htm

[Nothing Without Hope]

28. Wow - lots of material to work with! Thank you!

I would love to see a powerful article written and spread on the subject of how the Bush Administration is supporting the butchers of the Sudan for their own political gain.

Culture of Life, right? The public needs to know about this.

[Adelante]

40. Question #3 (adding)

Bush accused of complacency, double-dealing on Darfur
Thursday May 26th, 2005 06:30.


By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, May 24, 2005 (IPS) -- Nine months after his administration first declared that ongoing violence in Darfur constituted ''genocide,'' U.S. President George W. Bush was urged by some 80 human rights and religious groups and prominent individuals here Tuesday to do more to protect innocent civilians in Sudan's western Darfur region.

-snip-

''We've seen a shift in policy and it's very disturbing,'' he added, saying that the House leadership, acting at the administration's behest, had stripped from a 2005 spending bill bipartisan legislation that would have toughened U.S. sanctions against Sudan and called for Bush to seek multilateral sanctions, including an arms embargo, against the government at the United Nations.

Activists were also alarmed by remarks made during last month's visit to Sudan by Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick who not only steadfastly declined to use the word ''genocide'' to describe what was happening in Darfur, but also suggested that the death toll was not nearly as high as cited by activists or even the United Nations.

Citing a State Department study, Zoellick estimated total deaths caused by the conflict in Darfur at between 60,000 and 160,000 -- an assessment that was dismissed as impossibly low by the Washington Post, which compared the results and methodologies of several recent studies.

While Zoellick subsequently insisted that he did not mean to play down the extent of suffering in Darfur, the administration's continuing passivity at the U.N. and its relative silence about the continuing violence have contributed to the impression that Bush, who is reported to have once written ''Not on my watch'' on a memo about Bill Clinton's failure to do anything to stop the 1994 Rwanda genocide, is unlikely to take stronger action unless and until he faces a political cost for not doing so.

-more-


http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=9754

[Nothing Without Hope]

19. kick n/t

[Adelante]

20. Question #9 At DU

1- Donate to humanitarian organisations working in Sudan


2-Email your friends and family - Send them this link and read it yourself

Crisis in Darfur
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3060&l=1

3-Contact the media


4-Write to Elected Officials

Bill Number: S. 495 - 'A bill to impose sanctions against perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Darfur, Sudan, and for other purposes.


Bill Number: H.R. 1413 - 'To make the protection of vulnerable populations, especially women and children, who are affected by a humanitarian emergency a priority of the United States Government, and for other purposes. '


Bill Number: H.R. 1424 - 'To impose sanctions against perpetrators of crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and for other purposes.'

[Adelante]

21. kick

:kick:

[Coexist]

22. kick

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. kick n/t

[applegrove]

24. #6 & #8 go together. If people at the DU want to volunteer to check

out local Darfur/Sudan events in there area - I volunteer to put it in a weekly/daily table.

I'm still looking for sites that may list events. I don't know. I just think that having a list of events somewhere would make it easier to 'advertise them' on the DU (and the site could be bookmarked by others if it was given a permanent place). How would the webmaster feel about that?

I have and FTP program and Dreamweaver. I certainly know how to make a table. But I would guess that the form to database format would be best of all - and I don't know about that.

Could be part of the DU or not.

Would require participation and commitment from local area DUers to help suss out the information on upcoming Darfur events. Perhaps we could advertise it to other sites.

If there could be a form that would be good. I don't know how to make a form. And if that form could be automatically sorted by location and by day... and then automatically removed once the day has passed?

Country:
State/Province:
Metropolitan Area/County:
Date:
Time:
Location:
Description of event:
Organizing Body:
Email:
Requested Action:
Notes:


I don't know. What do others think. Is this being done somewhere else? I have some work to do before I go asking anyone if they have an empty webpage. But I think if the 'Upcoming Events' site was easily accessible to anyone..then we could contact local churches too and ask them to input local events.

Seems like a big task. I'm not up to designing the thing. Does anyone on the DU have experience with webpage/database management? How big or small should it be.

Is this just too unmanageable for us to take on?

Of course it would be all about 'crossing lines' and group pressure that comes with that.

Does anyone have experience with the Websites and groups working on Darfur and their email trees? It may already be taking place in that way. I don't want to repeat anything.

[Nothing Without Hope]

31. I think it wouuld be good to have links to sites that DO have "events"

pages - I'll give one below. There are bound to be a lot more of them. THIS WEB SITE WILL POST ON LOCAL EVENTS - that could be a way to centralize if there is no more comprehensive site available elsewhere. (I don't know.)

