Darfur:

The United Nations issued a statement saying that recent violence in North Darfur may be responsible for the displacement of more than 40,000 civilians. Sudan denies this.

STAND Out Loud, the 2008 National Student Conference, is just around the corner! Unfortuntately, the conference venue can only fit 400 student leaders, and registration is filling up quickly.

Remember, your spot at the conference isn’t reserved until you pay your registration fee, so get it in quickly to make sure that you don’t miss out on all that STAND Out Loud has to offer!

Fears that recent fighting in eastern DRC would spark a return to regional war appear likely to be realized, as longstanding animosity between DRC and Rwanda resurfaced this week in a major way.

On GW’s campus just a few weeks ago, 5 former secretaries of state – James Baker, Madeline Albright, Warren Christopher, Henry Kissinger, and Colin Powell – were interviewed by Christiane Amanpour and Frank Sesno. The group discussed many different global challenges, including Darfur.

The most important quote of the video? Christiane Amanpour’s shout-out to STAND: “Many, many people on campuses all over the United States have distinguished themselves by creating a grassroots movement for Darfur.”

We all watched the foreign policy-focused Presidential debate at Ole Miss, but one high school STAND chapter went to the center of the action. Check out this post from Elly Jackson of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.

Time tends to move slowly in Darfur:

From the earliest days of the genocide, Ali Kushayb could be seen leading and directing groups of Janjaweed militias as they swept across the desert, destroying countless Darfuri villages and Darfuri lives in their wake. According to Human Rights Watch, Kushayb "was one of the key leaders responsible for attacks on villages around Mukjar, Bindisi, and Garsila in 2003-2004 in West Darfur".

Before watching the final Presidential debate at 9 pm Wednesday night, be sure to hop on the October National Call at 8 pm EDT! 

Darfur:

The security situation in Darfur deteriorated severely this week: militias attacked a Darfur village, an ambush on UNAMID killed a Nigerian peacekeeper.

Don’t Vote. Seriously.

It is safe to say that most people are not familiar with the situation in East Burma. The name “Darfur” has finally disseminated into many households thanks to groups like STAND, although there is still muck work to be done. Most people’s experience with Burma extends as far as the zoo, where they can see the country’s Python (at least that’s where I first encountered Burma in my youth). The effort to get people to pay attention to Burma’s struggle for democracy, much less the situation in East Burma, is just beginning.