Daily Darfur: Looking for Leadership to Answer the Call of the Suffering
Published December 23, 2008 @ 07:21AM PT
Representatives Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md) and Barbara Lee (D-Oakland) are calling today for renewed American leadership to end the genocide in Darfur, and offer five steps for the incoming Obama administration:
- Reinvigorate the peace process.
- Ensure humanitarian access.
- Ensure peacekeepers are able to carry out their mandate.
- Engage the international community (and China in particular).
- Ensure that the North/South Civil War does not reignite.
The representatives are a bit vague on each of these points--it's only an op-ed, after all--but it's important nonetheless that members of the U.S. Congress are already taking up Darfur as a priority issue before Obama is even in office. The representatives write,
'On the walls of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial, one can still read these heartrending words from the camps: 'All of us dying here amidst the icy, arctic indifference of the nations, forgotten by life and the world.' And today, in another language, from another side of the world, those same words are still
audible."
The road to you-know-where is also paved with despicable intentions
In yet another example of just how vile the conflict in Darfur has become, the BBC reports that some 6,000 child soldiers, as young as 11 years old, are currently being used by forces on both sides--government and rebel.
The article notes that UNICEF is currently negotiating with various parties for the demobilization of child soldiers. The forced recruitment of child soldiers is, in my humble opinion, one of the most morally reprehensible and inexcusable acts of war--and those who engage are among a special category of scum.
[Photo from the BBC: Child soldiers in Sudan.]
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Comments (2)
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Michelle became involved in the anti-genocide cause at a young age, and has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns, ever since.
I agree that it sounds a bit vague, but at least they are using the word "peace" and "human" quite often. I just hope they aren't referring to peace as defined by George W. Bush. I am interested in the availability of water and food in Sudan as a whole. China could do an amazing P.R. stunt by providing these basic necessities to the people of Sudan in exchange for the oil that belongs to the PEOPLE OF SUDAN. I have no doubt that Obama can simply give a speech to the people of Sudan and conditions will improve almost overnight. Correct me if I'm wrong, cause I like being wrong.
Posted by John Thompson on 12/23/2008 @ 08:08PM PT
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As for what is happening to the children, that really pisses me off. Sounds like our old friend GREED has been showing off his handy work yet again.
And thank God for America, giving me the right to sit on my lazy butt, bitching and complaining about the rest of the world, while children, not much older than my daughter, are forced to go to war.
Posted by John Thompson on 12/23/2008 @ 08:12PM PT
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