United to End Genocide Blog

Sanctions, Technology and Human Rights in Syria

02/07/12

By Bama Athreya

The following was originally posted on The Hill’s Congress Blog.

Sadly, things are not getting better for the people of Syria – just this past weekend residents of Homs experienced some of the worst violence since the Syrian government began attacking civilian protesters nearly one year ago. If there is good news, it is that recent actions by President Barack Obama and the Senate that demonstrate the United States’ willingness to hold perpetrators like Bashar al-Assad – as well as countries and corporations that enable their brutal actions – accountable.

President Obama strongly condemned the Syrian government’s latest assaults against the people of Homs, and his Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice issued a scathing criticism of China and Russia after the two nations vetoed a U.S.-led Security Council resolution Saturday that would have backed a transition to democracy in Syria and sent a strong unified message to Assad. The Senate Banking Committee – with much less notice but deserving equal praise – advanced a bill last week that would impose tougher sanctions on Assad’s regime and take important steps to prevent technology companies from assisting and profiting from the Syrian government.

The international community has in past months mounted pressure on Syria’s economy through sanctions of the important oil sector. Yet, U.S. and European high-tech firms continued to actively and knowingly profit by doing business with Assad. Media exposure and name-and-shame public pressure on companies whose surveillance technology is used by Assad’s security forces – including AreA, NetApp and Blue Coat – led to some voluntary actions. Similarly, exposure of over a dozen international webhosting companies working with the Syrian government by a Canadian organization Citizen Lab released a report that shamed several of these companies into either suspending their web hosting services or to issuing justifications for their actions.

This exposure of tech sector actors pointed out a critical gap in current international sanctions and raised the question: What responsibility do information and communications technology companies have to ensure they are not directly or indirectly supporting regimes sanctioned by the U.S. government and the international community?

The Senate Banking Committee included language in its Iran sanctions bill that prohibits the sale to Syria of technology that can be used for censorship or to otherwise support human rights abuses by the Assad government. This represents a significant step by identifying the need for technology companies to scrutinize their business dealings and demanding corporate accountability.

The provisions in this new bill won’t immediately end the violence against Syrian civilians, but in taking this on, Senators are setting a precedent by establishing due diligence standards that will make it much more difficult for tech firms operating in conflict zones or with abusive regimes to be complicit in the oppression of human rights.

Had this legislation been in place last year, companies such as NetApp and Blue Coat would have been subject to much stronger pressure than the court of public opinion alone can impose. Tech companies that continue to sit on the fence about their role in supporting the Syrian government may no longer have a choice in the matter. Congress should immediately pass this bill and give the U.S. government the mandate to scrutinize these companies’ relationships and judge the extent to which they support violence against innocent civilians in Syria.

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Darfur United: From Refugee Camps to International Competition

02/07/12

By Guest Blog

By Katie-Jay Scott Stauring

I remember the very first game of soccer I played with the Darfur refugees living in the camps of Eastern Chad. It was Gabriel, me, and two other kids against ten young boys. I scored in the first minute, as the crowd laughed hysterically at the team who let a girl score. Since that 2008 trip, our team has returned seven more times, and established programs that create mutually beneficial relationships between the refugees and communities here who are willing and able to act. Each time we visit, we play soccer.

Although most of our focus has been on education, last year we decided to collect new and gently used soccer and volleyball equipment from families and soccer clubs in Manhattan Beach, California.  It became apparent when we began delivering the equipment that playing sports was a necessity to which the refugees had little access. Quickly the idea evolved into creating a refugee soccer team that could represent Darfur refugees in an international competition. When Darfur United and the possible involvement in the 2012 Viva World Cup tournament for nationless people was introduced to the refugees, one man said “now we are part of the world.”

In March, the best soccer players from the twelve Darfuri refugee camps will come together for tryouts and team selection. In May, Darfur United players, coaches, and the i-ACT team will travel to Iraqi Kurdistan to compete for the Nelson Mandela Trophy. i-ACT is documenting the entire process, uploading video shorts and photos, and we will create a feature-length documentary to tell the story of Darfur. For many of these players, Darfur United is more than a soccer team – it’s a way to participate in the world and represent a part of Sudan that has long been sidelined.

