“What happened then is one of the world’s biggest regrets. Many members of the international community have apologized to me and stated that they did not know the horrendous atrocities that occurred. I responded, ‘If you know now, then what are you doing in the Congo? Darfur? Somalia? The whole of Africa, which is burning?’”
Does this quote sound familiar? Last year at the Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial auditorium, a man named Paul Rusesabagina said these words as he recalled personal experiences of surviving the Rwanda genocide. Though looking regretfully into the past, he came with the purpose of motivating students to act to change the present, specifically aiming at the genocide that has been occurring for the last three years in Darfur, Sudan.
The Darfur region in Western Sudan is home to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Like most African nations, Sudan has been politically, economically, and socially unstable for decades. It was not until February 2003 though, that the violent outbreak of what is now known as the first genocide of the 21st century erupted. The victims are African tribal groups or non-Arabs, and these people have long been discriminated against by the Arab-dominated government.
An uprising against government officials by Africans resulted in the unleashing of a group called the Janjaweed. Meaning “lawless person” in local dialect, the Janjaweed is an Arab militia of around 20,000 men, mainly on horse and camel. The militia was sent to systematically destroy the lives and homes of the Africans. Men and boys are killed first automatically, women and girls are raped and abducted, villages looted and burned, water sources poisoned, and any means of agricultural production is torn up. Cattle are looted, and fruit trees cut down. The Janjaweed will stop at nothing.
Depending on who you talk to, the statistics of this situation vary greatly. Some say only 70,000 have been killed so far, some say 100,000 die every month. The number that seems to be the most accepted is 200,000, though calculating the death toll is almost impossible at this point, with much of Darfur inaccessible to aid workers and researchers. Another controversial figure pertains to the displacement of people, but 2.5 million is the number most commonly accepted. Most of these refugees have fled to Chad, Sudan’s neighboring country. Refugee camps have been set up there and all around Darfur.
It must be understood that these camps are not so much of a safe-haven from the conflict, but rather an even bigger target, or a weaker prey for the brutal predator. Inside, the victims suffer from overcrowding and severe food, water, and shelter shortages. There is always the risk of an outbreak of waterborne diseases such as cholera and dysentery, along with malaria. Outside, the Janjaweed patrol. Men are almost never sent to look for firewood or more water; upon leaving the camps they are either castrated and left to bleed to death, or simply killed. The women have taken it upon themselves to walk for miles every day to find water, knowing that that they will be raped, but at least not killed. This is the daily life and struggle for a Darfurian refugee.
“I was sleeping when the attack on Disa [a village] started. I was taken away by the attackers, they were all in uniforms. They took dozens of other girls and made us walk for three hours. During the day we were beaten and they were telling us, ‘You, the black women, we will exterminate you, you have no god.’ At night we were raped several times. The Arabs guarded us with arms and we were not given food for three days,” a female refugee from Disa recounted.
“When we tried to escape they shot more children. They raped women; I saw many cases of Janjaweed raping women and girls. They are happy when they rape. They sing when they rape and they tell that we are just slaves and that they can do with us how they wish,” another female refugee recounts.
What is being done to help the people of Darfur? The United States has been the most generous contributor of humanitarian assistance, and there are few agencies with aid workers throughout the region, but in general the government of Khartoum, Darfur’s capital, refuses the entry of most agencies, both governmental and non-governmental. It is a difficult situation for the international community, specifically for America. The Bush administration is stuck in their efforts to end Sudan’s north-south war that has been going on since the early 80s, and to secure intelligence on terrorism (Bin Laden has strong connections with the Sudanese government, run by the National Islamic Front). There is a widespread reluctance to push Khartoum too hard on the Darfur issue, while in the final steps of a supposed peace of the on-going conflict between north and south Sudan.
A peace deal between one of the three main African rebel groups and the government was signed in May of this year, but ironically the violence only escalated afterward. In recent months the United States and other members of the international community have been pressuring Khartoum to allow a UN peacekeeping force to take the place of some 7,000 African Union (AU) troops. The AU is known for their inability to secure the situation and to protect the people, due to lack of funds and equipment. Providing a group of 20,000 UN peacekeepers was an idea proposed to assist, if not take the place of the AU troops; however, as previously mentioned, the Sudanese government has repeatedly refused access to areas in dire need of assistance, and the entry of humanitarian aid.
