More Resources on Sudan

At this hour, the world is witnessing terrible suffering and horrible crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan, crimes my government has concluded are genocide.

U.S. President George W. Bush, before the General Assembly of the United Nations, (September 21, 2004)

Over 50,000 people were killed in Darfur, Western Sudan between February 2003 and September 2004. More than one million people have been driven from their homes and 200,000 have sought refuge in neighboring Chad, many of them beyond the reach of humanitarian agencies. The barbarity and suffering of this civil war continues to this day.

The international community needs to increase pressure on the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjawid militia immediately. There have been too many delays.

Where to Learn More

These are just a few examples of the many places to learn about Darfur over the Internet. To find many others do a Google search for “Darfur”, “Sudan” or “Human Rights”.

U.S. Dept. of State, Colin Powell on Darfur, August 5, 2004

U.S. Dept. of State, Colin Powell Reports Sudan Responsible for Genocide in Darfur, Sept. 9, 2004

Amnesty International

Resolution 1556 (2004), Adopted by the Security Council of the United Nations, at its 5015th meeting, on 30 July 2004 (African Union website)

WHO: Maps for Sudan Humanitarian Crisis

Dying In Darfur, By Samantha Power, The New Yorker, August 30, 2004

Human Rights Watch

U.N. Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to paragraphs 6 and 13 to 16 of Security Council resolution 1556 (August 30, 2004)

Take Action

Write to Your Local Newspaper: Or contact your local radio and TV stations, and ask them for more news on Darfur! The Integrated Regional Information Networks, has a CD-Rom available about Darfur: Peace under Fire: Sudan’s Darfur Crisis. This is for use in advocacy and has links and reports and articles. Contact irin@ocha.unon.org for a copy.

Write to the Members of the U.N. Security Council: Urge them to take action on Darfur to reverse ethnic cleansing and to open the region to humanitarian access. Ask the Security Council to do the following:

• Ask the African Union, under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, to increase the number of troops on the ground in Darfur and to expand its mandate to include protection of civilians;
• Fully support the African Union protective military and police mission;
• Impose an arms embargo against the Sudanese government, with a mechanism for monitoring and enforcement; and
• establish an international commission of inquiry to collect evidence of the atrocities committed in Darfur; such a commission was described in the report of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights of May 7, 2004.

The current members of the Security Council are: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Brazil, Chile, China, France, Germany, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russian Federation, Spain, United Kingdom, United States.

Contact information for the U.N. Mission of these countries is available at: http://www.un.org/Overview/missions.htm.

Write to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan: Ask him to take the lead on advocacy for Darfur in the international forum, and to seek a broad international coalition of countries concerned about these massive human rights abuses and imminent famine. Ask him to visit Darfur and speak out regularly on the need to take international action to prevent a tragedy in Darfur. You may contact him at: inquiries@un.org

Write to the Sudanese Government: Ask the Sudanese government to do the following:

• Disarm and disband the government-sponsored and -supplied militia forces/janjaweed active in Darfur;
• Withdraw those militia forces/janjaweed from the parts of Darfur they have occupied as a military force from 2003 to the present;
• Investigate and prosecute those government forces and allied militias and government officials responsible for the Darfur campaign (2003-present);
• Provide full and expedited humanitarian access to the internally displaced (in displaced areas and on return to their home areas), and to those returning from Chad;
• Provide full and expedited access for the international human rights monitoring mission; and
• Comply immediately with all the terms of the ceasefire agreement of April 8, 2004.

Letters to the Sudanese government should be addressed to the following individuals:

President Omar El Bashir
Mr Ali Osman Mohamed Taha,
First Vice-President
People's Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: 00-249-11-771025

[Salutation: Your Excellency]

Mr Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin
Minister of Justice and Attorney General Ministry of Justice
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: 00-249-11-770883
[Salutation: Dear Minister]

Mr Mustafa Osman Ismail
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
PO Box 873
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: 00-249-11-779383
[Salutation: Dear Minister]

Mr Alzawahi Ibrahim Malik
Minister of Information
Ministry of Information and Communications
PO Box 291
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: 00-249-11-780146
[Salutation: Dear Minister]

Please send copies of your letters to:

His Excellency Khadir H. Ahmed
Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan
2210 Mass Ave N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008
Fax: 202-667-2406

Contact Your Elected Representatives: Write and call your representatives in Congress and the State Department, asking them to support U.S. and international efforts to reverse ethnic cleansing and prevent famine in Darfur. Ask President Bush, Congress, and the State Department to do the following

• Ask President Bush to speak out on Darfur; when he denounced the abuses on April 7, the government quickly entered into a ceasefire agreement.
• Support a Chapter VII resolution in the U.N. Security Council that will reverse ethnic cleansing, protect civilians, permit the voluntary return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes in safety and dignity, and insure full humanitarian access;
• Support the deployment of U.N. human rights monitoring team to Sudan;
• Demand accountability for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity in Sudan: ask the U.S. to collect evidence for future trials against individuals implicated in war crimes and human rights abuses.

You may find the contact information for your Representative or Senator at: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/.

You may also contact the State Department by writing to the acting head of African affairs at the State Department, Charles Snyder, at afpastaff@state.gov, or the U.S. mission to the United Nations at usa@un.int.

You may write to President George W. Bush at the White House, Washington, D.C. or email: president@whitehouse.gov

Donate to Humanitarian Agencies: A number of nongovernmental humanitarian agencies are providing help to Sudanese refugees in Chad and to Darfurians inside Sudan. Contact the following agencies for more information on their work in Chad and Darfur:

CARE
151 Ellis Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30303-2440
United States
Phone: 1-800-521-CARE ext. 999

Doctors Without Borders USA
P.O. Box 1856
Merrifield, VA 22116-8056
New York Office Phone: 1-888-392-0392

International Committee of the Red Cross
19 avenue de la Paix
1202 Geneva, Switzerland

International Rescue Committee
122 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10168
United States
Phone: 212-551-3000

Save the Children-US
Attn: Donor Services
54 Wilton Road
Westport, CT 06880
Phone: 1-800-728-3843

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
c/o USA for UNHCR
1775 K Street, NW Suite 290
Washington, DC 20006
United States
Phone: 1-800-770-1100

UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund)
c/o U.S. Fund for UNICEF
333 East 38th Street
New York, NY 10016
United States

---

Some portions of this post are copyright 2004, Human Rights Watch, 350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor,New York, NY 10118-3299 USA, http://www.hrw.org/