Open Mouth, Insert Foot

I doubt that President Obama expected it to play out like this when he appointed General Gration his Special Envoy to Sudan. Instead of easing the concerns of the international community that the Obama administration is going soft on Sudan and its President, Omar al-Bashir, Gration has inflamed Darfur activists and more then his fair share of politicians with statements that keep our administration and his own boss back pedaling.

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I mean from a completely professional prospective, I can't see how this guy is still employed. Its a shame cause we had such high hopes for him too.

General Gration began his downward spiral by downplaying what is happening in Darfur by saying that what we are witnessing in Darfur are only the "remnants of genocide". This created a massive rift between himself and Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN over whether Sudan is currently committing genocide or not. Rice, and the vast majority of the international community, obviously believe otherwise.

Gration decided to take his foreign policy folly on the road while on his most recent trip to the refugee camps. Apparently the international community and governments around the world have been misinformed and mislead because according to the General everything is safe now. You see General Gration told a group of refugees that they could return home to there villages. He said this as if everything was better all of a sudden. He told them to go back home to the very fertile lands they once farmed. He apparently didn't get he memo that this lands have been reoccupied by pro government Arab farmers, some of which have been brought across borders to occupy that very land. Essentially looking this group of refugees in the eye, Gration asked them to walk back into the hand of the very people that drove them out. Brilliant.

It is worth mentioning that countless activists and experts don't think that it's a coincidence that this reoccupation by pro Bashir farmers taking place during the census for what is suppose to be Sudan's first fair and free election in 2010.

But yesterday, General Gration really went above and beyond. In front of Senate Foreign Relations Committee, General Gration unleashed some verbal miscues that not only put President Obama and his administration in a bad light but enraged activists everywhere by all but confirming their fear of a weak, confused, and contradictory policy approach toward Sudan.

One of the many whopper that Special Envoy Gration let fly was...

"There's no evidence in our intelligence community that supports [Sudan] being on the state sponsors of terrorism. It's a political decision."

Oh how I would have loved to see the Presidents face when he heard that remark. His hand picked Special Envoy, the man who was suppose to be the American face of peace in Darfur, throws him under the bus by implying that the only reason that Sudan is on the list of states that sponsors of terrorism has nothing to do with the fact that they support(ed) al-Qaeda and Hamas. but that there is a political agenda. There is a plus side to this statement however. If he was looking kiss up to Khartoum he scored major points.

"Sudan's U.N. ambassador (Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad) said Friday that his government was pleased with an American envoy's assertion that there is no evidence to support the U.S. designation of Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism."

Assistant Secretary of State Crowley was doing some ducking and dodging at the daily press briefing Crowley got grilled during a exchange with a reporter when he could not answer a few simple questions with any definitive answers. The big question being is General Gration speaking for the President and his administration or is he speaking for himself. Is he part of the team or had the General gone verbally rogue?

He wants a "rollback" of sanctions that are in place against Sudan because he say they are essentially keeping him from accomplishing his job but when asked by Senator Feingold exactly what steps has the Government of Sudan taken to deserve being removed from the black list and having the sanctions lifted, General Gration feel almost as silent as when he was asked what kind of punitive measures, or "sticks" as Gration like to call them, where part of the administrations plan if the al-Bashir doesn't play nice.

My fellow blogger Mohamed E. Suleiman, a Darfur native living in the San Francisco Bay Area, summed it up perfectly when he wrote;

"The Government of Sudan has achieved its set goals when it unleashed the genocide in 2003. Now it is music to its ears to hear voices from inside the U.S. Congress and the Department of State questioning genocide, lifting sanctions, lifting the regime's name from the list of states sponsoring terrorism, telling villagers to go back, no one talks about armed janjaweed, no stress on accountability and justice, talk and talk about how things are getting better in Darfur. This is the "night of Gadri" to the regime in Khartoum (in other words " Christmas in July")."

It is painfully obvious to everyone that General Gration isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. The fact is he has managed to burying this administration in a giant foreign affair nightmare. But the saddest part of this catastrophe is that Gration, and apparently this administration, is perfectly fine with throwing away the one thing that the people of Darfur are running out of. Time.

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Open Mouth, Insert Foot

The End of Apathy

If someone were to sit down and literally document every last difference between living here in United States and living in a refugee camp I imagine that would be one extensive list, a list full of the things that we take for granted, a list that none of us would want to read.

I am going to go out on a limb here but I believe that the vast majority of Americans are sick and tired of feeling like they need to feel guilty for living the way we do, for having easy access to all we could possible need and want. You don't think we have it that good? Try a three day fast for Darfur and I can tell you, from experience, that you will quickly realize just how accessible food is in our society. But it is not our fault we were born here and they were not right? Why should we feel bad about that? We shouldn't and that is why I see people become angry or defensive when I bring up the topic of Darfur.