Activism for this issue is on the rise. After over three years, people are realizing that the Darfur genocide is really happening and more importantly, that it is only getting worse. In the last few months alone, there have been several rallies at the local, national, and international level, and the US government seems to be listening. Pressure on Khartoum is rising every day, and members of Congress and the UN are speaking out more on the issue.
By sheer luck, coincidence, and the ever-surprising phenomenon of timing, a few months ago I had the opportunity to speak with President Bush on the matter. I thanked him for his efforts and tried to be positive by mentioning the progress we’ve made. He however, immediately counter-acted my enthusiasm with emotionally crinkled eyebrows and a stern face, and assured me that there is still very much to be done. After stressing the importance of this issue he thanked me for my concern.
Our voices are being heard, on both small and large scales. This is something that’s not going to end on its own. It is our obligation to admit that without humanitarian assistance in the near-future, the people of Darfur will only be subjected to more torture and hatred, and when the time comes that the world discovers the absolute truth of all the atrocities and injustice that is occurring, we will find ourselves lost in the large number of the death toll. Last year at the TBAMA, Rusesabagina recalled his personal experiences of surviving the Rwanda genocide, and was quick to point out another absolute truth. “This is a shame to mankind. And the whole world is standing by observing.” •
Showing posts with label Amnesty International. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amnesty International. Show all posts
Feb 25, 2008
Feb 23, 2008
Peltier’s struggle - American Indian a “prisoner of conscience”
At the very beginning stages of Amnesty International, the most important cause behind which its members rallied was that of “prisoners of conscience” (POC). This term, coined by AI, refers to anyone imprisoned as a result of their personal beliefs, race, gender, etc. The organization has spread to new territories in its struggle for human rights, but that original cause must not be forgotten.
Now, more than ever, people must keep in mind those who risk their freedom for their beliefs. In this period of the United States, when individual freedoms could easily be trampled, these POCs not only stand for their own freedom, but for the freedom of all people.
Leonard Peltier, a very influential POC, is a Native American activist who has been imprisoned. He is a citizen of the Anishinabe and Lakota Nations. Peltier was convicted for the murder of two FBI agents and sentenced to double life sentences in 1976. AI believes that he is a political prisoner who should be “immediately and unconditionally released.”
Peltier is a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM began during the 1960s as an organization committed to helping fellow Native Americans who were living in poverty. However, AIM soon grew into a powerful political and social movement. Its members wanted to defend Native Americans against increasing pressure from the government to assimilate and leave their land. AIM wanted to protect the treaty rights of all Native Americans.
The treaties signed by the US government which allotted specific lands to Indian Nations in the 19th century had been infringed upon and simply ignored, when much of the land of the Great Sioux Nation was opened up for homesteading. Originally, the Great Sioux reservation stretched 60 million acres. However, it was subsequently divided into five parts and much of the land was taken from them. The Pine Ridge Reservation is one of these sections, covering 2.8 million acres.
For the people of Pine Ridge, struggles with the government are not part of history. They are continuous and devastating to the Native Americans involved. In his book, “Loud Hawk: the United States versus the American Indian Movement,” Kenneth Stern describes the level of poverty he found in an area of Pine Ridge called Oglala. “Shacks were made of tarpaper and old road signs. Junked cars were dressed with torn curtains…I wondered how they slept, inside, in homes smaller than a garage.” This area has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the western hemisphere. Alcoholism runs rampant and life expectancy is very low. Stern spoke to many locals. He writes in the words of Sam Loud Hawk, “Nothing’s changed here. The GOONs and the FBI keep after us. People are still getting shot every day.”
In 1972, the FBI gave tribal president Dick Wilson’s followers, who called themselves Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs) military assault rifles. These GOONs never really connected to the rest of the Lakota Nation. They had little affection for the traditional native values, and to this day terrorize citizens of the reservation. They are held accountable by Lakota citizens for the murders of over 60 AIM members and sympathizers. According to Paul Wolf, who made a presentation about the FBI’s operations to the U.N., the FBI itself launched a secret operation against the reservations and the threat it saw in AIM members there. He said that it issued a document called “FBI Paramilitary Operations in Indian Country,” which encouraged the use of “neutralization,” defined as “Shooting to kill.” At this time, the area had a higher murder rate (per capita) than any city in the country. One FBI document from 1973 stated that they were worried AIM would soon try to prevent the exploitation of resources (uranium) from the reservation. Wilson was working with the FBI for favors and he became very corrupt.
