In this week’s news:
large-scale conflicts continue between the Janjaweed/Sudanese Army and the Darfur rebel groups – Burmese opposition leader ends her hunger strike – and the fresh fighting breaks out between the Congolese Army and a Laurent Nkunda’s armed forces. Read on for more…
Darfur
The first time I heard Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, speak, she told a personal story that’s remained extremely meaningful for me in considering how to approach my role as an activist. The story had to do with the pitfalls in her relationship with the atrocities that she works to portray; she recounted how, working in Bosnia during the war, she was able to begin to make a name for herself as a journalist.
Last week, this space introduced the role of DRC’s mineral resources in fueling the ongoing violence in the east – particularly how the illegal exploitation of minerals by armed groups on all sides provides both a means and an incentive for these groups to maintain the current state of insecurity. Experts, including organizations like Global Witness, warn that the ailing peace process is unlikely to survive unless the issue of resource exploitation is addressed in a serious way.
On his blog today, Nicholas Kristof gave STAND a shout-out, writing that students have taken the lead in the fight against genocide:
"University campuses, backed by organizations like STAND, have been very active on Darfur, and high school groups have started and expanded groups like Dollars for Darfur…I hope President Bush sees this and feels suitably mortified that kids are acting where he is paralyzed."
It is the hunger period in Darfur: the month before the harvest season when food stores are at their lowest and hunger is the highest. As the fields of Darfur fill with crop ready for the harvest, the skies of Darfur have filled with bombs, and the news from Darfur has been filled with headlines of new attacks on rebel bases and civilian villages by the Sudanese Army:
· “Sudanese Army Bombing N. Darfur” – BBC
On September 26th and October 2nd, Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill of PBS will each moderate a presidential and vice-presidential debate. It’s our responsibility to make sure that both moderators ask the candidates about their Darfur policies.
We’re calling on all activists to write letters to Gwen Ifill and Jim Lehrer urging them to ask a question about Darfur. Address letters to each moderator at:
Insecurity: The Government of Sudan has launched a huge offensive into rebel territory in North , Central , and Southern Darfur, and stands accused of bombing rebel bases and civilians.
WRock for Darfur was a benefit event combining the anti-genocide movement and Harry Potter fandom to raise funds for and awareness of the refugees of Darfur, hosted by the JUUstice LeagUUe of Poughkeepsie who are a chapter of both STAND and the Harry Potter Alliance.
The violence that erupted on August 28 between the Congolese army and General Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP militia in North Kivu province continues this week, prompting international outcry and intervention by MONUC, the 17,000-strong peacekeeping mission in DRC. In response to the fighting, the worst since the signing of a January 2008 ceasefire, diplomats from the UN, the African Union, and the European Union released a rare joint statement calling on both sides to cease hostilities and return to their initial positions.
Today’s youth have been nicknamed Generation Q– the Quiet Generation. While this may seem ironic to those who have dedicated themselves to the anti-genocide movement– or any of the other critical movements of our time– the reality is that too often today’s youth are associated with ipods, video-games, MTV addictions, and perhaps most tragically, apathy.