People don't want to hear about it, know about it or learn about it so they literally chose to be ignorant about it. If they don't know then they feel that they have some presidential type of plausible deniability and they can sleep at night. They don't want to feel guilty and they don't want to care. I see it in people day after day.Even mention the word "Africa" and you can literally watch the light go out in their eyes.

It is this very desensitization to gross atrocities, poverty, to Africa, that manifests into more then a high burnout rate for activists. You see within in this void of self imposed ignorance breeds the very thing that fuels some if not all of histories greatest atrocities and that thing is apathy. Think about it, without apathy what do you think the odds are that the holocaust would have happened or lasted as long as it did? What about the genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, and Bosnia?

I have been an activist for the people of Darfur for over 3 years now. I have raised money for the groups on the ground working directly with those effected and I have talked to politicians and their advisers but for sometime now I have felt like I was missing something. Like all my efforts were not completely wasted but not completely utilized either. It was not until I was asked to speak to my son's summer school class that I realized how to better serve this cause.

At the same time that I was scheduled to speak to his class, Gabriel Stauring and the I-Act team were doing daily video and blog updates while on another trip to the refugee camps in Chad. I have made it a habit to watch and read their updates since I can't go to the refugee camps yet and this allows the refugees and their stories to come to me, to us all. I have long admired the passion that Gabriel has for his work and he has surrounded himself with a truly amazing team. Anyway, through Facebook and Twitter I contacted him and asked him if he would be willing to send this class a video message, a closing statement to my presentation, directly from the refugee camp. I was overjoyed when they said they would. And it was when I showed the class this video, sent from the refugee camps directly to them just the day before, that I saw the light in their eyes come on. They got it. And so did I.

You see the only way to fight apathy is to climb that seemingly insurmountable wall of resistance and to educate. But I am not talking about just educating the international community but those affected as well, the refugees. Education is the great equalizer. That is not to say that the political and humanitarian activism are not key parts to the puzzle of peace for Darfur, they are but education was my missing puzzle piece. Each piece of this puzzle; politics, humanitarianism, and education, provide a necessary element of peace. Politics provide a safe environment for peace to grow, humanitarianism provides the people with hope and education provides them with a future. Without any one of the elements there is no lasting peace.

We should keep signing petitions, keep making phone calls, and writing letters. We should keep throwing parties, keep selling cookies, and keep raising funds. But if we are truly going to help provide the people of Darfur some type of realistic peace we can't forget to educate. We should host a movie screening, talk to a class of kids, keep listening to their stories and support refugee education programs. Do anything and everything we can to fight the apathy that fuels the atrocities we wish to end.

What have you done to educate people about genocide? About Darfur? What interesting and "different" ways have you fought apathy?


Corey Dragge is a long time activist and has worked with various Darfur related organizations. Currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada he has started a genocide education project in hopes of speaking to at least one class in every high school in Nevada.

The End of Apathy

Darfur and the 2010 Election

Lately in the news, what articles I do see about Sudan are about the upcoming election in 2010. These scheduled elections were agreed upon in a peace deal after a bloody civil war between the north and south but many people don't realize how the conflict in Darfur plays a major role in these elections.

Under the 2005 peace deal - the Comprehensive Peace Agreement -that ended more than two decades of civil war between north and south Sudan, there is a scheduled election and this election is key to maintaining peace between the north and south as well as possibly taking a step toward peace in Darfur. But as is the case with most things involving the Government of Sudan and it's president, Omar al-Bashir, there are problems.

A BBC report from the 25th of July states that the head of the UN's peacekeeping force, Alain Le Roy, is concerned that the millions of Darfur refugees will not be able to vote because of the disputed census and their displacement into IDP camps. This is fantastic if your al-Bashir though, what hypocritical tyrant wouldn't want millions of pissed off and disenfranchised people left off of the voting register.

Le Roy also said that large scale violence and citizen displacement were no longer "hallmarks of the crisis". News flash to the UN.....the reason we aren't seeing these "hallmarks of the crisis" is because you, the UN, sat on your hands for the last six years while al-Bashir ran buckshot in Darfur. You can't let him kill and displace everyone and then claim some kind of peace, sorry it doesn't work that way.

The Sudan Tribune reported today however that the chairman of the North Darfur higher electoral committee, Al-Sir Ahmed Al-Mak, said that the IDP camps were included in the demarcation process but the census director of North Darfur, Ms. Wafaa Hassan Mansour, stated that the census would not take place in the Northern IDP camps because they are "not accessible". What? I am sorry Ms Mansour but if these camps are so inaccessible then how did millions of refugees find their way there? Might I suggest your census takers do the same thing those refugees had to do and hike across the desert to the camps.

