Nuba Mountains Peace Coalition

If Only Our Leaders Had Mariam’s Guts

Bob — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:39:02 +0000

IN THE NUBA MOUNTAINS,
Sudan
If Only Our Leaders Had Mariam’s Guts
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: June 6, 2012 41 Comments

I’d like to introduce a valiant woman here, Mariam Tia, to President Obama and other
world leaders, so she could explain how they’re allowing Sudan’s leaders to get
away with mass atrocities that echo Darfur.

Once again, in Sudan there are starving children, tens of thousands of refugees,
rapes and racial epithets, a spiraling death toll and passivity in the White
House.

Mariam was pregnant when the Sudanese Army invaded her village here in the rebel-held
Nuba Mountains and shot her husband dead. Enraged, she took over a mounted
machine gun set up by rebels and began to rake the soldiers as they burned the
village’s huts.

Mariam said she isn’t sure whether she actually shot any soldiers and that soon they
began firing back, so she had to run for her life. She eventually relocated to
a dank mountain cave, where — like countless other Nubans — she felt a bit
safer from random bombings by government warplanes. When her due date came, two
months ago, Mariam delivered her baby by herself inside the cave.

She named her baby girl Fakao, which is shorthand for: bombs are dropping. When people
hear Antonov bombers releasing their payloads, they shout “Fakao! Fakao!”
That’s the signal to huddle behind rocks and hope for the best.

“When this child was in my stomach, I used to run from the bombers,” Mariam told me
as she nursed Fakao in front of her cave. “I named her this so that I could
remember the struggle we went through to give her life.”

“If I ever see the enemy again,” she added, “I will tie this baby to my back and pick
up a gun and fight them.”

World leaders could use some of that backbone. Instead, they have said little and
done almost nothing as President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has — for a year now —
undertaken daily bombings in the Nuba Mountains and the neighboring Blue Nile
region, blocked food from entering, expelled aid groups and tried to bar
witnesses. I entered illegally on a dirt track from South Sudan, and, as noted in my last column,
I found that hundreds of thousands of people in the Nuba Mountains have run out
of food and are surviving on leaves, wild roots and insects.

As I
travel about here, I find the contrasts heartbreaking. One is the gulf of
technology between government forces and their civilian victims: I interview
impoverished families huddling in caves and eating leaves and bugs, and our
conversations are interrupted by Sudanese MIG or Antonov bombers overhead.
Sudan mostly drops antipersonnel bombs full of shrapnel, but it occasionally
drops cluster bombs.

One woman, Hasia al-Ahmar, told me that her mother had starved to death and then
the government dropped a bomb that landed directly on the family’s grass-roof
mud hut, with her sister inside.

“We could just pick up little pieces of her and put them in a plastic bag,” she said.
“And then we buried the bag.”

The collision between a 21st-century bomb and a village woman in a traditional mud
hut — that pretty much captures the horror of what is unfolding now in the Nuba
Mountains. The same bombings and starvation also seem to be
occurring next door in the Blue Nile region, forcing tens of
thousands to flee to South Sudan.

Another contrast is between the timidity and fecklessness of world leaders, and the
courage and grit of the Nuba people themselves. Take Hamat Dorbet, a
39-year-old evangelical Presbyterian pastor.

In an anti-Christian campaign a dozen years ago in this Muslim-dominated country, the
authorities began arresting Hamat for ringing his church bell and preaching to
his congregation. They would arrest him each Sunday, according to his account
and that of neighbors, and then beat and torture him for a few days.

Each Sunday, after a few days of recovery, Hamat would struggle back to the church,
ring the bell and begin another service. Then police officers would come and
drag him out for more torture. Once they shot him, and he almost died. A month
after that, when he could move again, he roused himself out of bed one Sunday
morning, limped to the church and boldly rang the bell to deliver another
service.

A peace accord shortly afterward stopped the persecution and, perhaps, saved his life.
But these days, Pastor Hamat is again struggling to stay alive. Like most of
his church members, he has nothing to eat but leaves, roots and insects, and he
is fading. And, of course, this is a government-designed famine: in Sudan, “to
starve” is a transitive verb.

Hamat is not asking for help, and he’s not feeling sorry for himself. I’d like to
explain to him why the world lets this happen without even speaking out
strongly, and I just don’t know what to say. President Obama?