The incident resulting in the death of two FBI agents (Ronald Williams and Jack Coler) and one AIM member (Joseph Stuntz) occurred on the Jumping Bull ranch at Pine Ridge. Peltier and other members of AIM had been called by chief councils to help protect those on the reservation from GOONs and rogue officers who had been killing locals. The two agents followed a pickup truck in unmarked cars to the ranch. It is unclear who started shooting, but eventually both men were wounded. Then, according to the FBI, a group of AIM members, including Peltier, shot the agents in the head in an execution style. However, Peltier states that he tried to leave in another car, when he saw a group in a pickup truck pull up near the two wounded agents and shoot them in the head.
Once Peltier had been caught, he was charged with the murders, along with Jimmy Eagle, Bob Robideau, and Darrell Butler. They claimed that the agents never identified themselves. The other three defendants were acquitted on the basis of self-defense, but Peltier was tried by a different judge and was found guilty. Much of the evidence used in his trial has since been found unreliable.
According to Jim Messerschmidt, one of Peltier’s attorneys, the FBI had at not originally included an AR-15 rifle with the possible murder weapons, but later claimed that it was. However Messerschmidt said, “This AR-15 did not match with the .223 shell found in Coler’s trunk.” The FBI then changed their story to Peltier having aided the murderer (who is unknown), thereby being guilty himself. On top of much other misleading evidence, many of the witnesses who testified against Peltier have since come forward and said that they had been threatened and pressured into testifying by the FBI.
To this day, there is no conclusive evidence that Peltier murdered the agents or aided in their murder, but he was imprisoned while his comrades walked. According to Paul Wolf, after the incident, the FBI tried to demonize Peltier in the media. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights stated, “It is patently clear that many of the statements released to the media regarding the incident are either false, unsubstantiated, or directly misleading.” Many people, however, have realized the injustice in Peltier’s case and have decided to inform others for help. Among those who have appealed for his release are, The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rev. Jesse Jackson, European Parliament, and U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights Rigoberta Menchu.
Peltier is a model inmate who has helped others in issues of drugs and alcohol. He has helped reconcile differences between hostile Indian tribes using non-violent methods. He was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, yet, at this moment, he is locked inside Leavenworth Penitentiary.
For more information on Leonard Peltier’s struggle for freedom or to write him a letter, visit freepeltier.org or leonardpeltier.net •
Now, more than ever, people must keep in mind those who risk their freedom for their beliefs. In this period of the United States, when individual freedoms could easily be trampled, these POCs not only stand for their own freedom, but for the freedom of all people.
Leonard Peltier, a very influential POC, is a Native American activist who has been imprisoned. He is a citizen of the Anishinabe and Lakota Nations. Peltier was convicted for the murder of two FBI agents and sentenced to double life sentences in 1976. AI believes that he is a political prisoner who should be “immediately and unconditionally released.”
Peltier is a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). AIM began during the 1960s as an organization committed to helping fellow Native Americans who were living in poverty. However, AIM soon grew into a powerful political and social movement. Its members wanted to defend Native Americans against increasing pressure from the government to assimilate and leave their land. AIM wanted to protect the treaty rights of all Native Americans.
The treaties signed by the US government which allotted specific lands to Indian Nations in the 19th century had been infringed upon and simply ignored, when much of the land of the Great Sioux Nation was opened up for homesteading. Originally, the Great Sioux reservation stretched 60 million acres. However, it was subsequently divided into five parts and much of the land was taken from them. The Pine Ridge Reservation is one of these sections, covering 2.8 million acres.
For the people of Pine Ridge, struggles with the government are not part of history. They are continuous and devastating to the Native Americans involved. In his book, “Loud Hawk: the United States versus the American Indian Movement,” Kenneth Stern describes the level of poverty he found in an area of Pine Ridge called Oglala. “Shacks were made of tarpaper and old road signs. Junked cars were dressed with torn curtains…I wondered how they slept, inside, in homes smaller than a garage.” This area has one of the highest infant mortality rates in the western hemisphere. Alcoholism runs rampant and life expectancy is very low. Stern spoke to many locals. He writes in the words of Sam Loud Hawk, “Nothing’s changed here. The GOONs and the FBI keep after us. People are still getting shot every day.”
