Reach out to Darfuri women this Women’s Day

March 8, 2010 in Darfur, Sudan, donate, microenterprise, sexual violence | No comments

On International Women’s Day, we spotlight the Darfuri-led nonprofit Darfur Peace & Development’s Women’s Centers in the Kassab IDP (internally displaced persons) camp near Kutum and in the Abu Shouk IDP camp near El Fasher, North Darfur.

According to Darfur Peace & Development (DPDO), the guiding principle of the Women’s Centers is to equip Darfuri women with the resources to recover personal strength and develop resources to rebuild their lives. The centers integrate social, educational and income-generating services by providing:

  • A safe environment that encourages peer support in group activities
  • Facilitation of microenterprises to ensure continuing income for women supporting households
  • Training in first aid, literacy and solar cookers; use of solar cookers helps prevent women from having to seek firewood outside of camp, where they are subject to sexual violence

The microenterprise component includes the DPDO’s fostering of a group of skilled basket weavers, who create 400 to 500 baskets each month. The weavers rely heavily on the money they make from the baskets to care for their families.

DPDO works in partnership with the Women’s Peace Collection, which supports craftswomen living in the shadows of war, genocide and civil strife by providing a way to sell their artistry to people in the U.S. who want to help improve conditions.

The DPDO video features weavers at the Kassab Camp, where 23,000 people – mostly women and children – have been living, many for years, having fled the Darfur conflict.

According to the Women’s Peace Collection, these participants enjoy not only being able to earn money for each traditional basket they weave, but for being valued for their artistic expression.

They dance in the camps to the chant:

“We are not just refugees;
we are not just weavers;
we are artists!”

Last month, DPDO reported that more than 400 women are on the waiting list for Women’s Center services.

Learn more about supporting these Darfuri women with a purchase of a basket through the Women’s Peace Collection or by directly funding the programs at DPDO.

Visit Save Darfur for more suggestions on how to Stand with the Women of Sudan on International Women’s Day.

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Survivors look on as House panel calls it genocide

March 4, 2010 in Armenia, Turkey, genocide | No comments

Vigil Commemorates 90th Anniversary Of Armenian Genocide

Overcoming an 11th hour request by the Obama administration to delay the vote, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly decided, 23-22, to approve a resolution that officially recognizes the Armenian genocide.

Los Angeles Times’ Richard Simon reports that three survivors – ages 97, 98 and 105 – were present to support the measure.

Simon said that Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-NY) pointed to the survivors amid the packed meeting and said:

“They’re here for justice. How long can they wait?”

According to Professor Peter Balakian, author of The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America’s Response, it began in 1915 as a plan to exterminate Armenians, the largest Christian minority population then living on their ancient lands – today much of central and eastern Turkey. During World War I, the ruling party of the Ottoman Empire allegedly deported and massacred more than two million Armenians.

Scholars estimate between 1 and 1.5 million were killed by the end of the war.

Balakian said the idea of solving a social, cultural or political problem by exterminating a whole population – what was later termed genocide in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin – began in the twentieth century with the Armenian case.

Turkey’s ambassador to the U.S. Namik Tan was recalled to Ankara immediately after the vote. Turkey accepts that mass killings took place as part of wartime violence, but refutes the charge that it was genocide.

Leading up to the meeting, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked the panel’s chairman, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-CA), to delay the vote to avoid impeding progress on improved relations between Turkey and Armenia, who signed an accord last October.

The U.S. also relies on Turkey as a NATO partner to support its regional and security interests, including in Afghanistan and Iran.

Berman told the New York Times’ Brian Knowlton that while Turkey is an important ally, ” … nothing justifies Turkey’s turning a blind eye to the reality of the Armenian genocide.”

It is not clear if the measure will become before the full House; Berman said he would only bring it forth if there were enough votes to pass it.

This Sunday’s “60 Minutes” featured a story about the debate over the Armenian genocide, including a trip to a purported mass grave in Deir Zor, Syria, a region where 450,000 Armenians are believed to have died. Local children watching the news crew carried forth handfuls of bone fragments, prevalent just below the surface of the site’s towering, sandy mounds.

