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  • Cleanse world of genocide

    Detroit Free Press, MI
    Aug 25 2004

    LOCAL VOICES: Cleanse world of genocide

    Collective action can end Darfur atrocities

    BY VICTOR BEGG DAVID GAD-HARF AND THE REV. DANIEL KRICHBAUM


    We are blessed in metro Detroit to have a great number of activists
    committed to improving interfaith and inter-race relations in our
    community.

    The connections we have built allow us to ensure positive and
    constructive solutions to problems that may arise between our groups
    and maintain an atmosphere of acceptance, tolerance and civility.

    Taking a look into our history books underscores the importance of
    working together to foster intergroup relations.

    Toward the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire began a program of
    ethnic cleansing targeting the Armenian population. During the
    Holocaust, over 6 million Jews and an equal number of non-Jews were
    slaughtered in Europe. In the mid-1990s, 800,000 Rwandans were killed
    in that African country's program of mass murder. Around the same
    time, Muslims in the former Yugoslavia were subjected to genocide.

    Is it conceivable that such ethnic cleansing that so stained the 20th
    Century continues today?

    Not only is it conceivable, but it is happening. As we speak, blacks
    in Sudan's Darfur region are being killed, raped and displaced by
    militiamen known as the Janjaweed. These militias are supported by a
    Sudanese government that continues to allow the Janjaweed to commit
    these atrocities against fellow Muslims in the African nation. Both
    the U.S. Congress and UN Security Council have issued resolutions
    condemning the ongoing genocide.

    U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN Secretary-General Kofi
    Annan also have visited the Darfur area, but these minimal efforts
    are not enough. The Save Darfur Coalition (www.savedarfur.org), made
    up of more than 80 organizations, including representation from major
    faith groups and humanitarian organizations, has designated today,
    Aug. 25, as the Day of Conscience.

    Across North America, communities are engaging in interfaith efforts
    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 ethnic cleansing.

    So what can each of us do today and in the coming days, weeks and
    months to end this great tragedy unfolding before us? Each of us
    should write to President George W. Bush and urge him to declare what
    is happening in Darfur genocide (he has not done so, even though such
    a declaration would solidify support for Darfurians). We can also ask
    our members of Congress to express their outrage that genocide can
    still occur and speak publicly about the issue.

    Our religious clergy can bring this issue to the attention of their
    congregations. We can pledge financial support -- no matter how large
    or small -- to the relief organizations trying to provide food,
    water, health care and shelter to over one million refugees of this
    crisis.

    The value of every action -- whether individual or collective -- can
    bring an end to this great human tragedy.

    Who knows what could have been had more people stood up to Hitler, if
    more nations had spoken out against Slobodan Milosevic in Bosnia?

    Here in metro Detroit, we are committed to improving our
    understanding of, and relations among, all religious, racial and
    ethnic groups despite our differences. One important lesson that we
    have learned is that no matter which faith we hold so dear, we are
    all commanded to respect life, care for those in need and create a
    better world.

    It is this belief that underscores today's Day of Conscience. Let us
    act now to raise awareness of the atrocities being committed in
    Sudan. Let us act together, quickly, so that this new century does
    not carry the bloody stains of the previous one.


    VICTOR BEGG is vice chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of
    Michigan; DAVID GAD-HARF is executive director of the Jewish
    Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit; THE REV. DAN KRICHBAUM is
    executive Director of the National Conference for Community &
    Justice. Write to them in care of the Free Press Editorial Page, 600
    W. Fort St., Detroit, MI 48226.
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