In 1972, the FBI gave tribal president Dick Wilson’s followers, who called themselves Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs) military assault rifles. These GOONs never really connected to the rest of the Lakota Nation. They had little affection for the traditional native values, and to this day terrorize citizens of the reservation. They are held accountable by Lakota citizens for the murders of over 60 AIM members and sympathizers. According to Paul Wolf, who made a presentation about the FBI’s operations to the U.N., the FBI itself launched a secret operation against the reservations and the threat it saw in AIM members there. He said that it issued a document called “FBI Paramilitary Operations in Indian Country,” which encouraged the use of “neutralization,” defined as “Shooting to kill.” At this time, the area had a higher murder rate (per capita) than any city in the country. One FBI document from 1973 stated that they were worried AIM would soon try to prevent the exploitation of resources (uranium) from the reservation. Wilson was working with the FBI for favors and he became very corrupt.
The incident resulting in the death of two FBI agents (Ronald Williams and Jack Coler) and one AIM member (Joseph Stuntz) occurred on the Jumping Bull ranch at Pine Ridge. Peltier and other members of AIM had been called by chief councils to help protect those on the reservation from GOONs and rogue officers who had been killing locals. The two agents followed a pickup truck in unmarked cars to the ranch. It is unclear who started shooting, but eventually both men were wounded. Then, according to the FBI, a group of AIM members, including Peltier, shot the agents in the head in an execution style. However, Peltier states that he tried to leave in another car, when he saw a group in a pickup truck pull up near the two wounded agents and shoot them in the head.
Once Peltier had been caught, he was charged with the murders, along with Jimmy Eagle, Bob Robideau, and Darrell Butler. They claimed that the agents never identified themselves. The other three defendants were acquitted on the basis of self-defense, but Peltier was tried by a different judge and was found guilty. Much of the evidence used in his trial has since been found unreliable.
According to Jim Messerschmidt, one of Peltier’s attorneys, the FBI had at not originally included an AR-15 rifle with the possible murder weapons, but later claimed that it was. However Messerschmidt said, “This AR-15 did not match with the .223 shell found in Coler’s trunk.” The FBI then changed their story to Peltier having aided the murderer (who is unknown), thereby being guilty himself. On top of much other misleading evidence, many of the witnesses who testified against Peltier have since come forward and said that they had been threatened and pressured into testifying by the FBI.
To this day, there is no conclusive evidence that Peltier murdered the agents or aided in their murder, but he was imprisoned while his comrades walked. According to Paul Wolf, after the incident, the FBI tried to demonize Peltier in the media. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights stated, “It is patently clear that many of the statements released to the media regarding the incident are either false, unsubstantiated, or directly misleading.” Many people, however, have realized the injustice in Peltier’s case and have decided to inform others for help. Among those who have appealed for his release are, The Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rev. Jesse Jackson, European Parliament, and U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights Rigoberta Menchu.
Peltier is a model inmate who has helped others in issues of drugs and alcohol. He has helped reconcile differences between hostile Indian tribes using non-violent methods. He was even nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, yet, at this moment, he is locked inside Leavenworth Penitentiary.
For more information on Leonard Peltier’s struggle for freedom or to write him a letter, visit freepeltier.org or leonardpeltier.net •
Feb 19, 2008
We don’t live in the world envisioned by Amnesty - but I wish we did
by Emily Miner
Many people, and presumably most of those who read this publication, have heard of, at least in passing, Amnesty International. Founded in 1961 its intentions were lofty – it wished to help create a world were everyone, regardless of nationality, race, gender or religion was guaranteed the rights enshrined in the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (visit http://web.amnesty.org/pages/aboutai-udhr-eng to read the Declaration in full.) AI’s initial focus – and the cause that lead it to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 – was the world wide problem of “prisoners of consciousness”: the men or women throughout the world arrested for the non-violent expression of their convictions.
But as the organization has grown (it now boasts a membership of over 1.8million) so has the breadth of the issues it has tackled in defense of human rights. Each year it releases a list of campaigns meant to focus on topics it sees as urgent in the fight for human rights. (See the full list of campaigns, and read about them in detail at http://www.amnesty.org/campaign/ ).