Also Nicholas D.
Kristof: Obama Backs Down on Sudan (April 22, 2010)

I invite you to visit my
blog, On
the Ground. Please also join me on Facebook
and Google+, watch my YouTube
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NY Times Kristoff June 2, 2012

Bob — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 19:17:54 +0000

OP-ED COLUMNIST NY
Times

Starving Its Own Children

Dominic Nahr/Magnum Photos

Two
hungry children in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, sleeping inside a cave for
protection from government bombers.

By NICHOLAS
D. KRISTOF

Published:
June 2, 2012

Damon
Winter/The New York Times

Nicholas
D. Kristof

PERHAPS hundreds of thousands of people here have no food and are
reduced to eating leaves and insects, as Sudan’s government starves and bombs
its own people in the Nuba Mountains. Children are beginning to die.

“Yes, my children may die,” Katum Tutu, a 28-year-old mother, told
me. She recently lost her 2-year-old daughter, Maris, to starvation and has
nothing to feed her four remaining children. “I think about it every day, but
there’s nothing I can do,” she said.

This week will mark a year since Sudan began its brutal
counterinsurgency campaign in the Nuba Mountains, intended to crush a rebel
force that is popular here and controls much of the region. Sudan has expelled
aid workers, blocked food shipments and humanitarian aid, and dropped bombs
haphazardly — and almost daily — on its own citizens.

Sudan bars outsiders, but I sneaked in from South Sudan on a dirt
track controlled by rebels. Since my last visit, in February, the situation in
these areas has deteriorated sharply: a large share of families have run
completely out of food, with no prospect of more until the next harvest in
November.

Ryan Boyette, an American aid worker who stayed behind when
foreigners were ordered to evacuate, estimates that 800,000 Nuba have run out
of food in South Kordofan, the state encompassing the Nuba Mountains. Boyette
has created a local reporting network calledEyes and Ears Nuba, and the
Sudanese government showed what it thinks of him when it tried to drop six bombs on his
house last month. The notoriously inaccurate bombs missed, and he escaped
unhurt in his foxhole.

Katum, the woman who lost her daughter, was typical of the dozens
of Nuba I spoke to. Like many here, the family has been living in caves for
most of the last year to escape bombs, and it ran out of the local food staple,
sorghum, a few months ago.

She was blunt about the reason her daughter died: “We had no food
to give her.”

Her husband and surviving children showed me how they use bows and
arrows to try to shoot birds, and how they try to catch mice. “We eat them
whole,” Katum told me. “Even the head and the tail.”

Families are also eating beetles and wild roots, but their diet
today is mostly the newest leaves of three kinds of wild tree. New leaves are
stripped bare from trees near villages, and you see children climbing high on
thin branches to try to find new leaves that remain.

I also came across small children, sometimes just 2 or 3 years
old, digging in the ground for edible roots or seeds that they popped in their
mouths.

Some 50,000 people have fled their homes and are trekking to Yida,
a refugee camp just across the border in South Sudan. But many I spoke to,
Katum included, say they just don’t have the strength to walk for days to get
there.

“There’s no way we can get there,” Katum told me. “So it is much
better to stay and die here.”

At that point, our interview was interrupted by a humming
overhead: an Antonov bomber, flying unusually low.

Katum scrambled off, seeking a cave in case a bomb fell. Antonov
and MIG warplanes regularly fly over these rebel areas, dropping bombs without
any apparent purpose other than sowing terror. Fear of them has kept people
from farming and is a main reason for the food shortages.

Some farmers are now planting their fields as the rainy season
begins. They can harvest in November and will have to get by on leaves until
then.

Many other families, including Katum’s, ate their seed stockpile
in hopes of keeping their children alive. So for them, the only hope is
humanitarian aid.

Considering how many people are subsisting on leaves, perhaps the
surprise is that the death toll isn’t higher. In Katum’s village, Famma, elders
told me that about 40 people had starved to death in the last month, out of a
population of thousands. Among children arriving at the Yida refugee camp,
about 10 percent are acutely malnourished, according to Samaritan’s Purse, an
aid group assisting the refugees.

World leaders are mostly turning a blind eye. There isn’t even
serious talk about damaging the military airstrips that Sudan’s warplanes take
off from before dropping bombs on civilians, or about forcing a humanitarian
corridor, or about arranging airdrops of food. As a result, the only certainty
is that many Nuba will starve to death in the coming months.

President Obama, you harshly
criticized President Bush for failing to stand up to Sudan’s
slaughter in Darfur. So now what are you going to do as Sudan kills again — on
your watch?

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Nicholas
Kristof addresses reader feedback and posts short takes from his travels.

