Standing up for Darfur.

(The Huffington Post) April 27  – Five members of Congress and two Darfur activists had themselves arrested Monday outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington, D.C., to draw attention to the continuing humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan.
Uniformed Secret Service officers put plastic handcuffs on Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Donna [...]

RAISE your voice for the women of Congo!

Watch.  Learn.
Go here.

This week’s outrage from Darfur: 3/25/09.

Darfur refugees suffer as aid groups leave
KHARTOUM, Sudan (UPI) March 23 - The lives of millions of displaced people in the Darfur region of Sudan have been endangered by a move to expel aid workers from the country, observers say.

The groups were banned this month by Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir, who accused them of [...]

Never again?

I did it again.
The time again has rolled around during the school year when the seventh graders down the hall are doing their annual unit on the Holocaust.  It’s a mandated part of their curriculum in social studies for seventh grade.
The teacher teaches them all about The Final Solution.  She pulls no punches and lays [...]

Breaking news from Darfur.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) March 4  – The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. He is the first sitting head of state the court has ordered arrested.
The three-judge panel said there was insufficient evidence to support charges [...]

Be(ing) a citizen of the world.

I hope this will make sense.  A whole lot of things are running through my enfeebled brain at the moment, so I hope I can pull it all together.
I recently received my March issue of my favorite Friendly publication, Friends Journal, which I dove into with gusto, as is my habit.
As usual, the first thing [...]

Today’s outrage from Darfur: 2/17/09.

Remember Darfur?  Time to start remembering it here, again.
Darfur war crimes indictment threatens to split international community
(The Guardian) February 16 – Britain, France and the US are up against a united front of African and Muslim countries, backed by China and Russia, over the imminent indictment of Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, for war crimes and [...]

Death of a hero.

NEW YORK (AP) February 13 – Alison Des Forges, who was among the first human rights activists to highlight the ethnic tensions that exploded into the 1994 Rwanda genocide, died in the fiery commuter plane crash outside Buffalo, N.Y. She was 66.
Des Forges, a senior adviser for the Africa division of Human Rights Watch for [...]

“Ten Things You Can Do About the War in Congo.”

From The Nation:
The peace agreement signed in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2006 did not end the war. An estimated 400,000 women have been raped in the past ten years in what can only be called an act of femicide — the planned and systemic destruction of women. Women have suffered fistulas from rapes [...]

Today’s outrage from Darfur: 12/29/08.

You DO remember Darfur, don’t you?
Up to 6000 child soldiers recruited in Darfur: U.N.
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) December 23 – Up to 6,000 child soldiers, some as young as 11, have been recruited by rebels and government forces in Sudan’s Darfur conflict, the United Nations said.
Youngsters have repeatedly been seen carrying weapons, even though Sudanese law [...]

In case you missed it…

Some actual good news – even if it comes as too little and way too late, from Rwanda:
Rwanda military official gets life in prison for genocide
(Los Angeles Times) December 18 – The ringleader of the 1994 Rwanda genocide was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for his role in the early days of an ethnic [...]

Friday (Congo) baby blogging, final edition.

Friday (Congo) baby blogging.

 

Friday (Congo) baby blogging.

Genocidal killer is “at peace with” himself.

Man blamed for Darfursays “I am at peace with myself.”
KHARTOUM, Sudan (The Guardian/UK) December 4 – The man accused by the international criminal court of planning, organising and directing an orgy of violence against civilians in Darfur that left up to 200,000 people dead and 2.5 million homeless has angrily protested his innocence, calling the [...]

Friday (Congo) baby blogging.

Happy holiday.

Today’s outrage from Congo: 11/26/08.

War is stealing Congo’s young
by Lindsay Branham
(CNN) November 25 – The border was hauntingly empty. No military, drenched in green, patrolling. No AKs slung over shoulders. No Swahili floating through the air.
Just the pitter-patter of rain falling to the ground and turning the dirt road into a river.
To the right some secondary school students [...]

A rescue mission for Obama?

Rescuing Sudan: A mission for Obama
by John Pendergast
(Philadelphia Inquirer) November 23 – There is one job President-elect Barack Obama could take on from Day One that – if he were successful – could save billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives. And the small price tag justifies the risk. The [...]

Friday (Congo) baby blogging.

The Peace Blogging picture submissions have dried up, folks.
Perhaps it’s time to take a look at something a bit more serious anyway…

“Will President Obama Finally Bury King Leopold’s Ghost?”

by Peter Erlinder

(Common Dreams) November 18 – November 2008 was the 100-year anniversary of the Congo’s conversion from the personal property of Belgian King Leopold II to a colonial possession of Belgium, itself. The King’s brutal rule, documented in Leopold’s Ghost, embarrassed the Belgians into switching “landlords” in 1908, but did little to ease the [...]