Daily Darfur: Looking to Get Involved?

From the wonderfully titled piece in the Denver Sustainable City Examiner, "Why you should oppose genocide in Darfur before 10:00am Mountain Time on March 17":

"On Tuesday, March 17, 2009, members of the House of Representatives will have will have the opportunity to sign letters to three Sudanese allies, urging them to take urgent action against the genocide in Darfur.  The letters are authored by Congressmen Capuano and McCaul and are addressed to Chinese President Hu Jintao, Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa and African Union Chairman Muammar Qadhafi

A national hotline: 1-800-GENOCIDE, has been assembled to make it easy to contact elected officials in D.C. on this issue.  Please contact your representative before 12:00p.m. Eastern Standard Time and 10:00a.m. Mountain Time on March 17th and ask your representative to sign the letters.  The letters urge these leaders to send the clear message - that expelling humanitarian aid agencies from Sudan and putting Darfuri lives at even greater risk - is unacceptable.

You will need to wait through the option to connect to Secretary of State, Clinton.  After that, press 1 to connect to your Representative.  The 800 number has a prompt for entering your zip code and will connect you to the appropriate representative."

Check out updates from "Camp Outrage" in LA at Stop Genocide Now.

See the Save Darfur Coalition for a list of events in other cities, as well as the "Call to Action" for faith communities.

And if you're feeling a bit frustrated and disillusioned, see the ENOUGH Project's new report, "Why Activism (Still) Matters for Sudan...and What You Can Do."

News Round Up:

Fox News hits the nail on head:

"Darfur activists are now starting to see a ‘disconnect' between the bold action once promised by Obama as a presidential candidate and the potentially drawn-out approach the administration might now have to pursue.

‘The situation on the ground is not waiting for the policy review to be concluded,' said Jerry Fowler, of the Save Darfur Coalition. ‘We need the presidential engagement and we need it now.'"

I would clarify, however, that "bold action" and a "drawn out approach" should not be mutually exclusive --- any pursuit of sustainable peace will, indeed, be drawn out, but immediate crises that occur during that course must be met with immediate action.

The International Criminal Court made a (vain) attempt to solicit Qatar's cooperation with the arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

The New York Times reports that the transfer of a European Union "bridging force," deployed to deter attacks on Darfuri refugees and Chadian IDPs in Eastern Chad, back to the United Nations comes at a sensitive time, as the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) braces for a new influx of refugees fleeing the humanitarian crisis created by the expulsion of 13 major aid agencies earlier this month.

[Photo from Stop Genocide Now: Activists Emily (left) and Suzie, in front of the Federal Building in LA.]