Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Darfur Hero: Mossaad Mohamed Ali

"For over ten years, Mossaad has been an outspoken and courageous critic of crimes against human rights that were inflicted on the most exposed people of Darfur," it said.

Darfur Activist Win Palmes


Kofi Annan, Darfur Activist Win Palmes
The Associated Press
Tuesday, January 30, 2007; 7:32 AM


STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Darfur human rights activist Mossaad Mohamed Ali won the Olof Palme Prize on Tuesday for their work to protect human rights, peace and security.

The award will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm in May, and the two winners will share the $75,000.

The Palme memorial fund board, which selects the winners, cited Annan's courage and involvement during his U.N. leadership, saying he had "given proof of the utmost integrity" while also defending U.N. principles and international law when those were challenged.

"His fight for human rights, and his way of stressing that development is a necessary part of the work for security, has left indelible traces in the world o0rganization."

The board said Mohamed Ali's work to coordinate The Amel Centre for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture has "concerned hundreds of thousands of war victims."

"For over ten years, Mossaad has been an outspoken and courageous critic of crimes against human rights that were inflicted on the most exposed people of Darfur," it said.

Last year's prize went to Russian human rights advocates Ludmila Alexeyeva, Sergej Kovalyov and recently slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya for their efforts to promote democracy in Chechnya.

The Palme award is endowed by the family of the murdered Swedish prime minister and the governing Social Democratic Party and was set up to honor efforts carried out in Palme's spirit. The prize is typically presented by Palme's widow Lisbet.

Palme was gunned down in central Stockholm on Feb. 28, 1986, as he and his wife walked home unguarded from a movie theater. The killer has not been caught.

Darfur Hero: Ohio worker takes donation to Darfur

West Chester woman helping bring relief to Darfur

Over the last 25 years, Kepppler and her husband have regularly given at least 10 percent of their annual income to poor areas of Honduras, India, and now Darfur.

And this month, Keppler will travel to Darfur to work in a health clinic for refugees.

"You can't just give a check, you sort of have to see for yourself what is going on with them money you give," Amy said. "Writing a check is easy, but taking it with you is a different story. You see how pitiful your check is and how bad it is over there."

Monday, January 29, 2007

Darfur Heroics: Turkish PM Erdoğan calls for wider effort for Darfur

Full Article

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for wider efforts to stop the ongoing violence in Darfur at the African Union summit in Ethiopia on Monday. Erdoğan said it was urgent to stop the tragedy in Darfur as he voiced his sadness about the picture he saw in the region. The Turkish prime minister noted that the signing of Darfur Peace Agreement was a first step for the settlement of crisis in the region. Erdoğan said the efforts of the African Union were promising but more efforts were needed for maintenance of peace in the region. “Unilateral acts should be avoided in the region,” warned Erdoğan stressing that international efforts approved by all the parties would contribute to the peace process.

Darfur Heroes: Eric Reeves - New Darfur Book

Coming Soon
A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in Darfur Genocide

Heroics: Tutu - "Darfur need action in weeks not months."

Sudan needs tough sanctions, says Tutu

January 29 2007 at 03:50PM

Johannesburg - Sudan's government needs to face tough and effective sanctions until the suffering the Darfur region ends, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on Monday.

Speaking ahead of the eighth African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa this week, he said that Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir longed to be given the AU's presidency.

"The AU cannot allow itself to comfort the oppressor. I appeal to those leaders meeting at the AU summit to stand up to tyranny and stand by the people of Darfur."

Tutu warned the AU that the Sudanese government, and other parties to the conflict, treated AU peace monitors with contempt.

"And time and again they fail to comply with the promises they make to stop the killing."

He added that an immediate ceasefire in Sudan's Darfur region was essential, along with a strengthened peacekeeping force with United Nations troops. A robust mandate was urgently needed to protect the innocent.

"While discussions drag on, people are dying."

Tutu pointed out that the AU was at a crossroads over how to deal with the Darfur crisis in Sudan.

He called on the continental body to "be bold and stand by the people of Africa or be weak and stand by the politicians who are making that corner of Africa a graveyard".

"If the AU allows this to continue and the aid effort breaks down then there will soon be no help for the hundred of thousands who have fled their homes."

Tutu called the Darfur crisis "a matter of utmost urgency".

"The people of Darfur need action in weeks not months. They have suffered terribly, and they cannot wait any longer."

He said Africa could not turn its back on the people of Darfur.

"The government of Sudan continues to act with impunity and must now be subjected to tough and effective sanctions until the suffering ends. - Sapa

Darfur Honesty: "The world has not learned anything," said Ernest Kan, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor

Protesters raise tents, awareness of genocide


By Gretel Sarmiento

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Monday, January 29, 2007

BOCA RATON — The cease-fire and peace agreements have done little to stop the violence, murders and rapes in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Though Darfur stands for "land of the Fur," for the last three years its name has been synonymous with "genocide."

