Vote or [people in Darfur] die

Please take 30 seconds to vote to make the people of Darfur a priority for the new Obama administration:

VOTE FOR CHANGE!

Making human rights a priority in Obama's cabinet

I just got an e-mail from Amnesty International directing me to call my senator to ask him to bring up specific questions in Hillary Rodham Clinton's Secretary of State confirmation hearing. Check if your senator's name is on the list and to find her or his contact information.

Resources for your Blog

Check out the site linked to by the image below. You can watch President-elect Obama's speech on his position on Darfur and get resources for your own blog.

Be a voice for Darfur

President-elect Barack Obama will begin his term in the oval office in less than 15 days. Although we are seeing much less about Darfur in the news these days, the genocide is still going on and it is our responsibility to ensure that our new president makes good on his promise to end the violence. As senator from Illinois, Obama had an excellent record on anti-genocide legislation and if saving Darfur remains a priority, he'll be able to make a difference. He also spoke a great deal about Darfur during his presidential campaign, which you can read about here.

Be a voice for Darfur by filling out an online postcard that will be sent to the President-elect reminding him of his commitment to ending genocide in 2009.

A Parting Shot at Darfur from the Bush Administration

For all its failings, the Bush Administration has pursued some notable humanitarian causes, including the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The Administration's recent announcement that it will airlift vehicles and equipment to bolster the fledgling United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur may well be its final such act. As reported by The New York Times, President Bush ordered the emergency military action ahead of a meeting with Sudan's First Vice President.

The airlift is of course too little too late. A large-scale airlift of supplies early on could have both reduced humanitarian suffering and bolstered the peacekeeping force from the start, rather than attempting to rescue it now, would have been vastly preferable. But having said that, the airlift is a welcome sign of commitment from an Administration heading into its final hours, and a good example for its successor.

President-elect Obama has signaled that he wants to do more in Darfur, and providing sustained US logistical support for the peacekeeping force is a good way to start. US communications, intelligence, and logistics capabilities far outstrip what is available to the force in Darfur, hobbling its effectiveness. If America's new president earnestly wants to do more in Darfur, he could begin by making Bush's 11th-hour airlift a regular endeavor, perhaps complemented by American advisers. Humanity should include among its New Year's resolutions a pledge not to forget the long-suffering people of Darfur.

A new year, a new president, a new chance for Darfur?

We’re looking toward a new year, a new president, and maybe an end to genocide in Darfur. In his Sunday New York Times column, “A New Chance for Darfur,” Nick Kristof summarized a memo Ambassador Richard Williamson, President Bush’s special envoy to Sudan, wrote to the president this fall. In brief, the steps Williamson outlined were 1) the United States could jam all communications—telephones, cell phones, Internet—in Khartoum for a period of time to demonstrate Sudan’s weakness; 2) the US could apply “progressive pressure” to Port Sudan by placing naval ships near the port, searching or turning back ships, and finally halting or quarantining oil exports from Sudan; and 3) the US could destroy Sudan’s military aircraft that flies on offensive missions in Darfur, in violation of the United Nation’s ban.

Kristof acknowledges that these actions are extreme but says “genocide is pretty serious, too.”

He also points out that if President-Elect Barack Obama has the political will—and given the size and intensity of the anti-genocide movement he has the popular support—we may be able to end the genocide. Bashir is afraid of the president-elect because he understands the gravity of genocide and the importance of international justice. Kristof writes, “If Mr. Obama and his aides can work with Europe, China and Qatar to keep the heat on—and to make clear that Sudan has no choice but to hand over President Bashir once the [International Criminal] court issues the arrest warrant—then we just might avert a new war and end the first genocide of the 21st century in the new year.”

Genocide Prevention Task Force: Marching orders for the next administration

Just when we thought genocide would disappear completely from the world's headlines, the United States Institute of Peace Genocide Prevention Task Force has issued its final report. It is a landmark for genocide prevention efforts, not least because the Task Force features genuine policy heavyweights, including former US Secretary of State Madeline Albright and former Defense Secretary William Cohen.

The report begins with welcome clarity: "People of conscience rightly demand: 'never again.' There is no doubt that genocide and mass atrocities exact a horrific human toll. They constitute a direct assault on universal human values, including, most fundamentally, the right to life."

Equally as important, however, is how the report frames genocide as an issue for US foreign policy:

"Genocide and mass atrocities also threaten core U.S. national interests.

They feed on and fuel other threats in weak and corrupt states, with dangerous spillover effects that know no boundaries. If the United States does not engage early in preventing these crimes, we inevitably bear greater costs—in feeding millions of refugees and trying to manage long-lasting regional crises.

In addition, U.S. credibility and leadership are compromised when we fail to work with international partners to prevent genocide and mass atrocities."

At last, the crux of the matter! Genocide isn't simply a moral atrocity, it is a geopolitical threat. Building on this conclusion, the report outlines several excellent and long-overdue suggestions to make genocide prevention- at last- a core object of American foreign policy. Most apposite to this blog's purposes are the recommendations to direct the Director of National Intelligence to prepare an annual, global analysis of the threat of genocide, and the creation of an interagency Atrocities Prevention task force to respond and prevent escalating situations of mass violence.

Even in an age of climate change, economic collapse, and war, these are inspired recommendations that ought to be on the top of the pile for the next administration. This won't be easy, as The Economist reports. But in dealing with genocide, that should deter no one, for as the Task Force report make clear, the costs of genocide, both moral and geopolitical, are greater than any of us can bear.