Follow Darfur United’s journey at www.darfurunited.com and www.facebook.com/DarfurUnited

The author is Director of Community Programming at i-ACT (interactive-activism).

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United to End Genocide Activists Travel to Uganda and South Sudan

02/06/12

By Emily Roberts

2011 Carl Wilkens Fellows Cynthia Davis (right) and Cory McMahon

On January 28th, two of United to End Genocide’s 2011 Carl Wilkens Fellows departed the United States on a two-week trip to Uganda and South Sudan. Cynthia Davis is a decorative artist from Fairfield, Connecticut and Cory McMahon is a Registered Nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital with a background in public health. Cynthia and Cory are on a trip with Gabriel Bol Deng in support of Hope for Ariang, a development organization tasked with education accessibility with a special focus on girls and empowering women in the village of Ariang in South Sudan.

Before going to South Sudan, Cory and Cynthia met Gabriel in Kampala, Uganda to visit with four students from Ariang who are attending boarding school there with the vision that they will one day come back to the village to teach future generations.

“They fit everything required in a small metal trunk and carried everything up three flights of stairs on their own,” Cynthia said, reflecting on the beginning of the school year check-in process. “It took hours to get their supplies checked in, uniforms ordered, bed selected, and money in the canteen. It was hard seeing their dorm room beds stacked 3 high with barely a mattress and side by side for rows; but observing their smiling faces and embraces with friends I knew they were happy to be there and excited to be back at school.”

Unfortunately though, not all the students could travel from Ariang to Kampala this year for school, “probably due to inflation and the food crisis at home,” Cynthia said.

“It would make a huge difference in America if every child knew what it is like in a developing country without the opportunity for education. We are soon to get a real taste of it in the village.”

Stay tuned to our blog for more on Cynthia and Cory’s trip to South Sudan.

About Cynthia and Cory

As a board member of Hope for Ariang and a Carl Wilkens Fellow with United to End Genocide, Cynthia Davis created The Sudan Canvas Project to raise money for a women’s empowerment project and raise awareness about ongoing violence throughout Sudan through artwork. Cynthia has been building political will to end and prevent genocide throughout southern Connecticut by engaging her community, raising the profile of mass atrocities in her local media and raising her voice with her members of Congress. At a culminating event in Fairfield, CT in November 2011, Cynthia and the Sudan Canvas Project raised over $10,000 for Hope for Ariang. “After raising the money for women’s empowerment in the village, I felt it was time I went myself to get this project off the ground,” Cynthia said.

Cory McMahon has significant international public health experience, including serving as the Vice President of the board of directors for Sibusiso, Inc. and working closely with immigrant and refugee populations in Massachusetts to provide health education and awareness, increase access to health care, and serve as a resource to connect those in need with other critical services. As a Carl Wilkens Fellow, Cory is creating a network of health care professionals who are active human rights and anti-genocide advocates.

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A Peacekeeper’s Story: Failure and Hope in the Sudans

02/02/12

By Daniel Sullivan

United Nations peacekeepers deployed in Sudan (UN photo)

“I had to tell the driver to stop, STOP! There was shooting up ahead. He stopped and we got out and dove for the ground for cover.”  These are the words of a United Nations Peacekeeper who I met yesterday. Let’s call him Badu to protect his identity. Badu was in the town of Kadugli in Sudan’s Southern Kordofan state when fighting broke out in June. He was telling me how on the day the fighting started he was turned around at gunpoint only to face more shooting in the other direction.

Badu has escaped the fighting in Kadugli but not the memory of how the UN was unable to protect the civilians that came to its doors. Even national staff had to be told that their safety could not be guaranteed and some would be arrested in Khartoum. “Shameful,” Badu describes it to me. I am now traveling with one of those national staff, a Nuba woman who is helping us with translation. She is the one who recognized Badu on the streets of Malakal in South Sudan where he continues to serve as a peacekeeper with the UN.

