Sudan Genocide...

I'm sure many of you heard the Tom Joyner Morning Show or the Russ Parr morning show and probably a few others that were talking about the situation in the Sudan this morning. If not you definitely will hear more about it in the upcoming days. It's a terrible situation and I was going to write about it but I figured I'd just post what I found from Joe Madison's website so that all the bases are covered. Take the time to read it. That means you Tiffany! Let's not wait until Kanye or somebody does a song or they make another movie like Hotel Rwanda before we pay attention. And we all know that 'ol George loves helping people in foreign countries who are being oppressed right? Well these people are be annhilated. There's only one problem. They don't have oil like the Iraqis so we gotta put the pressure on W. to do something.


More than 150 humanitarian and human rights organizations nationwide will rally on Sunday against the ongoing slaughter and rape of innocent people in the East African nation of Sudan. On Sunday, rallies from New York to California and Canada to Florida will unite Americans around the common goal of ending the violence. They include mass rallies in 14 cities around the United States, including Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Portland and San Francisco, as well as in Toronto and Vancouver, where demonstrators will attempt to pressure politicians to take a stand against a massacre that sees no end in sight.

In Washington, D.C., everyone from politicians and movie stars to homemakers and students will make their voices heard. Confirmed speakers include Russell Simmons of Def Jam Records, actor George Clooney, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and Olympic speed skating gold and silver medalist Joey Cheek, who donated his $40,000 U.S. Olympic Committee bonus to benefit Darfuri children.
The D.C. rally will take place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., on the National Mall between 3rd and 4th Streets in front of the U.S. Capitol. The D.C. rally is also the final stop of the "Tour for Darfur: Eyewitness to Genocide," a photo exhibit and speaking tour held in 22 cities in 11 states to raise public awareness about the crisis there.
"World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis"
In the past three years, violence in Darfur, Sudan, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, displaced more than 2.5 million, and resulted in the rape of countless women and children. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has called Darfur "the world's worst humanitarian crisis." The rape and slaughter of Blacks are being perpetrated in western Sudan by militias known as Janjaweed, which are supported by the Islamist government in the capital of Khartoum. The mass killings were first officially called "genocide" in 2004 by then-Secretary of State Colin Powell.

The Purpose
"The more we put pressure on our representatives, the more they will have to do something," said Anique Drumright, a senior at Palo Alto High School in California, who plans to rally in San Francisco Sunday. "The government is supposedly run by us, and it is up to us to make our needs and concerns known."
One purpose of the rallies, activists say, is to generate a million postcards for delivery to President Bush, urging him to stand by his promise to press for more multi-national forces to protect civilians in Darfur. Organizers say they are hoping President Bush will take steps necessary to end the violence in Darfur and build a lasting peace. In an open letter to President Bush, John Eiber, a leading activist, demanded that theUnited States do all it can to end the violence and slavery. He writes:
“At the beginning of your administration’s Sudan peace initiative, your Special Envoy, former Sen. John Danforth, rightly identified the eradication of slavery – an internationally recognized crime against humanity – as an issue about which the American people care deeply and as a pre-condition for a just and lasting peace. Yet, after the passage of five years, Sudan remains plagued by genocidal conflict and slavery.

“We again urge you, Mr. President, to establish an independent Commission to Monitor the Eradication of Slavery in Sudan. We also ask you to make Sudan emergency funds available to facilitate the release of the 8,000 slaves documented by CEAWC and to help President Kiir establish an effective mechanism for the liberation and repatriation of Southern Sudanese slaves.”