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regarding sudan

This is and email I sent out to most of the people in my address book. I think you should read it . . .

This isn't a stupid forward that you should just disregard. I know I myself always delete those after the first sentence. Just here me out please.

I subscribe to this magazine, Relevant (www.relevantmagazine.com) and was reading the latest issue, when I came across and article that really got my attention. It's about the current situation in Sudan. Here's a little info (from www.savedarfur.org). . . .

"According to the United States Agency for International Development, "The grave situation that has unfolded in Sudan's western region of Darfur in recent months is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today." Currently, tens of thousands of civilians have died, over a million are internally displaced within Darfur, and another 200,000 have fled to neighboring Chad. The United Nations has estimated that two million people will require assistance during the remaining months of 2004.

The government of Sudan has armed, trained, and deployed militias know as Janjaweed, a militia made up of pastoral people who have been hard hit by desertification and drought. Reportedly, militias regularly attack members of the Fur, Massaleit, and Zaghawa ethnic groups. The Janjaweed have burned entire villages, stolen and killed livestock, poisoned water supplies, raped women and girls, and killed civilians. According to an Amnesty International human rights monitor in Darfur, "The violence against civilians breached not only international human rights standards but also appears to be an intentional attempt to humiliate and destroy the social fabric of communities." So far one-sixth of the terrorized people of Darfur have fled their villages to escape Janjaweed attacks. After visiting Darfur, James Morris, head of the World Food Program, recalled that "I have never in my life seen people more frightened. The way they've been victimized, brutalized, raped, and treated in the most inhumane way possible is extraordinary."

The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have both declared this to be genocide."

Stuff like this seems unreal to me. Like something I would read in a book. It's hard to comprehend, while sitting in my comfortable, air conditioned house, typing on my laptop, eating Doritos, that people are being brutalized elsewhere in the world. Raped, murdered, forced into starvation. Here's another excerpt from savedarfur.org . . .

". . . .Villages have been razed, women and girls are systematically raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies targeted and destroyed. Government aerial bombardments support the Janjaweed by hurling explosives as well as barrels of nails, car chassis and old appliances from planes to crush people and property. Tens of thousands have died. Well over a million people have been driven from their homes and humanitarian agencies have only limited access to the affected region.

John Prendergast of International Crisis Group warns, "We have not yet hit the apex of the crisis."

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) estimates that 350,000 people or more could die in the coming months. Ongoing assessments by independent organizations such as Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) suggest that USAID�s estimate may be conservative. If aid is denied or unavailable, as many as a million people could perish.

Lives are hanging in the balance on a massive scale."

I would like to encourage you all to visit savedafur.org and do something to help. These are people, not numbers, not statistics whose lives are being torn apart. People, who desperately need help. And it doesn't just have to be donations. You could write a letter to the president, ambassador, or your congressman or woman, encouraging them to take action. If we all did that, how could they ignore us? Or you could print off some information to pass along to others. And above all else, pray. "For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight." psalms 72:14

Thanks for listening,
Laura

6:22 p.m. January 10, 2005
yesterday . not so yesterday