Don't stand by, STAND up!

Why do you STANDFast?

matthewheck — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:46:27 -0500

It doesn’t take much to change the world.

Any other day, I might have difficulty believing such a statement. But not today.

I have witnessed the phenomenal ability of our movement to grow and reach out to others: STAND has more than 700 chapters across the nation; over 700 students converged on D.C. for our third National Student Conference; and, in three years of Darfur Fasts, we have raised $500,000 for Civilian Protection.

But now, the stakes are higher than ever. In addition to maintaining the Civilian Protection Program in Darfur, we are now expanding to Burma too.

Today, I’m asking you to STANDFast with me and thousands of other students around the world as we raise money to protect civilians in Darfur and Burma. Specifically, I’m asking you to give up one nonessential item and donate the money you would have spent on that to STANDFast. To put it simply:

The cost of ONE 12-ounce can of RedBull can provide a woman with a donkey for one week to collect firewood.

The cost of ONE Venti-sized Mocha at Starbucks can provide early warning of an impending attack to civilians in eastern Burma.

But you don’t have to stop there. Host a speaker, take pledges, hold a die-in, table by your library, or take a page from the Pellham Memorial High School’s STAND chapter and make a video…

There’s no limit to your creativity, just as there is no limit to our collective potential.

I STANDFast because I believe that when we work together, we can change the world--one Redbull and one Mocha at a time.

And, now, as you STANDFast today, I want to hear from you.

Why do you STANDFast?

Act Now to Protect Civilians in Eastern Congo!

nmcmurry — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:59:50 -0500

Fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo continues to escalate this week, as civilians face rape, torture, and murder from rebel militias and government forces alike. Thousands have been forced to flee their homes in recent weeks, with a quarter million Congolese newly displaced since August. The UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, known as MONUC, has been unable to protect civilians from the violence.

Last week, the UN Security Council authorized the deployment of an additional 3,000 peacekeepers to bolster MONUC. But the deployment will take months – much too long for civilians in eastern DRC to wait without effective protection.

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon, echoing the calls of Congolese community organizations, international experts, and human rights groups, has thrown his support behind a French proposal to send a European “bridging” force to reinforce MONUC until additional UN troops arrive.

European leaders will be meeting this week to discuss the proposal. While France, Belgium, and the UK have backed the plan, other states are reluctant to send troops.

So what can we do?

Avaaz.org is raising money to place advertisements in major European newspapers, urging European governments to support the deployment of an EU bridging force. According to Avaaz, the placement of such an advertisement in the Times of London immediately prompted the UK’s Africa minister to call the organization, and led to a shift in the UK government’s position in favor of sending troops.

Click here to donate and help push more European governments to answer the Secretary General’s call for action.

While you’re fasting this week to support civilian protection efforts in Darfur and Burma, please consider donating to help protect civilians in eastern DRC as well, and ask your friends and family to do the same. Avaaz is collecting donations until the end of this week.

The people of eastern Congo have suffered enough. Let’s act now to help make sure they get the protection they need, and hold the international community accountable for its Responsibility to Protect.

Questions? Email congo@standnow.org.

Weekly News Brief: 11.24-12.01

standsabina — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:52:47 -0500

Darfur:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and US special envoy to Darfur Richard Williamson accused Sudan of violating the ceasefire it signed last week. The UN has sent a special delegation to investigate the alleged bombings. A Darfur rebel group has accused the Sudanese Government of new attacks.

The UN has reported that that Dafur as a whole is becoming more dangerous. Particularly, humanitarian aid groups are facing growing harassment in Darfur, and the UN has criticized the attacks. The UNhumanitarian aid chief just returned from Sudan where he urged more protection in the vulnerable camps for displaced Darfuris.

Three human rights activists have been arrested in Sudan, and were accused of spying for the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch has expressed its concern.

Abdel Nabi Ahmed, the leader of Sudan's largest opposition party Umma, was killed in a car crash earlier this week.

A New York Times article discusses how President-Elect Obama's choice of Susan Rice as ambassador to the UN means the US will have a stronger advocate for ending atrocities like the conflict in Darfur.

Burma:

This Friday, fifteen detainees, were given harsh prison sentences as part of a judicial crackdown on dissidents suspecting of leading the 2007 uprising.

India and Burma are strengthening economic ties after another round of bilateral talks.

Burma's top military leader Than Shwe says that plans for elections in 2010 are well underway.

Congo:

Despite promises to maintain a ceasefire, Tutsi rebels led by General Laurent Nkunda captured the town of Ishasha in eastern DRC on Thursday as part of a new military offensive. The renewed fighting has caused some 13,000 Congolese to seek refugein neighboring Uganda.

