An Unforgivable Hell on Earth

Daoud Hari, a former Darfurian tribesman, now Living here in the US, speaks.

‘What the US should do for Darfur’

Our lives were very different in Darfur. We don’t need in Darfur what the people in the US and Europe have. We don’t need electricity or cars, we just need water and our animals.

But then I saw government troops go into villages, kill the people and burn their homes down.

Read the rest at the link.

September 23, 2008

Sudan: Opportunity in the Midst of Crisis

Following the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court’s request for an arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, and in the lead up to this week’s United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, the Sudanese government launched a diplomatic offensive to pressure the United Nations Security Council to suspend the ICC investigation. ENOUGH’s latest report argues that the ICC’s actions actually creates a new opening for peace, the first of three significant opportunities that the international community must urgently seize.

Click here to read the report.

“The Chief Prosecutor’s actions have given Bashir a vested interest in reaching a peace deal in Darfur, possibly for the first time since the crisis began,” says the report’s co-author and ENOUGH Co-Chair John Prendergast. “Bashir and his government are finally confronting real consequences for their actions, consequences that go well beyond the harsh rhetoric and empty threats that have characterized the world’s response since 2003.”

Click here to read the report

The second opportunity is the renewed prospect of an inclusive peace process for Darfur. The third is a drive toward national elections in 2009 and a self-determination referendum for southern Sudan in 2011, which will concentrate Sudanese and international actors on implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA. “In the waning days of the Bush administration and during the transition to a new government, the United States must demonstrate leadership and clarity of purpose to leverage these opportunities into genuine progress toward democratic transformation and sustainable peace,” says report co-author and policy advisor Colin Thomas-Jensen. “The grim alternative is a destructive new phase in Sudan’s civil wars.”

Click here to hear Colin Thomas-Jensen’s podcast about the report.

Tomorrow, September 24, John Prendergast will testify about the report before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom at a hearing, from 10am to 12:30pm, at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2359 in Washington, D.C. Ambassador Richard Williamson, the President’s Special Envoy to Sudan, and representatives of NGOs concerned about Sudan and Darfur, will also testify at the hearing.  The hearing is open to the public.

Event Information

Searching for Peace and Justice in Sudan: The Role of the International Criminal Court

When

Friday, September 26, 2008
10:30 AM to 12:00 PM

The Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC

On September 25, Amnesty International
and its co-sponsors will hold a demonstration for Darfur at the Dag Hammarskjold
Plaza, across from the United Nations. The purpose of the demonstration
is to call on the UN Member States to i) honor their commitment to aid
and protect the people in Darfur, ii) uphold their promise to provide funding,
equipment, and peacekeeping, and iii) uphold the UN Security Council’s
promise of justice for Darfur .

on behalf of Amnesty International. All the information is below in the
email and attached as a word document. If you need more information, or
if you have anyone who would like to assist Amnesty with the event, please
contact SARA BENNETT at sbennett@aiusa.org or 212 633 4160.

Thanks!

Lillian Tan

Corporate Action Network Intern
Business & Human Rights
Amnesty International, USA
5 Penn Plaza
New York, NY 10001
(212) 633-4246
corpaction@aiusa.org

*******************
http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/index.do
Sign up for Corporate Action Network: http://www.amnestyusa.org/business/signup.html
Check us out on MySpace:  http://www.myspace.com/corpaction

No More Delays: Peacekeepers
and Justice for Darfur NOW

Close the gap between promises
and reality: Call on United Nations Member States to honor their commitment
to protect the people of Darfur.  For over a year, United Nations
Member States have promised peacekeepers, equipment, and funding for aid
for Darfur.  Promise broken. For over three years,
the United Nations Security Council has promised justice for Darfur.  Promise
broken. The United Nations has failed to live up to its promises.
The people of Darfur have already waited too long for peacekeepers
and justice.  Join us at the United Nations as we demand No
More Delays: Peacekeepers and Justice for Darfur NOW.

WHAT: Demonstration on Darfur:
“No More Delays: Peacekeepers and Justice for Darfur NOW.”

WHEN: Thursday, September
25, 2008, from 5:00-6:30pm

WHERE: Dag Hammarskjold
Plaza (across from the UN), 1st Avenue and 47th Street

WHO: Larry Cox, Executive
Director, Amnesty International USA

Alex
Meixner, Director of Government Relations, Save Darfur Coalition

Bushara
Dosa, President, Darfur People’s Association of New York

Roxanne
Earley, New York State Outreach Coordinator, STAND

Other
Darfuri human rights activists (TBA)

Amnesty will be providing
placards – “No More Delays: Peacekeepers and Justice for Darfur NOW”
– and FREE t-shirts and Instant Karma CDs to the first 200 people!
Demo participants will also be able to visit Displaced,
an interactive exhibition on Darfur, which will be staged next to the
demo site.

The arrest of Sudan’s Bashir should proceed, says Richard Holbrooke, former special envoy for the Balkans, former US ambassador at the United Nations.

According to the Herald Tribune, Sudan to lobby UN to avert president’s prosecution.

As we roll according to AFP Five Sudanese Islamists admitted in filmed confessions their role in murdering a US diplomat and his driver in the Sudanese capital on New Year’s Day, a court heard on Sunday.

From Human Rights Watch.
AU: Do Not Call for Suspending ICC’s Investigation of President al-Bashir

—
Tents of Hope

Join us on a journey of hope and compassion as we design and paint simulated refugee tents in our communities to create awareness and support for the people of Darfur, Sudan. It’s our hope that these tents will serve as doorways to concrete action. It’s our hope that these tents will help lead to the advocacy necessary to stop the genocide in Darfur. .

Click on tents to hope to find out how you can help or participate.
Washington D.C. | NOV. 7-9