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Interfaith Yom Hashoah Remembrance Service - Silver Spring Presbyterian Church

Given by Naomi Sully on April 22, 2007 (12 Nissan 5767 )
Darfur- No More Denial, No More Bystanders

No more denial, no more bystanders.

It's a plea to not only notice, but to intervene and take action against the genocide that has been occurring for the past four years in Darfur. It begs us to end the culture of impunity that keeps egging on potential perpetrators of genocide.

I have joined you today to memorialize the Holocaust by talking to you about the genocide in Darfur. How much longer until the world, or even the United States, gives a clear message that destroying entire populations is intolerable? How many more people have to die? How many more women have to be raped? How many more families have to be torn apart until our government and other governments decide this is the last time we will be bystanders?

It is we who have to make this message clear because change comes from the bottom, not from the top. If we wait for our leaders, we will be waiting forever. It is our responsibility to tell our government that genocide, and being a bystander to the intentional destruction of human life is absolutely unacceptable to the American people.

This is my message to you, and I urge you to spread the same message.

While Darfur has been on the news, I do not want to assume everyone knows the background of the conflict, so I want to give a very brief overview. Darfur, basically a desert with scattered trees, is the Western province of Sudan, a country in Africa. The people of Darfur, who are primarily black Africans, have been enduring the harsh wrath of genocide since 2003 when two rebel groups staged an uprising against the Arab government complaining about the economic and political marginalization they had been experiencing as a population ostracized by their own government. Darfuris were struggling for their lives, and instead of instituting reforms as a response to their needs, the government reacted with violent repression against an already suffering population. The genocide today is an extension of this same repression that began in 2003.

The government is an Arab-dominated authoritarian dictatorship led by Omar al-Bashir who took the presidency by coup in 1989. President al-Bashir initiated the creation of a militia of Arab nomads that is called the Janjaweed, who are the primary perpetrating group of the genocide. While President al-Bashir will deny it to this day, it is absolutely certain that the government is funding the militia and giving them weapons to use against the people of Darfur.

Some statistics. Over 400,000 people have died, over 2 million have been displaced, countless women and girls have been raped. And despite the peace agreement that was signed last year, the violence has only gotten worse, and conditions continue to deteriorate.

Each attack is similar. The Janjaweed ride into the villages on their horses and camels with guns (made in China), kill the men and boys, and rape the women and girls. They burn the village to the ground, poison food supplies, poison wells. They often torture the people extensively before killing them. There have been reports of people being locked in their homes as they are burned, women and girls being held as sex slaves, and other unmentionable ways in which these people are suffering. Some people may manage to run away or escape. Many people are literally running for their lives trying to find somewhere to hide, but there are not many places to hide in the desert. Some communities are moving out of their villages for fear of an attack by the Janjaweed.

People in refugee camps are relatively safe. However, when they leave the camp to gather firewood, they are attacked. Men will be killed, and women will be raped -- this is an understood consequence of leaving the camps. So, older women are often sent out to gather the firewood because people think they are less likely to be raped. Each day though they have to walk farther to find wood due to deforestation; this is a huge risk that has to be taken just to eat.

The Sudanese government makes it extremely difficult to get aid to the people who need it. Permits and other endless applications are needed for everything. While children die from easily cured illnesses in the camps, doctors who have come from around the world are waiting at the gates of camps for their permits to be processed. This happens all the time. Most humanitarian organizations have left Darfur because it is so dangerous, but there are still some and their work is invaluable. However, violence has increased over the past few weeks, and even more workers have been pulled out of the area. More humanitarian workers were killed in the last half of 2006 than the past 2 years combined.

There are about 7,000 African Union troops on the ground. Unfortunately, they have not been able to provide sufficient protection because they simply do not have enough manpower or resources to protect the people. And what the people need more than anything is protection. This is why there has been so much pressure for international intervention.

Not only are we morally obligated to put an end to genocide, but the U.S. has a legal responsibility as well. I want to take a minute to introduce and/or re-introduce you to two documents that the U.S. has agreed to. The first one is the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. All UN signatories agreed to prevent and punish genocide, it's right there in the title.