General Nkunda warned on Saturday that he is prepared to go to war unless the Congolese government agrees to hold talks. According to UN-appointed mediator and former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, the government has agreed in principle to talks, but not to any details.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced on Sunday that he is in favor of sending a European force to eastern DRC to bridge the gap until authorized reinforcements for the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, MONUC, are deployed. Earlier in the week, Belgium said it would be willing to contribute to such a force.

The UN Security Council discussed the possibility of amending MONUC's mandate in its meeting on Thursday to better address the current situation on the ground in eastern DRC.

Gearing Up for STANDFast

Leran — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:46:43 -0500

I often see the same Margaret Mead quotation used over and over in STAND: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” While perhaps overused, it is an extremely appropriate sentiment for what STAND is. We describe STAND as the Student Anti-Genocide Coalition. As individual students, we have an incredible ability to bring about change, advocate for policy, educate our friends and raise money for the survivors of mass atrocities. When we come together as chapters, we become many times more powerful and are able to bring the cause to many more people in our campuses and communities. Altogether, we form a coalition of chapters with the ability to end genocide.

I know this claim is often hard for even us to believe. When we write our letters we know in our minds and hearts that we are making a difference, but sometimes it is easy to get jaded and have doubt that belief. When we organize events we may be rewarded with great optimism, but we also run the risk of feeling ineffective and becoming jaded. Whenever that happens, I want you to think about one annual event coming up next week: STANDFast. Every year over the past three years, STAND has put on an annual fundraiser, previously called DarfurFast, but this year extended to help the people of Burma as well as the people of Darfur, we are calling it STANDFast.

The original and enduring concept of this day is that for a simple sacrifice, perhaps a cup of coffee, students anywhere can donate a small amount of money to make a tangible difference for civilians faced with mass atrocities. This year, the Civilian Protection Program of the Genocide Intervention Network has estimated that $3 can protect a woman collecting firewood for a full week. This firewood enables her to continue cooking food for her family and in turn keep many alive and strong while they wait and hope for peace in the Internally Displaced Persons camps. As students, very few of us have the luxury of wealth, but all of us can do our part once a year by donating $3 dollars.

By reaching into our own wallets and asking others to join with us, over the last three years we have raised over $500,000 dollars. In STAND, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. $3 dollars is a small amount for most, but to the people of Darfur or Burma, it is astonishing.

Let’s make this year count.

Let’s continue to add to the civilian protection program so that is can keep civilians safe while our advocacy continues to push for the conditions of peace. Remember that our voices are heard, our letters are read, and our events make a difference. If you ever doubt these truths, just remember STANDFast. You may not be able to contribute much, but you made a difference, your chapter made a difference, and together we are fighting genocide. The sum is greater than any individual portion. On December 3rd, STAND committed against genocide, and we will continue to change the world.

The Wheels of Justice Keep Turning in Darfur

standsabina — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:01:47 -0500

As of just over a week ago, there were 2 arrest warrants and 1 request for an arrest warrant hanging on the walls of the International Criminal Court in the Hague that concerned the crisis in Darfur. The first two were Ahmed Haroun, the Minister for Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, and Ali “Kaushayb”, a known Janjaweed leader; the third is a pending warrant for the arrest of the President of Sudan himself, Omar al-Bashir.

A week ago today, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at the Hague, added 3 new request for arrests to that stack: three leaders of the rebel movements in Darfur.

The crime? According to CNN, in September, 2007, “a thousand rebel-led soldiers surrounded and stormed an African Union peacekeeping base in Haskanita, in southern Darfur, the ICC said. Twelve peacekeepers were killed and eight were wounded in the overnight attack, the deadliest single attack on AU peacekeepers since they began their mission in late 2004.”

Luis Moreno-Ocampo said there is significant enough evidence to support the indictment of three rebel leaders who allegedly planned, led, and directed the attack on the peacekeepers over a year ago.

The names of the rebel leaders have been kept confidential for now, in the hopes that they will surrender of their own accord. While this remains to be seen, a spokesperson for the SLA-Unity would surrender their leaders to the ICC if indicted because they believed their leaders were innocent and that their innocence would hold up in court.

What does this mean for the international community, and more specifically, the growing global anti-genocide movement?

1. It sends a message to actors in Darfur that anything endangering peacekeepers and the Darfuris they protect should not and will no longer be tolerated by the international community

2. It reminds us that we are in the middle of a complex conflict where there are not “good guys and bad guys” but rather a series of powerful actors who each have their own interests in mind

3. It counters Omar al-Bashir’s argument that the ICC is the West’s attempt at overthrowing his government and that he has been unjustly targeted by the Court.

There has been overwhelming support for this move by the international community. Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch called it "an important step toward protecting those who protect civilians…Civilians rely on peacekeepers for protection, and any hope for restoring security for civilians in Darfur depends on peacekeepers being able to do their job," said "These warrant requests send a strong message that such crimes will not be tolerated."