File Photo: At age 101 when this photo was taken in April 2005, Annie Karakaian survived the mass killings of Armenians in what was then the Ottoman Empire in 1915; here she attends a rally in New York City's Times Square, marking the 90th anniversary of the genocide. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Half the Sky Live featured across U.S., March 4

March 4, 2010 in Ethiopia, children, filmmakers, musicians, sexual violence | No comments

Hollywood Media Honors New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof

(March 4) – Leading up to International Women’s Day, audiences are gathering tonight in select theaters across the U.S. and Canada for Half the Sky Live at 7:30 p.m. local time. Here in Maine, Regal Cinemas Brunswick 10 is carrying the event.

Presented by CARE and hosted by journalist Andrea Mitchell, the event features musical performances and commentary about turning oppression into opportunity for women worldwide. Appearances include India.Arie, Maria Bello, Diane Birch, Michael Franti, CARE President/CEO Dr. Helene Gayle, Angelique Kidjo, Nicholas Kristof and Marisa Tomei.

The event was inspired by the New York Times bestseller, “Half the Sky,” by Kristof and fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sheryl WuDunn. The book features individual women in different countries who demonstrate real hope for change through their stories of overcoming oppression.

“Half the Sky” focuses on three issues women face:

  • Sexual trafficking
  • Maternal mortality
  • Gender-based violence

Kristof and WuDunn suggest that empowering women, who according to a Chinese expression “hold up half the sky,” is a powerful key to lifting people out of poverty and strengthening communities in developing countries.

Half the Sky Live, an event filmed in New York City on Feb. 11, also includes the short film “Woineshet,” about an Ethiopian girl who finds a way to overcome sexual violence and discrimination. Comprised of a 14-minute dramatization of Woinshet Zebene’s story and a 10-minute documentary overview of gender-based violence and bride abduction, the half-hour film is the directorial debut of Tomei and Lisa Leone.

File Photo: Actress and filmmaker Marisa Tomei joins New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristol at the Pacific Design Center on Oct. 27 in West Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

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LRA terrorizes Central African Republic people

February 22, 2010 in Central African Republic, Congo, ICC, LRA, Uganda, action, child soldier, crimes against humanity, sexual violence, southern Sudan | No comments

War And Poverty Fuel Conflict In Central African Republic

Two people were killed and 30 abducted on Friday night when Ugandan rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) stormed the Central African Republic (CAR) town of Rafai, ransacking a Catholic church.

The LRA has launched at least three attacks this month in southeastern CAR, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), invading Nzako and Kamandare. An attempt was made on Gbangomboro, but villagers had fled upon an early warning, according to AFP reports.

The African Press Agency said, when the Rafai attack began, some residents recognized the “Tongo-Tongo,” or LRA, as the same who had stormed Nzako, a mining town, two Thursdays ago. Hostages were also taken in Nzako.

Local resident Desire Gassi told Reuters that, in addition to the two who were killed, 14 people were severely wounded by rebels using machetes and clubs.

Speaking to Reuters, radio broadcaster Clement Loutemboli said rebels avoided using guns so as not to alert a nearby army base. The army ultimately interrupted the attack, forcing the LRA to flee on foot.

The fate of the 30 Rafai abductees is uncertain. The LRA is known to use hostages, especially children, as porters and army recruits, psychologically bonding them through horrific initiation rituals, including forced mutilation and even murder. Girls and women are also brutalized through sexual slavery.

Originally formed to overthrow the government within Uganda, the LRA also operates in southern Sudan, the DRC and CAR. Joseph Kony, indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, had led his LRA troops in the bush for 20 years.

LRA activities in northern DRC where featured in an audio slideshow posted by The Guardian newspaper in September.

Action: Support LRA disarmament legislation

To learn more about the LRA and how to help end its terror reign in central Africa, visit the Enough Project. Make sure the Congress members who represent you in Washington, D.C., are co-sponsors of LRA disarmament legislation in the U.S. House (H.R. 2478) and Senate (S. 1067).

File Photo: A boy walks along a street in Gordil in the northern Central African Republic (CAR), Dec. 12, 2007. CAR is one of the world's poorest and most neglected countries with an average life expectancy of 39 years. Navi Pillay made a one-day trip to CAR on Feb. 19, the first-ever visit by a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Darfur’s JEM group agrees to temporary truce

February 20, 2010 in Chad, Darfur, Sudan, peace | No comments

Sudanese Rebel Groups Arm Themselves As Peace Process Falters

Considered Darfur’s most powerful and heavily armed opposition group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has agreed to a temporary ceasefire with the government of Sudan today.

