Just forwarding emails does the job!! 3 years ago

For Immediate Release May 29, 2007

Fighting Genocide In Darfur

President Bush Announces Increased Sanctions Against The Government Of Sudan

Today, President Bush Announced The Expansion And Tightening Of Economic Sanctions Against The Government Of Sudan. The United States is now taking the steps the President outlined last month because the government of Sudan continues to violate its numerous commitments to stop the violence and suffering in Darfur.

President Bush Announced These Steps Last Month In A Speech At The U.S. Holocaust Museum. The U.S. held off on implementing them because the United Nations believed President Bashir should be given a “last chance” to meet his obligations to stop the killing. It is now clear that he has continued to break his word.

The World Has A Responsibility To Help Put An End To The Genocide In Darfur. The people of Darfur have suffered for too long at the hands of a government that is complicit in the bombing, murder, and rape of innocent civilians. The Bush administration has called these actions by their rightful name: genocide.

President Bashir Has Not Fulfilled His Obligations To Stop The Violence in Darfur

President Bashir Has Not Met His Obligations, And The Dire Security Situation On The Ground In Darfur Has Not Changed. President Bashir’s actions over the past few weeks follow a long pattern of promising cooperation while finding new methods of obstruction.

One day after President Bush spoke about this matter last month, President Bashir’s military bombed a meeting of rebel commanders designed to discuss a possible peace deal with the government.

In the following weeks, he used his Army and government-sponsored militias to attack rebels and civilians in south Darfur.

He has taken no steps to disarm these militias in the year since the Darfur Peace Agreement was signed.

His senior officials have continued to oppose deployment of the UN Peacekeeping Force.

Today, The U.S. Is Taking The Steps President Bush Announced In April

The Department Of Treasury Is Tightening U.S. Economic Sanctions On Sudan.

With this new effort, the United States will more aggressively enforce existing sanctions against Sudan’s Government.

The Treasury Department will add 30 companies owned or controlled by the Government of Sudan to its list of Specially Designated Nationals.

The U.S. is also targeting an additional company that has been transporting weapons to the Sudanese government and militia forces in Darfur.

All these companies are barred from the U.S. financial system, and it is a crime for American companies and individuals to knowingly do business with them.

The U.S. Is Targeting Sanctions Against Individuals Responsible For Violence. These sanctions will isolate these persons by cutting them off from the U.S. financial system, barring them from doing business with any American citizen or company, and calling the world’s attention to their crimes.

The President Is Directing The Secretary Of State To Consult With The United Kingdom And Other Allies On A New United Nations Security Council Resolution.

This resolution will apply new sanctions against the Government of Sudan and against individuals found to be violating human rights or obstructing the peace process.

It will impose an expanded embargo on arms sales to the Government of Sudan.

It will prohibit Sudan’s Government from conducting any offensive military flights over Darfur.

It will strengthen the international community’s ability to monitor and report any violations.

Today’s Action Builds On Previous U.S. Efforts To Achieve Peace In Darfur

America’s Commitment Is Clear, And We Are Working For The Day When The Families Of This Troubled Region Are Able To Return Safely To Their Homes And Rebuild Their Lives In Peace.

Since this conflict began, we have provided more than $1.7 billion in humanitarian and peacekeeping assistance for Darfur.

The U.S. is the world’s largest single donor to the people of Darfur.

The U.S. Will Continue To Push For UN Support For African Union Peacekeepers And Quick Transition To A UN-African Union Force.

African Union peacekeepers remain the only force in Darfur that is protecting the people.

The U.S. will continue to work for the deployment of a larger, hybrid force of African Union and UN peacekeeping troops.

We will continue to support the diplomacy of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The U.S. will also continue to insist on the full implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement.

The U.S. will continue to promote a broadly supported and inclusive political settlement that is the only long-term solution for the crisis in Darfur.

The United States Will Not Avert Our Eyes From A Crisis That Challenges The Conscience Of The World

The people of Darfur are crying out for our help – and they deserve it.

