Month: May 2011

Consistency in Human Rights Begins with Consistency on Darfur and Sudan

To my fellow Americans today
the most pressing issue we must face is consistency in human rights.
We must face the injustice, violence, oppression, and genocide in Darfur and Sudan
that stands as the benchmark for consistency for the world on the issue of human rights.
Some of us say Never Again to genocide, but we have seen genocide again, and we must stand up against it.
Not just when it is popular or convenient, or what some people call strategic, but when it is the right thing, the moral thing to do.
That is why the issue of consistency in human rights in Darfur and Sudan is so important, so vital for the American people and the world.
Our response there is a measurement of just HOW SERIOUS we are about being responsible for human rights.
We gain no major national security advantage, no major economic advantage, no major geopolitical advantage for actively standing up and being consistent on human rights in Darfur and Sudan, like our nation has and will continue to actively stand up in other parts of the world.
In Darfur and Sudan, the issues are simply are our moral integrity as human beings responsible for human rights.
It is not a special interest, it is a human interest, and our stand is an indication of whether we truly believe in the truths that we hold self evident
Some are pessimistic about the West and the United States taking such a principled stand on human rights, not dependent on “what we get out of it.”  They believe that the West and the United States can not be taken serious on such human rights principles.   Some believe Americans will only act on human rights when it is in our strategic interests.
I will tell you that I know different.
I will tell you that I have seen different in my own life, and with my own eyes.
In my own life, I have seen in American cities where races were forced to live in separate housing, eat in separate restaurants, and only go to certain schools and neighborhoods change.
America’s greatest human rights challenge was the challenge of racial supremacism within our own borders, based on horrors of slavery that was the great shame of a great nation.
That human rights challenge nearly destroyed America.
In fact, for a time that human rights challenge split America apart into a United States and a Confederate States.
But I know America, and I know the American spirit. The United States of America proved then that it could and must be consistent on human rights, not just when it is in our interests, but also simply when it is our responsibility – not just as Americans, but also as human beings.  We must remember the lessons of our history that define our identity, when we look at the challenges in Darfur and Sudan.
I know the American spirit of justice and respect for human rights still burns in many many hearts across this great nation.  It is defended by many who walk the streets of our nation’s capital.  It is still inherent in the very Declaration that defines what it means to be American.  I know the American people can reach for that principled stand once again.
I know that the people in America can demand that our nation and our nation’s leaders finally take a consistent stand on human rights in Darfur and Sudan and ACT to end the oppression, ACT to end the violence, and ACT to end the injustice.  We must call upon the American people to ACT and not just say high-sounding ideals, but DEMAND that our national leaders finally determine that YES, we CAN be consistent on human rights in Darfur and Sudan, yes we CAN do something about it.
Some wonder when I call my group Responsible for Equality and Liberty – what that really means
it means the commitment that we have made not just as Americans…
but also as human beings to be CONSISTENT on the issues of equality and liberty –
for ALL PEOPLE-
EVERYWHERE –
in the World with their universal human rights –
Not just when it is convenient –
Not just when it is strategic –
But just because it is the right thing to do.
It is the responsible thing to do as a fellow human being.
Jeffrey Imm
— I am too, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Georgia: Father Convicted for “Honor Killing” of Daughter

Three years later, a Georgia court convicted a man who reported killed his daughter,  Sandeela Kanwal, as part of an extremist “honor killing.”

Sandeela Kanwa - Victim of "Honor Killing" in Georgia
Sandeela Kanwa – Victim of “Honor Killing” in Georgia

In July 2008, ABC reported that:”A Georgia father of Pakistani descent allegedly strangled his 25-year-old daughter because she wanted to get out of an arranged marriage to a man she had not seen in months, according to police in Clayton County, Ga. Chaudhry Rashid, 56, was scheduled to be arraigned today on a murder charge. Rashid was arrested early Sunday morning at his family’s house after police responded to a domestic disturbance call and found his daughter, Sandeela Kanwal, dead in an upstairs bedroom. The Clayton County Medical Examiner confirmed that Kanwal died of strangulation. Police recovered an iron by the young woman’s bedroom doorway and a necklace on a family room table that may have been used in the killing, according to a Clayton County police report. Authorities allege that Rashid killed his daughter because he feared that her resistance to a recently arranged marriage would disgrace the Pakistani-American family. ‘She was very unhappy with the marriage, had not seen the husband in three months and was seeking a divorce,’ Timothy Owens, a spokesman for the Clayton County Police Department, told ABC News. ‘The father felt like the he had to uphold his family’s honor.'”

On May 6, 2011, the Clayton News Daily in Jonesboro, Georgia – reported: “A Clayton County jury took about four hours to convict Chaudhry Rashid, 59, of the July 2008, strangulation death of his only daughter, Sandeela Kanwal, 25. Judge Albert Collier sentenced Rashid to life in prison, with the possibility of parole.”

 

Reuters: Sudan divides Darfur in five smaller states

Reuters: Sudan divides Darfur in five smaller states
Thu May 5, 2011 6:24pm
* Sudan splits up troubled Darfur region in five states
* Darfur rebels say Khartoum wants to strengthen control
KHARTOUM, May 5 (Reuters) – Sudan decided to create two additional states in Darfur, state media said on Thursday in what rebels have condemned as plan to strengthen Khartoum’s control over the troubled western region.
Darfur, scene of an insurgency pitting mostly non-Arab rebels against government troops backed by largely Arab militias, is carved up into three parts — North, South and West Darfur.
Sudan’s cabinet on Thursday approved the creation of two additional states — Central Darfur, with Zalingei as its capital, and Eastern Darfur, with Ed Daein as its capital, state news agency SUNA said.
The rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) has said the move aimed at weakening their influence, divide Darfur along tribal lines and breaking up its ethnic powerbases.
The African insurgency has commanded a great deal of international attention and sparked a humanitarian emergency which has claimed 300,000 lives and driven more than 2 million people from their homes.
Khartoum plans to hold a referendum on July 1 on making Darfur a single region to upgrade its status despite rebel demands to wait until a peace deal has been signed.
Qatar has hosted peace talks that have been delayed by rebel divisions and continued military operations on the ground as Khartoum has gradually reasserted control over major towns and other previously rebel-held areas.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide committed during Khartoum’s counter-insurgency campaign launched in Darfur after rebels took up arms demanding more of a share in wealth and power in 2003.
Sudan’s oil-producing south is due to break away from Khartoum on July 9 after its people voted overwhelmingly to secede in a January referendum, a vote promised in a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of north-south civil war. (Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Jon Hemming)

2nd Annual Hope for Darfur: Justice in Sudan Rally

Save Darfur: 2nd Annual Hope for Darfur: Justice in Sudan Rally
The Hope For Darfur: Justice in Sudan Rally is to encourage people to take action, and demonstrate to our government that there is a continued broad US support for the United States and international community to pursue peace and justice in Sudan.
The Darfur Interfaith Network (DIN) and Genocide Intervention Network/Save Darfur Coalition (GI-NET/SDC) are determined to highlight the unjust suffering of the people of Sudan, including the unsafe and horrible living conditions of Darfuris and the decades of abuse in southern Sudan. DIN wants to let the people of Darfur, southern Sudan, and other marginalized people from Sudan know they are neither alone nor forgotten.
We are demanding that the US government and the international community act with greater focus and determination to help the innocent people of Sudan, who have suffered far too long.
What: Hope for Darfur – Justice in Sudan Rally
When: Sunday, May 15, 2011 at 01:30pm (ET)
Where: Starting at Metropolitan AME Church (1518 M Street, NW) and marching to Lafayette Park where the rally will be held.