If/when there is a Stop The Darfur Genocide DU group formed, it would be fairly easy to post events there, but it is truly easiest on a web site that doesn't move like threads do.

Here's a site I found with a Darfur-related Events listing:
http://www.darfurgenocide.org/act.php
Here's what's at the top of the page now:

If we can get people all over the world, from small towns to capital cities, working to stop the genocide, it'll happen.
Students: Download A Campus Do-it-yourself Darfur Activist Kit!

If you are organising an event, please send us the details at [email protected] so that we can post it on the site .

For ideas and resources to help you organise local activities,
click here

Events Past and Current

- Weekly, Washington D.C. Event
- June 5th, Brooklyn, NY Event
- May 27th, Gloucester, MA Event
- May 25th, Washington D.C. Event

This site also has other resources, including a news feed:
http://www.darfurgenocide.org/news.php

[applegrove]

32. Yes thanks. This is what I was looking for. Information like that.

I'll sleep on it and see if there may be a way to organize it at the DU without causing a fuss. Perhaps I just need to dig deeper and find community billboards. There may be big ones - out there.

Thanks!

[Nothing Without Hope]

33. YVW. This site says it is willing to post local events - might be a place

to start. There are BOUND to be others out there too - I found this one several days ago after a couple of Google searches, but I wasn't looking specifically for an events listing then.

A Darfur DU group might be useful - we should think about how it might be used to organize and archive info. SKinner told me once that threads can be pinned to the top of a forum but still be open for posting - that could be good for a thread for useful links.

Lots to think about. We all need to sleep on it. I do think some good progress has been made.

[applegrove]

34. Yes. Thanks to you for all your work. I agree there may be a way

Since I know some code - perhaps I could make up the tables every day and then post it. Though I think I saw somewhere that the DU does not support tables.

But yes - I could sort the information on by computer (if there was lots of it - and maybe try to do it weekly).

And then we could take from that - if it was pinned somewhere and could be still open for editing , and add to it during the week. And then send out notices to "all Chicago DUer" with a standard message.

Don't know. Much to chew on. I think having a few consolidated sites works very well in terms of getting the information up there. I am fine just not doing a discussion at the Darfur: Daily News spot. If I am consistent with my post - people will know where to go to get a daily read of headlines if not the articles themselves. And your posts always garner attention and made "greatest". Lots of people helping out with new articles.

I have not been to the LBN Darfur threads. Is this something you want me to try tomorrow? Or does it need to be done weekly. I think you said it was an issue because of all the rules. And that kept people from posting there. But let me know what you have found out about getting a 'big thread' going in that forum.

My worst problem so far is to put the whole thing together with enough forethought that I put everything in before the edit time runs out. But again - I was not thinking very lateral when I was looking for local events in only the Darfur related sites. Yes - I will start where you have and suss out the events sites tomorrow.

But yes - it matters a great deal how information is packaged at such a place like the DU. You have done good!

Night!

[Nothing Without Hope]

35. I think we'll want to have a post that collects the various Darfur threads

with links and at least titles and maybe a sentence or two of explanation if necessary. That would be a good addition to longer-term posts that are collecting information.

I don't post often in LBN because the rules are so strict there and some people don't follow threads in that forum once they leave the Latest page - can make it harder to reach the Greatest page IMO. Other people love it. But the news must be actual NEWS from a big established source (not a blog or a discussion ABOUT news), must be less than 12 hours old, and there are the rules for the title that must be followed. But don't let my prejudices here affect you - check it out and see what you think.

No, DU doesn't support tables. If, however, there were a GIF or jpg file of a table posted on the internet, that could be put into the post and it would show as a table.

One of the things that I have found helpful is to put together a post as a Word file first - no worrying about the edit period that way, and it's often flat-out easier. You can save it that way too, in case you need to repost part of it later.

Most of my posts do not make the Greatest Page. Maybe you don't know about them because they disappear so fast!

Good night!
:hi: :boring:

[applegrove]

44. Thanks for all the advice. I guess I will try and make up a LBN thread

then once a week or so? And put the daily LBN threads into the Darfur Daily News thread. Like I did tonight.

