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Sign Up to Lobby Congress

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

We are at a critical moment for Sudan and Congress has an important role to play. As the Republic of South Sudan gains independence and violence continues throughout Darfur and border areas, we want to provide concerned advocates with an opportunity to make your voice heard.

Students Lobby Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA), Sudan Caucus Co-Chair

Lobby Your Senators During the August Recess

Your Senators will be home in your state meeting with constituents from August 8-September 2. Because the August recess runs for 4 weeks—often the longest recess period all year—it offers a significant window of time to plan a meeting with your Senator’s office. With so much going on, we anticipate that August will be a crucial month to lobby on both Sudan and genocide prevention.

Sign Up Today

All you need to do right now is sign up. We’ll follow-up with additional information and can answer any questions you have. We’ll provide talking points and materials for your meeting. We will also be holding several training calls to help you prepare and can connect you with others in your area who might be interested in lobbying.

Sign up to lobby your Senators today. Meetings will need to be scheduled soon.

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A Video Report From Rwanda

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Save Darfur Coalition President Tom Andrews and Senior Policy Analyst Dan Sullivan are on a two week trip to Kenya, Rwanda and South Sudan. They just departed Kigali, Rwanda for Juba, South Sudan this afternoon but before they left they sent a quick video update from their trip. Take a look:

On July 9th at noon (eastern) Tom and Dan will host a live Twitter Q&A event from Juba to discuss the South’s independence celebration and the future of both Sudans. If you’d like to ask a question you can submit one in advance or use the hashtag #inSudan to join the discussion.

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The Other Fourth of July

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

Update: Join us on July 9th at noon (eastern) for a live Twitter Q&A with Tom and Dan from Juba, South Sudan. You can submit a question in advance or use the hashtag #inSudan to follow the action on Twitter.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame delivering Liberation Day address at Kigali stadium

Yesterday, as the United States celebrated its independence, another kind of independence was being celebrated in Rwanda.  That country’s 49th independence day from colonial powers had been celebrated three days before, but on July 4th, Rwanda commemorated the 17th anniversary of when 100 days of genocide was brought to an end.

I had the honor of attending the national ceremony at Kigali stadium seated just a few yards behind where the Rwandan president spoke.  An array of foreign dignitaries were in attendance, fittingly as the Rwandan genocide is remembered as a failure of the international community.  Leaders including the Belgian Prime Minister, Kofi Annan (the UN Secretary General at the time), and former President Bill Clinton have apologized for that failure and count the lack of response to the genocide among their biggest failures.

The Rwandans I spoke to emphasize education as a tool for prevention and a focus on the future as the best way to heal.  They cannot get back their relatives, they say, but they can invest in a better future to spend with their grandchildren.

At Kigali Stadium, July 4, 2011

Today, we have learned some lessons.  Indeed, it was Kofi Annan who led the response to the post-2007 election violence in Kenya that threatened to spiral into horrific proportions.  The Obama administration helped lead the United Nations in responding to targeting of civilians by Moammar Qaddafi, preventing an imminent mass slaughter in Benghazi.

But we are still trying to learn.  How can the world best prevent and respond when necessary to mass atrocity situations?  It was with that question in mind that I traveled to Rwanda with GI-Net/SDC’s president Tom Andrews; to listen, to learn, and to bring our experiences back to the many who share our commitment to a world without genocide.

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Peace Amid the Smell of Lime and Death

Monday, July 4th, 2011

Update: Join us on July 9th at noon (eastern) for a live Twitter Q&A with Tom and Dan from Juba, South Sudan. You can submit a question in advance or use the hashtag #inSudan to follow the action on Twitter.

The Rwandan genocide in 1994 was what originally set me along my current path working for an organization dedicated to ending genocide and mass atrocities. I was a high school student who knew just enough history to be horrified by the Holocaust and certain that something like that could never happen again.  Seeing genocide happening in Rwanda was nearly incomprehensible to me.

Hills of Rwanda

Years of study and professional pursuits related to the fight against genocide and I am no closer to comprehending why.  Indeed, being now in Rwanda and looking over the lush green rolling hills and speaking with the welcoming people, it seems even harder to explain.

