Write a Letter to the Editor on Darfur!

Don't Lose Darfur in the Election!

 

Dear Friends of Africa Action, 

 

Thank you for your commitment to stop the genocide in Sudan, we write today with another urgent appeal for your support in keeping this issue alive. Your advocacy has been remarkably effective. Your support though previous actions has been critical to the progress thus far: the US declaration of genocide in Sudan and the actions in the UN to encourage the Sudanese government to disarm its militias in Darfur.  There has been an increase of African Union forces, the US offered two transport military aircrafts to assist the AU, and negotiations continue in Nigeria. These first steps have fallen short of what is needed to stop the violence, protect the people, and facilitate the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid. There has been a lot of rhetoric, but not nearly enough action.

 

Six weeks after President Bush described the crisis in Sudan as “genocide” the Sudanese government continues to slaughter the people of Darfur. The survivors are becoming desperate for humanitarian assistance. Two million people have been displaced and now live in camps surrounded by the death squads where the death toll rises due to disease and malnutrition.

 

While genocidal terror persists in Sudan, all eyes turns to the US for the final week before the Presidential elections. Sudan has not been wholly absent from this campaigning season. A question on the genocide in Sudan was raised in the first Presidential debate (with a little help from Africa Action), but the rhetoric remains far from reality. While the world looks to the US elections, and the candidates scour the media to gauge public opinion, we have a unique opportunity to remind the world that evil persists when good people do nothing – we must stop the genocide in Sudan.

 

Please take a few minutes to send the message that Sudan is a foreign policy priority in these elections, and that the actions needed to stop the genocide in Sudan cannot wait until after November 2nd.

 

Please write a letter to the editor for your local newspaper to make sure that the genocide in Darfur stays in the public eye. When you see articles in your local paper about foreign policy and the elections, please send in a letter of your own drawing attention back to Darfur and putting pressure on the present administration to take decisive action now! We have provided a sample letter that you are welcome to amend. Letters should be kept to 150 words or less and should refer to the article or editorial that you are responding to in the first sentence by noting the date and title of the article. If you use the sample, please fill in the blank with the number of days since September 9^th, the day that the Bush Administration acknowledged the genocide.

 

You can find and contact your local newspaper by zip code through the following Capwiz site, which allows you to quickly send an email directly to the editor – http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media/. You can also look in your local paper for submission guidelines and send your letter by email. If you get published, be sure to send us a copy at africaaction@igc.org so that we can celebrate your success!

 

Sample Letter to the Editor:

 

Thank you for your recent coverage of foreign policy issues in this election, (Title, date). The genocide in Sudan has received little attention since the first Presidential debate. It is now __days since the Bush Administration acknowledged the genocide, yet there has been no real effort to stop it. Sudan is a perfect example of U.S. policy towards Africa – rhetoric, not reality, attention without action.

 

Unless there is a rapid intervention in Darfur, a million people could die this year. The      U.S. has a unique capacity to act to stop genocide. For example, the U.S. has almost 2,000 troops in nearby Djibouti, several hundred of which could be mobilized quickly to help lead a multinational force comprised mostly of African troops. The U.S. should seek UN authorization for such a Multinational Intervention. This would be an opportunity for both candidates to put their claims of “compassion” and “multilateralism” into action.