The United Nations Security Council, the African Union, and all members of the international community must reject efforts to obstruct implementation of the agreements that would bring peace to Darfur and Sudan.

President Bashir should stop his obstruction, allow the peacekeepers in, and end the campaign of violence that continues to target innocent men, women, and children.

Yes, but why doesn’t President Bush take some trained troops from the war in Iraq and just end the genocide in DarFur? It doesn’t make any sense to me, talk is cheap, action is needed, Just thought you should know. Thank you.

(((((((((((((huggs))))))))))))))

Love,

George :) 6 years ago

a UN backed peacekeeping envoy for Sudan was announced by Kofi Annan:)

one small step… i’m trying to be optomistic, but we’re talking about the UN here… time will tell, but this is the best chance for peace in the darfur region :)

peace,
kdf 6 years ago

and gather more signatures. So I just need to move this on my list. Happy Holidays.

((((((((((((((((((((((huggs)))))))))))))))))))))))

Love,

George :) 6 years ago

I received an e-mail urging me to do this, which I of course did, but thought why not pass it on :)

Human Rights First has been calling for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a Special Envoy for Darfur. Secretary-General Annan’s term ends on December 31. We have only 16 days left. Click here to urge Secretary Annan to appoint an envoy for Darfur right now. http://www.hopefordarfur.org/

Many of you represented the victims in Darfur by signing our petition calling for this envoy. In November, our Executive Director Maureen Byrnes personally delivered the petition with more than 32,000 signatures to Mr. Annan.

We urge you to help us make one final concerted push – ask him to appoint someone of the highest international stature to focus solely on the crisis in Darfur. The Special Envoy would coordinate a joint global response to Darfur – by being firm with countries that are shielding the Sudanese government and by being an honest broker with all parties to the conflict.

Time is running out. Click here to tell Secretary Annan to appoint a Special Envoy to help resolve the crisis in Darfur.
http://www.hopefordarfur.org/

Thank you.

Jill Savitt
Campaigns Director
Human Rights First 6 years ago

Save the Date – December 10 – to Help With the Global Day on Rape and Sexual Assault in Darfur

Last September Human Rights First had the idea for – and helped organize – the Global Day for Darfur. Their efforts led to events in more than 40 countries to draw attention to the Darfur crisis. They now want to draw attention to the massive levels of rape and sexual violence in Darfur. On December 10, thousands of women will demonstrate outside Sudanese embassies worldwide, showing solidarity with the women of Darfur.

Your support could make a real difference. Please go to www.globefordarfur.org for more information about how you can get involved.

I will be!

Peace – kdf 6 years ago

Be A Witness Send the local networks a letter and ask them why they do not publicize the genocide in Darfur? 6 years ago

Please watch the genocide video6 years ago

Here is where you can add your name to a long list of people asking Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ACT and help stop the genocide in Darfur – I did!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/163304037?ltl=1159932058 6 years ago

Sat 23 Sep 2006

Fresh fears for Darfur as civilians bombed
CHRIS STEPHEN IN NEW YORKSUDAN was accused of launching fresh attacks in the Darfur region yesterday, killing dozens of civilians in a campaign of “indiscriminate aerial bombing”.

The attacks come amid reports Sudan is preparing a major offensive in the region.

United Nations monitors said the air-strikes were launched at the village of Tabarat, in northern Darfur.

“People talk about this white plane and bombs being dropped out of the back. This is a recurrent feature,” said Jose Luis Diaz, a UN spokesman.

“Civilians in villages in north Darfur are forced to flee due to indiscriminate aerial bombardment by government aircraft.”

Additionally, monitors say the pro-government Janjaweed militia has attacked and raped women at camps for some of Darfur’s two million refugees. The reports come as the UN in New York tries to patch together an agreement for a beefed-up peacekeeping force for Sudan.

This week Sudan agreed that African Union peacekeepers could remain in the region until January, beyond their present mandate, which expires at the end of the month.