If I think of visiting Rwanda as a pilgrimage of sorts for me, then Murambi is the ultimate pilgrimage site, a gruesome reminder of what genocide can do.  Murambi was the site of a slaughter of more than 50,000 peoople who had gathered under the false belief that the picturesque hilltop setting was a place of refuge.  Some 848 bodies have been preserved with lime as a reminder of what happened there.  The captured gestures are haunting; hands up to block falling machetes, crushed skulls of small children, the mystery of an extended pointer finger (in fear or defiance?).

Words cannot describe the feeling of being in the midst of this captured terror.  So as I walk from room to room, holding my breath against the smell of lime and death, the only appropriate response is silence.

Body in Murambi preserved with lime. From morganinafrica.blogspot.com

Yet upon leaving each room, ears are met by the peaceful sounds of rural life, a breath of fresh mountain air flows into the lungs, and the eyes are met with a bitter contrast of surrounding natural beauty.  The contrast is nearly overwhelming, such horror amongst such beauty.

One part of the memorial tells the story of a survivor, one of just 14 known among more than 50,000 in Murambi.  She tells of genocidaires surrounding the buildings, throwing grenades, and using a spiked club to kill a child before her eyes.

Leaving the memorials as the Rwandan sun begins to dip low, I am left imagining hate-fueled monsters streaming up the hill toward the thousands of innocent victims.  I struggle more than ever to make sense of it all and cannot begin to imagine how those directly affected by such violence might cope.

The voice of my Rwandan driver breaks me from my contemplation. “Agahozo Rwanda”, he says reaching for the radio volume in answer to my confusion.  “Rwanda peace” he replies in his broken English and goes on to explain the lyrics of the catchy up-beat song that is playing.  “Never again in Rwanda.  The sun is coming up.  Birds are flying.  Birds do not fly during war.  There is no father, no mother, no brother, but there is the future.  Never again. Agahozo Rwanda.”

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Rwanda: A Place Where Tears are Dried

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

“There are dead people walking in Rwanda. People have seen things you would not believe.” -Rwandan orphanage worker

Today I visited a Rwandan youth village set up for orphans of the 1994 genocide.  Meaning a place “where tears are dried” and “peace”, the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village, about 45 minutes outside of Kigali, is aptly named.

Standing on the top of one of Rwanda’s thousands of rolling hills, the sound of a girl’s choir rising in the background, Alain Munyaburanga, Deputy Director of the village, stretches out his hand repeating one of the villages mottos, “If you can see far, you can go far.”  To paraphrase, he tells the orphans that life is like the rolling landscape before them, full of peaks and valleys and all sorts of trees, lakes, and other objects, beautiful and dangerous, in between.  If you find yourself in a valley, you must realize that it is not the end.

GI-Net/SDCs Dan Sullivan and Tom Andrews with village Deputy Director, Alain Munyaburanga, with Aghozo-Sholam Youth Village for orphans in the background.

It is a strong message for teenagers who have been traumatized by memories of the genocide and the void left by the murdered family members who should have been there to help them come of age.   Seventeen years after the genocide, few of the teenagers still in the village have direct memories of the genocide, but the scars on the society remain.  “There are dead people walking in Rwanda”, Alain tells me, describing how orphans (99% of them genocide survivors the year the village was opened) have come in seemingly numb.  It takes over a year for most to begin to feel comfortable and when their hurt is truly uncovered they break down in tears.  Some never quite reach that comfort.

It reminded me of my conversation with a Rwandan refugee and genocide survivor a few days before in Nairobi.  As he recounted the horrors he had seen he described feeling like he had lost a part of himself.

“Part of me went dead and I couldn’t function as a whole person mentally.”
-Rwandan genocide survivor in Nairobi

The orphan village at Agahozo-Shalom seeks to repair the most battered part of Rwandan society and to revive those who continue to walk as if devoid of life.  The sounds of singing, a fleeting smile, and the sight of an extended hand from the opposing team on a soccer field, show that, step by step, hill by hill, it truly is a place where tears are being dried.

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Megan Wanee: My Experience at Bonnaroo

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

This blog has been cross-posted from Citizens for Global Solutions

A booth at Bonnaroo

At music and art festivals you can strike up a conversation with virtually anyone. From a grassroots perspective, such an environment is perfect for discussing global issues because people are open to new ideas. It’s not uncommon for people to seek ways in which they can better the world and spread that peace, love, and happiness they experience at a festival like Bonnaroo.

