UUA Responds: Save the People of Darfur

Bill Sinkford with refugee woman in Goz Beida. Photo by Danielle Sinkford

Friends:

The humanitarian disaster in Darfur has now been going on for three years. Some 400,000 people have died, violence has forced more than two million from their homes, more than three million are starving. Despite evidence linking the Sudanese government to the Janjaweed militias responsible for much of the violence against Darfur 's civilian population, that government continues to deny involvement and to allow the Janjaweed free rein.

The U.S. and the international community have done nothing to stop the bloodshed--even after 2004, when our government officially recognized what was happening in Darfur as genocide. The only international force authorized to operate in the region are 6000 or so troops fielded by the African Union, with neither the mandate nor the resources to stop the killing--only to protect observers assigned to monitor a 2004 ceasefire that failed almost before it was signed. The Bush Administration actually cut U.S. aid to this force, although it has been reinstated in its 2006 budget request.

In November, I visited eastern Chad, just across the border from Darfur, along with Charlie Clements of the UUSC. We had the opportunity to interview a number of the 200,000 or so refugees in the camps there, and their stories were remarkably consistent: their villages were surrounded by armed Janjaweed on horseback, who would then call in Russian-made Sudanese aircraft to drop homemade napalm onto the villages. Then the Janjaweed would start firing on civilians. The militias also systematically rape younger women—which in that culture is almost a death sentence for the victims, who are usually expelled from their communities. This is tough, dry country, only 100 miles south of the Sahara. Those who could escape did so, usually with only the clothes on their back. Those who crossed into Chad were welcomed with a generosity that is astounding, given the extreme poverty of eastern Chad.

Instability and violence in the region seem to be intensifying, making delivering aid to the refugees increasingly dangerous and difficult. Things got so bad while we were there that NGO workers on the Sudanese side of the border (where refugee camps house close to two million displaced persons) were forbidden to travel except by helicopter. In addition to the fighting, bandits now prey on whomever they can find to rob--and, after three years of warfare, only the aid organizations have anything worth taking.

Can we do something to help end this humanitarian disaster? We can. The Save Darfur Coalition, of which the UUA and UUSC are members, has mounted the Million Voices for Darfur campaign. In cooperation with more than 150 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian aid organizations, the campaign hopes to deliver a million handwritten and electronic postcards to the White House and Congress, demanding a more effective U.S. response. We are asking first, for a restoration of and increase in funding for the small number of African Union forces charged with monitoring the 2004 ceasefire; and second, for the U.S. to support sending in a UN peacekeeping force, large enough and with sufficient authority to stop the killing.

When he became president, George Bush scribbled "Not on my watch" in the margin of a report about the atrocities in Rwanda a decade ago. But the killing has gone on, on his watch, for three years now. Let us hold him to his promise. The genocide in Darfur can be prevented now rather than merely lamented later--but that will require the U.S. to act. Now.

We hope to raise our one million voices to President Bush and Congress through a series of events in Washington, DC, April 30 - May 1, so I hope you'll plan to participate in March and early April. Please see the resources on these pages for ways you and your congregation can get involved. Our public demand for US action may very well be the key to ending one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our time. It's our watch, too.

In faith,

William G. Sinkford
President
Unitarian Universalist Association

4/6/06 Pastoral Letter from the Rev. William G. Sinkford: In This Season of Rebirth, a Call to People of Conscience

For More Information

• Ways Your Congregation Can Participate in the Million Voices for Darfur Campaign
• Meeting the Children of Darfur. A Story for all Ages written by Danielle Sinkford. For use congregations participating in the "Million Voices for Darfur" Campaign. (in PDF format )
• Talking with Children and Youth about Darfur: Resources and Messages
• Dispatch from Chad: Reflections on Visits with Sudanese Exiles, by UUA President William G. Sinkford with additional commentary by Danielle Sinkford

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