The development came during talks in the Chadian capital N’Djamena, hosted by President Idriss Deby, who said in a statement that a final agreement is expected by March 15, ahead of Sudanese elections in April.

The agreement, considered a “framework,” sets terms for future peace talks. According to JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam, who spoke to the AFP by phone, the parties must still agree on several issues, including return of internally displaced persons; power- and wealth-sharing; compensation and detainees. Adam added:

“We are committed to a peaceful solution for Darfur. Dr. Khalil (Ibrahim, JEM leader) asks to our force to stop” military operations.

Ghazi Salaheddine, advisor to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, said today’s agreement does not exclude developments coming out of talks in Doha, where meetings with multiple opposition groups resume on Monday.

According to the Sudan Tribune, JEM and other rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Movement Revolutionary Forces (SLM-RF) and the Addis Abab Group, have been unable to form a unified delegation for negotiations with the Sudanese government, which began in the Qatari capital, Jan 24. Sources close to the talks said they expect the mediator will again allow only one rebel group at the table.

On Friday, Adam told the Sudan Tribune that his group is committed to negotiating an end of the seven-year Darfur conflict – while noting a history of the Sudanese government’s unfulfilled obligations:

” … 17 February was the first anniversary of the goodwill agreement we signed with the Sudanese government last year. The Sudanese and the international community have the opportunity to realize that nothing had been implemented. However, despite the daily bombing on civilians and our positions in West Darfur, we are resolved to participate in the direct talks because we took arms to reach a negotiated political solution.”

Today, President Bashir announced he would cancel the death-by-hanging sentences given to 105 men, convicted for a 2008 JEM attack in Khartoum, and release 30 percent of the prisoners tomorrow.

According to Reuters, Bashir said on state television:

“Today we signed an agreement between the government and JEM in N’Djamena and, in N’Djamena, we heal the war in Darfur.”

Indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes allegedly committed in Darfur, Bashir is running for president in Sudan’s first multi-party elections in 24 years.

Earlier  this month, Bashir and Deby tentatively reconciled, ending a proxy war. Sudanese officials had previously accused Deby of aiding JEM rebels because he is an ethnic Zaghawa; Zaghawa tribe members are said to make up a large portion of JEM forces. Both Deby and JEM leaders deny such support.

Al Jazeera English’s May Welsh interviewed JEM leaders last April about the group’s ties with Chad and JEM’s aim for the future of Sudan:

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Chad says UN peacekeepers should withdraw

February 20, 2010 in Chad, Darfur, Sudan, sexual violence | No comments

Sudanese Seek Refuge In Chad

The United Nations Security Council is calling for continued talks about the future of its peacekeeping force (MINURCAT), after Chad requested the withdrawal of its military component.

On Wednesday, Chadian Permanent Representative Ahmad Allam-mi told a news conference at UN Headquarters in New York that that the troops of the UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad had served their purpose.

Established in Sept. 2007, the force was established to help protect civilians; promote human rights and rule of law – particularly related to sexual and gender-based violence; and promote peace. Its mandate comes up for renewal next month.

MINURCAT was established in response to violence and instability caused by armed groups from Chad and Sudan, who threatened the well-being of about 465,000 refugees and internally displaced persons. According to the UN, that group is comprised of:

  • 240,000 Sudanese refugees who fled to eastern Chad from the Darfur conflict;
  • 45,000 Central African Republic (CAR) refugees; and
  • 180,000 Chadians displaced by civil war in eastern Chad

Allam-mi told reporters that the military component – which totals about 2,800 of the 5,200 originally mandated – is no longer needed because, in part, “we will be able to protect the refugees.”

He added that Chad is open to compromise, stating that the MINURCAT civilian staff – about 430 international civilians, 400 local civilians and 150 UN volunteers – could remain.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Alain Le Roy later countered, saying the military component is required to protect the civilian staff. Le Roy is flying to Chad next week to consult further with the Chadian government, carrying the UN Security Council’s full support of MINURCAT, to determine a way forward.

Le Roy and John Holmes, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said they agreed that withdrawing MINURCAT would be detrimental civilians.

Holmes told the Agence France Presse (AFP): ”We want MINURCAT to stay and we want them to stay with their full complement, because we think they are very important for the safety and security of the people in the camps, the civilians in general and for the humanitarian operations.”

