See also great sites like Human Rights Watch, Dream for Darfur, and Darfur: An Unforgivable Hell on Earth for up to date information.

The genocide in Darfur has been going on for five years now. This from Save Darfur:

After five years of conflict in Darfur, children are reaching school age having experienced nothing but armed conflict. A million Darfuri children have grown up displaced, living in camps for refugees and internally displaced persons, many without opportunities for education, without knowing the meaning of home.

This from Human Rights Watch:

(New York, April 7, 2008) – Five years into the Darfur conflict, women and girls need protection from rape and brutal attacks still being committed by government forces and armed groups throughout Darfur, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today.

Neither government security forces nor international peacekeepers have provided sufficient protection for women and girls, who remain extremely vulnerable to rape and other abuses during large-scale attacks and even in periods of relative calm, Human Rights Watch said. Survivors of sexual violence face numerous obstacles to justice, leaving them without meaningful redress. Where the perpetrators are soldiers or militia, the chances of prosecution are still more remote.

The Olympic Games being held in Bejing this year has brought a renewed scrutiny on China and its human rights record. Senators Clinton and Obama have called on President Bush to boycott the Olympics Opening Ceremony. I applaud their stances, but I also think it is important to remember the role that U.S. imperialism often plays in its attempts to "help" countries in need. So yeah, what about the Congo? It is important to stand in solidarity with the Darfur victims, to aid them as best we can, but we must be careful to insure that any U.S. involvement in this crisis is not just another profit oriented excursion at the expense of dark-skinned folk's lives.

What can we do to help?

Email Corporate Sponsors of the Olympics

Turn it off

Petition the International Olympic Committee

Ask the Candidtates

Ask President Bush and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to take immediate steps to stop the killing in Darfur.

Explore all of the other options of what you can do

Peace, to have meaning for many who have only known suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and education, as well as freedom and human dignity.

Ralph Johnson Bunche (1904-1971)

[cross-posted from A Slant Truth]