EDITORIAL AMERICANS MUST SPEAK UP TO STOP DARFUR GENOCIDE
by Trudy Rubin
KRTBN Knight-Ridder Tribune Business News – The Olympian
March 16, 2006 Thursday
PHILADELPHIA — Can an individual do anything to stop a genocide?
Let’s hope so, because governments certainly aren’t doing much. Two
years after Sudan began a genocidal slaughter in Darfur province, the
killing of black African Muslims by black Arab Muslims continues. No
government seems willing or able to force Sudan to stop.
The Bush administration calls this killing by its rightful name —
genocide — but has yet to use the kind of political muscle that
might stop it. So it is left to ordinary individuals to act. Think
you can’t do anything? Former Marine Capt. Brian Steidle thinks you
must. He photographed Darfur’s horrors, and the images are driving
him crazy. He wants a million Americans to write to President Bush
and urge him to ensure that a strong multinational force is sent to
Darfur. Steidle, 29, was one of three U.S. military observers
assigned to the African Union, which has a toothless force of 7,000
monitors in Darfur. The monitors are permitted only to observe a
nonexistent cease-fire. Steidle went to this killing field in
September 2004 armed only with a pen, pad and camera; he took more
than 1,000 photos. The ex-Marine had no doubt who was to blame for
the carnage, which has killed about 180,000 in the past three years
and driven 2 million Darfurians from their homes. The Sudanese
government, in an effort to crush Darfur rebels, sent in its army
along with an Arab militia known as the janjaweed. Their goal: to
“cleanse” Darfur of its ethnic African population. But Steidle’s
reports to the AU disappeared down a black hole. So he quit in
February 2005, went home, met the media and found sympathetic
legislators who displayed his photos. He even met senior Bush
officials. “But I couldn’t get the administration to listen,” he
says. So he decided to approach the public directly. He wants you to
lobby for a U.N. force that would protect civilians in Darfur. He is
touring 22 cities in a campaign backed by Jewish, Armenian,
mainstream Protestant, evangelical and other groups that will
culminate in an anti-genocide demonstration April 30 in Washington,
D.C. The goal: to get 1 million Americans to send this message to the
White House: “Dear President Bush: During your first year in the
White House, you wrote in the margins of a report on the Rwandan
genocide, ‘Not on my watch.’ I urge you to live up to those words by
using the power of your office to support a stronger multinational
force to protect the civilians of Darfur.” (You can send the message
via e-mail or order preprinted postcards at )
Sudan is lobbying the Security Council to block a U.N. force. China,
which buys Sudanese oil, is opposed, as are Russia and Qatar, the
current Arab representative on the council. Steidle believes that a
U.N. force can be achieved but that “it would take a lot of
leadership from the United States.” The White House has yet to show
that leadership, despite the President’s fine words. What’s needed
now is grassroots pressure on the White House. One million postcards
and 1 million people in the Capitol on April 30 might motivate the
Bush team to lean harder on the AU, Sudan, China and Russia to
approve a U.N. force. Such pressure would also demonstrate that there
are people who refuse to tolerate genocide, even if most of the world
ignores it. Brian Steidle wants to show that one person can make a
difference. But he can succeed only if, one by one, other Americans
join in.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
