I am surprised that the mainstream media is so far ahead of the progressive blogosphere in reporting and discussing what is potentially one of, if not the most powerful tool for peacemaking in history. But it is not too late to begin to catch-up. (This is a revised and updated version of a diary from a few days ago.)
Peace suddenly has a better chance in Sudan, (where renewed civil war seems imminent and the deaths of millions, possible) now that human rights groups have commissioned commercial satellites to monitor the border areas between north and south Sudan in the run up the the January 9th referendum which may result in the secession of the oil rich south.
The Satellite Sentinel Project, the brainchild of actor/director George Clooney of the Hollywood advocacy group Not on Our Watch, was fast-tracked into reality by the Enough Project of the Center for American Progress and a consortium of groups including the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, UNITAR, Google and fellow internet company, Trellon. Clooney and the Enough Project's John Prendergast were interviewed on Sunday about the project by Jake Tapper on ABC's This Week. Clooney said it is "our job" to stop the war before it starts.
The story was broken by TIME magazine online and it has generated massive national and international coverage since. The story describes how the consortium plans to rent satellite time to monitor the border between north and south Sudan which is teetering on the verge of war. The oil-rich border region of Abyei is the likely flashpoint.
But the good news for the new year is that aggressive military action and human rights abuses can now be documented by satellite and the world notified. Satellite images have been used to document atrocities in Rwanda and Afghanistan and Darfur in the past. But satellite imagery has never before been used to try to deter military aggression and genocide. (Fellow kossack jhutson has been at the center of the development of this project in his day job at the Enough Project of the Center for American Progress.)
"We are the antigenocide paparazzi," Clooney told TIME. "We want them to enjoy the level of celebrity attention that I usually get. If you know your actions are going to be covered, you tend to behave much differently than when you operate in a vacuum."
Make no mistake, folks. This project will transform the way peace is waged. In fact, this may be the first time the word "waged" may actually be an apt term to use.
Meanwhile,an op-ed I wrote for the Progressive Media Project, (of The Progressive magazine) was syndicated last week by McClatchy/Tribune. Here are excerpts from Giving peace a better chance in Sudan:
A new human rights initiative may be the stuff of which peace is made.
The Satellite Sentinel Project is an unprecedented effort led by Not on Our Watch (an advocacy group of leading Hollywood figures) and the anti-genocide Enough Project of the Center for American Progress.
For the first time in history, they intend to provide peace groups with the capacity to monitor potential war zones via commercial satellites. The goal is nothing less than to stop wars and war crimes in their bloody tracks.
A pilot project will try to help head off a potential civil war in Africa’s largest nation — Sudan.
The project will monitor the border area between north and south Sudan, which have been engaged in an intermittent civil war for 50 years. An uneasy truce has prevailed since 2005, but there is a potential for further war in the run-up to a Jan. 9 referendum, when the oil-rich south will decide whether to secede from the north.
Border villages in the south have already reportedly been bombed, though the north has denied responsibility.
This situation underscores the potential value of independent groups being able to provide pictures of the smoking guns.
The satellites will also be able to document such features of war as burned villages, masses of people fleeing and movements of troops and tanks.
Again. This may be the most powerful tool ever to reach the hands of the peacemakers. The first analyzed images from Sudan may come out this week in advance of the referendum. And the consortium has only just begun to figure out creative ways to move the satellite images for maximum impact. Clooney has said:
We were late to Rwanda. We were late to the Congo. We were late to Darfur. There is no time to wait in Sudan.