But UN officials say this fails to solve the problem as the 7,000-strong AU force has neither the troops nor the mandate to stop violence that has killed 200,000 since 2003. Sudan has blocked UN plans to deploy a 20,000-strong force and officials are trying to negotiate a compromise.

Officials in New York say that Khartoum, frustrated with the failure of two of the three rebel groups in Darfur to sign a peace deal, is preparing a fresh offensive. Over 10,000 government troops are reportedly in the region and a new wave of ethnic cleansing is feared.

Related topic

SudanThis article

Last updated: 23-Sep-06 01:04 BST6 years ago

this is a cross reference to another, my latest Thing… Here is my letter…

UN Security Council
President of the UN Security Council
UN Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017USA

Your Excellency,

A humanitarian tragedy continues to take place in Darfur and is now also unfolding in the eastern parts of Chad.

I call on the UN Security Council to protect civilians in Darfur
and support the AU as required. I urge you to secure that the peacekeepers are mandated and trained to protect civilians everywhere in Darfur, using all necessary means, in full compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law. I especially stress the need to protect women from gender-based violence.

The peacekeepers must ensure the disarmament of the government-supported Janjawid militia, secure humanitarian access to the civilian population and the safe, voluntary and sustainable return of all the displaced to their homes.

I also ask you to ensure investigation of all human rights abuses in Darfur, including all cases of rape and sexual violence.

Yours sincerely,
kdf 6 years ago

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/international_justice/darfur/voices/index.aspx?source=dhp

I’ve decided I’m going to re-post this over and over so more people will sign… let’ see how many will!!!

DO IT :)

peace, kdf

ps.. the image associated with this post was shown here, on a UNICEF website…

http://www.unicef.org/spanish/infobycountry/sudan_darfuroverview.html 6 years ago

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/international_justice/darfur/voices/index.aspx?source=dhp

I’ve decided I’m going to re-post this over and over so more people will sign… let’ ssee how many will!!!

DO IT :)

peace, kdf

ps.. the image associated with this post was shown here, on a UNICEF website…

http://www.unicef.org/spanish/infobycountry/sudan_darfuroverview.html 6 years ago

%{color:blue}Darfur: Waiting for the slaughter
300,000 have died already. Now there are fears Sudan is preparing a brutal ‘final solution’ in Darfur%

By Paul Vallely September 16, 2006

Rasha Ibrahim Adam and her children may be about to die – just as she thought they had all escaped to safety. The 38-year-old mother of four children is one of the latest to flee the bombs from the Sudanese government that has dropped on their homes. Today, she finds herself in one of the dusty, benighted refugee camps that litter the region of Darfur. She sits in her once bright red tob – a wrap-around dress – that has been faded by the sand-laden wind that blows across al-Salaam camp on the edge of the town of el-Fasher.

She was one of the 50,000 people who swelled the scorched camps for the “internally displaced” in the past month – bringing to about 2.5 million the number of children, women and men now homeless in a conflict that has dragged on for three years without an end seemingly in sight. Until now, that is. Because an end is in sight for the Darfur camps – where at least 300,000 black African farmers have been slaughtered by the Khartoum government and its Arab proxies, the Janjaweed militia, whose name means “devils on horseback”. One of those who died was Rasha’s husband, Adam.

It could be an end so terrifying, it defies the imagination.
The fear is that the rest of Adam Ibrahim Adam’s family – and many of the two million people of the Fur, Massaleit or Zaghawa tribes in the camps – may soon perish too.

The 7,000 troops of the African Union, who have been desperately trying to protect the camps, have been told by Khartoum they must leave Darfur at the end of this month when their mandate runs out. Sudan has defied a UN resolution that mandated an improved 20,000-strong blue-hatted UN force to take over.

Instead, it is sending 10,000 of its own troops to the region for what human rights observers fear will be a brutal “final solution”.