Though I live only an hour away from Manchester, TN, where Bonnaroo is held, this was my first Bonnaroo experience. I have, however, years of experience with tabling and approaching people about political issues, especially genocide prevention, which was a central campaign talked about at the Citizens for Global Solutions’ (CGS) booth this year. As I expected, most people were hesitant to stop and give out their email to a non-profit organization. Yet, when they heard that Citizens for Global Solutions supports human rights and genocide prevention, they responded, “oh YEAH! Of course!” We found many festival-goers to be willing to give us their contact information, expressing a keen interest in our subject matter and a heartfelt thanks for our work. Only a few people had never heard of the term genocide at Bonnaroo; I was impressed to find that the majority of festival-goers were educated on the topic. I received plenty of specific questions from passersby about how Citizens for Global Solutions works to make genocide prevention effective.

From genocidal situations ranging from Armenian annihilation to deaths in Darfur, the United States has a history in which it is hesitant to take action. Part of the problem is the lack of constituents’ political will; many people think, “Aw, that’s terrible that those people across the world are being killed. But what does it matter to me, really? What can we really do?” Another component is the absence of mechanisms that exist in order to prevent crises and allow for the international community to respond quickly to mass atrocities. It is important for Americans to learn that there are a variety of tools that can be used, with military intervention as a last resort, for the prevention of genocide. This understanding is precisely what CGS sought to impart to Bonnaroo festival-goers. Some of my favorite conversations included discussions about different genocides and the role the United States can take to effectively protect civilians. I had one extensive conversation with a guy that started with the recent international intervention in Libya and ended with greater respect for each other’s ideas and the revelation that we were graduates of the same university. These were some of my favorite discussions at Bonnaroo: discussions that led to a greater sense of empowerment and forged connections between festival-goers.

The hardest part of genocide prevention activism is getting people to actually take tangible action beyond acknowledging the moral issues at stake. Fortunately, many passerbys were excited about CGS and spoke about how they would eagerly expect our action alert emails! Others, more skeptical about email inflow, may delete what we send. But the option is there, and the tools will be in their hands. From talking to people, I learned that festival-goers come from all over the United States and Canada. CGS is building a far-reaching constituency that supports human rights and decries atrocities; and thanks to Bonnaroo we were able to extend our constituency base.

What a rewarding first Bonnaroo experience! I had the opportunity to work with an intelligent and fun team of people, which festival-goers recognized and valued. They saw how we liked to joke and enjoy ourselves, and positively commented on our knowledge of the issues we were canvassing for, such as genocide prevention.  We represented a cause that I personally have a connection to, and enjoy discussing. The only true foes we faced included the heat and dust! Even that didn’t bring us down, however, as we whipped out the cold juice pops and spray bottles to entice people to stop by our booth and hear what we have to say. We were never forceful, but passionate.

Our passion was matched by that of our neighbors, be it our friends next door with the Gulf Restoration Network, who worked hard on a petition concerning the Gulf Coast BP oil spill, or our zealous neighbors at the mud hut with their hula hoops. Everyone at Bonnaroo brought a spirit of passion and open-mindedness to the festival, for both advocacy issues and music, making it a fantastic forum for the exchange of ideas.

Megan Wannee

 

 

Megan Wanee was the President of the STAND Chapter at the University of Tennessee and was a Citizens for Global Solutions volunteer at the Bonnaroo music festival.

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Protecting Civilians in Libya Furthers U.S. National Interests

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Congress Fails to Connect Protection of Civilians in Libya to National Interests

Women in Benghazi react to UN Security Council decision to protect civilians in Libya (photo credit: The Telegraph)

The topic of intervention in Libya has been a recent subject of debate for Congress. Just last week, the House of Representatives passed a resolution, H.Res.292, that requested a comprehensive report from President Barack Obama on the United States involvement in the ongoing military intervention in Libya. H.Res.292 was introduced by Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and passed in a 268-145 vote. Most unfortunately, the resolution implied that the protection of civilians in Libya is not in the U.S. national interest.

This assertion is as troubling as it is misguided. With the Senate Foreign Relations Committee set to consider a virtually identical resolution next week, it seems useful to reiterate the national interest implications of intervening to protect civilians from atrocities.

Preventing Mass Atrocities Advances National Interests

Secretaries William Cohen and Madeleine Albright (photo credit: American Academy of Diplomacy)

In December 2008, the highly-praised, bipartisan Genocide Prevention Task Force–convened by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright–issued a report that found:

Genocide and mass atrocities also threaten core U.S. national interests.