The brilliance of Amnesty is that it manages to maintain its idealistic principles while recognizing the areas it can be most effective. Sadly, torture and the act of a state sanctioned death penalty will probably not be abolished worldwide in any of our life times. But by exposing violators, writing letters, participating in protests and pressuring politicians, Amnesty and its members have on the most essential level – the individual level – influenced and in countless instances saved the lives of people threatened with torture or death.
At the same time, Amnesty is always at the forefront of pinpointing areas where it can affect large scale change. Since AI began to focus its attention on the Guantanamo Bay detainees, the US government has released 15 prisoners. In 2005, due in part to pressure from AI, the Violence Against Women Act was renewed in the United States for another 5 years. Prisoners of conscious from Mexico, Belarus and Libya, to name a few, specifically thanked AI after they were released from detention because of AI activist pressure.
For me, what I love about Amnesty is its ability to pinpoint one of the basic, unifying aspects of humanity. The twentieth century saw some of the most depraved and large scale acts of human rights violations the world has ever seen. And yet in the same century the world tried to codify human rights, to create institutions and organizations to defend them and to help those who are persecuted. Certainly our governments and the institutions we’ve created have not always been successful. But Amnesty has continued to not only embrace the principle of universal human rights but to allow millions of ordinary people the opportunity to influence the world around them. Due to its “urgent action appeals” it has made activists out of anyone with a pen, paper and stamps. And it has allowed people throughout the world to help others they may never meet and affect change in situations that might never affect them personally.
Amnesty International is an international watchdog; it is a diligent campaigner for the betterment of the rights and circumstances of people wherever they may live and it is one of the most important and vocal defenders not only of universal human rights, but of the dignity of each individual. We don’t live in the world envisioned by Amnesty – but I wish we did.
Many people, and presumably most of those who read this publication, have heard of, at least in passing, Amnesty International. Founded in 1961 its intentions were lofty – it wished to help create a world were everyone, regardless of nationality, race, gender or religion was guaranteed the rights enshrined in the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (visit http://web.amnesty.org/pages/aboutai-udhr-eng to read the Declaration in full.) AI’s initial focus – and the cause that lead it to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977 – was the world wide problem of “prisoners of consciousness”: the men or women throughout the world arrested for the non-violent expression of their convictions.
But as the organization has grown (it now boasts a membership of over 1.8million) so has the breadth of the issues it has tackled in defense of human rights. Each year it releases a list of campaigns meant to focus on topics it sees as urgent in the fight for human rights. (See the full list of campaigns, and read about them in detail at http://www.amnesty.org/campaign/ ).
The brilliance of Amnesty is that it manages to maintain its idealistic principles while recognizing the areas it can be most effective. Sadly, torture and the act of a state sanctioned death penalty will probably not be abolished worldwide in any of our life times. But by exposing violators, writing letters, participating in protests and pressuring politicians, Amnesty and its members have on the most essential level – the individual level – influenced and in countless instances saved the lives of people threatened with torture or death.
At the same time, Amnesty is always at the forefront of pinpointing areas where it can affect large scale change. Since AI began to focus its attention on the Guantanamo Bay detainees, the US government has released 15 prisoners. In 2005, due in part to pressure from AI, the Violence Against Women Act was renewed in the United States for another 5 years. Prisoners of conscious from Mexico, Belarus and Libya, to name a few, specifically thanked AI after they were released from detention because of AI activist pressure.
For me, what I love about Amnesty is its ability to pinpoint one of the basic, unifying aspects of humanity. The twentieth century saw some of the most depraved and large scale acts of human rights violations the world has ever seen. And yet in the same century the world tried to codify human rights, to create institutions and organizations to defend them and to help those who are persecuted. Certainly our governments and the institutions we’ve created have not always been successful. But Amnesty has continued to not only embrace the principle of universal human rights but to allow millions of ordinary people the opportunity to influence the world around them. Due to its “urgent action appeals” it has made activists out of anyone with a pen, paper and stamps. And it has allowed people throughout the world to help others they may never meet and affect change in situations that might never affect them personally.
Amnesty International is an international watchdog; it is a diligent campaigner for the betterment of the rights and circumstances of people wherever they may live and it is one of the most important and vocal defenders not only of universal human rights, but of the dignity of each individual. We don’t live in the world envisioned by Amnesty – but I wish we did.
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