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Juicy Ecumenism – The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog

Juicy Ecumenism – The Institute on Religion & Democracy's Blog

Tag Archives: Sudan

One Million Bones on the National Mall

04 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by Faith McDonnell in News

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Act for Sudan, Activism, advocacy, Congo, Faith J. H. McDonnell, genocide, genocide prevention, mass atrocities, One Million Bones, South Sudan, Sudan

Laying of the bones in Congo Square, New Orleans (Photo credit: One Million Bones)

Laying of the bones in Congo Square, New Orleans
(Photo credit: One Million Bones)

By Faith J. H. McDonnell (@Cuchulain09)

The IRD is a founding member of Act for Sudan, a bi-partisan alliance of activists who advocate for an end to genocide and mass atrocities in Sudan. This weekend, June 8-10, Act for Sudan is co-sponsoring an unprecedented event to demonstrate the enormity and devastation of genocide. Lives lost in such places as Sudan, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Burma will be represented by one million handmade bones, displayed on the National Mall.

One Million Bones describes itself as “a large-scale social arts practice” which means they “combine education, hands-on art making, and public installations to raise awareness.” The organization provides genocide education adapted for every grade of school. As the name suggests, the art-making consists of providing people with the opportunity to create “bones” that represent and honor victims of genocide and mass atrocities, as well as those who are still fighting to survive in those regions of conflict. Public installation of the bones serves as both a memorial and a visual petition to those who have the responsibility to protect the innocent.

Over the past three years, One Million Bones has done two preview installations to prepare the way for this weekend’s installation on the National Mall. The first took place in Albuquerque in August 2011. 500,000 bones were installed at that event. Another 500,000 bones were installed at an event in New Orleans in April 2012. Students, artists, activists, and church members from around the United States and around the world participated in the creation of the one million handmade bones to be installed on the National Mall. I created a bone during a Sudan/South Sudan advocacy conference in Des Moines last year.

One Million Bones founder and TED Fellow Naomi Natale, actress Robin Wright, Holocaust survivor Eva Kor, former U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Sudan Dr. Mukesh Kapila, Enough Project founder John Prendergast, Carl Wilkens, the only American to remain in Rwanda during the genocide, and many other human rights leaders as well as international musicians, will join hundreds of activists from around the United States at the National Mall during the Saturday, Sunday, and/or Monday events. The bone laying and an evening program will take place on Saturday, educational workshops and a candlelight vigil on Sunday, and on Monday activists will move to Capitol Hill for advocacy.

If you are able, please attend One Million Bones. You can learn more about this powerfully moving project and sign up to volunteer at the Washington D.C. installation at www.onemillionbones.org. You may identify yourself as a member of the Act for Sudan team, if you would like. If you can’t come for all three days, you are welcome to participate whenever you can. View the schedule here.

Each bone represents a call to action, a story, a voice. (One Million Bones)

Ex-ICC Prosecutor Calls on Obama to Take Action on Sudan

23 Thursday May 2013

Posted by Institute on Religion and Democracy in News

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Aaron Gaglia, Darfur, International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno Ocampo, Nafie Ali Nafie, Sudan, Syria

Luis Moreno Ocampo

(Photo credit: Iton Gadol)

By Aaron Gaglia (@GagliaAC)

Last week I had the privilege to interview Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. Ocampo was the man who prosecuted Omar al-Bashir for the massive atrocities he committed in Darfur. Naturally, I was eager to hear his thoughts on President Obama’s invitation of Nafie Ali Nafie, the former Sudanese Chief of National Intelligence and Security Services/advisor to Bashir. Nafie is a war criminal that is responsible for setting up unofficial detention and torture chambers called “ghost houses”.

Ocampo stated that the invitation is not the main issue but Obama’s policy is the main issue. “What will be the Obama policy to stop the crimes in the South and to stop the genocide in Darfur? …The issue is not to stop the invitation. The issue is how to solve the conflict because maybe Nafie Ali Nafie could be a solution depending on the policy. I believe we need a new Obama policy,” he said.