They feed on and fuel other threats in weak and corrupt states, with dangerous spillover effects that know no boundaries. If the United States does not engage early in preventing these crimes, we inevitably bear greater costs—in feeding millions of refugees and trying to manage long-lasting regional crises.

In addition, U.S. credibility and leadership are compromised when we fail to work with international partners to prevent genocide and mass atrocities.

The Senate agreed. Last year, a unanimously passed resolution stated clearly that:

…it is in the national interest and aligned with the values of the United States to work vigorously with international partners to prevent and mitigate future genocides and mass atrocities.

It’s unfortunate that some members of the Senate seem to have so quickly forgotten a piece of legislation the entire chamber supported less than six months ago.

The Argument for Advancing National Interests by Protecting Civilians in Libya

Obama Gives Speech on Libya (photo credit: Politico)

It’s not in just a general sense that preventing and responding to mass atrocities advances U.S. national interests. Specifically intervening to protect civilians in Libya advances core interests. In a speech given on March28, President Obama detailed the necessity of the intervention effort in describing the reasoning behind U.S involvement:

Gaddafi declared that he would show “no mercy” to his own people. He compared them to rats, and threatened to go door to door to inflict punishment. In the past, we had seen him hang civilians in the streets, and kill over a thousand people in a single day. Now, we saw regime forces on the outskirts of the city. We knew that if we waited one more day, Benghazi – a city nearly the size of Charlotte – could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.

It was not in our national interest to let that happen. I refused to let that happen. And so nine days ago, after consulting the bipartisan leadership of Congress, I authorized military action to stop the killing and enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1973.

History has demonstrated the disastrous impact that genocide and mass atrocities can have in destabilizing a country, undermining global security and creating an environment where terrorism can flourish. Further, the consequences in terms of loss of life and livelihoods are absolutely devastating.

Senator John Kerry

In the case of Libya, intervention has served to avert atrocities, advance prospects for long-term regional stability and decrease the likelihood that disaffected populations will turn to militant extremism. As Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry (D-MA) said in a statement issued back in March:

First, we do have strategic interests at stake in Libya. What we do as part of this international coalition reverberates throughout North Africa and the Middle East, a region where extremism has thrived and attacks against Western interests have been incubated.

By supporting the Libyan opposition, we give them a fighting chance to oust a dictator with a history of terrorism and the blood of Americans on his hands. At the same time, we keep alive the hopes of reformers across the Arab world. We also counter the violent extremism of Al Qaeda and like-minded groups. And we encourage a new generation of Arabs to pursue dignity and democracy and we create the opportunity for a new relationship with the people of the greater Middle East.

These are worthy goals and by accomplishing them we advance our values and protect our interests.

However, the work is not yet complete. By denying the connection between the prevention of mass atrocities and national security, current Congressional initiatives serve to undermine critical interests. With civilian protection as the continued objective, the U.S. and international community must maintain the effort. The future relationship between the United States and Libya depends on support for the people. Any attempt by the U.S. to turn its back on the protection of civilians will have negative moral and strategic implications down the road.

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‘Never Forget’ doesn’t mean ‘Never Again’

Monday, May 23rd, 2011

This article has been cross-posted from the Atlanta Jewish Times, originally published on 5/17/11. It was written by 2009 Carl Wilkens Fellow and current Chair of the Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide, Melanie Nelkin.

Mark Hanis, Melanie Nelkin and Claude Gatebuke at Temple Sinai's Rock Shabbat in Atlanta, GA

The Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide (GC2PG.org) was honored last week during Holocaust Remembrance Week to host Mark Hanis and Claude Gatebuke here in Atlanta.
Mark is founder and president of the Genocide Intervention Network/Save Darfur Coalition (GINET/SDC).  Claude, a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, is now a Carl Wilkens Fellow and a leader in the anti-genocide movement.

In moving public appearances at Ahavath Achim, Temple Sinai and personal gatherings with community leaders, Mark and Claude passionately conveyed that “Never Forget” and “Never Again” are more than popular slogans tied to the Holocaust. During Holocaust Remembrance Week – and every week – it is our duty to reflect and remember the horrors of the Holocaust, to celebrate the courage and strength of survivors and to rededicate ourselves to creating a future free from mass atrocities and genocide.

