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--- Begin Message ---Dear Bay Area Community Leaders,
SUDAN: DAY OF CONSCIENCE -- AUGUST 25, 2004
The "Save Darfur" Coalition, composed of faith-based, humanitarian and
secular civic organizations, has identified Wednesday, August 25, 2004
as
Sudan: Day of Conscience. On that day, communities across North America
are
urged to engage in interfaith activities -- designed to raise public
awareness about the horrific situation in Darfur and to demand that the
international community take immediate and decisive action to stop the
killing, the rape, and the destruction of villages, and to assure that
humanitarian relief reaches all those in need. With this in mind, we
are
planning an interfaith vigil with leaders from various faith ethnic and
civic communities to take place on Wednesday, August 25th at noon at
U.N
Plaza in San Francisco: Civic Center triangle between the New Main
Library
and Market Street.
BACKGROUND
As you know, the emergency in Sudan's northwestern region of Darfur
presents the starkest challenge to the world since the Rwanda genocide
in
1994. Government-backed Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, have
been
engaging in campaigns to displace and wipe out entire communities of
African
tribal farmers. Villages have been razed, women and girls are
systematically
raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies
specifically targeted and destroyed. Government aerial bombardments
support
the Janjaweed by hurling explosives as well as barrels of nails, car
chassis
and old appliances from planes to crush people and property. Tens of
thousands have died. Well over a million have been driven from their
homes,
and only in the past few weeks have humanitarian agencies had limited
access
to a portion of the affected region. The United Sta tes Agency for
International Development (USAID) estimates that 350,000 people or more
could die in the coming months. Ongoing assessments by independent
organizations such as Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without
Borders)
suggest that USAID's estimate may be conservative. If aid is denied or
unavailable, as many as a million people could perish. For the first
time in
its history, the Committee on Conscience of the United States Memorial
Museum has declared a "genocide emergency" in the Sudan, indicating
that
genocide is imminent or is actually happening in the Darfur region.
Lives
are hanging in the balance on a massive scale.
Please call 415 -957-1551 x.109 or email Abby Fleishman at
[EMAIL PROTECTED] if you can be a part of this day by helping to plan
and /or bringing your constituencies to this event. We already have
some
speakers but are looking for more. Let us bring attention in the Bay
Area
to this calamity!
Sincerely,
Abby Fleishman
Abby Fleishman, MAJCS, MPA
Assistant Director
Jewish Community Relations Council
121 Steuart St. #301
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-957-1551 ext. 109
--- End Message ---