The main problem is not the invitation but “what Washington will say to Nafie Ali Nafie.” A genocide is happening while Obama is in office, and as the head of a very powerful nation, the president has an obligation to do something. “He was so vocal about Darfur that he needs to do something before he ends his tenure. So the time is now.,“ Ocampo explained.

President Obama and the international community needs to realize that what is happening in Sudan is still genocide even though it is not as visible as the situations in Syria and Korea.

“Basically, it’s an ongoing genocide. The judges decided that the evidence was enough to prove that what happened in the camps is genocide. You don’t need to kill with bullets because the condition of life is such that they are trying to eliminate a group. And I think because the genocide in Darfur is silent, people are dying by starvation and rape, the world is ignoring it because Obama is talking about chemical weapons in Syria. Why is it different if massive atrocities are committed by chemical weapons or massive atrocities committed by starvation, or massive atrocities committed by rape? Why is it different? The issue is there are people being killed.” Genocide is genocide no matter the method used. Obama and the international community must not ignore genocide in Sudan because of other more visible atrocities in the world. Furthermore, ignoring the situation is not only bad for the victims being killed but also for the negative example of political will it presents.

“Ignoring one conflict is not improving the second conflict, it’s making it worse because people say, “Ok the good strategy to survive is Bashir. Keep fighting, keep killing and then you will survive.” And that’s the lesson being received in Syria and in Korea. So that’s why a good case against one of them will make a big case for the others.”

Towards the end of the interview, I asked Ocampo about the efficacy of the ICC. He said it is very effective yet it also presents a large game changer in our world. It shifts law from merely a national setting to an international setting. He used the analogy of football to illustrate this change. “Imagine if suddenly the rules for football changed and the quarterback can kick the ball with his feet. So it would be a different game. That’s ICC, it’s not just what the quarterback is doing, it’s how the game changes, how the other players change… It is a very primitive system, that’s why we need to build it.” The ICC was created to deal with an increasingly globalized and international world brought about by the advent of the Internet and other technologies. The ICC is still a very young organization and is still learning how to effectively function in our global world.

The words of Luis Moreno Ocampo are encouraging for us who are working for global peace. Though the world is a crazy and scary place, more and more people want peace. May we continue to pressure our leaders and develop our global institutions to create a world where massive atrocities are not tolerated. But first we shall see if President Obama’s talks with Sudan are a step in this direction: towards peace.

Tell State Dept: Nafie Not Welcome

07 Tuesday May 2013

Posted by Faith McDonnell in News

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Act for Sudan, Blue Nile State, Darfur, diplomacy, Faith J. H. McDonnell, genocide, ghost houses, Greta Van Susteren, Jihad, moral equivalence, Nafie Ali Nafie, Nuba Mountains, President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry, State Department, Sudan, torture, U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, victims of torture

Nafie Ali Nafie, Khartoum chief negotiator and torturer. (Photo credit: Act for Sudan)

By Faith J. H. McDonnell (@Cuchulain09)

Last week I wrote an article for Front Page Magazine (and reposted on this blog) about the Obama Administration inviting Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie, the Advisor to ICC-indicted war criminal Sudanese president Omar al Bashir to Washington for “high-level” diplomatic talks. Since that time, outrage has been growing about the inappropriateness and downright offensiveness of this invitation. But the Obama Administration appears to not care what the human rights community thinks of this unthinkable visit.

News of the invitation to Dr. Nafie and his delegation was met with instant protest by Sudan human rights activists and others. U.S. Representative Frank Wolf wrote to President Obama, asking him to rescind the invitation. Fox News show host Greta Van Susteren, who frequently speaks about the current genocide in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State, has also added her voice to the outrage over Nafie’s visit. And the Act for Sudan alliance, of which IRD is a founding member, is protesting the Nafie visit through a social media campaign.