Allam-mi’s UN briefing comes after Chad and Sudan announced a new, tentative cooperation, including a joint force to operate along the nations’ shared borders.

Allam-mi’s briefing can be viewed at the UN News Centre.

File photo: Sudanese refugee children study at a school in the Djabal Refugee Camp on April 18, 2007, in Goz Beida, Chad. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

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Metzgar talks about Congo, “Reporter” on PBS

February 18, 2010 in Congo, filmmakers | No comments

Reporter - 2009 Sundance Portrait Session

NOW on PBS recently featured filmmaker Eric Daniel Metzgar and his documentary, “Reporter,” which debuts tonight on HBO.

The feature-length “Reporter” focuses on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his efforts to bring voice to the voiceless, while attempting to overcome so-called compassionate fatigue among American audiences.

A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Kristof’s 2006 award acknowledged his efforts to bring international attention to the genocide in Darfur. He also co-authored the book “Half the Sky: From Oppression to Opportunity for Women Worldwide” with wife and former Times columnist Sheryl WuDunn, an investment advisor with a focus on philanthropy.

“Reporter” follows Kristof on international reporting destinations, including a trip to document the ongoing humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Fellow advocates, who work to end genocide and crimes against humanity, may find one line in the film by author Samantha Powers particularly resonant:

In the age of personalized news, who is going to put in their search engine: genocide or atrocity or concentration camp?

(I might have responded with a raised hand to that hypothetical question when I saw the film during the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville this summer.)

Metzgar discusses the fears and triumphs he encountered while accompanying Kristof to Congo and what he hopes viewers of the film will takeaway in the NOW on PBS episode, “Caring About Congo”:

File Photo: Director Eric Daniel Metzgar (left) and Nicholas Kristof of the film "Reporter" at the Film Lounge Media Center during the 2009 Sundance Film Festival on January 17, 2009 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Matt Carr/Getty Images)

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Mogadishu’s violence exacts heavy civilian price

February 14, 2010 in Somalia | No comments

Somali Refugees Live Desperate Existence In Camps In Neighboring Kenya

An article by Lutfi Sheriff Mohamed and Jeffrey Fleishman in today’s Los Angeles Times, “Somalia student attends class in war zone,” tells the story of Omar Nor.

A third-year computer science major at Benadir University in Mogadishu, Nor survived a suicide-bomb attack during a graduation ceremony there in December. Students, teachers and cabinet ministers where among the 20 dead.

Such a target was a particularly painful symbol for greater Somalia and its hopes for the future. What started as a rare celebration in the Somali capital, the graduation ceremony was set to recognize medical students, who are desperately needed in the country. 2008 was the first time the University graduated medical students since warlords crushed the last stable regime in 1991.

Still encountering flashbacks from that day, which left him splattered by the blood of fellow students, the 25-year-old Nor described to the L.A. Times how he continues to face perils just to get to and from his classes each day:

“When I go early morning to the university, I’m afraid I’ll be trapped between two opposing sides, and on my return home I’m scared that looters have stolen my belongings. The day before yesterday, uniformed troops took my cellphone and I was terrified they’d arrest me and accuse me of being one of those who hurls grenades.”

Meanwhile, the BBC reports that fighting has forced thousands of civilians to flee Mogadishu since Wednesday, citing observations by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

In addition to the 8,000 people who have fled, the UNHCR said that 24 people have been killed and 40 injured.

Somali refugee Abukar Ahmed Keniar, 12, is held by his uncle Noor Hassan Noor, Aug. 24, 2009, at Dadaab, the world's biggest refugee complex in Dadaab, Kenya. Abukar was shot three months ago in Mogadishu, Somalia, and is now paralyzed in one leg and fled to Kenya seeking treatment and security. The Dadaab refugee complex in northeastern Kenya consists of three separate camps and has been in operation for 18 years and, at the time of this photo, was home to 289,500 inhabitants. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Remembering Dr. Alison Des Forges (1942-2009)

February 14, 2010 in Rwanda, genocide, sexual violence | No comments

Premiere Of HBOs Sometimes In April

Feb. 12 marked the one-year anniversary of the death of Dr. Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to the Africa division of Human Rights Watch for nearly 20 years.

Dr. Des Forges devoted her life to the people of Rwanda and the Great Lakes region of Africa, and was widely considered a leading expert on the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

She was killed in the crash of Flight 3407 from Newark, en route to Buffalo, where she lived.

