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  • Darfur: A Global Issue

  • Here we are in the 21st century, an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, and information about the genocide in Darfur and the millions of refugees left in its wake is a crisis we just don’t hear about. But NOT ON OUR WATCH is a book that I recommend all of us read to gain some v ... Continue

    Here we are in the 21st century, an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, and information about the genocide in Darfur and the millions of refugees left in its wake is a crisis we just don’t hear about. But NOT ON OUR WATCH is a book that I recommend all of us read to gain some valuable knowledge and true perspective as to what is really going on in Darfur, Sudan that our news media is not being up front with us about!

    For the first time in US history, Secretary of State Colin Powell testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2004 that genocide was indeed being committed in Darfur by the Government of Sudan and the Janjuweed Militia. As Martin Shaw stated in his book, WHAT IS GENOCIDE?, “this was the first time a sovereign nation accused another sovereign nation of active genocide under the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”

    But as important as Powell’s testimony was, the Bush Administration simply referred it to the UN for follow up and sends large amounts of aid—but nothing more. The invasion of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and to win the war against terrorism is "the watch" the Bush Administration is interested in. To this day we know, with certainty, that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as reported, and as far as terrorism goes, isn’t genocide just as important? You bet it is and that fact is what fueled Don Cheadle and John Prendergast to pen this empowering book which gives activists first-person accounts as to what has gone on in Darfur since Colin Powell’s testimony and a variety of paths we all can take to action.

    

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An Academy Award-nominated actor and a renowned human rights activist team up to change the tragic course of history in the Sudan -- with readers' help

While Don Cheadle was filming Hotel Rwanda, a new crisis had already erupted in Darfur, in nearby Sudan. In September 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell termed the atrocities being committed there "genocide" -- and yet two years later things have only gotten worse. 3.5 million Sudanese are going hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced by violence, and 400,000 have died in Darfur to date.

Both shocked and energized by this ongoing tragedy, Cheadle teamed up with leading activist John Prendergast to focus the world's attention. Not on Our Watch, their empowering book, offers six strategies readers themselves can implement: Raise Awareness, Raise Funds, Write a Letter, Call for Divestment, Start an Organization, and Lobby the Government. Each of these small actions can make a huge difference in the fate of a nation, and a people -- not only in Darfur, but in other crisis zones such as Somalia, Congo, and northern Uganda.

• AfricaDarfurHumanitarian assistanceSudanatrocitiescurrent eventsgenocideinternational relationspolitical advocacyinternational law
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