[Telly Savalas]

25. AU is seeking money to support peacekeeping efforts

ADDIS ABABA, May 25 (Reuters) - The African Union (AU) is seeking $460 million to more than triple its peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region, a senior AU official said on Wednesday.
....
The AU has deployed about 2,300 troops to monitor a shaky ceasefire in Darfur in Sudan's west, with international financial backing to pay for the mission.
...
Said Djinnit, chairman of the AU's Peace and Security Council, said the AU may also consider bringing the force up to 12,000 by September, which would cost an additional $240 million.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L25351742.htm

Probably the best course of action the U.S. could take right now would be to help flip the bill for this. That $460 million plus the additional $240 million to put in a force of 12,000 is roughly equal to what we spend every 3 days in Iraq, so it's not going to break the bank. (And it's certainly a lot cheaper than Bush's dumbass Star Wars missile defence plan.)

By funding the AU's efforts, we'd be promoting a regional solution to the problem, and there would be much less latitude for Bush to fuck it all up by having an active role in planning.

What we as citizens can do is raise awareness and pressure our elected officials to take action. Write to them. Write letters to the editor. Keep getting the word out here.

[Telly Savalas]

26. Also take note that this is not a partisan issue.

Last year Congress passed a resolution to declare Darfur officially a genocide.

Even far right nutbars like Sam Brownback are pushing for action. We might have arguments with the GOP on how best to alleviate the situation, but there is a commitment from some on the other side of the aisle to see that something gets done.

The main impediment to action is that jackass who occasionally resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Every now and then he has a few stern words on the matter, but hasn't done shit. This needs to change.

[Nothing Without Hope]

29. He's done WORSE than shit - he's actively UNDERMINED efforts to stop the

genocide because his Administration is playing footsie with the gang of butchers in the Sudan. (See Questions #3 and #4)

[applegrove]

30. I agree it is not a partisan issue. But the jackasses don't seem to

be very busy on this one. And the only way to pressure them is to make them feeling 1) uncomfy 2) that they have so much backing for intervening that they have no choice but to exsert even more pressure on Khartoum. If DUer start crossing boundaries and joining these non partisan actions and groups..en mass... it will make them very uncomfy indeed. Much of their political power is based on keeping people apart. I agree politics should never come into play in war crimes. And if we put up a page on local events.. it would not have to be at the Du and we could get Freepers to participate too. (I think there have already been outreaches to Freepers on some issues, perhaps this one too already.. I'm new to the whole thing).

Just an idea. So far Khartoum seems to have a hand that says: you know..civil war could break out all over the place..you better be carefull. And I read yesterday that the Chinese were going to go in as peacekeepers sometime in the future. A little too vague for my liking.

Part of me wonders too that the neocons were so thrilled to get a war that was about "the potential threat in the future of this nation Iraq". They wanted that precedent. When they could have brought the same pressure to bear on Iraq via human rights atrocities or breaking the rules of the UN. But they choose not to do that in Iraq. It seems that they have no interest whatsoever in setting precedents on human rights situations. Just a note to myself I guess.

I know our attempts at organizing should be in no way political. But it is hard to keep that in mind sometimes. When some groups seem incapable of doing anything at all that is not political and furthering their cause at every single stop. And to me, I know because I've read up on this stuff, they include non-political non-pro-neocon theories to be competitors of their narrow view. As if there is only room in the world for one way of thinking. That is where I loose my lunch.

But I thank you for mentioning this. It is important to keep the Darfur crisis..not political.

[moddemny]

41. Hopefully it stays a non partisan issue.....

the problem is even though now people consider it a genocide, if Nato and the U.S. (or UN) were to intervene, in about 6 months after the intervention starts many people (probably, mostly the far far left) are going to claim it is for some grand imperialistic design.

[Telly Savalas]

46. That's why it's a good idea to keep the AU at the helm of...

the peacekeeping efforts.

There's oil in the Sudan, so I wouldn't blame anybody for being skeptical of Bush if he directly intervened even with the best of intentions. (Granted George Walker Bush rarely does anything with the best of intentions.)

It's pretty clear by now though that Bush wants nothing to do with helping out there. Bipartisan pressure from the House and Senate however could force some action like the funding of the AU mission. I don't really trust the GOP, especially goofs like Brownback, but I think if we're careful, we can get some good things done.

[Vladimir]

38. And they should be given it without delay n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. Kick - n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

36. kick n/t

[Coexist]

37. a.m. kick

[Nothing Without Hope]

39. Please remember that the earlier Darfur thread contains many links

and much information that can help in getting answers to these questions. It is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3692135
Thread title: “Genocide update: "NATO on alert to provide help in Darfur" (Bush silent)”

[mnmod]

42. Nothing to worry about

Any day now the UN will swoop in with a resolution or two, and then it will stop just like rwanda, far too late...