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Related
News

·
Broader Conflict Is Feared as Fighting Breaks Out on the
Border(June 6, 2011)

Related
in Opinion

Nicholas D. Kristof: Dodging Bombers in Sudan (February
2, 2012)

Nicholas
D. Kristof: Obama’s Failure in Sudan (August 29, 2010)

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Ground. Please also join me on Facebook and Google+, watch
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Dr P. J.’s Nuba Mountains Journal entries from October, 2011

Bob — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:40:02 +0000

C.Louis Perrinjaquet, MD, M

Reports from a Clinic in Kauda

Sudan Journal entries from October, 2011

…difficult to arrange flight from Juba into Nuba Mountains because Sudanese
Armed Forces (SAF) keep finding out about flights and bombing landing strip as
the plan tries to land…

Oct. 8. Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel… horrible “Antonov” wounds, at
least one child dies of malnutrition every day, osteomyelitis (chronic draining
infection of exposed bone)…

Oct. 12. Heard my 1st Antonov. Dr. Tom Catena pointed it out over sounds of
fans, anesthesia machine, oxygen concentrator & people talking. “You hear
that low rumbling sound?” Then back to surgery…

Sister Mary Carmen from Mexico remembers going to meet an airplane [in Kauda
last summer] and running away from airstrip, diving to ground as bombs landed
behind her, three times running with another sister who was crying that she
couldn’t run, lying on the ground praying “God help us.” Still those memories
are so terrifying she trembles when she hears the Antonovs.

… many children dying of malaria because of lack of medicine because of “denial
of access of humanitarian aid” war tactic of the North Sudan.

Traction pin placed through young man’s tibia for femur fracture when Antonov
bomb blew off his left buttock. Eight of us worked to construct a 2-part
mattress to allow access to dress the wound. Now he has to lie on his back in
traction and the nurses have to get underneath him to clean and dress the
massive wound down to pelvis, whole left buttock gone.

Oct. 17 Two children die during morning rounds today. Less than 1 year old
child in feeding program past week, fever, not doing well, gave few agonal
breaths as we entered ward, his mother already sobbing and holding scarf over
her face and the father rocked the baby. Soon after – called to 6 or 7
year old boy, admitted unresponsive last night, seized as we were called to see
him adjusted Quinine dose and later a crowd was gathered outside and his bed
was empty.

Oct. 20 Togor (3 1/2 hour drive north of Kauda) Save the Children built the
building. Fighting now in Dalami. People are fleeing from there to the
South and the caves along the way.

Clinic Administrator, Abass, “No medicine. No gauze. Solar fridge needs
battery, kerosene fridge not working. No truck for transport. Monitoring
children under 5. Advising people from outside this area to travel to refuge
camps in south – Bentiu – many days or weeks walking. Also has inpatient
ward. Only one person now because of bombs people are living in rocks and caves
near here. [just 50 yards away from clinic they showed me the bomb craters
where shrapnel injured] Two sisters, one lost right hand, mid-forearm, one
sister wound to her side. Staff working free since May – 13 staff including 2
guards and 2 cleaners.

12:30 Sabat – Nuba Community Clinic. Nice set of buildings, well maintained…
no patients, no medicines, no supplies for months except few packets of ORS
(oral rehydration salts) so most patients just come for referral or guidance on
where else to seek care which everyone knows is too far away if you are sick.

Spend night in Lamba, my guide’s family home. We heard Antonovs twice today.
They were far off, but still people ran for the caves.

I speak to a man, Jibril, from village of Omhitan, Oct. 1 walked 9 hours with 2
women and 13 children here to Lamba. They heard the SAF was planning an
attack on their village, only civilians, no SPLA there and that day and many
days as recently as yesterday the Antonovs dropped 6-7 bombs each time. Two
were injured physically , everyone frightened – terrorized enough to leave
their homes – all their crops, cows , goats, all their wealth to run with their
families in hopes of finding a safer place. Those who chose to stay are
hiding in the rocks, caves, forests. Those who stayed in villages have been
beaten, jailed, raped, houses burned.

As I spoke to Jibril, we looked up and saw an Antonov silently passing high
overhead to West heading South. Some stood and pointed, some gaped open-mouthed
frozen in their places.

A second Antonov, this one louder, close enough to photograph with my little
point and shoot jungle camera, not close enough to run to a hole, but we
discuss where to go if/when the planes circle back if they are closer.

SAF soldiers could run here in 2 hours. The locals hope rumors of SPLA in
the mountains will keep the SAF away from this area.