The Save Darfur Coalitions of south, central and north Palm Beach County are not giving up. About 300 people attended an awareness rally at Temple Beth El Sunday. Their goal: to stop the genocide in Africa's largest country.

....

Darfur Heroics: Regina Inner City for Darfur

Inner-city teens in Regina raise cash for people in Darfur

Anne Kyle, Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post, with CanWest News Files
Published: Monday, January 29, 2007

REGINA -- Compared to life in the Darfur region of Sudan, Glen Prettyshield says life in North Central Regina is pretty good despite the problems facing many families living in his neighbourhood.

Touched by the plight of the people of Darfur, a group of inner-city teens, members of the North Central Family Centre youth group, decided to raise money and awareness by holding a fundraising event to help address the issues of poverty and hunger in that remote region of western Sudan.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Darfur Heroics: David Rubenstien - Bush SOU - "an outrage"

God bless David Rubenstein for the moral courage to label Bush's SOU speach ragarding Darfur what it was - "an outrage."

President Fails to Offer Plan to End Genocide in Darfur in "State of the Union"

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

US "Official" Darfur policy: Lip Service

"And we will continue to speak out ... to save the people of Darfur."

Text Of Bush's State Of The Union Speech

Monday, January 22, 2007

Darfur Heroics: 500 Protest in Rochester

Call for action on Darfur is issued
Hundreds at event protest genocide and learn how to help
Erica Bryant Staff writer

(January 22, 2007) — More than 500 people packed into the Asbury First United Methodist Church on Sunday to demonstrate against genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and to pray for peace.

The voices that came from the podium stressed the need for them to turn their concern into action.

Speaker Manute Bol, a Sudan native and a retired National Basketball Association player, was greeted with a standing ovation when he rose to talk about the worsening plight of black Africans in Darfur. "I hear people say, 'We want to send food, we want to send medicine,'" he said, "but when people try to get the food, there is no protection."

Call for action on Darfur is issued

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Darfur histrionics: N. Kristof continues his assault on Darfur

My God Mr. Kristof. Where the hell is your sense of proportion? Carwashes are an appropriate, heroic response to Genocide!?!?!??

Oh, I'm being too tough. Of course, if it were your wife and child in the camps you would be weeping for joy and gratitude for the unbelievable brotherhood, solidarity and sacrifice being shown by we weak and impoverished people of the US. Your are correct, it truely is incredible that we could find the money and the time to buy plastic wrist bands. But hey, we are Americans! And, this is Genocide! We pull out all the stops!

Geez Mr. K. Thanks for showing us the truth! Don't you think that fundraising should begin now in anticipation of the wall that should be added to the US Holocaust Museum for the "Righteous Among Nations" to go right alongside the Holocaust rescuers?

As you indicate, certainly there is an equivalent commitment today as during WWII:
* Then 10,000-15,000 risked their lives and those of their families to rescue strangers - Jews.
* Today, from the safety of our shores, we buy armbands and do carwashes.

God forgive you Mr. K for this murderous inflation you continue to foster. God forgive you.

jay

Darfur: Car Washes and Genocide

Darfur Heroics: 'I go home, and I cry'

LEWISTON - In the desert camps of Darfur, Dr. Stephen Sokol has bandaged the burns of children tossed alive onto fires.

"I've seen kids with burns all over their bodies," said Sokol, who spent a year in the Sudanese region with the International Rescue Committee.

He treated refugees who had been beaten and raped as they sought fuel to cook the bland grains and beans given to them by charities. And at 69, the thin, gray-haired doctor who has helped people all over the world is planning to return to the Sudan this summer.

'I go home, and I cry'

Darfur Heroics: Darfur activists hold protest at Sudan Embassy in Washington

January 12, 2007 (Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco) —Representatives of the Sudanese community in the United States, along with Darfur grassroots activists from across the country, will hold a rally at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC to demand the immediate protection of innocent civilians in Darfur, Sudan. The action, “I Stand for a New Sudan, I Stand With Darfur” will begin at 12 Noon on Monday, January 15, 2007, the 21st annual Federal holiday celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This January also marks the 51st anniversary of Sudan’s independence.

The second phase of the 24+ hour campaign will begin at 4pm when I Stand With Darfur will pitch tents at the Sudanese Embassy, symbolizing the millions of Darfuri refugees living in camps in Sudan and neighboring Chad. More information and online registration are available at www.istandwithdarfur.org.

Darfur activists hold protest at Sudan Embassy in Washington

Darfur Heroics: Hundreds rally for Darfur in Brussels

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Some 500 people led by survivors of the Rwandan genocide have rallied in Brussels to draw attention to the plight of people in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region.

Marching silently hand in hand, they formed a ring around the headquarters of the European Commission on the eve of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers with Darfur on the agenda Sunday.

Hundreds rally for Darfur in Brussels