In a situation already described by the UN as the “world’s worst humanitarian disaster” the genocide so long denied by the Arab government in Khartoum may be about to happen.

“We’re on the brink of a massive catastrophe,” said one senior Western diplomat yesterday. “If there is no Plan B for Darfur, all-out genocide is highly likely,” said James Smith, chief executive of the Aegis Trust, which is co-ordinating a worldwide protest that will take place in 32 countries tomorrow.
About 7,000 Sudanese troops have already arrived in Darfur, with the avowed aim of crushing those rebel groups who failed to sign up to the Darfur Peace Deal agreed in the Nigerian capital of Abuja in May.

Aid workers throughout those parts of the province that are still accessible say the signs are that a major new offensive will start in the next three weeks. Government troops and military ordnance have been pouring into el-Fasher airport for seven weeks now. Preliminary attacks have already begun. Yesterday, there were reports of the bombing of Dobo Madrasa, and another unnamed village, to the east of the Jebel Marra mountains.

The day before, the government bombed seven villages south of Tawilla town, including Tabarat and Tina, after which about 45 vehicles carrying government troops swept into the area. Local people fled the villages to hide in the mountains.
The tall and dignified Rasha – her name has been changed to protect her identity – described what happened when the government attacked her village near Kulkul. “I was feeding my two-year-old son when I heard the plane. I knew immediately what it meant,” she said. “I started to run but didn’t know where to go.

“Then the bombs dropped and soon everybody was running and my boy was screaming. The bombing didn’t last long but to me it felt like days, and I didn’t know where my other children were or what happened to them. Eventually, they came running to me – they’d been hiding with friends near the mosque.
“Two people were killed but we knew the bombers would be back, so nearly the whole village decided to leave. All around us is fighting but to the north the fighting is the worst so we headed south to el-Fasher.

“We walked for days and arrived here in al-Salaam camp. We all walked together to try and keep safe – it was very slow with young children and old women and some of the children were abducted on the way. We still don’t know what’s happened to them. Now I’m here with all my children and I thank Allah that we are safe and alive.”

But for how long? The Sudanese government is making its preparations, brazenly, before the eyes of the world. On Tuesday, the EU’s special envoy, Pekka Haavisto, on a three-day visit to the region, witnessed Antonov-20 planes loading bombs in el-Fasher, the regional capital of North Darfur, in preparation for an attack. The Sudanese military roll bombs from the doors of these cargo planes; rights observers saw a woman and seven children injured near Kulkul when a bomb was rolled from the back of an Antonov.

Khartoum is flagrant in its flouting of the authority of the African Union mission in Darfur. This week, the government seized a tanker full of AU jet fuel in el-Fasher and used it to fill its own aircraft which are arriving daily there delivering troops and arms.

Last Saturday, villagers who had earlier been attacked by the Janjaweed gathered near the ruins of their homes in South Darfur to speak to AU investigators; as they waited for the AU helicopter to arrive, the Janjaweed attacked again, killing 18 of the survivors of the earlier assault.

All across Darfur, people are on the move again in the face of intensified combat. The rebel forces, many of which have fragmented in disagreements over the Abuja peace deal, are causing mayhem.

The region is descending slowly into warlordism and banditry. In the lawless wild west of Sudan, where every group now seems out for itself, aid agencies, the UN and even the African Union force are being ambushed and robbed of supplies and vehicles. Rebels who once rode camels and horses and carried AK47s are now in 4×4s with rocket-propelled grenades obtained from Chad and Eritrea.

South Darfur, which had been quiet since the peace deal, has seen militia attacks on many villages in the past few weeks. Gerida refugee camp south of Nyala, which previously housed 20,000, is now the biggest camp in Darfur with 120,000 inhabitants.