In addition to representing a genocidal regime, Nafie is detestable in his own right, as the creator of Sudan’s torture chambers known as Ghost Houses, and behind-the-scenes architect of genocide in South Sudan/Nuba Mountains, Darfur, and now again in Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State. The Act for Sudan website features the testimonies from Nafie’s victims, and even a short (3:40 min.) video about Nafie from Operation Broken Silence, “Ghost Houses and War Criminals.”

The State Department knows all of this, of course, and yet it has not been swayed. A Khartoum-based Sudanese newspaper, The Citizen, on May 5 reported that “Diplomatic sources unveiled to The Citizen yesterday that the United States administration is determined to complete the Washington meeting in two weeks, despite the fierce opposition.”

Here’s how you can register your protest about the visit of Nafie Ali Nafie:

Act for Sudan is urging concerned citizens to ask Secretary of State John Kerry to rescind the invitation to the Sudanese delegation. On the Act for Sudan website is a prepared letter to Kerry warning that the invitation “undermines established U. S. policy and violates President Obama’s promise to bar perpetrators of serious human rights violations from entry to this country.” It adds that the invitation is an “affront to the victims and vulnerable people in Sudan.” The social media campaign also provides suggested Twitter and Facebook messages. Please add your voice to the campaign today!

Obama Administration to Welcome Genocidal Sudanese Leaders for Talks

01 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Faith McDonnell in News

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Act for Sudan, Blue Nile State, Darfur, diplomacy, Faith J. H. McDonnell, genocide, ghost houses, ICC indicted war criminal, Islamism, Jihad, Khartoum, moral equivalence, Nafie Ali Nafie, National Congress Party, NCP, Nuba Mountains, Obama, Obama Administration, Omar al-Bashir, South Sudan, State Department, Sudan, terrorism, torture

nafi%20ali%20nafi%20nafie%20ali%20nafie

By Faith J. H. McDonnell (@Cuchulain09)

In a makeshift shelter of plastic tarps in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan, an American linguist, Deborah Martin, interviewed dozens of Darfurian refugees. The year was 2006, and some two thousand Darfurians had fled the Islamist Sudanese regime’s genocidal war against them and walked over 900 miles to the Nuba Mountains. At that time, just after the signing of the 2005 North/South peace agreement, the area now once again a killing field of the Islamist regime was relatively safe.

One young Darfuri woman told Martin she had witnessed the rest of her family, including her 80 year-old grandmother, “sliced up like meat” by the Janjaweed (Arab militia). Other refugees had similarly horrific tales. And common among all the testimonies were four names – either whispered in terror or spat out in defiance. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Vice President Ali Osman Taha, Arab Janjaweed militia leader Musa Hilal, and former Chief of National Intelligence and Security Services/presidential advisor Nafie Ali Nafie – these were the men they held responsible for the Darfur genocide, and for the regime’s atrocities far beyond Darfur.

Today, the Obama Administration has invited Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie and other high-level officials from Sudan’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) to Washington, DC. State Department spokeswoman Hilary Renner defended the visit as the opportunity for a “candid discussion on the conflicts and humanitarian crises within Sudan.” But in the Sudanese press, the NCP crowed that the invitation is a call “for the development of relationships between Sudan and the U.S.” Nafie assured his fellow hardliners that he was not going to the U.S. in order to discuss Sudan issues, saying that the regime knew what it was doing in that regard. Writing of the visit Rabbi David Kaufman, founder and co-chair of “Help Nuba,” said it was similar to inviting Heinrich Himmler to the U.S. to discuss the “humanitarian crisis” during the Holocaust.

Nafie eschewed training in plant genetics (he studied at UC Riverside, receiving a Ph.D. in 1980, thank you, USA!) for training in terrorism. According to the Sudan Tribune, Nafie travelled to Tehran in 1981 “on the apparent pretext of conducting further studies in the field of agriculture.” During the 1980’s, he also spent time in Afghanistan and the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon where he gained the expertise and contacts to develop Sudan’s own security apparatus, import weapons, and establish secret desert training camps. The Sudan Tribune says that it is also believe that during this time, Nafie coordinated with his former Iranian mentors “to supply arms to those opposing the American and French presence in Somalia.”

