|
|
|
Jewish World Review July 29, 2005 / 22 Tammuz, 5765 More needs to be done in Darfur By Cokie and Steve Roberts
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Last winter, Colleen Connors was driving through the Washington,
D.C., suburb of Bethesda and saw a sign on the side of a synagogue
that read "SAVE DARFUR." "I almost crashed my car," said Connors, a
public relations executive with two young daughters.
The human disaster in the Darfur region of the Sudan had "just been
eating away at me," said Connors, and now there was something she
could do about it. She decided that every "community of faith"
should be able to express a similar sentiment, and sat down with two
friends, Laura Kumin and Jamie Butler, to plan a strategy.
They designed a 3-by-8-foot banner with white letters on a green
background that reads, "A Call to Your Conscience." A message in the
corner refers viewers to a Web site, www.SaveDarfur.org, sponsored
by more than a hundred organizations that are trying to keep the
Darfur crisis from slipping off the political radar.
The banners, said Connors, are aimed at everybody from the "mom in a
minivan" who might donate money or write her congressman to the
journalists, think-tankers and Hill staffers who directly influence
policy. "They need to see this over and over again," she said.
The idea is taking off. Eight or nine houses of worship in the
Washington area are already on board. The Save Darfur Coalition has
just ordered a hundred banners, and will soon be selling them to
congregations around the country. The goal, said Martha Heinemann of
the Coalition, is to raise the issue of Darfur "higher on the
administration's policy list."
The statistics about Darfur, ravaged by civil war since early 2003,
are so huge that they almost lose their meaning: as many as 400,000
dead and 2.5 million homeless, with 200,000 refugees in neighboring
Chad. Heinemann praises the Bush administration for labeling the
carnage as "genocide," but adds, "Still more needs to be done."
Things have brightened a bit recently. Rival factions have settled a
long-standing conflict in southern Sudan, and a new government has
taken power in Khartoum. But Darfur, in the eastern part of the
country, continues to boil, and life remains extremely hazardous for
refugees crammed into unsafe and unsanitary camps. A United Nations
spokesman described the danger: "The people are still very, very
afraid of the activities of the militias. There is a lot of banditry
going on in Darfur."
The most pressing issue is the role of the 3,000 troops from African
countries now patrolling the region. More are needed, says
Heinemann, and their mandate must be broadened. Presently they act
mainly as observers, without authority to use their arms to protect
civilians. And those civilians badly need protection, particularly
women who fear capture and rape by roving marauders. Even
international aid workers are constantly at risk.
American and NATO forces are providing logistical support for the
Africans, but there's no appetite in the West for direct military
involvement. Apparently there's no appetite for confronting China,
either, which gets 6 percent of its oil from the Sudan and threatens
to block resolutions that would deepen the international commitment
to Darfur.
That's why Heinemann is right when she says that more needs to be
done. But as Colleen Connors, the banner lady, observes, Darfur is
an easy place to shove aside: "It's far away, and a lot of the names
are hard to pronounce." TV cameras don't get there very often, and
when they do, the murky tribal politics of the region are almost
impossible to explain.
About 230,000 green bracelets have been sold at $1.50 apiece to
raise money. The motto inscribed on them is inspired by a favorite
phrase of President Bush: "Not On Our Watch — Save Darfur."
A "witness tour" is planned for the fall, bringing refugees from the
camps in Chad to speak directly to Americans. Meanwhile, pictures
from the camps can be viewed on the Web site of the Holocaust Museum
in Washington (www.ushmm.org/conscience).
So here's a summer project beyond beaches and barbeques. Buy a
bracelet, view a picture, tell a friend, send a check. Better yet,
put a banner on the side of your church or synagogue or mosque. As
Colleen Connors said, your neighbors "need to see this over and over
again."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on the Roberts' column by clicking here. © 2005, NEA |
Columnists
Toons
Lifestyles | |||||||||||