A very important principle of the UN is that sovereignty of all nations is respected; however this is extremely problematic when a government is perpetrating genocide on its own people, and UN forces have to be allowed to enter the country.

The second, and less well-known document is called the Responsibility to Protect, an outcome of the UN World Summit of 2005. The basic idea of it is that each state has the responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, and other crimes against humanity. If they fail to do so, then the other states have the responsibility to protect the populations from these crimes. This starts to tackle the issue of limiting sovereignty. There are obviously still problems with translating this document into action since the Darfur genocide is still going on, but it is progress.

As some of you may have read last week, President al-Bashir has agreed to allow UN troops and some equipment to enter the Darfur region. However, it is really difficult to say whether this will materialize because President al-Bashir is known for going back on his word, so I try not to be too hopeful until I actually see results.

Let me say this also. If the Bush administration wanted to end the genocide in Darfur, it would be over. However, complex economic and political relationships have blurred the Bush administration's moral vision. China is a key player in supporting the Sudanese economy, and thus the government. Our delicate relationship with China has caused President Bush to tiptoe around confronting China's unethical decision to continue its affiliation with the genocidal regime of Sudan. And Sudan is an important intelligence partner in President Bush's "War on Terror." These are a couple of the reasons that complicate the simple concept of putting an end to the killing of innocent Darfuris. This is why we have heard a lot of talk, but not seen much action.

Trying to balance morality and politics, President Bush has been bluffing with proposed plans of action to end the violence, afraid of straining the important relationships we have with these nations. On the positive side, the U.S. has recognized the violence as "genocide," and the administration has given the majority of humanitarian aid to Darfur. We can feel good about these accomplishments, but rhetoric and humanitarian aid will not put an end to the violence.

I am also very proud to say that the Darfur movement has shown great progress in the way citizens, especially in the United States, have responded. There are over 600 high school and college organizations all over the country that are under the umbrella of STAND, the student anti-genocide coalition, that was created in response to Darfur. The Save Darfur Coalition includes over 170 organizations. Those are only two of the many coalitions that have been working on putting an end to the violence in Darfur. The activism, publicity, and education is all occurring during the genocide; and this just has not happened before. This movement is already historical, but to end the genocide would be monumental. I hope you will dedicate some time to participate in your own way.

So the big question is what do we do? What can I do? Well, when you ask different people, you get different answers. These are my personal suggestions:

1. Contact people you think you can get through to. If you know influential people, or are influential yourselves in the media, politics, religious communities, any community, then use that connection to advertise the cause and the need for action. Write op-eds, articles, e-mails to friends, letters to people who can make a large impact. Former President Clinton has said that if more people had made noise about what was going on in Rwanda, he would have done something about it.
2. Support divestment. China is the key international player, dominating Sudan's oil industry. 70-80% of Sudan's oil revenues go to the government's military expenditures, and they are funding the genocide. PetroChina is the largest investor in Sudanese oil, and Fidelity, based in Boston, has large amounts of money invested in PetroChina. I know many of you probably have investments in Fidelity, so send a message to Fidelity saying that you do not want your money funding genocide, and would like them to be a socially responsible investor. Be aware that Fidelity has responded to Darfur activists saying that it is not their responsibility to deal with genocide. I would then suggest you think about divesting your money. There is a website that gives more information on Fidelity's involvement with Darfur, it is www.FidelityOutOfSudan.org. And also divesting schools, cities, states. It is happening all over the country and I think this also sends a strong message.
3. Contribute to solar cookers. With solar cookers, the women in refugee camps would not have to leave to gather firewood, thus removing a very big risk to them. I recommend this as a potential fundraising project, or to direct individual donations to those organizations that work in camps of Darfuri refugees training them on how to make and use them. Go to www.solarcooking.org to find information on solar cookers all over the world, and Darfur specifically.
I want to leave you with a quote you may be familiar with, said by an extremely inspiring Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel:

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

Elie Wiesel (Oct. 1986)

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