A Tolerable Genocide: NY Times Article Calls for Action
I think most of us feel helpless when it comes to genocide. Yet, reading the below article, I realized there are things I can do. I've posted excerpts of the article below in the hopes that you will read it, become as moved as I was and decide to take action with me. Below the article are some personal comments from me along with a way you can take action within the next 10 minutes.
(Photo Credit: Richelle Reid. Monument at Dachau Concentration Camp)
A Tolerable Genocide
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: November 27, 2005
NYTimes Select
NYALA, Sudan
Who would have thought that a genocide could become worse? But after two years of heartbreaking slaughter, rape and mayhem, the situation in Darfur is now spiraling downward...
Aid workers have been stripped, beaten and robbed. A few more attacks on aid workers, and agencies may pull out - leaving the hapless people of Darfur with no buffer between themselves and the butchers.
The international community has delegated security to the African Union, but its 7,000 troops can't even defend themselves, let alone protect civilians. One group of 18 peacekeepers was kidnapped last month, and then 20 soldiers sent to rescue them were kidnapped as well; four other soldiers and two contractors were killed in a separate incident.
What will happen if the situation continues to deteriorate sharply and aid groups pull out? The U.N. has estimated that the death toll could then rise to 100,000 a month...
This downward spiral has happened because for more than two years, the international community has treated this as a tolerable genocide. In my next column, my last from Darfur, I'll outline the steps we need to take. But the essential starting point is outrage: a recognition that countering genocide must be a global priority...
One Western aid worker in Darfur told me that she had visited an area controlled by janjaweed. In public, everyone insisted - meekly and fearfully - that everything was fine.
Then she spoke privately to two sisters, both of the Fur tribe. They said that the local Fur were being enslaved by the janjaweed, forced to work in the fields and even to pay protection money every month just to be allowed to live. The two sisters said that they were forced to cook for the janjaweed troops and to accept being raped by them.
Finally, they said, their terrified father had summoned the courage to beg the janjaweed commander to let his daughters go. That's when the commander beheaded the father in front of his daughters.
They told me they just wanted to die," the aid worker remembered in frustration. "They're living like slaves, in complete and utter fear. And we can't do anything about it."
That aid worker has found her own voice, by starting a blog called "Sleepless in Sudan" in which she describes what she sees around her. It sears at http://sleeplessinsudan.blogspot.com, without the self-censorship that aid groups routinely accept as the price for being permitted to save lives in Darfur.
Our leaders still haven't found their voices, though. Congress has even facilitated the genocide by lately cutting all funds for the African Union peacekeepers in Darfur; we urgently need to persuade Congress to restore that money.
So what will it take? Will President Bush and other leaders discover some backbone if the killing spreads to Chad and the death toll reaches 500,000? One million? God forbid, two million?
How much genocide is too much?
(To read the full text go to: http://select.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/opinion/27kristof.html?th&emc=th)
My Personal Reflections
(Photo credit: Richelle Reid. "Never Again" in five languages. Monument at Entrance to Dachau Concentration Camp)
In an online interview, Kristoff says that if 100 people from every congressional district had called their congressman during the Rawandan genocide, then that would have been enough to get congress to take it seriously and act to intervene. That doesn't seem too hard to me. I'm going to take him up on it and I ask that you join me.
*** THINGS WE CAN DO IN 10 MINUTES ***
Your 10 minute sacrifice could help save 100,000 lives.
1. Call or email your congress person in the next 10 minutes.
HERE'S THE LINK TO CONTACT YOUR CONGRESS PERSON. http://www.parenthub.com/family/time/people/congress.htm
You can use the copy of the letter I sent (pasted below). Then pass the link to this blog on and ask others to join you in acting now.
2. Write about Darfur in your blog or put links to articles on your website to get the word out.
3. Support Humanitarian and Human Rights Organizations that are there right now. "Save The Children" is one that Kristoff mentions in an online interview. I believe World Vision is there as well.
4. Support newspapers and magazines that report on Darfur. Sign up to Get NYTimes Select online newspaper service. You get special access to great articles like this one by Kristoff. When newspapers know there's a market, they print more articles about particular issues. Show them there's a market.
5. If you are a student, organize a campus event that creatively gets the word out about the ongoing Genocide in Darfur. (Okay, that might take more than 10 minutes.) ;p
I emailed my congress people using the link in the email above and it was really quick and easy. Here's a copy of the letter I sent. Feel free to copy it and use it in your own letter.
SAMPLE LETTER TO CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVE
Dear (SENATOR or HOUSE REP'S NAME HERE):
I recently read a series of articles in the NY Times by Nicholas Kristoff about the continuing Genocide in Darfur.
Last year Colin Powell stood before the world representing the U.S. and confirmed what we all knew. Genocide is happening in Darfur. This admission requires action by international law. Yet, still a year later, the international community turns a blind eye to the genocide in Darfur. Instead, we have turned over the responsibility to the African Union whose 7000 troops are not enough to bring order in Sudan. Now the situation is deteriorating. The UN estimates that the death toll could rise to 100,000 people per month.
While the U.S. may be able to avoid adherance to international law because of the UN's lack of enforcement measures, the representatives of this nation still have to answer to their electorate. Your electorate cares.
Therefore, I ask, "What is your plan for how you will press congress and the Bush administration to honor Articles 1-5 of the U.S. ratified UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of The Crime of Genocide?"
I look forward to receiving your response. I'll let my network know your plan once I'm notified.
Respectfuly,
(YOUR NAME HERE)
Finally, A Prayer.
God let our representatives hear our pleas for action.
Move them to care.
Empower them to act.
Move mountains on behalf of "the weak and oppressed" among us.
Continue to give us your heart for the least.
Please give us strength to care.
God have mercy on us
Have mercy on our world.
Have mercy on us.
Amen.
posted by Lisa Sharon Harper @ 8:30 PM
2 Comments:
I admit that as I read about that more, I can't help but think that maybe it would be better for me to be there instead of in Indonesia. Maybe if a big white guy from America gets killed people might take notice. I could write an indifferent Congress again and again that lives are worth more than money.
And hey, we went into Iraq to free the people, didn't we, so why wouldn't we do the same thing where even more people die?
great question, k.j... great question. and you know if a big white guy from america were to get killed over there, it would absolutely ignite the country ... for about a minute ... then everyone would go back to sipping lattes the week after and watching the newer more exciting disasters on the evening news.
i hate to sound so jaded, but -- well i really think we need to pray for this country. our american hearts have become so complacent. here's a great miroslav volf quote. it's the tagline to my emails now.
"Strangely enough, the havoc wreaked by indifference may be even 'greater than that brought by felt, lived, practiced hatred'."
~ Miroslav Volf, "Exclusion & Embrace"
deep, huh... our indifference may wreak even more havoc than the violence in sudan. that's one that'll make ya pause for a minute.
anyway, thanks for writing back.
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