She further stated that the IDPs have protested the census and threatened to attack the census takers so, here is the kicker, the Central Bureau of Statistics has decided to estimate the populations of the IDPs and other areas deemed "unsafe". How do they plan to estimate the populations of these area you ask? They are going to base their numbers on information from humanitarian agencies working in Darfur.

This works out fantastic for al-Bashir as they just expelled the largest humanitarian groups, claiming they were in league with the International Criminal Court and responsible for the subsequent warrant issued against him for crimes against humanity, and they have hand picked the relief agencies allowed back in to fill that void. Now they can claim low IDP camp populations with false information strong armed with the threat of expulsion from hand picked humanitarian agencies. By claiming lower populations in these areas the Government of Sudan can ensure Darfur receives less representation in the 2010 elected national parliament and ultimately keeping him in control. That is of course if the elections actually take place.

Last month, the Government of Sudan pushed back the date of the election two months to April of 2010 and this is the second time they have moved the election date back.

But lets be honest with each other for a second shall we. After over two decades of totalitarian rule do we really believe that al-Bashir is going to let Sudan have its first fair and free election? Not a chance. Even if the election does happen it is pretty obvious that it will be far from "fair" and will be highly contested. With the protection of China and Russia, al-Bashir has manged to almost empty Darfur while being free of any real consequence from the UN. And with the U.S. administration waffling on any firm Darfur policy why would he risk losing any of his power? The writing on the wall is clear as day, without more "Sticks" and less "Carrots" al-Bashir will thwart the peace process and the election to retain absolute control.

Unless the international community and the governments of the world force his hand, we will get more of the same from Omar al-Bashir. Crazy is running into the same wall repeatedly expecting a different result each time. Expecting al-Bashir to change his ways when we never do anything to stop him is just plain stupid.



Corey Dragge is a long time activist and has worked with various Darfur related organizations. Currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada he has started a genocide education project in hopes of speaking to at least one class in every high school in Nevada.

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Darfur and the 2010 Election

Darfur is the Obama Catch 22

Its been awhile since my last post and all I can tell you is that I have been trying to figure out how to best utilize my skills and passion for human rights to best help the people of not just Darfur but everywhere.

I don't like the way that this administration is handling the Darfur genocide especially

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considering the fact that while campaigning they all spoke so adamantly about taking strong action against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

If you have any question about how frustrated I am please refer back to previous post. That being said, I do understand the political dilemma they are dealing with. The political situation that Darfur presents to the Obama administration is very troubling and one that leaves them in a risky catch 22. Behind every door of action there seems to be the potential for some pretty scary political fallout.

If they take the aggressive military approach, spitting human rights hell and brimstone, they could further our growing international imagine as Muslim hating bible-thumpers. Lets face it, with troops already in Iraqi and Afghanistan we are projecting a very unsavory international imagine thus making another military move into yet another Muslim country highly unlikely. But what about sanctions?

We could up the sanctions against Sudan and its oil and chemical production industries and this is an option that I have promoted. Since the vast majority of profits from these industries is rifled right back into Sudan's military to fund the militias and their campaign in Darfur it makes sense to target these industries. To impose severe and serious sanctions could pressure their government to rethink their current position but as simple as this sounds it is anything but.

China, a country with its own horrible human rights history, is a heavy player in Sudan. Not only do they provide Sudan with the vast majority of Sudan's crude oil extraction expertise but is their primary buyer of the end product as well. If we are going to impose serious sanction against companies that operate within the target markets of oil and chemical production we will be targeting government owned Chinese companies. So what is the problem you ask? Well as of April of this year, China owns $763.5 billion in good old fashion United States Treasury bonds. Not a little problem, a big one. The truth is we have long been economically tied to China. The largest exporter to the largest importer.

Now one could argue, and I have, that these Treasury bonds ultimately mean nothing. Some people, and rightfully so, project China as the new big dog on the block but they worry that these bonds could be used to crash the value of the dollar if China decided to cash them in but if there is one thing our current recession should have taught us is that if our economy crashes so will others. It is true that we are tied to China but they are equally tied to us. We could sanction those Chinese companies and we may catch heat but it is my belief that that ultimately China would have to chose. This puts China on the spot. This would put them in the spotlight for something not so glorious as the Olympics.

Even still this does come with some potentially harsh political fallout for Obama and company. The AU (African Union), which represents 53 countries in Africa, has rejected the ICC's

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(International Criminal Court) recently issued arrest warrant for Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for crimes against humanity. This implies that any push from the U.S. on this matter could spark relations issues with not just Sudan but with countless other African countries.

Everywhere they look there are political landmines all across this issue. This is why the previous administration did nothing and that is why this administration is showing signs of continuing that trend. They will search and search for the most effective course of action with the least amount of political fallout and they will always come to the same conclusion. Any action, meaningful action that is, is going to come with a price and the people of Darfur need someone willing to pay.

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Darfur is the Obama Catch 22