It is ironic that I met Badu in Malakal. The city is a place I visited almost a year ago just days after a militia attack resulted in several deaths, the taking of some 100 orphans hostage, and a brief assault on the UN compound. Badu can take solace that no similar attack has taken place in Malakal since. Still, militias with a history of ties to the North remain a threat, ethnic fighting has broken out in neighboring Jonglei and rumors of new attacks around Malakal continue to pop up.

In a way, Malakal is a microcosm of the challenges faced by South Sudan. There is the militia threat, ethnic tensions, and an army struggling to professionalize itself. The violence in Malakal last year was followed by reports of heavy-handed responses by the South Sudanese army targeting Shilluk civilians. This is all without mentioning the highly fraught but inescapable interdependence with South Sudan’s looming neighbor to the north, Sudan. Indeed a majority of the South Sudan’s states border Sudan. A large proportion of the population depends on trade with the north, even as violence and persecution across the border brings a steady stream of returnees and refugees, many through Malakal.

This is the situation faced by the fledgling nation of South Sudan. It’s the reason for a large UN mission in the country, and the reason I found Badu in Malakal. No longer facing the direct threat of the Sudanese Armed Forces, he still faces the threat of violence and limited resources to deal with myriad problems. Yet Badu remains undeterred, focusing on one part of the puzzle that he might contribute to through work on child protection. As he bids me a warm farewell, I can see that he is still hopeful, still the peacekeeper.

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Don’t Let Them Starve in Sudan

02/02/12

By Bama Athreya

Photo from Shannon Orcutt.

Today, we are joining our allies at Enough Project, American Jewish World Service, Act for Sudan and other organizations to demand immediate action to stop Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from threatening the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Villagers in these states have suffered months of aerial bombings by the Sudanese Air Force and are now targets for ground troops, as well. But massive numbers are about to die from a form of violence that requires no guns: they will be victims of intentional starvation. The aerial bombings of the past several months have killed dozens, but the terror they have unleashed has also succeeded in preventing villagers from planting or harvesting crops.

As our team on the ground in the region learned firsthand, “families will run out of food by March.” Now, with no food at all, these people will assuredly starve. Unless the United States and international community take urgent action, Omar al-Bashir will be free to achieve his goal of killing untold numbers of men, women and children.

The world can do something immediately: set up humanitarian corridors from neighboring countries to get food and supplies to the people of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. But while we push for immediate action, we also demand that a long-term, comprehensive political solution for all marginalized areas be prioritized, recalling that these regions were promised peaceful popular consultations under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 and a lasting peace for Darfur hasn’t yet been achieved.

The ultimate solution to this unnatural disaster is to arrest Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir. Already, Bashir has been declared a war criminal for the genocide in Darfur where he utilized similar bomb and starve tactics. He must be arrested and brought to justice before his policies can murder hundreds of thousands more of Sudan’s citizens.

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What the Cycle of Violence in South Sudan Looks Like On the Ground

01/31/12

By Shannon Orcutt

Displaced by recent violence in Jongeli state, mothers and their children take shelter near Pibor, South Sudan (UN Photo)

Over the weekend my colleague Dan and I were in Juba, South Sudan. While there, we met with humanitarian groups and personnel working in the security sector to discuss the tenuous situation in Jonglei state where fighting between tribes has led to massive civilian suffering. We were warned that the cycle of revenge attacks is unlikely to end in the near future and many expect another major attack in the coming months.

The most recent major offensive occurred in early January where an estimated 6,000 youth from the Lou Nuer tribe attacked the people of the Murle tribe. While cattle raids between the two tribes are not uncommon, this most recent attack utilized different tactics and the scale was much more devastating than has been previously seen. We met with a humanitarian group with operations in Jonglei who told us that over 1,000 were likely killed, many of which were civilians.

During the most recent attacks in January, the Lou Nuer utilized scorched earth tactics, burning fields, homes, and villages. While the armed elements of these tribes have repeatedly clashed, the primary victims of the violence are women, children, and the elderly. A new aspect of these attacks was the use of hate speech and the role that technology had in promoting the attack. The youth from the Lou Nuer who conducted the attacks even issued a public statement announcing their desire to wipe out the Murle. This hate speech was exacerbated by the use of social media to spread fear and hatred among the tribes, which was fueled by members of the Diaspora living outside of Sudan.

