After sharing these action alerts with folks over the last few months, I was thrilled to see MSOC's diary make it up to the Rec list yesterday. No one can fire up this community like she can!
I just received the weekly update and action alert from www.savedarfur.org - you know what to do.
Action Items:
60 Seconds of Action: The House of Representatives is expected to consider the President's supplemental appropriations request next week, which included $514 million for peacekeeping and humanitarian aid programs in Sudan. Please click here (http://www.house.gov/...)to find your Representative, and send him or her an email urging maximum funding for Sudan.
60 Minutes of Action: The African Union will meet next Friday, March 10, at which time they will decide whether or not to request peacekeeping help from the UN. While it had earlier appeared a forgone conclusion that they would make this request, a lobbying-blitz by the Sudanese President Bashir to keep the UN out of Darfur threatens international efforts to protect the people of Darfur. Africa's leaders must not let President Bashir, whose regime has been implicated in the genocide, guide the African Union's decisions when it comes to how best to save lives in Darfur. Please write to your local newspaper and urge them to editorialize on this issue.
This week in Sudan:
America's term at the helm of the United Nations Security Council came to an end on Tuesday, unfortunately without realizing one of the top goals of its tenure, introducing a Security Council resolution on a UN peacekeeping presence in Darfur. The African Union still has to formally request an expanded UN presence, something that it is expected to do on March 10.
The surety of that request is in some doubt, however, as Sudanese President Bashir has begun lobbying other African nations to oppose a UN force. The idea that other African heads-of-state would base their decisions of how best to protect the people of Darfur on the advice of a man whose regime has been implicated in the genocide would seem absurd. Despite the possibility of the African Union acquiescing to Bashir, support for the UN force is growing elsewhere. The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed S. Res. 383, a resolution calling for significant NATO assistance to the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, including the enforcement of a no-fly zone for Darfur, and for a quick transition to a capable UN peacekeeping force with a strong mandate to protect civilians.
Talk of further NATO help to the African Union mission continues as well, as political and opinion leaders in America and elsewhere speak out on the urgency of the situation. On Wednesday, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and several other Members of Congress met with members of the Save Darfur Coalition and others to discuss their recent trip to Darfur, and made clear their commitment to finding a solution to the crisis in Darfur. Several critical pieces of legislation will come before Congress in the next few weeks, giving lawmakers both an opportunity to weigh in on how best to help the people of Darfur, and a chance to provide the funds necessary to do so.
Darfur was also in the news outside of Washington. In Philadelphia, Miami and Los Angeles, crowds gathered this week to hear former Marine Captain Brian Steidle speak about his experiences as the U.S. representative to the African Union mission in Darfur. Various states and Universities are moving forward with campaigns to boycott commercial entities with ties to Sudan as well, building on the growing momentum for stronger action that can be seen in America and overseas.
For additional information on any of these stories, either click on the links embedded in the above paragraphs, or scroll to a list of the articles below. In addition, a more complete list of articles on Darfur is available below, and on our website (http://savedarfur.org/...), updated daily. You may also request daily email news updates with the day's top articles by emailing info@SaveDarfur.org