Saving Sudan

After you read this, please repost it. The best way to help solve this problem is through awareness.

I don't think most of my friends know how strongly I feel about the poverty in Africa. Its something I care about very much. Its appalling watch what people go through in that country. All the pain and strife, thousands upon thousands dying every year PER COUNTRY, from disease, famine, and worst of all violence and genocide. I try to donate as often as I can to orginzations like UNICEF, but that alone isn't enough.

Anyway, I'm writing about specific event that's happening in Darfur, Sudan. Its something we all know as "genocide." For those who don't know what "genocide" is, its basically ethnic cleansing, killing as many people of a certain race or culture as possible, like the Holocaust.

A lot of people know about Rwanda and the genocide that happened there in 1994, 800,000 people were killed. But the US did nothing to stop it.

Something similar is going on Darfur. It started in 2003, a group of militia known as the "Janjaweed" started to slaughter non-arab citizens. The goverment of Sudan claims that they don't support the Janjaweed and they claim no genocide is happening, however, they do provide arms and funds to the militia. Colin Powell visited the camps in Darfur and named it to be genocide. After, President Bush as well as many other leaderes denounced what's happening in in Darfur to be genocide.

As many as 400,000 dead; as many as 500 die each day; 2 million displaced. The people who participates in these attacks are animals. They have no regard for women or children. In fact, many women have been raped, they sometimes use machetes to cut the inside of the womens thighs to disgrace them. I've even read reports of women being raped with machetes...

Here are images of some of the victims of the violence in Darfur:

A starving Child in Darfur

A child injured in a bombing run in Darfur

These pictures are a little grotesque

This is 85-year-old Abu Hamid Omar. Not only was he burned and branded in an attack by the Janjaweed and Sudanese Government forces, but his village was burned to the ground. Abu Hamid Omar was the ONLY villager to survive the persecutory assault. Photographed October 11, 2004, by Benjamin Lowy.

The Janjaweed killers

More Pictures from Darfur

In February 2006, the US began its monthlong leadership of the UN, and the Security Council agreed unanimously to begin the planning process to send the troops. It called for a 12,000 to 20,000 troop presence in Darfur with the 7,000 African Union troops already there being given new weapons and being incorporated into the UN mission. However, a lot of problems are going on becuase the leader of Sudan doesn't want the US peacekeepers to be there. Maybe cause he's supporting the genocide, and he's a dickhead who needs to be shot in the face.

Anyway, it might be a year before any troops can be sent over to Darfur, Sudan. This mean that thousand upon thousdans more will died before this is resolved. People swore to never let this happen again, but how many American's are aware that an event VERY SIMILAR to what happened in 1994 is happening now. And yet again, American's and the west are blind to these issues.

I hope that most people have acutally read through this whole thing, or atleast scrolled to the bottom. I urge all of you to do one of these things to help out the situation, not only in Darfur, Sudan, but in other parts of the world too... If you don't want to donate money, atleast fill out the electonic petition. It'll take only a minute of your time.

Electronic Petition to the President and Government

Donate to the Save Darfur Coalition

Donate to UNICEF: The United Nations Children's Fund

Write to your members of Congress
More Ways to Help

More On the History of the Confict and What's Happening in Darfur

Thanks to anyone who helps, ~Andrew Ramdeholl


P.S. If any of you haven't seen Hotel Rwanda yet, I strongly urge you to rent it...or even download it, hopefully I don't get sued for saying that. But it gives a great perspective on what's happening in other parts of the world.

P.P.S. Please repost this in another bulletin so it gets more exposure. Just click reply and copy whats in the box. Like I stated before, the best way to solve any problem is through awareness