Stay tuned at STAND’s blog and on our Weekly News Briefs (which you can sign up for by e-mailing education@standnow.org) for all updates about the case.

Standing up for Burma with STANDFast

standsabina — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:05:54 -0500

As we near our final days in STAND Fast we, as advocates should probably reflect on what we have done and pat ourselves on the back for what (at least I believe) amounts to a stunning show of innovation in the way we deliver aid. The divergence in philosophy that GI Net has taken in producing efficient micro-solutions, that could have major impacts in the way conflict effected people live, represents a new brand of humanitarianism, one that is smart and lasting.
This praise, however, is given more to motivate than to celebrate the finalization of something, because you and I both know that there is a tremendous amount of work to still be done. STAND has taken on a huge task in accepting Burma into its trajectory. The civil war between the ethnic Karen and the Burmese government has lasted for 60 years, longer than that of the stand off between North and South Sudan. The government is controlled by a crime cadre who have a historical legacy of unresponsiveness and paranoia toward the international community, only topped by that of North Korea. Here, it is easy to recall the memory of only a few months ago when the regime denied foreign aid to the cyclone ravaged Irrawaddy delta, in a calculated display of negligence; the act of which undoubtedly resulted in the death of thousands. And now with China coddling Than Shew's military state more and more, penetrating Burma seems like a mission impossible.
However, we must not forget that STAND is the number one student anti-genocide organization in the US. We have readied regular college and high school students with the education necessary to become effective advocates for Darfur, and I wish we should only have to address this conflict; and in a perfect world, no conflict at all. It is obvious though, that the world is not perfect, and it is a little discouraging to find that just as we think we have mobilized our chapters on the issue of Darfur, we must throw another complex conflict at them. It's almost like starting form scratch. I can't tell you how many times I have seen the look for confusion in the eyes of a fellow student when I try to explain Burma, and this is my speciality! In the end thought, this is why STAND is STAND. We recognize that as daunting as the task might be, it really can't wait, immediate action is necessary now.
I have found I my time speaking to people about Burma that one of the most effective ways to reach my peers is by relating the situation to Darfur, a conflict that most of them are well versed in. Here are some good comparative points that you can use to demonstrate how Burma is similar to Darfur, and hopefully by basing East Burma around something many students already know, we can reach people much faster.

1. The genocide in East Burma of the ethnic Karen is the result of a civil war.

Just as the genocide in Darfur is a byproduct of the North-South war so is the targeting of the Karen in East Burma. The Karen have been demanding autonomy since 1948 after independence from the British (also ironically the colonizers of the Sudan). Under Burma's short lived Republic from 1948 to 1962, xenophobic and nationalist General Ne Win, (who would become Burma's military dictator) carried out numerous attacks against the Karen to promote national unity with impunity. Ne Win later forcibly took control of the government. The Karen have since been waging an insurgency to fight against this oppression, although their military numbers have dwindled to only a couple thousand.

2. China plays a heavy role in Burmese politics.

As in Sudan, the economic involvement of China in Burma means that the Chinese must be pressured to address the human rights abuses that their government funds. Recently, China has won the rights to build a 900 mile pipeline across Burma into Southwest China to transport oil and natural gas. The oil and natural gas will be brought to Burmese ports and then to the pipeline. The Chinese are doing this to avoid shipping through the strait of Malacca, one of the busiest in the world. China has also won the rights to explore the Burmese coast for oil. These new business deals will bring in millions for the Burmese junta.

3. The eventual solution to this conflict will come with the fixing of the countries overall political problem.

Just as STAND has worked for an "all Sudan solution," we should also work for an all Burma solution, because only then will the military be halted in their campaign. Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy won much support among the Karen due to the promise of a democratic process, in which Karen interest would not be marginalized. In fact, during the 1988 democratic uprising the Karen accepted many of the protesters into their bases to escape government retaliation. This became one of the main reasons General Ne Win launched a massive offensive against them. STAND should continue to stress the need for democracy in all of it's Burma advocacy.

My hope is that this information can be used to consolidate these two topics and better communicate them to our chapters. If students can see the similarities it will become easier to see why STAND is involved in Burma, and then we can get to moving even faster. There is not time to waste. Good luck to all on STAND Fast!

