AMERICANS MUST SPEAK UP TO STOP DARFUR GENOCIDE:
by Trudy Rubin, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.
The Olympian (Olympia, Washington)
Distributed by Knight/Ridder Tribune News Service
March 16, 2006 Thursday
Editorial
Mar. 16–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