As Chief of National Intelligence and Security Services for Omar al-Bashir’s National Islamic Front regime, Nafie perfected the art of torture. Sudanese Online says, “Dr. Nafie is by far the most brutal security official the Sudan has ever seen.” And the Sudan Tribune explains that he is notorious for the creation of Sudan’s “ghost houses” (buyut al-ashbah), unofficial detention and torture chambers run by Sudan’s security services.

Typical ghost house treatment was given to Nafie’s old colleague from the University of Khartoum, science professor and human rights activist, Farouk Mohammed Ibrahim. Ibrahim was arrested and taken blindfolded to a Khartoum ghost house where he was held for 12 days with no charges. According to his statement seeking redress from the Sudanese government, Ibrahim revealed he “was subjected to interrogations about courses taught and about colleagues.” During the interrogations, he “was repeatedly kicked, beaten and flogged, subjected to a prolonged bath in ice water, threatened with rape and death and deprived of sleep for up to three days.” Ibrahim told the Los Angeles Times that Nafie “was administering the whole thing. He did it all in such a cool manner, as if he were sipping a coffee.”

Condemning the upcoming visit and urging that Secretary Kerry rescind the invitation, Sudan advocacy alliance Act for Sudan noted that Nafie “helped design the regime’s strategy to eliminate or expel indigenous African people by bombing, attacking, raping, and starving innocent civilians. Sudanese Online adds, “Dr. Nafie has expelled international aid agencies from eastern Sudan, Nuba Mountains of Kordofan, Darfur and Blue Nile provinces.”

Recently, Nafie, who is also the deputy chairman of the ruling National Congress Party, addressed a graduation ceremony of the paramilitary Popular Defense Forces (PDF), the jihadists used by Khartoum to conduct the purge of black, African people in the Nuba Mountains. He said of those in Sudan who want equality for all Sudanese and a secular democracy, that they “are traitors for collaborating with rebels to overthrow the regime, and for preaching a secular system.” The opposition “has dug its own grave” by rejecting “the principles of Islamic Sharia law” and seeking to “establish a secular state like the Western countries,” he declared. He vowed to the graduating PDF members that 2013 will be a decisive year in which they would wage a war like that fought by Mohammed at the Battle of Badr, a battle that ushered in the beginning of Islamic expansion.

The Obama Administration is not happy about the backlash it is receiving because of the invitation to Nafie Ali Nafie. Perhaps it has forgotten how frequently Senator Barack Obama and his supporters criticized President George W. Bush’s Sudan policy. Bush’s policies merely saved hundreds of thousands threatened by starvation and disease, brought about the Nuba Mountains ceasefire, created a presidential-level Sudan Special Envoy, and helped to bring about a peace agreement leading to the establishment of the nation of South Sudan. But since he couldn’t bring perform the additional miracle of ending the genocide in Darfur, Obama accused the Bush Administration of not doing enough.

For example, speaking about Darfur in October 2004, Senator Obama said, “There must be real pressure placed on the Sudanese government. We know from past experience that it will take a great deal to get them to do the right thing.” Where is that pressure today, when an architect of genocide is invited to Washington, DC?

In a February 2006 speech on Darfur, Obama confided that “for more than a year now, I’ve been working with other Senators to see what we can do to really push the Administration to take this as seriously as it warrants.” (Emphasis added). He was disturbed that “the United States government seems to be backing off a little bit, the commitment that it made to deal with the problem.” Today, many Sudan activists are disturbed. Members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), have written to the President, questioning his overarching Sudan policy.

Finally, in April 2008, with the Presidential election drawing closer, Obama again criticized Bush Sudan policy, saying, “I am deeply concerned by reports that the Bush Administration is negotiating a normalization of relations with the Government of Sudan.” He warned that “this reckless and cynical initiative would reward a regime in Khartoum that has a record of failing to live up to its commitments.”