“They are doing exactly same thing here as they did in Darfur – raping killing,
transfer soldiers from Darfur here and Nuba soldiers in SAF to Darfur.
It’s unbelievable. They force soldiers to kill their own
parents and children. It’s really horrible.”

Oct. 22 Kauda – Speaking with Nuba Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Organization
(NRRDO) Internet Manager and Media Coordinator. 1) Expect Hunger. People
weren’t able to cultivate, especially the “far farms” due to many being killed
from bombing and ground fighting. The Antonovs are most terrifying.
Whenever people start coming down, more bombing and people run to caves
and rocks again. 2) Blockade of medicines and supplies – even UN not
allowed. Now end of rainy season lots of malaria and no medicine.
3) Dry season when roads are dry the Nuba fears ground attacks and when
“green cover” gone, trees no longer hide villages and easier to burn to the
ground all crops and villages. Unbalanced attacks of civilians. SAF
knows where SPLA are and they are not attacking the army.

Already 30-50 families daily are coming here for food from NRRDO and they have
none. There are large fields in central Nuba Mountains that normally grow
enough for all Nuba area and even export to Khartoum, but that large area is
not able to be cultivated now.

Oct. 23 Kurchi – Everyone is friendly, cheerful and alert to sounds of Antonovs
in the distance. As soon as we arrived they showed us where the holes we
are to run to are if we hear planes. “Snakes, bombs or bullets”.
May be bitten by snakes if run to caves to avoid bombs and may meet
bullets if leave the area for help. I get a walking tour of the area. “First
attack in July. 15 killed 56 injured here in Kurchi.” “My father
died of hunger,” he said with sadness, but no more than if he’d said, “My
father died of cancer or a heart attack.” I’ve never had someone tell me
their father died of hunger.

Oct. 24 Kurchi Clinic 8 staff, no medicine. Nurse, “We may see 40 – 90
people per day walking up to 3 hours. Before war 45 min by car to
Kadugli. Now totally cut off. They have instruments to suture wounds and
dressings. Psychological effects rarely bring patients to clinic, but obviously
is has it’s effect. Also more skin problems since war – poor hygiene,
running and living to caves, sleeping on ground, ticks scabies, scorpions,
snakes. More first trimester miscarriages, malnutrition in IDP’s in surrounding
area >40,000 IDP’s in Kurchi area, some in camps, many dispersed in homes
and caves. Watery bloody diarrhea, poor water and sanitation and crowding ,
pneumonia , meningitis, etc…Staff are committed to work even without pay as
long as possible. (Malaria = genocide by disease) Malaria medicine is priority.

Telabon Clinic – up to 250 patients per day. No medicine. Malaria especially
young children – no medicine except some ORS. “3 hours footings to get here and
go back with zero.” Staff sacrificing to serve people and not working for
money.

Limon Clinic – 75 patients per day total , majority are malaria, 30 – 40
inpatients, only has 1-2 more days of quinine. “Psychologically the people are
strong. Wondering how long this will go.”

Oct. 25 Gidel noon. We left Kauda at 8am finished rounds w/ Dr. Tom then
assisted removing rotten, decayed baby 3 weeks after ruptured uterus – opened
abdomen – foul gas blew out like opening a tomb – the baby skull came out in
pieces… I plan to donate blood for 15 year old woman with 2 week old ankle
injury “blown out from Antonov.” We’ll amputate tomorrow… Malaria cases grow –
other clinics are coming here to Gidel asking for supplies of meds – crisis ,
disaster, warfare – not too strong of words. 2:30 Wow – I just gave the
stuttering nurse tooth puller named Monday all my dental instruments, some I’ve
had for > 10 years. Monday said he agrees to stay and work at this
hospital and use these tools at least 15 years – until he retires. 4:45 Three
pickup trucks with wounded SPLA soldiers arrived. We had just finished
amputating a guy’s right leg below the knee. He has spinal anesthesia.
He couldn’t feel pain but was awake and talking about home though the
sounds of sawing though his tibia that shook the whole table. We had
earlier amputated a man’s right arm above the elbow, the forearm blown apart,
packed with dirt and burnt flesh. Did an exploratory laparotomy because
of shrapnel entering abdomen tearing a whole the size of my thumb – luckily Tom
only found small fragments and no bowel perforation. He’s still at high
mortality risk from infection. Put chest tube in sucking chest wound 3
rib section of flail chest ribs 4,5,6 broken in 2 places. Tom’s pretty quiet,
sick himself with a bad cold, hoping it isn’t another attack of Malaria
himself.

