The Darfur Heroes program, started last year by the coalition, highlights individuals and groups who play a crucial role in helping end the violence in Darfur through awareness-raising and other efforts. This month, Save Darfur is honoring Chicago teen Ethan Barhydt.

Here is his story:

On the final day of my 7th grade class on the Holocaust, our religious school teacher unexpectedly announced that we would be taking a final exam.  As he passed out the exam face down, I became nervous that I would be unable to conjure up all of the information that we had learned throughout the year.  However, when I turned over single sheet of paper, I realized with relief that it was not a typical final exam.  Instead, it consisted of a single paragraph we had to read that simply stated: Your final exam in how you conduct the rest of your lives. Can it happen again? The answer is up to YOU and to YOUR CHOICES.  Will YOU CHOOSE to get involved or will you be a bystander?

It was on that day that I promised never to by a bystander to injustice.  Five years later, I continue to use those words as a reminder of my responsibility to stand against human rights atrocities.

Throughout my high school career, I have worked with a lot of amazing people to improve the lives of victims of the genocide in Darfur.  While the following paragraphs will discuss the actions that I have specifically taken, effective activism results from a community of people working together towards a single goal.  Through this unity, great change occurs.

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Human Rights Watch today labeled the Sudanese government’s probe on Darfur crimes as “window dressing” and a clear attempt to halt the proceedings of the International Criminal Court.

“The Sudanese government is putting up more window dressing as part of its ongoing effort to block the investigations of the International Criminal Court,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

“No one should be fooled by these moves,” she added.

[...]

“Even if the government were serious about prosecuting Kosheib, limitations in Sudanese law mean that he could not be tried for the full range of crimes… that have been committed in Darfur,” said Gagnon.

The full Agence France-Presse story is available here.

In response to yesterday’s launch of President al-Bashir’s “People’s Initiative for Sudan” conference, Save Darfur released the following policy statement:

The Save Darfur Coalition views President Omar al-Bashir’s “People’s Initiative for Sudan” as yet another attempt to distract Sudanese and international attention from real solutions to the violence and suffering in Darfur.  These “fig leaf” efforts clearly are designed to build support in the international community to oppose the issuance of an arrest warrant for President Bashir by the International Criminal Court and have no connection to stopping the killing in Darfur.

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Halima Bashir, a physician from Darfur and recent author of the memoir Tears of the Desert, was a guest this morning on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show. During the interview, she described her life in Darfur, the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war, and the challenges she has faced since fleeing her homeland for England. You can listen to the interview here.

The Post-Gazette yesterday covered the Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition’s involvement in the Tents of Hope campaign, along with the myriad other initiatives in which they have been involved. The mission of the Tents of Hope project is to support a one-year process in which people respond as communities to the crisis in Darfur by creating tents that are both unique works of art and ongoing focal points within communities for learning about, assisting and establishing relationships with the people of Sudan. An excerpt of the article appears below.

Pittsburgh residents’ efforts to focus international attention on the genocide in Darfur might seem relatively simple — a painted tent, a signed postcard, a protest bus trip to Washington, D.C. — but they mean everything to the war’s victims, according to a Darfuri activist with the national Save Darfur Coalition.

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Last night the presidential candidates participated in their second debate in Nashville - this one in the town-hall style format - and we again had the opportunity to listen to the campaigns’ platforms on Darfur and humanitarian intervention. Below is the candidates’ exchange - spurred by moderator Tom Brokaw. To hear more about what the candidates have to say on Darfur, check out AddYourVoice.org.

Brokaw: Sen. Obama, let me ask you if — let’s see if we can establish tonight the Obama doctrine and the McCain doctrine for the use of United States combat forces in situations where there’s a humanitarian crisis, but it does not affect our national security.

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Last week, you heard Gwen Ifill prompt vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Sarah Palin on Darfur. Tonight’s presidential debate at Nashville’s Belmont University will be in the town-hall style format - with questions coming from audience members and the internet. In the run up to the debate, we asked activists to submit questions via MySpace on both candidates’ Darfur platforms. Tune in tonight at 9pm EST to see if debate moderator Tom Brokaw or an audience member asks the candidates to outline their plan for peace in Darfur.

Below is the exchange on Darfur between Sen. Biden and Gov. Palin from Thursday evening’s vice presidential debate.  You can learn more about the candidates’ Darfur positions at AddYourVoice.org.

IFILL: Senator, you have quite a record, this is the next question here, of being an interventionist. You argued for intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo, initially in Iraq and Pakistan and now in Darfur, putting U.S. troops on the ground. Boots on the ground. Is this something the American public has the stomach for?

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Esquire Magazine today named genocide scholar Samantha Power one of the most influential people of the 21st century - citing her critical involvement in the Save Darfur movement and a 2003 Pulitzer prize for her book A Problem from Hell.

What Norman Podhoretz is to the neocon movement Power is to this as-yet-unnamed force. (Neo-internationalism? Moral interventionism? Machiavellian idealism?) She espouses talks–firm talks–with rogue states, a respect for internation-al law, and a moral and pragmatic duty to intervene–with troops if necessary–in cases of genocide.

Read the full story here.

As part of the Save Darfur Coalition’s efforts during this year’s elections, Darfuri refugee Daoud Hari and SDC’s Amjad Atallah were at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi on Wednesday and Thursday in advance of the Presidential Debate.

Daoud and Amjad addressed a standing-room-only crowd of students and faculty, met with Darfur activists from Mississippi and sat down for interviews with local and international press.

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