Guerrillas from the rebel Justice & Equality movement (JEM) have split from the National Redemption Front (NRF) – an alliance of rebels who did not sign the Abuja peace deal between the Khartoum government and the main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) – and are moving into West Darfur. The region is in deepening chaos. Of its six million population, two million are in internal camps and 200,000 in camps in neighbouring Chad. Some 3.4 million are dependent on food aid – but of them, an Oxfam spokesman, Alun McDonald, said, 4 out of 10 people are not receiving the assistance they need because aid agencies cannot reach them.
Mr McDonald said: “Our movement in Darfur is greatly restricted because the roads are simply too dangerous to use. Where possible, we access places by helicopter but most rural areas are almost completely out of bounds.”

Things will get much worse if the African Union is forced to leave. But yesterday Khartoum was intransigent on that point.
After a meeting of the African Union Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa, the Sudanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Al-Samani Al-Wasila, insisted the AU troops, who were due to begin a “rolling transition” to a UN peace mission, must withdraw on 30 September.

“The government of Sudan will not accept UN peace-keepers,” he said. It has also told the AU it will allow no further troop rotations. Instead it proposes its own stabilisation plan which will move 10,500 more Sudanese troops into Darfur to combat “outlaws and terrorists” there.

The signs of what that force will do are not encouraging. In addition to the new wave of bombings, an assault has been launched on the NRF rebels in the town of Um Sidir, 70km north of el-Fasher. The town has changed hands several times in the past few days.

The government has told the few aid organisations who have not pulled out that it wants to disperse the entire camp population by the end of September. It wants agencies, including Oxfam, to set up services in rural areas so people can be enticed back despite the lack of security. If that does not happen one state governor has spoken of putting barbed wire around camps “for their own protection” – in effect ,making them prison camps.
To intimidate aid agencies, Khartoum harasses them. The Norwegian Refugee Council, the main NGO at Kalma camp in South Darfur, was barred from the camp last week. Aid workers have been detained for gathering information on rapes and sexual violence. Eight aid workers have been killed in the past few weeks.

Many aid agencies, such as Save the Children UK, have pulled out of the region entirely. And Oxfam has shut two offices near Kebkabiya. “It’s got a lot more unstable,” said one worker. “It’s extremely difficult to operate.”
It will get even worse if African Union troops pull out. In one area where the AU used to provide three patrols a week rapes increased from four a month to 200 when the patrols had to be reduced to one a week. 6 years ago

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/international_justice/darfur/voices/index.aspx?source=dhp

sign it and send it on :) 6 years ago

if anyone’s around this sunday in nyc…

http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/voices_to_stop_genocide

and a friend of mine who works with doctors without borders is taking part in this. they’re setting up a “refugee camp” in central park to raise awareness for the conditions some people live in. unrelated to the rally (i think), but looks like it’ll be interesting.

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/education/refugeecamp/index.cfm

look for the bald doctor. tell him large marge sent ya. 6 years ago

UPDATED: 16:56, September 12, 2006
Violence in Darfur cuts off 355,000 people from food aid

Violence has prevented 355,000 people from getting food aid in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur in the past three months, the World Food Program (WFP) official said in a statement issued in Khartoum on Tuesday.

“Hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur have gone hungry for three consecutive months because fighting and banditry have prevented the WFP from reaching them,” announced Kenro Oshidari, WFP’s Representative in Sudan.

“Their situation is reaching a critical stage because the area has experienced a sharp increase in tensions since May when the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) was signed,” the WFP official added.

He said that most of these people had very little chance of finding food elsewhere because the region was in “hunger season” right before the harvest.

“Without food aid, things will become more volatile,” Oshidari said, adding that hunger would exacerbate the already precarious security situation.

“It will add fuel to the fire,” Oshidari said. “Food aid is vital to stability.”

In recent weeks, WFP and other aid groups have been warning that the region is reaching a critical state.

Nearly three million people in Darfur depend on international aid for food, shelter and medical treatment, but rising insecurity in many parts of the region has made it more difficult for aid workers to reach them.

Twelve humanitarian workers have been killed in Darfur since May, more than the total casualties of the two years before.

