September 1, 2009
Darfuris call on the President
I’m going to name drop for a minute. I was at an event back in 2007 where Senator Barack Obama was speaking about why he should be elected President. He talked about a lot of the things he was passionate about. Darfur did not come up on that list. I ran up to him afterward, my only time ever meeting the soon to be president and said, “Senator, will we be hearing more on Darfur?” He looked at me seriously for a moment and said, “Absolutely.”
So far Obama has once in a while said the right things on Darfur. But his policies have been awful. His administration continues to fail the Darfuri people and I am not going to accept that the fate of millions of refugees and an entire region of the world are not important enough for an administration that has so much on its plate. No excuse, no excuse, no excuse. I am just as aware as any one else that when Obama entered office we were falling fast into a potential economic depression, that there is a health care crisis in this country, and that the president is dealing with more issues right away than most presidents do in their first months in office. But that’s why we have a State Department. That’s why we have multiple resources in a presidential cabinet to deal with multiple issues. Obama knows about Darfur. He knows exactly what is happening there and yet he continues to carry out the same policies that most of the leaders in his administration called failed policies right before they came into office. There is no excuse. The Darfuri people have waited too long. Those children in that video are growing up in refugee camps where its not safe to return home and the camps themselves remain dangerous. Sorry Mr. President, but it’s time to take a stand and be a leader and say “yes we can end genocide.” I sincerely HOPE you can listen to those kids who are calling on you and whose lives and whose families lives are depending on you to work for CHANGE that they can believe in. All it will take is an ounce of bold leadership.
Jeff Howell
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Andrew,
Just wondering what your thoughts were on the fact that the UNAMID general has stepped down as he claims that the Darfur crisis is now primarily a humanitarian one.
What if our (in the Darfur movement) work calling for the implementation of UNAMID to augment the sadly inadequate AU forces was part of the global solution to end the genocide whose violence peaked in 2004?
Should we fight the rhetorical fight to keep the genocide label current or should we focus on peace and rehabilitation projects? This seems to be the tactic of US Special Envoy Gration, whose work has been reviled by many on the SDC side of the coin.
Respond if you have time.
Christopher Swan
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Excellent post, Andrew. I worked for the Obama campaign for the last three months preceding the election, and I have been devastated by the outright reversal of promised positions, especially on Darfur. I think you have hit all the points, but I doubt anyone in the administration is listening. In any event, thank you for your work.
Chris