Cattle raids between the Lou Nuer and Murle occur fairly regularly. Yet, little has been done to end the cycle of violence or to at least mitigate the impact on civilians. The tribes do not have much trust in the government of South Sudan. Therefore, recent mediation efforts have been conducted through the church. Unfortunately, in December talks failed because the church mediation team and the elders who normally negotiate peace were unable to access the youth responsible for the attacks. This is thought to be the result of a growing generational divide that is taking place across South Sudan.

Despite the mistrust from the tribes, the government of South Sudan must be actively engaged in the peace negotiations between the groups and support the church’s efforts to lead the process. The South Sudan military also needs to proactively prepare security forces to protect civilians from violence instead of merely responding afterwards. The government must also support the development of lasting structures to maintain dialogue between the tribes to prevent future outbreaks of violence.

While the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) was able to assist in the response to attacks in Jonglei, the lack of resources such as helicopters and other means of transportation was a serious handicap to peacekeepers. Earlier today we flew on one of the Russian helicopters which are being withdrawn in April. The withdrawal of the helicopters will make transportation even more difficult especially once the rainy season begins. The international community must provide additional helicopters and ensure that UNMISS is adequately equipped to fulfill its mandate to protect civilians.

The Murle have already begun conducting counter raids against the Lou Nuer and according to our humanitarian partners we met with in Juba, another massive attack will likely occur in the upcoming months. The international community has the ability to help end the cycle of violence and must take action to fully equip UNMISS and pressure the South Sudanese government to proactively take steps to protect civilians.

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Students Travel to Congress to Talk about Saving Lives in Darfur

01/31/12

By Guest Blog

Yeshiva University students in Washington, D.C. with the Capitol Building in the background.

By Miriam Apter

In an old episode of the television series “The West Wing,” President Bartlett – struggling with his foreign policy – asks, “Why is a Kuhdanese life worth less to me than an American life?”

This question has followed me in the years since that episode aired in 2003. I was challenged with it along with the other students in my fellowship as we prepared to lobby members of the United States Congress on the situation in Darfur and South Sudan.

Before we left, family and friends would ask why we were going to Washington, D.C. and the response would often end a conversation. “Oh, that’s still going on?” they would ask about the conflict in Darfur, or if I was lucky they would ask why I cared. I wanted to quote the character of President Bartlett and ask them in turn, why a Darfuri life is worth less to them than an American life.

As a group from Yeshiva University, we needed to be prepared to answer those questions from the Representatives and Senators as well. They would want to know why this should be on their agenda, and what we proposed that they do. One staffer shared with us budgetary concerns for any sort of foreign aid. We didn’t feel we were in the position to suggest a monetary solution, as a group of undergraduate students whose annual student activity fee (which funded trips like this one) could support a Sudanese family for a year.

We arrived at the Washington, D.C office of United to End Genocide on Thursday, January 12, 2012, to be briefed in the span of 45 minutes, on eight years of genocide and decades of war. The team at United to End Genocide summarized the conflict, provided us with talking points, and encouraged us to make it personal; and that was the key that opened up a lifetime of background and preparation. As a group of Jewish college students, most of us grew up with the taught knowledge of the Holocaust being strongly emphasized. Many of us had grandparents who were survivors, and grew up questioning why so few people acted on their behalf. When it came to making it personal, genocide is a strong part of our collective identity and memory. The connection between the genocide in Darfur and our own identification with the Holocaust was one that we had explored in our fellowship in the months leading up to our lobbying trip. We worked to raise money for an organization called Triangles of Truth, which raised money for victims of the genocide in Darfur in memory of victims of the Holocaust.

Collectively, our group had over fifteen appointments with Congressional Representatives spanning eight states, with each of us meeting with the office of the representative of our own hometown. We met with a variety of people, with a wide range of opinions on foreign policy and varying levels of knowledge about the situation in Darfur. Some of us began meetings educating the staffer from the beginning of the conflict in Darfur. Some simply did not know that the conflict continued, and others had assumed that South Sudan was safe since its secession.