Source: Xinhua 6 years ago

So easy, yet so important. Hopefully if others continue to join in it will make a difference. 6 years ago

but found out through richocet rabbit

thankyou to them

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/international_justice/darfur/voices/index.aspx?source=dhp 6 years ago

Article published Jul 8, 2006
Farrow speaks of evils in Darfur

CASTLETON — The tent in her brother’s backyard where guests snacked on fancy cheeses was a stark contrast to the surroundings actress Mia Farrow said she had been in a week before.

“These are little pieces of plastic the size of a bed sheet that are lashed to the desert floor,” she said, holding up an aerial photo of a sprawling refugee camp in Darfur. “There are 126,000 of them. The wind never stops blowing. … It’s nowhere you’d want to be, even for 10 minutes.”

Farrow, who appeared most recently in horror remake “The Omen,” was addressing a group of about 50 at a fund-raiser for the Rutland County Democratic Committee Friday. It was held at the home and gallery of her brother, local sculptor Patrick Farrow.

After two trips to the war-torn region as a goodwill ambassador for Unicef, Farrow has become one of the best-known advocates for United Nations intervention in the Sudanese civil war. The ethnic Africans of Darfur have been fighting against the Arabic government in Khartoum since an uprising in 2003.

To quell the uprising, the government has backed an Arabic militia called the Janjaweed, who have been widely accused in wholesale slaughter, wiping out entire villages across the Darfur region. Farrow said Russian-made aircrafts would bombard the villages and the Janjaweed would exterminate any survivors.

“Up to 90 percent of the villages of Darfur have been destroyed,” she said.

The surviving refugees, of whom 2 million are living in camps run by humanitarian groups, are almost all women and children, the men having been killed in mass executions. Deforestation around the camps is so great that Farrow said the women must travel 10 miles to find wood for cooking fires.

“On those expeditions, invariably, the women are raped and disfigured,” she said. “Many women showed me scars on various parts of their bodies. Typically, their tendons are cut so they are hobbled for life.”

The accounts of individual victims, from a woman whose breast was cut off to another whose infant was bayoneted in front of her, drew gasps from the audience.

Farrow said the international community has been aware of events in Darfur for some time, with President Bush referring to it as genocide and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan calling for a “NATO-quality” peacekeeping force backed by air support to stabilize the region.

The problem, Farrow said, is that the UN needs permission from the country’s government to send in a peacekeeping force without a resolution from the Security Council.

Any such resolution would likely be vetoed, she said, because permanent Security Council members Russia and China both have oil interests in southern Sudan and will try protect their business deals with the Khartoum government.

One group that is involved is the African Union, a UN-like collection of nations formed after the Rwandan genocide. Farrow said the 7,000-person “observer” force sent by the African Union tried to provide security in Darfur, but was ill-trained, ill-equipped and vastly outnumbered.

“Darfur is the size of Texas,” she said. “Seven thousand people in an area the size of Texas are not going to get the job done. They don’t have walkie-talkies. They don’t have jeeps. They’re scared. They’re the only good guys there.”

Meanwhile, Farrow said some humanitarian groups have pulled out of Darfur after their workers were attacked, and others lack the budget to supply the camps with enough food. In one camps she visited, Farrow said there was one doctor for 40,000 people and outbreaks of cholera were beginning.

Farrow, who began working with Unicef as part of the group’s efforts to eradicate polio worldwide, said she convinced the organization to send her to Darfur after reading about the struggle there 18 months ago.

“I heard there was a genocide going on,” she said. “I wanted to see. I’m not going to sit by. I’m not under any illusions about how unimportant I am, but to the extent that I can have any voice at all, I felt compelled to get involved.”

On her first trip, Farrow said she was able to travel through much of the region. On her second, from which she returned a week ago, she said she was not allowed in the western part of the country because it was too dangerous.

Wherever she went, Farrow said the refugees had the same request — protection.

“Day and night, these people are terrified,” she said. “Every faction of the rebel movement, every village we went to, the plea is for the UN to come in. They are the best people I’ve ever met and the most courageous. They want to go back to their lives and plant and it’s not even safe for them to get firewood.”

