Public Post: the recent news about Darfur.
Public Post.
I'd like to say something about what's been going on in the news recently. Last Wednesday, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the President of Sudan, on charges of "crimes against humanity" but not on charges of genocide, even though, last July, the prosecutor who requested the warrant included that charge.
Basically, the UN is a big pansy and won't call the situation in Darfur a genocide, arguing that it's a land dispute and the two sides simply happen to be different ethnic groups, when there is clearly an attempt on the part of the government to attack, and support and encourage attacks on, ethnic African civilians because they are the same ethnicity as the armed rebels.
But, anyway, now that this arrest warrant has been issued, Bashir has kicked out all the aid workers who are in the IDP/refugee camps. Without those aid workers, these refugees will be without food, water, resources, and medical help.
I just spent all of Friday talking to tenth graders about this issue for Lipper and they were, for the most part, non-reactive and non-responsive. My hope is that maybe 10 of the 100+ students I talked to will tell at least 1 other person, and the 20 people will know about it. As individual people, it's hard to really do anything, but then you realize that the people in power aren't doing shit, and that it really is you who can make a difference. All the big rallies for Darfur have been organized by grass roots movements. What's also important is awareness. If I write a letter to my congressman, he may not take the time to read it thoroughly. But if we all write a letter, someone has to listen. So if you do nothing else, I hope you take the time to tell someone else about what's going on. You'd be surprised how many people are in the dark.