We embrace the Holocaust survivors who have made Atlanta their home and have shared their stories with us, so that we will “Never Forget.”  Some have leveraged their power as survivors to advocate for others in harm’s way.

They are joined by a growing community of those displaced as a result of contemporary atrocities.

Seventy years ago the world said “Never Again.”  Sadly, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur prove that preventing genocide requires more than just a pledge of good intentions.  There has always been a moral imperative tied to remembering the Holocaust but “Never Again” requires sustained political will to end future genocides. Taking action is the moral imperative behind “Never Again.”

(more…)

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GI-Net/SDC’s Daniel Sullivan Gives Keynote Address on Genocide Prevention

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

GI-Net/SDC's Daniel Sullivan (center); Alex Zucker of Auschwitz Institute (left); Former Hungarian Ambassador Andras Simonyi (right)

Yesterday, GI-Net/SDC Senior Policy Analyst, Daniel Sullivan, delivered a keynote address on genocide prevention at the International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy.

In his address, Daniel laid out the unique aspects that define the modern era of genocide prevention efforts, highlighting the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle, the recommendations of the Genocide Prevention Task Force, and the role of advocacy groups growing out of the Save Darfur Movement.  A key theme was the expansion of modern efforts to include “genocide and mass atrocities” and “other crimes” such as the four crimes identified by the R2P concept: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing.  This follows both the desire to avoid definitional issues that impede timely and effective action and the recognition that the same efforts for early warning, diplomatic intervention, rapid response, and use of force if necessary apply to the protection of civilians in mass atrocity situations that do not fit a particular definition.

The modern era of genocide prevention has also been defined by the emergence of new tools for fighting genocide including justice (in the form of the International Criminal Court), focus on what Human Rights First calls enablers of mass atrocities (such as companies involved in conflict minerals), and non-governmental organizations, whether those providing early warning and preventive measures on the ground or those amplifying the voices of threatened civilians throughout the world.

Seeking to hone the tool of justice, the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, which sponsored the symposium, just launched a new Initiative on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, seeking to achieve a “fast-track, concrete legal resolution to halting current instances of genocide taking place in conflict zones across the world.”  At the same time, groups like GI-Net/SDC continue to hone the tool of advocacy.

As Daniel concluded last night, “Ten years after Rwanda, the world had to ask why genocide was unfolding once again in Darfur. The hope is that with efforts like ICDs initiative and groups like GI-Net/SDC, we will not have to ask the same question again ten years from now.”

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Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Operations Gain Traction

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

Harvard Project Translates to Real-World Planning

In 2010, the Mass Atrocity Response Operation (MARO) Project at Harvard’s Carr Center put forward a military planning handbook. The goal of the Project was to “enable the United States and the international community to stop genocide and mass atrocity as part of a broader integrated strategy by explaining key relevant military concepts and planning considerations.”

Since that time, planners at the Department of Defense have been working to develop a set of policy options to follow-up on the recommendations put forward by the MARO Project. Named Mass Atrocity Prevention and Response Operations (MAPRO) at the Pentagon, the effort is being undertaken by the office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Rule of Law and Humanitarian Policy. This planning has highlighted a range of options for policy makers that include monitoring, the use of drones to gather intelligence information and even “kinetic” military intervention. MAPRO—while not primarily kinetic—has been gaining traction given the no-fly zone being implemented in Libya.

(Credit: Wired.com Danger Room blog "Pentagon: Drones Can Stop the Next Darfur")

Libya Response Helps MAPRO Gain Traction

As a result of the civilian protection effort underway in Libya, there seems to be broader recognition of the need for guidance “for the next time the U.S. feels compelled to intervene to stop a massacre.” This type of Defense Department planning is critical in light of the unique challenges posed by operations centered around mass atrocity response. It’s also worth noting that this planning process serves to further a coordinated “whole-of-government” response to civilian protection and emphasizes the need to prevent the occurrence of mass atrocities before they start.

Need for Civilian Capacity to Catch Up to Military

At the same time the military is pushing MAPRO forward, civilian agencies (like the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development) are lagging behind in their capacity to prevent and respond to mass atrocities. Genocide Intervention Network/Save Darfur Coalition is currently working to push for the structures, tools and resources necessary to increase civilian capacity to end genocide. To learn more watch this video or take action here.

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