Farrow said those two trips transformed her.

“I’ve lived a really mild life,” she said. “This is the first time I’ve really looked into the eyes of evil before. I’ve always said to my kids that with knowledge comes responsibility. Now I’ve seen things.”

In recent days, she has spoken on Fox News and MSNBC, and said she will happily speak before Congress, the United Nations and anyone else who will listen.

“I’ll go anywhere,” she said. “I’ll devote the next part of my life. That’s how deep my moral obligation is. … Nobody feels good about Rwanda. They say ‘I didn’t realize, how did that happen?’ This is Rwanda in slow motion.”

Farrow said there are two things people can do to help. One is to contact their representatives in Congress demanding action on Darfur. The other is to donate money to groups like Unicef, Doctors Without Borders and Save the Children.

“One dollar goes a long way,” she said. “I would not be ashamed to send one dollar at all. One dollar does something. … When the story of Darfur is recorded, you want to be able to tell your children ‘Well, I did something, even if it was a drop in the bucket.’”

Contact Gordon Dritschilo at gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—- 6 years ago

Chicago Bulls star, a Sudan native, appeals for help for Darfur

Associated Press

CHICAGO – Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng said he hopes his televised appeal during the fifth game of the NBA finals will offer Americans an opportunity to learn more about the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan and how they can help its victims.

The 21-year-old, 6-foot-9 native of Sudan will star in a public service announcement seeking support for Sudanese relief efforts. The spot will air for the first time Sunday on Chicago’s WLS-TV during the game between the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks; NBC-TV has also committed to airing the piece.

“The situation in Darfur is a lot worse than what people know,” said Deng, a member of the Dinka tribe in southern Sudan. His family moved to the United States when he was 5 years old to escape a civil war.

“My father knew what was coming and wanted a better life for his nine children. I’m here because I was lucky,” Deng said.

Fighting in Darfur began in February 2003 when rebels from black African tribes took up arms, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government.

The government has been accused of unleashing Arab tribal militias against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson. At least 180,000 people have died – many from hunger and disease. More than 2 million have fled their homes, many to neighboring countries where stability has been threatened by Darfur’s chaos.

“A lot has been hidden. It’s like all the genocides of the past. People are just guessing at how many have been massacred. The more we look, the higher we’ll actually find those numbers,” said Deng, who played one year at Duke University before being drafted in 2004.

The Bulls and NBA worked with the World Food Program to produce the promotion aimed at gaining financial assistance for refugees and other victims of the Darfur crisis. It was filmed earlier this month at the Bulls practice facility in Deerfield, and Deng said he hopes it inspires some of those watching the NBA finals to do what they can to help.

“A dollar is almost a week’s worth of food for someone. There are a lot of people with good hearts out there who just need to know there’s something they can do,” Deng said.

ON THE NET

World Food Program: http://www.friendsofwfp.org

© 2006 AP Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.belleville.com 6 years ago

http://www.itv.com/news/entertainment_e0a8ac079567d75f5f8a8e10c4e0a8b2.html

Geo :( 6 years ago

Check out the web site and play the video and please sign the petition and pass it on. Thank you.

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/international_justice/darfur/voices/index.aspx?source=dhp#

Geo :( 7 years ago

http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/international_justice/darfur/voices/index.aspx?source 7 years ago

and actually makes a difference… www.savedarfur.org 7 years ago

and pass it on

thanks everyone else on this goal for bringing it to everyones attention 7 years ago

Because now I want to get even more people to adopt it. 7 years ago

It only takes a minute. 7 years ago

I copied this of Anjis list. Please join the Hope for Darfur Campaign7 years ago

It so important for people to KNOW the truth and do something about it. If we don’t who will?!
Passing this on…again and again.
Namaste and peace, one day.
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/international_justice/darfur/voices/index.aspx?source=dhp 7 years ago