Oct. 26 No bombs or
bombers today. Donated blood again, something concrete I can do. I feel fine
even giving 2nd unit in 11 days… removed 5 fingers from 4 peoples hands –
2 patients had gun shot wounds, another patient was an old woman with
leprosy, and the last a young woman with gangrene from traditional treatment of
stuffing wound with leaves… as leaving dinner with sisters SAF soldier
from yesterday’s battle was found and brought here by SPLA. He had gunshot in
and out thigh shattering femur, not bleeding, good pulse, fever – probably from
malaria and not the wound. Tom plans to put in traction pin tomorrow.
Lots of people in courtyard shouting about this enemy soldier but SPLA
who brought him asked he be treated well – not like the brutal SAF treatment of
their prisoners.

Oct. 29 Yesterday we amputated 15 year old girl’s right leg above the knee.
Her ankle had been struck by an Antonov. The second unit of blood I
donated was running in her arm as I filed smooth the freshly sawed end of her
thigh bone. She felt no pain. The spinal anesthetic worked well for that,
but she was wide awake and we made eye contact as I looked over the surgical
drape to make sure she was OK. Sorrow and relief. After the
rounded stump was cleanly wrapped and the surgical drape lowered she raised her
head to see her future and her lifeless leg lying on the operating room floor.
I tried not to project my own sadness onto her own emotions.

I am overwhelmed by the injustice suffered by these innocent people, “ The
enemies of Omar al-Bashir” as Dr. Tom refers to his patients who have suffered
his senseless violence.

End of
Sudan Journal entries. Time to get on a plane.

My Sister’s Story by Kojo Locho

Paulette — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:15:19 +0000

Vanished. Gone without a trace. My sister is missing. No one knows where she is. Our family is very worried about her. She has three children, and they miss their mother. They are 6, 10, and 12 years old. She went to the market one day in July of 2011 to buy food and never came back.

Some soldiers came into the market place and took the women away to a camp. No one is allowed to enter the camp. The men had run away. She had her cell phone with her and had hidden it as best she could. She was able to make one phone call to let us know she had been kidnapped. No one has heard a word from her since that first day of her capture.

We worry. Where is she? Her children miss her. They want their mother back home. We wait. We hope. We continue to search for her. We want her home. Surely, someone can help us. Will you? Please tell her story to someone you know and ask them to tell another person. Ask Congress to help. Together we can stop this. Together we will make a difference. Together we will find her. Together.

President Obama’s Message to Sudan and South Sudan

Brian — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 22:02:33 +0000

In these video-taped remarks, President Obama sends an important and very clear message to the people of Sudan and South Sudan: conflict is not inevitable. The people of Sudan and South Sudan still have a choice, a chance to avoid being dragged back into war.

Aerial Bombardments and No Food or Water for the Nuba Families

Tito — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 18:24:19 +0000

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/general/2012/04/2012488184830120.html

SKYPE call to Nuba Mountains 3-24-2012 as reported by Apaulo

Bob — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 01:27:47 +0000

We were able to get our call through LAST weekend!

The bombing continues.

On Sunday, March 18, 2012,
the Antonov dropped four bombs in Kalkada Village and killed one
woman. Her body was ripped to
shreds and totally destroyed. Her
four children are now orphans. Who
will take care of them?
On the same day, the Antonov dropped
three more bombs in Alazirag. This
time there were no causalities.
March 22, Kalkada was bombed by the
Antonov. No one was killed or
injured. In Kauda, the Antonov and
Migs dropped two bombs inside Kauda and three bombs outside Kauda. One child and one man were injured. The Mig dropped three bombs inside Kauda
on the airstrip. The full extent of
the damage is not known at this time.
On March 23, a Mig bombed
Mendi Village, but no one was hurt.
The Antonov (bomber) was flying over their heads every day and
night. Sometimes it drops bombs and
sometimes it does not. The voice of
the Antonov strikes fear and terror into the minds of the people. They never know which time the Antonov
will drop bombs and which time it is just a fly over.

It has been weeks ince conditions permitted the SKYPE call to be made.
People were too afraid to gather. Starvation imminent.

The food scarcity is increasing.

One family said they did not have any food to
eat that day and asked if someone could please bring food, not for the adults,
but please being food for the children who are crying and have nothing to
eat.

Water

There is no clean, disease free water nearby. People walk many miles for clean water. A Jerry can full of water weighs 40
pounds.

