From the Salmon

Today is Yom HaShoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day. At 10am today in Israel, a siren sounds for two minutes, traffic stops, and people stand quietly in remembrance of terrible events 60 years past.

Thirty years ago last month, the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia’s capital city, beginning four years of programmatic genocide that eliminated 30% of the Cambodian population.

Eleven years ago last month, a plane carrying the presidents of Burundi and Rwanda was shot down, touching off a year of brutal killing that claimed over 800,000 lives, including as many as 75% of Rwanda’s Tutsi population.

Two years ago in March, fighting broke out between rebel factions and government forces in Darfur, Sudan. Thousands of refugees began to pour into neighboring Chad as government-allied militias raided villages and refugee camps, burning houses, killing and raping civilians (specifically black Africans). Since then, as many as 300,000-400,000 people have died and almost 2 million have been displaced.

One year ago in July, both houses of Congress unanimously passed a resolution declaring that “the atrocities unfolding in Darfur, Sudan, are genocide.” This was a bold and commendable step in the face of a United Nations that refused to call the situation by that name. In September, the Bush administration joined Congress in labeling the situation as “genocide.”

Two months ago, Senators Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) introduced the Darfur Accountability Act, requesting sanctions, an arms embargo, the freezing of the assets of those responsible, and a military no-fly zone over Darfur. This legislation passed the Senate and now is being considered by the House.

While the US and the world have acted slowly to respond comprehensively in Sudan, this act seemed to indicate a new bi-partisan push to find a solution.

So I was extremely disturbed to read Nicholas Kristof’s Tuesday column in the New York Times:

Incredibly, the Bush administration is fighting to kill the Darfur Accountability Act, which would be the most forceful step the U.S. has taken so far against the genocide.... The White House was roused from its stupor of indifference on Darfur to send a letter, a copy of which I have in my hand, to Congressional leaders, instructing them to delete provisions about Darfur from the legislation....

I’m particularly worried about this when put in context with other evidence that Bush administration officials have begun to lessen pressure on Sudan in recent weeks by backing away from their previous pronouncements of genocide and by understating the death toll.

Mr. President, you once read a memo describing the US failure to act in Rwanda. You wrote in the margins “Not on my watch.”

It’s decidedly your watch now. And while you’ve arguably already done more in Sudan than your predecessor did in Rwanda, it’s not nearly enough.

Now is not the time to take the pressure off.

Not from this government.

Not this day.

Not now.

No.

Today is a day for remembrance. Let’s rev up the sirens. Let’s stop what we’re doing. Let’s say “no, never again” and mean it.

And if it doesn’t work today, let’s do it again tomorrow.

So What Can I Do?

• Human Rights Watch has some ideas.
• Send a letter and sign a petition for Sojourners and Africa Action
• Visit Open Letters for Change. Then write your own. Send it to President Bush. Send it to your Representative, particularly if he or she is a Republican.
• Write about this on your own site.
• Write a letter to the editor of a local paper.
• Support organizations already working in Sudan.