Today, in justifying the invitation to Nafie, the Obama Administration challenges the idea that a trip to America for diplomatic discussion can be considered a “reward.” And it posits only three alternatives in U.S. Sudan policy: go to war with Sudan, engage in diplomacy, or be irrelevant. But there could be another alternative for U.S. Sudan policy. In his book, The Coming Revolution, Dr. Walid Phares advises the U.S. government to support the freedom and democracy-loving sections of civil society within totalitarian and Islamist regimes to foster democratic transformation. In the case of Sudan, the U.S. government could also quietly support the opposition forces that want regime change and a free, equal Sudan. In fact, Senator Barack Obama mentioned this possibility in his 2004 speech when he said that we should be “providing resources . . . including logistical support like airplanes, helicopters, trucks, and other resources that are needed to deliver humanitarian aid.”

But although the Obama Administration was willing to take strong actions to bring about the downfall of Egypt’s Mubarak and Libya’s Qaddafi, (and facilitate the takeover by Islamists) in this case, when the downfall of the regime could mean the downfall of the Islamist agenda in Sudan and the wider region, it prefers diplomatic engagement. Could that not be construed as a “reckless and cynical initiative”? Bringing Dr. Nafie Ali Nafie and other high-level officials of the Sudanese government to Washington, DC threatens to once again reward a regime that not only continues to have a record of failing to live up to its commitments and of committing brutal atrocities against its own citizens, but of pursuing an agenda of global jihad and Islamist supremacism.

This blog post originally appeared on the Front Page Magazine website as an article and is reposted with permission.

Congressman Says Obama Has Failed on Sudan

15 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by Faith McDonnell in News

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Blue Nile State, Congressman Frank Wolf, Darfur, failed foreign policy, Faith J. H. McDonnell, genocide, Nuba Mountains, Obama Sudan policy, Omar al-Bashir, South Sudan, Sudan, Sudan Special Envoy

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U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) visits the Nuba refugees at Yida Refugee Camp, South Sudan. (Photo Credit – Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission)

By Faith J. H. McDonnell (@Cuchulain09)

Spurred by tens of thousands facing government-orchestrated starvation and continuous aerial bombardment in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State, and the continuing violence in genocide-wracked Darfur, U.S. Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) has declared that “it is time for a fresh policy and a renewed commitment to peace and justice in Sudan.” In a statement released on Thursday, April 11, 2013, the congressman from Virginia’s 10th District also asked for the “swift appointment of a high-profile Sudan special envoy.” Wolf, a repeat visitor to Sudan and South Sudan, is a hero to advocates for human rights and religious freedom.

“To date, this president has offered nothing more than an abdication of leadership and a failure of vision, which has culminated in human suffering and misery,” said Wolf. He contrasted a policy that seemed to indicate “a president that has all but forsaken the people of Sudan” with Obama’s deep concern and commitment to bold action as a presidential candidate. But “have we seen a fraction of that concern or anything close to bold action since he became president?” Wolf demanded.

“Candidate Obama was sharp in his criticism of President Bush’s handling of Sudan,” Wolf continued. “Have we seen President Obama take even fleeting interest, beyond the occasional talking point, in the deteriorating situation in Sudan marked in part by a growing humanitarian crisis in the Nuba Mountains?” he inquired. Instead, says Wolf, “inexplicably this administration has embraced a policy of engagement marked by conciliatory outreach to Khartoum, including the prospect of debt relief for a genocidal government, and a perverse sense of moral equivalence in dealing with South Sudan and Sudan.”

Wolf refers to groups such as Act for Sudan and a coalition of genocide scholars that have recently written to Secretary of State John Kerry and to President Obama urging a strong, influential Sudan special envoy. Like Wolf, these groups are disappointed with the current Sudan policy. Wolf also suggests several options that he believes would strengthen and improve U.S. policy on Sudan in his statement.

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