When the genocide began in April 1994, Dr. Des Forges called immediately and continually for life-saving intervention. But the international community failed to act and, during the span of 100 days, more than 800,000 men, women and children were left to suffer brutal, horrific deaths. The death toll is equivalent to the present-day population of San Francisco.

And in a widely underreported statistic, Women for Women International, which is now working in Rwanda to empower women and strengthen communities, says that an estimated 500,000 women and girls were raped, tortured and physically assaulted during the genocide.

An interview with Dr. Des Forges is featured by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in which she describes phone calls with friend and colleague, Dr. Monique Mujawamariyaw, who immediately found herself in the center of the violence. Their calls began within 30 minutes of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana plane being shot down.


In a longer interview with PBS’s Frontline for “The Ghosts of Rwanda,” Dr. Des Forges adds that Dr. Mujawamariya said upon hanging up, “I don’t want you to hear this.”

Dr. Des Forges suffered in that silence until days later, learning that her friend did survive, first fleeing the house; then creeping back at night to hide above the ceiling; and later seeking refuge at the Hotel des Milles Collines.

This hotel was the central setting in the film Hotel Rwanda, where manager Paul Rusesabagina saved the lives of 1,268 people. Rusesabagina later founded the Hotel Rwanda Rusesabagina Foundation, which works to prevent future genocides, and raise awareness for a new truth and reconciliation process in Rwanda and the Great Lakes region.

Thanks to the actions of Rusesabagina and Dr. Des Forges, Dr. Mujawamariya has gone on to become founder and president of Mères-Enfants du Monde (MEM) in Montreal, where she now lives.

During her tribute at Dr. Des Forges’ memorial service in New York last May, Dr. Mujawamariya said:

“This Alison whom I’ve described – I think she’s not known by the general public, which knows the internationalist, the eminent historian with a passion for human rights. I feel privileged to have known almost all of Alison’s facets … I can say with confidence, now that she has passed over to the other side: ‘Alison, you were and you are my angel.’”

On this sad anniversary, our thoughts go out to Dr. Des Forges’ family and friends, especially her children and husband Roger, a University at Buffalo history professor and China specialist. The two met as high school students and model United Nations members in the Schenectady, NY, area.

In the Feb. 14, 2009, Buffalo News article by Michelle Kerns, Roger said of the time he first met Alison:

“I felt that she was beautiful in both body and spirit.”

File Photo: Author Alison Des Forges takes part in a discussion panel for the premiere of HBO's "Sometimes In April" at the Pierre Hotel, March 7, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Hawthorne/Getty Images)

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Enough Said features Apple letter campaign

February 8, 2010 in Congo, advocacy, apple, conflict minerals, sexual violence | No comments

Enough Said Blog

(Click above to continue reading at enoughproject.org)

The Enough Project’s Enough Said blog has published our guest post about the Sheltering Tree Project’s Apple letter-writing campaign, aimed at helping end conflict minerals trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

If you’d like to join the campaign, you’re welcome to customize these tools or create your own:

  • Sample letter, applicable to senior leadership, board of directors, public relations
  • Unique letters (4), aimed at Apple spokesmen and their publicists
  • Mailing list, mail-merge ready in Microsoft Word

Feel free to contact us if there’s any way we can make the tools more accessible or useful.

For background information, you may wish to include with the letter:

On an environmental note, I chose a standard-mail campaign for greatest impact, but I was sure to use 100% post-consumer-waste recycled paper. To save paper and avoid additional postage charges, print the attachments double-sided.

Gold Rush Fuels DR Congo Crisis

Another way to participate is to take part in the Enough Project’s Advocacy Days, which begin a week from today, Mon., Feb. 15. Visit Raise Hope for Congo today to find out how you can meet with your Representative in your home district to express how important it is that he or she supports the Conflict Minerals Trade Act of 2009 (H.R. 4128).

If your representative is not already a co-sponsor, make that your goal.

Mainers can contact jenni [at] shelteringtreeproject.org to join us for a pending meeting at the Portland, Maine, offices of Rep. Chellie Pingree (1st District).

Enormous thanks go out to John Bagwell, Laura Heaton and the entire Enough Project staff, doing great work and putting in long hours toward the mission to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity.

We are also grateful to our generous and kind family of supporters, whose presence and encouragement mean the world.

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