The rainy season is about to begin. It is time for the people in the Nuba
Mountains to prepare the farms for planting.
No one is doing it. They live in
constant fear and terror of bombs and missiles and soldiers and
starvation. As long as this continues,
there will be no crops planted.
George Clooney, hear us. We need you.

Obama meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Sudan

Bob — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:32:03 +0000

Obama prioritizes Sudan at
talks with China

03/28/12

By Shannon Orcutt

On Monday,
President Obama met with Chinese President Hu Jintao during the Nuclear Summit
in Seoul, South Korea. During the President’s remarks before the meeting, Sudan was
the only country mentioned outside of the context of nuclear proliferation.
Earlier this month, George Clooney asked the President to prioritize
Sudan with China and last week Congressman Jim McGovern sent the President a
letter to the President urging him to work with China to end violence in Sudan.

China has been a key ally of Sudanese government due to its
economic interest and is heavily invested in Sudan’s oil sector. The Chinese
government not only has the unique ability to influence the Sudanese
government, but as a permanent member of the UN Security Council also has the
ability of limiting punitive action against Sudan through its veto power. Since
the split between Sudan and South Sudan, China has attempted to bolster
relations with the South as its economic interests were divided between the two
countries.

During the meeting, President Hu stated that both countries have the
common interest of peace and stability in Sudan and that “China and the United
States should continue to exert their own influence encourage Sudan and South
Sudan to resolve their outstanding issues through negotiation.”

Below is the letter from Congressman Jim McGovern to President
Obama on the need to raise the ongoing atrocities in Sudan during his meeting
with President Hu:

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

Your upcoming meeting with President Hu during the Nuclear
Security Summit in Seoul offers a unique opportunity to work with China to
address the ongoing atrocities being committed against civilians in Sudan. As a
humanitarian disaster in the Sudanese states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile
unfolds due to the government of Sudan’s denial of international humanitarian
access and indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilians, there is an urgent
need to work in a concerted way with those like China who have influence with
the government of Sudan. In particular, I urge you to encourage President
Hu and his government to engage consistently, at the highest levels, and in
close coordination with the United States, on issues related to the
humanitarian crisis and ongoing violence in South Kordofan and Blue Nile
states, as well as on all outstanding issues currently under negotiation
between Khartoum and Juba.

As you are aware, the situation in Sudan has escalated
significantly, resulting in devastating consequences for an increasing number
of civilians. Hundreds of thousands of people in South Kordofan and Blue Nile
are at risk of starvation because the Sudanese government is blocking food and
humanitarian aid. While China has been increasingly involved in oil
negotiations, they must also utilize their influence with the Sudanese
government to end attacks against civilians and support humanitarian access for
aid organizations and United Nations agencies.

I hope that during and following your meeting with President Hu,
the United States and China will work together and lead the U.N. Security
Council to maintain that spotlight towards ensuring an end to atrocities being
committed in South Kordofan, Blue Nile and Darfur, as well as the negotiation
of key post-independence arrangements, including transitional financial
arrangements – inclusive of oil-related issues – border management, and the
Abyei Area.

The positive engagement of China will be as critical as the
ongoing involvement of the United States to the future of Sudan and South
Sudan. Given its strong economic ties, China holds great diplomatic leverage
when it comes to Sudan and, for China, supporting the establishment of
long-term peace must be seen as critical to their economic interests.

Recent reports by Amnesty International and by the U.N. Panel of
Experts on Sudan included evidence of Chinese made arms used in Sudan. While
China’s arms agreement with Khartoum indicated that weapons provided to the
government are not permitted to be used in Darfur that is clearly still
happening. Therefore, the United States should encourage China to definitively
stop its sale of weapons to the government of Sudan.

I appreciate the commitment your Administration has made towards
promoting peace in Sudan and encourage the United States to maintain its high
level of involvement with international partners to end atrocities against
civilians.

Sincerely,

James P. McGovern

Member of Congress

Lamees and Lubna’s Story

Brian — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 01:15:08 +0000

Lamees and Lubna Abdula talk about their participation in the Nuba Mountains Peace Coalition.

Video of suffering the People of Nuba by Aljazeera

Tito — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:22:17 +0000

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/03/20123189523528780.html

Nuba Mountains Peace Coalition

If Only Our Leaders Had Mariam’s Guts

NY Times Kristoff June 2, 2012

OP-ED COLUMNIST NY Times

Starving Its Own Children

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

Published: June 2, 2012

Damon Winter/The New York Times

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