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Latest info on Darfur : Jan 10, 2007
Thanks God for this Good News,
May God help build peace

Dear mike,
I want to share some important news from Khartoum. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson just released a joint statement with Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir that, if implemented, would bring some immediate security and relief to the people of Darfur as well as provide a clear path forward to long-term peace in the region.


We asked Governor Richardson to travel to Sudan to discuss ways to secure peace in Darfur and to end the genocide. The Governor was accompanied by Save Darfur Senior International Coordinator Ambassador (ret.) Lawrence Rossin, Refugees International Executive Director Kenneth Bacon, and Public and International Law and Policy Group senior attorney Amjad Atallah. Since Sunday, when they arrived in Khartoum, Governor Richardson and the delegation have visited Darfur and participated in a variety of meetings with government officials, rebel leaders, humanitarian officials, AU commanders and UN officials.

The promises from President Bashir in this agreement are encouraging. They include commitments to:
A 60-day ceasefire with an international peace summit to be held before March 15, 2007.
Sudan’s cooperation to work with the African Union and United Nations on the deployment of a hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur.

Ensuring “zero tolerance” policies for gender-based violence in Darfur.
Free access for humanitarian aid workers and journalists.
Click here to read the full joint statement and the press release.
Your concerns for the people of Darfur were voiced directly to President Bashir by Governor Richardson and Ambassador Rossin. We believe that today’s agreement offers a promising step forward to end this four-year nightmare for the people of Darfur. By no means, however, has the genocide ended.

We call urgently upon Sudan, the United Nations, the African Union, and the Bush Administration to make these promises become a reality for the long-suffering people of Darfur.
We must demand that the international community take advantage of this dramatic progress. Your help in this effort will be vital in the months ahead.

Thank you for your contribution to these new developments.

Best regards,
David RubensteinSave Darfur Coalition


AA,

I appeal to Muslims and every human on the earth to take time to understand this crisis; 400,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million innocent Citizens have been displaced.

This disgusting act has a additional shameful turn to it – it is the Muslims killing other Muslims. We have to condemn this barabarism. If there is an organization doing some thing about it, please join them, one such group is www.Savedarfur.org.

We have to speak up, speak up load when there is injustice no matter where and to whom. That is the least we can do. Insha Allah, on this link, we will continue to update the issue and you are welcome to post your comments and news here.

May God help us to be just.
Below this you will find information about Darfur.

Mike Ghouse
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com

FROM THE WEBSITE SAVE DARFUR.

Darfur has been embroiled in a deadly conflict for over three years. At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes and now live in displaced-persons camps in Sudan or in refugee camps in neighboring Chad; and more than 3.5 million men, women, and children are completely reliant on international aid for survival. Not since the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has the world seen such a calculated campaign of displacement, starvation, rape, and mass slaughter.

Since early 2003, Sudanese armed forces and Sudanese government-backed militia known as “Janjaweed” have been fighting two rebel groups in Darfur, the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The stated political aim of the rebels has been to compel the government of Sudan to address underdevelopment and the political marginalization of the region. In response, the Sudanese government’s regular armed forces and the Janjaweed – largely composed of fighters of Arab nomadic background – have targeted civilian populations and ethnic group from which the rebels primarily draw their support – the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa.

The Bush Administration has recognized these atrocities – carried out against civilians primarily by the government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias – as genocide. António Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, has described the situation in Sudan and Chad as “the largest and most complex humanitarian problem on the globe.” The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias are responsible for the burning and destruction of hundreds of rural villages, the killing of tens of thousands of people and rape and assault of thousands of women and girls.With much international pressure, the Darfur Peace Agreement was brokered in May 2006 between the government of Sudan and one faction of Darfur rebels.

However, deadlines have been ignored and the violence has escalated, with in-fighting among the various rebel groups and factions dramatically increasing and adding a new layer of complexity to the conflict. This violence has made it dangerous, if not impossible, for most of the millions of displaced persons to return to their homes. Humanitarian aid agencies face growing obstacles to bringing widespread relief. In August 2006, the UN’s top humanitarian official Jan Egeland stated that the situation in Darfur is “going from real bad to catastrophic.” Indeed, the violence in Darfur rages on with government-backed militias still attacking civilian populations with impunity.

On July 30, 2004, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1556 demanding that the government of Sudan disarm the Janjaweed. This same demand is also an important part of the Darfur Peace Agreement signed in May of 2006. On August 31, 2006, the Security Council took the further step of authorizing a strong UN peacekeeping force for Darfur by passing resolution 1706. Despite these actions, the Janjaweed are still active and free to commit the same genocidal crimes against civilians in Darfur with the aid of the Sudanese government.International experts agree that the United Nations Security Council must deploy a peacekeeping force with a mandate to protect civilians immediately. Until it arrives, the under-funded and overwhelmed African Union monitoring mission must be bolstered. And governments and international institutions must provide and ensure access to sufficient humanitarian aid for those in need.

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Lobbying Congress:

You can help pressure Congress to do more to help the people of Darfur by meeting with your congressional representative or members of his or her staff.

Now that the elections are over, we are asking our activists to meet with their Representative and Senators before the new Congress convenes. If your member has a poor record on Darfur, this is the perfect opportunity to educate him or her on the issues. If he or she is already a leader for Darfur, it is important that you thank them for their previous support and urge them to continue their efforts.

To learn how your member of Congress voted on important Darfur legislation please visit DarfurScores.org.While lobbying a member of Congress may sound intimidating, most of our activists find it to be an easy and enjoyable activity.

We have created the materials you need for a successful visit:

Overview of how to organize a lobby visit
Training guide for citizen lobbyists
Meeting outline for your visit
Sample letter to give to your member of Congress
Talking points on Darfur and our current policy requests of Congress


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