Sunday, July 10, 2005
Help stop Darfur genocide
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Blanding, of Roanoke County, is an elementary school counselor in Bedford County.
After reading "The Diary of Ann Frank" as a ninth-grader, I asked my mother why we didn't stop the Holocaust and why the Nazis were allowed to murder 6 million Jews. She said at the time we didn't know how bad it was.
I have wondered since then whether we might respond any better if something like that happened today. Tragically, genocide is being committed right now, in the Darfur region of Sudan. And this time, we know just how bad it is.
We know that more than 200,000 men, women and children have been murdered by the Janjaweed, ethnic Arab militia groups backed by the government of Sudan. We know that at least 2 million others have been run from their homes, thousands having been tortured or raped, and are struggling to survive in makeshift camps and shelters of sticks and scraps.
We know tens of thousands are at risk of starvation or death from disease as a result on an ongoing calamity President Bush now calls genocide.
We know all too well how bad it is this time. We know from the African Union, the United Nations, our daily newspaper, television, radio and the Internet. Former U.S. Marine Brian Steidle documented the conflict for the African Union. His hauntingly tragic text and photographs can be viewed at the web site of the Holocaust Museum, www.committeeofconscience.org.
Steidle writes that words can't describe the barbarity with which Janjaweed deal with the unarmed victims they attack in their mud and thatch huts. People are shot. Men are castrated and left to die. Women are routinely gang-raped, branded or have their throats slit. Ears are cut off, eyes plucked out and wells poisoned with the corpses of people and livestock.
Government helicopters loiter overhead to strafe or to bomb, adding the horror of 21st-century warfare to the Stone Age methods employed by Arab Africans attempting to wipe out black Africans in a grim offshoot of Sudan's 30-year civil war.
Our own government hasn't been silent. President Bush recently spoke out against the atrocities, saying "the violence in Darfur region is clearly genocide," in calling for an end to the bloodshed.
Some progress is being made in Congress. The Darfur Accountability Act was introduced earlier this year by Sen. John Corzine, D-N.J., and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan. The bill provides for sanctions against those responsible for genocide, a military no-fly zone over Darfur and a presidential envoy to bring peace to Sudan.
In recent days, I received a letter from Charles Snyder, the State Department's senior representative in Sudan, outlining the action the United States is taking. We are working with the African Union, the United Nations and European Union to improve the efficiency of the African Union Mission in Sudan and have committed more than $95 million in support of this security force.
We've pledged $358 million for emergency food, water and health supplies this year alone. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has met with leaders in Africa and Europe to try to end the violence. Snyder writes that the United States is also working to bring justice to the people responsible for the atrocities through the International Criminal Court, which briefed the U.N. Security Council on the unfolding catastrophe within the last two weeks.
Still, the question haunts us: What can one person do?
One can pray. And in prayer, one can remember that the sweet Lord Jesus taught, "To whom much is given, much is required."
In honoring that teaching, one can contribute to legitimate humanitarian organizations that have the structure in place to render aid. Mercy Corps, The Christian Children's Fund, The American Red Cross, American Jewish World Service, Catholic Relief Services and World Vision are a few listed on the Holocaust Memorial Web site.
Answering the Call, a Roanoke ministry, has sponsored several humanitarian efforts to this region and has plans to return this summer.
One can be informed and respond with conscience and knowledge.
One can write letters to our elected officials, stating simply that we, as Americans, publicly condemn genocide; we support the U.N. Genocide Convention; we support diplomatic efforts to provide humanitarian relief to the 2 million survivors; we want to see the criminals prosecuted; and we do not want to lift sanctions while civilians are being shot because they are black Africans living in Darfur.
We will not deliberately turn a blind eye to their suffering. We believe ignoring genocide invites more of the same. We do not want to tell our children that, even when we knew what was happening, we did not respond.