Others met with staffers of Representatives who were active in authoring or signing bills for Darfur in 2007, and we were there to remind them of the passion they had five years ago and to ask them to renew that vigor when the new bills were proposed. The most memorable was when we walked into one office and upon spotting the skullcap on the head of one of my classmates, the staffer immediately asked “I assume you are here about Israel?” The staffer was stunned when we explained that we were there to advocate for the citizens of a country one thousand miles south of Israel.

The relationship that our Jewish identity gave us to our cause was the important piece of our lobbying experience. As a group of students from different disciplines, we didn’t have the answers to the conflict. We had our recommendations and our suggestions that we learned from United to End Genocide, but they also needed to see the passion. To hear that a Darfuri life was worth as much to us as an American life, and that as Americans and as Jews, we care.

The author is a political science student at Yeshiva University.

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I Used to Make Soap – A Woman from Nuba Mountains Tells Her Story

01/30/12

By Daniel Sullivan

Dan Sullivan (left) meets with a woman who fled recent attacks in Sudan's Nuba Mountains.

I am sitting across from a woman named Mende* who recently fled from Sudan’s Nuba Mountains. Mende arrived in Juba, South Sudan earlier this month shortly after bombs fell near her village. She is slightly nervous as I begin to ask her about her experience. She still has family in the Nuba Mountains.

“I used to make soap,” Mende tells me, her features visibly relaxing as she begins to describe how she would squeeze oils out of fruits in the Nuba Mountains and combine them with other materials to make unique types of food or soap. But her eyes drop as she recounts the reason why she could no longer carry out her work. It’s the same reason that farmers could not plant crops ahead of the crucial rainy season, a fact that some experts warn could soon lead to a full blown famine. “Antanovs”, she tells me, referencing the planes that the Sudanese Armed Forces use to drop bombs indiscriminately in civilian areas of the Nuba Mountains. The word and the haunting sounds that accompany it have clearly traumatized her.

“When I first arrive somewhere,” she tells me, “my first question is, ‘where do I hide if they start bombing?’.” Mende speaks of the intricacies of a fear that only someone who has experienced such terror can understand. “It is always in your mind,” she says, “When you hear the planes, even when you take a shower, you are thinking about needing to run out to hide.”

Back in the Nuba Mountains she and all others in her village would instantly scatter at the sound of distant planes, scurrying into caves even in the dead of night. “We would run in without torches, not knowing if there were snakes or something else.”

She laughs recounting how, even hundreds of miles away, refugee children from the Nuba Mountains would dive to the ground at the sound of a United Nations plane, or how one time back in the mountains a dog scurried ahead of all the women and children to hide in the cave. “Everything is ringing in your mind,” she says, “you are feeling like you are just going to die now.”

Even more lethal than the bombing is the specter of mass hunger and disease that now looms in the Nuba Mountains. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been blocking humanitarian access to the area. Mende tells me about the shortage of food, the need for mosquito nets, and the growing threat of disease. She pleas for the international community to take notice, to do whatever it can to stop the terrifying aerial bombardments, and to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches those in need.

For her part, Mende wishes desperately to return to the Nuba Mountains, but not until she has collected some key materials that she describes to me in detail. Having seen first hand disease spreading and how prevailing conditions are making the situation worse, Mende provides a remedy much closer to home. “Hygiene is very bad,” she tells me, then, perhaps more tellingly than she realizes, adds with a smile, “There is no soap.”

*Mende’s name has been changed to protect her family still living in the Nuba Mountains.

To get updates from our trip check our blog. Also, don’t forget to follow us on twitter via @Shannon_O and @EndGenocideDan.

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The Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz: A Time for Action

01/27/12

By Guest Blog

Editor’s Note: Today marks the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp in operation during the Holocaust. It is estimated that more than 1.1 million men, women and children died there. The following blog is a guest post from Eva Kor, Auschwitz survivor and Founding Director of CANDLES Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute, Indiana. We thank Eva Kor for sharing her story and for calling on us to take action.

By Eva Kor

Eva Kor and her twin sister, Miriam, hold hands (front) in a photo taken by the Soviet army when they liberated the camp on January 27, 1945.