[Telly Savalas]

51. Thank you very much, Mr. Bolton.

[mnmod]

54. So are you saying

The US has a good record with thigs like this?

[mnmod]

55. lol that should have bee does the UN have a good record..

[FrenchieCat]

43. I think starting a DU group on Darfur might be very helpful....

I'm in for that. I think we only need 10 people who want it done!

[Nothing Without Hope]

48. Yes, 10 donating members and a good mission statement

I'll bet we can do that.

[applegrove]

45. Check out today's Darfur: Daily News for May 26, 2005

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3736412#

[applegrove]

47. #2 Ask Cspan a question on Darfur. Panel on Friday the 27th.

Friday's Cspan panel is taking questions. Don't forget to submit a question on Darfur.

For more information see notadmblnd's thread on who the guests will be and how to submit questions. William Schulz , Amnesty International, will be there. He visited Darfur in 2004.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3736908

[Nothing Without Hope]

49. You are finding some great things, applegrove! We've come so far

since we started posting on this.

[Nothing Without Hope]

50. kick n/t

[applegrove]

52. Check out today's Darfur: Daily News May 27, 2005

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3742377&mesg_id=3742377

[Tinoire]

53. Kicking for the importance of the tragedy

and for the spirit of the original post. Excellent post and yes NWH, those are very important questions that need to be answered.

[applegrove]

56. More Action Required! Let's get DUers to update event lists.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3743899&mesg_id=3743899

[Nothing Without Hope]

57. Good idea - and I think this might be easier to keep track of if we had

a "Darfur Genocide" DU Group. We could collect things there for organization and later distribution. People can't post in Groups unless they are donating DU members, so we'd have to come up with a way to attract event suggestions.

We need to find additional Darfur event sites online besides the single one I linked to above.

Then one person could keep track and update the list - we could also help the Darfur activism sites (I'm assuming there are more good ones that I haven't found) be sure theirs are updated to.

We really need to form a working group and split up these tasks.

Applegrove, you are a peach! An EFFECTIVE peach, thus proving that there IS such a thing.
:pals:

[applegrove]

58. I emailed them after the fact and told them i didn't know what the

response would be. I also just happened up the State DU groups. And it got me thinking. If we don't get too many responses from this post - perhaps we can appeal to the DU state sites themselves. They seem to be busy tonight.

But I also think that the main groups behind the Darfur issue know the pattern of activism and it may be that now would be a quiet time because peace talks are coming up and the murders are much rarer. So perhaps there is not much out there to find. Because the push $$$ has come from NATO. Perhaps events have as much to do with education as they have to do with pressure.

Anyway - I will be happy even if we could use the power of the DU to help out those sites get event listings.

I still have not dug very far. And yes we must find the event lists of all the big Darfur groups. I will aim to do that tomorrow - if i am not too busy with responses (and I have a feeling I will not be).

Yes we need a Darfur group to coordinate (and keep the organization out of the posts). Yes - I can forward responses to you if you have in mind how to post them. Let me know - cause I am willing to try the word table thing and then upload it to a web page (like bucket) and then copy and link (like we do with graphics) and the link itself could be changed whenever the table is). And so easy to sort by two columns with Word. So I could sort the events by location in one post, and then sort them by date in another. Or both. And update them every day.

That is assuming I get more than 5 replies.

Anyway. I thought I'd put this up and see about responses. Because there were three events upcoming so it was timely. Before we start to organize that and expect multiple help from Duers - I thought I'd give it a go. Just one time.

But yes - do I write skinner to ask for a Darfur group? One of ten people eh?

Night!

P.S. I'm not the person to lead discussion. Like I said - that has not been my style. But others seem to do that quite naturally. And I'm not looking for any action like that in the Darfur:Daily News site - as it is too broad and meant mostly as a general catch up.


:headbang: by the way.

[Nothing Without Hope]

59. Let's not ask Skinner quite yet - let's get more people first.

I can't remember whether I PM'd you my email address yet - I'll do it now just in case I haven't. Sometimes email is much easier than PMing, especially if Word files are being shot back and forth, if you're comfortable with that too.

I'm thinking about a mass appeal to DUers in GD and GD-P forums for volunteers to come and help with all of this. Thinking about the Questions - we need people in a number of areas to team with us to put all this together without burning us out. The appeal would need to be specific and can include a call for people who would like to be part of a Darfur/Genocide group when it is formed.

Yes, the power of DU is a mighty thing. :grouphug: I like to say

DU is a verb!!!

Good night!

[savannahana]

60. morning kick

:kick:

[Nothing Without Hope]

61. kick n/t