-Joshua Groll, STAND's Burma Education Coordinator

Your Essential STANDFast Toolkit

standsabina — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:35:37 -0500

There is a week left before STANDFast: here is the essential toolkit with two brand new tools highlighted:

Bring it to your Chapter:
- Download the STANDFast Essentials Podcast, where you can run through the essentials of STANDFast on your computer or iPod while running, driving, or taking a break from schoolwork. (to be posted tomorrow!)
- Learn background information about the conflict in Darfur and the rundown on how Civilian Protection works here
- Learn background information about the conflict in Burma and the rundown on how Civilian Protection works here
- Get the full run-down of Civilian Protection from GI-Net’s website.
Bring it to your Campus:
- For when you need to explain STANDFast in 15 seconds or less: the STANDFast one-pager.
- Did you know your region has a partner camp in Chad? STAND has paired up every region with a refugee camp for Darfuris in Chad, and encourages you to use this connection and the stories it brings with it to bring the camps to your campus.
- Give the big pictureand the breakdown on the Civilian Protection programs to your friends and classmates
- It’s time to get your campus to STANDFast with you: here are some tips for fundraising and sources of funding,
- Let your campus know they are part of a network of notable fastersand keep your chapter inspired with success stories
Bring it to your Community:
- Bring the cause of Civilian Protecton outside the front doors of your school and out into the rest of the world: mobilize your community to protect vulnerable communities in Darfur and Burma
- Get the word out through the press: take 10 easy steps to get the press you want and get your message across, through tried-and-true Op-Eds and Letters and new creative media like ads and video blogs.
Bring it to Congress:
- Use STANDFast as an opportunity to inform your elected officials of the need for civilian protection, and of the great work that your chapter is doing to fill the hole in civilian protection

STANDing next semester: apply for a leadership position today

sredding — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:51:39 -0500

If you went the conference, then you know that being on the STAND Leadership Team is a rewarding, fun, and challenging experience. So, if you're interested in getting more involved with STAND at the national or regional level, then check out some of these openings we have for next semester!

Fundraising Coordinator. The Fundraising Coordinator (FC) helps chapters across the country raise money to put on events and campaigns on their campuses while working to raise funds for STAND at the national level. The FC will coordinate a national fundraiser and create tools and resources to help students fundraise. Contact Nick Gaw at ngaw@standnow.org for more information on the position.

Southwest College ROC. If you attend college in the Southwest Region and love working with chapters in your region, then apply to be the Southwest College Regional Outreach Coordinator (ROC). The Southwest College ROC will communicate with all college chapters in the region, supporting their efforts by providing important information and collecting feedback. Contact Charlotte Hill at chill@standnow.org with questions.

Join the STAND Leadership team today!

Weekly News Brief: 11.17-11.24

sredding — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:07:41 -0500

Darfur:

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has presented evidence asking for the arrest of three rebel commanders for an attack on African Union Peacekeepers in Darfur in 2007. Human rights groups welcomed the move and several Darfur rebel groups vowed to respect the indictments.

The Sudanese Army and Darfur rebels fought in a series of deadly clashes in northern Darfur on Thursday. At least five rebels and one soldier were killed. More reports of clashes came in just yesterday.

The United Nations has been investigating violations of the ceasefire that was declared and then almost immediately allegedly broken last week. Several UN experts have urged increasing and strengthening the arms embargo to Sudan.

Burma:

General Than Shwe re-enforced his commitment to the 7-step "road map to democracy" and warned citizens not to be taken in by nations he considers interventionists.

China has signed two deals with Burma to allow them to use ports to unload their oil and gas to be shipped to China on a 900 mile, yet to be built pipeline.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will soon be asked by the UN Human Rights Council to create a Commission of Inquiry on Burma pending the creation of a human rights body within ASEAN.

Congo:

After talks with UN-designated mediator and former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Tutsi rebel leader General Laurent Nkunda pulled his forces back from several positions in North Kivu province on Wednesday in order to allow aid into the area. A unilateral ceasefire continued to hold over the weekend, allowing aid workers to enter previously inaccessible areas.

On Thursday, the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to bolster MONUC, the UN peacekeeping mission in DRC, with the temporary deployment of more than 3,100 additional peacekeeping troops and police. While the development was welcomed, the Congolese government and the EU have suggested that the force's mandate be expanded as well.

Former head of UN peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno urged the European Union to send "elite" forces to assist MONUC as the reinforcements are being deployed.

At a rally in the captured city of Rutshuru in North Kivu province, attended by over 1,500 people, General Nkunda criticized the planned deployment of peacekeepers, saying they will not bring peace.

From the silver screen to the Wall Street Journal

sredding — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 03:48:26 -0500

George Clooney, David Pressman and John Prendergast speak out in a recent op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal.

The trio argues that the world's two deadliest wars, Darfur and Democratic Republic of Congo, need to be at the top of President Obama's list of priorities. Be sure to read the whole thing, but don't miss the shout-out:

"While we have each participated in our own way in building an advocacy movement around Darfur, it has been the high-school and college students who have made Darfur a political issue too important to be ignored, and who are now preparing similar campaigns for Congo. It is these same young Americans who voted in large numbers for the new president. They are now ready to be led by a President Obama to build a safer world and a safer Africa."

We have made Darfur a political issue too important to be ignored. We need to keep that momentum up and direct it at the new administration and the new Congress.