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Darfur Watch

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Dear Mr. President,

Being the president of the United States must be a very tough and challenging job. Running the country is no easy task, and I admire your skill in doing so. My family and I are a republican family, and we supported you in your campaign for the 2004 election. My family still then supported you in your campaign to invade Iraq, and your war on terrorism. Though my family supports, you I can not say that I have not been disappointed. The end of the war on terror seems to be drawing nigh, and there are other things that I believe our troops should be focusing on.

Although many letters have probably been sent to you about the genocide in Darfur, I am writing yet another. I stated that I was disappointed, and I am. Disappointed that we as a country have not done enough. Individual organizations have started fundraising and helped intervene, but on a national level, there has been no fundraisers and nothing to raise the awareness of the American people. As we wage our war on terror, thousands are suffering in a one-sided war of their own. Two years have passed since our government first heard about the attacks, and even though it has been two years, barely anyone on the street knows of the atrocities happening in Darfur. 1 out of 10 people know that the Janjaweed are storming villages, and slaughtering millions of people, while we as Americans, drink our Starbucks in the morning, blissfully unaware of the injustice that we as bystanders are allowing.

Mr. Bush, you should urge the Security Council to enforce these part of the Acountability act:

-Instructions to use the U.S. voice, vote, and influence to advocate NATO reinforcement of AMIS, including assets to deter air strikes against civilians, logistical, transport, communications, training, technical, command and control, aerial surveillance, and intelligence support;

-Sense of Congress language reaffirming the finding of genocide, urging expansion and a stronger mandate for the AU mission; calling on the U.S. to render assistance to efforts of the ICC in Darfur; calling for “additional, dispositive measures” if the AU mission fails to stop the genocide; and calling for appointment of a Presidential Envoy for Sudan;
As the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world, you need to understand that your part in this campaign is critical. Do not be afraid to stand up for what you know is right. America has never been a follower in anything, and should not start now, in a time of crisis. People need our help, and America should give it to them, because, Mr. President, if we don’t.. who will?

Sincerely yours,

Erica Mateo

1. CLASSIFICATION: All cultures have categories to distinguish people into “us and them” by ethnicity, race, religion, or nationality: German and Jew, Hutu and Tutsi. Bipolar societies that lack mixed categories, such as Rwanda and Burundi, are the most likely to have genocide. The main preventive measure at this early stage is to develop universalistic institutions that transcend ethnic or racial divisions, that actively promote tolerance and understanding, and that promote classifications that transcend the divisions. The Catholic church could have played this role in Rwanda, had it not been riven by the same ethnic cleavages as Rwandan society. Promotion of a common language in countries like Tanzania or Cote d’Ivoire has also promoted transcendent national identity. This search for common ground is vital to early prevention of genocide.

 

2. SYMBOLIZATION: We give names or other symbols to the classifications. We name people “Jews” or “Gypsies”, or distinguish them by colors or dress; and apply them to members of groups. Classification and symbolization are universally human and do not necessarily result in genocide unless they lead to the next stage, dehumanization. When combined with hatred, symbols may be forced upon unwilling members of pariah groups: the yellow star for Jews under Nazi rule, the blue scarf for people from the Eastern Zone in Khmer Rouge Cambodia. To combat symbolization, hate symbols can be legally forbidden (swastikas) as can hate speech. Group marking like gang clothing or tribal scarring can be outlawed, as well. The problem is that legal limitations will fail if unsupported by popular cultural enforcement. Though Hutu and Tutsi were forbidden words in Burundi until the 1980’s, code-words replaced them. If widely supported, however, denial of symbolization can be powerful, as it was in Denmark, when many Danes chose to wear the yellow star, depriving it of its significance as a Nazi symbol for Jews.

 

3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than in democracies. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished.

 

4. ORGANIZATION: Genocide is always organized, usually by the state, though sometimes informally (Hindu mobs led by local RSS militants) or by terrorist groups. Special army units or militias are often trained and armed. Plans are made for genocidal killings. To combat this stage, membership in these militias should be outlawed. Their leaders should be denied visas for foreign travel. The U.N. should impose arms embargoes on governments and citizens of countries involved in genocidal massacres, and create commissions to investigate violations.

 

5. POLARIZATION: Extremists drive the groups apart. Hate groups broadcast polarizing propaganda. Laws may forbid intermarriage or social interaction. Extremist terrorism targets moderates, intimidating and silencing the center. Prevention may mean security protection for moderate leaders or assistance to human rights groups. Assets of extremists may be seized, and visas denied to them. Coups d’etat by extremists should be opposed by international sanctions.

 

6. IDENTIFICATION: Victims are identified and separated out because of their ethnic or religious identity. Death lists are drawn up. Members of victim groups are forced to wear identifying symbols. They are often segregated into ghettoes, forced into concentration camps, or confined to a famine-struck region and starved. At this stage, a Genocide Alert must be called. If the political will of the U.S. Government, NATO, and the U.N. Security Council can be mobilized, armed international intervention should be prepared, or heavy assistance to the victim group in preparing for its self-defense. Otherwise, at least humanitarian assistance should be organized by the U.N. and private relief groups for the inevitable tide of refugees.

 

7. EXTERMINATION begins, and quickly becomes the mass killing legally called “genocide.” It is “extermination” to the killers because they do not believe their victims to be fully human. When it is sponsored by the state, the armed forces often work with militias to do the killing. Sometimes the genocide results in revenge killings by groups against each other, creating the downward whirlpool-like cycle of bilateral genocide (as in Burundi). At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can stop genocide. Real safe areas or refugee escape corridors should be established with heavily armed international protection. The U.N. Standing High Readiness Brigade -- 5500 heavy infantry -- should be mobilized by the U.N. Security Council if the genocide is small. For larger interventions, a multilateral force authorized by the U.N., should intervene. It is time for nations to recognize that the international law of humanitarian intervention transcends the narrow interests of individual nation states. If NATO will not intervene directly, it should provide the airlift, equipment, and financial means necessary for regional states to intervene with U.N. authorization.

 

8. DENIAL is the eighth stage that always follows a genocide. It is among the surest indicators of further genocidal massacres. The perpetrators of genocide dig up the mass graves, burn the bodies, try to cover up the evidence and intimidate the witnesses. They deny that they committed any crimes, and often blame what happened on the victims. They block investigations of the crimes, and continue to govern until driven from power by force, when they flee into exile. There they remain with impunity, like Pol Pot or Idi Amin, unless they are captured and a tribunal is established to try them. The response to denial is punishment by an international tribunal or national courts. There the evidence is heard, and the perpetrators punished. Tribunals like the Yugoslav or Rwanda Tribunals, a tribunal to try the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, or the International Criminal Court may not deter the worst killers. But with the political will to arrest and prosecute them, some may be brought to justice. And such courts may deter future potential genocidists who can never again share Hitler’s expectation of impunity when he sneered,”Who, after all, remembers the Armenians?”

By Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, President, Genocide Watch
http://www.sudan.net
http://www.genocidewatch.org/8stages.htm
http://www.savedarfur.org