On January 27, 1945, my dream came true. For ten months, I had envisioned the day when my twin sister Miriam and I would walk through the gates of Auschwitz as free people. It was a dream born on our first night in that horrible place.

When we first arrived, Miriam and I were separated from our father, mother, and two older sisters. We were taken to a barrack with other twin girls to be used in medical experiments at the direction of Nazi Doctor Josef Mengele. I’ll never forget that first night in the rat-infested horse barn. We could not sleep, so we went to the latrine. There, on that filthy latrine floor, we saw the scattered corpses of three children. Right then, I made a silent pledge that I would do everything in my power to prevent Miriam and myself from ending up like those children. My dream to survive was born.

In my childish naiveté during that time at Auschwitz, I thought the entire world had become a concentration camp. In the final days of the war, the Nazis fled the camp. I walked down to a nearby river in my tattered clothes and lice-infested hair to get a drink. I bent down and when I looked up I saw a girl on the other side of the river. She was wearing a nice dress, and had ribbons in her hair. Most importantly to me, she was carrying school books. That was the first time I realized that not everyone was living in a concentration camp — that while we were fighting to survive, other people were carrying on with their normal lives.

Many times since we were liberated, I have wondered why nobody came to save us — why nobody stopped the Nazis from taking us to Auschwitz in the first place. It was not an inevitability that my family would be murdered or that Miriam and I would have to endure horrible medical experiments.

Today, I wonder if there is a little girl in Darfur, Sudan who thinks the whole world has become one huge displaced persons camp where everyone is starving and fighting to survive. Perhaps her family has been taken from her too, and she doesn’t know if she will ever see them again. Maybe she wonders if anyone knows she is fighting for her life, or if anyone even cares.

You are the person who can help that girl. You are the person who has the freedom and the power to make a difference and show her you care. Perhaps you do not think that you can do it all by yourself, but like I told myself at Auschwitz, you must do whatever is within your power.

Today, on the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I ask you to join with me by taking one single action to help the children who are suffering in this world — whether in Sudan, Congo, Burma, or in our own communities. Together, we can create peace.

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Voices from Sudan: We will ‘run out of food by March’

01/27/12

By Daniel Sullivan

Editor’s Note: United to End Genocide’s Shannon Orcutt and Daniel Sullivan arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on January 23 where they met with civil society leaders from Sudan and South Sudan. They have just arrived in South Sudan where they will continue to hear from people on the ground affected by the recent violence.

Dan typing up recommendations with members of African civil society

“Most families will run out of food by March”, that was the message delivered to us by a man from the Nuba Mountains as we sat in a room full of civil society leaders from Sudan and South Sudan. It was just one of many impassioned pleas from the people directly affected by ongoing violence in Southern Kordofan, Blue Nile, Abyei, and Darfur. We also heard pleas from people, like the Nubians and Manasir, in other marginalized areas of Sudan as well as those facing arbitrary arrest and torture in Khartoum.

It is impossible to convey the passion with which these leaders spoke, but it was reassuring to know that the recommendations they put together will be heard by Africa’s leaders at the African Union summit. It was truly rewarding to play even the smallest part in helping to support these leaders as they crafted their recommendations. We will do our best to bring their voices back to leaders in the United States.

Chief among the recommendations were calls for the government of Sudan to grant immediate and unfettered humanitarian access to areas facing famine in the coming weeks. Other recommendations covered gender equality and the rights of women, the plight of communities affected by dam construction in the North, and the lack of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.

There was also a clear call for a truly comprehensive approach to peace in Sudan, one that recognizes that the current government led by Omar al-Bashir as the root cause of conflict and human rights abuses.

Finally, there was a warning of the risks posed by a destructive war, not only within Sudan but also South Sudan, and a plea for the international community to act decisively before it is too late.

As we arrive in South Sudan, we will continue to hear from men, women and children who have been affected by the ongoing atrocities. Over the next couple of weeks we will be reporting back on their stories and doing our best to make sure their voices are heard — not only in Sudan, not only in Africa, but throughout the world.

To get updates from our trip check the blog.  Also, don’t forget to follow us on twitter via @Shannon_O and @EndGenocideDan.

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