Dear Friends:

When a serious wound festers and is not tended to by the appropriate people, it can become gangrenous. This can lead to amputation or death. The conflict in Darfur has become gangrenous and it is now spreading beyond its borders because the international community has not appropriately focused its capabilities on resolving this conflict which enters its sixth year later this month.

Darfur has festered and the conflict has spread into neighboring Chad. While member nations of the African and the European Unions, as well as the UN Security Council have become very alarmed by the spread of the conflict into Chad, the fact is that the international community was warned on many occasions that if it did not address the conflict in Darfur, its likely spread to it neighboring countries was inevitable.

Since the initiation of the conflict in Darfur, the international community has not only treated it as a non-significant conflict but it has treated the people of Darfur as a non-significant race. Thus due to the international community’s lack of interceptive action in Darfur, the conflict has now erupted to a level that will have major implications not only for the innocent men, women and children of Darfur, but it has the potential to greatly impact major military and economic relationships between the Chadian government and its former European colonial powers.

Over the weekend of February 1st, it was reported that heavily armed rebels, supported by the Sudanese government, had launched a major offensive in Chad and were reputed to have taken large sections of the Chadian capital, N’Djamena. It was also reported that the Chadian President, Idriss Deby was holding onto power by his finger tips. The French government offered to evacuate Mr. Deby but he refused this offer. French officials in N’Djamena did manage to evacuate close to 500 non-essential French personnel and other foreign nationals.

The rebel forces withdrew from N’Djamena on Monday, January 4th to give the civilian population time to evacuate the capital. This withdrawal was also initiated to give the rebels time to rearm in order to launch a massive offensive.

A number of key non-governmental organizations operating in the Darfuri refugee camps in Chad have stated that the distribution of nearly $300m in aid is in danger of being disrupted. Should this happen, the lives of many of the Darfuri refugees in Chad will be put at great risk.

The newly formed EU Chad-bound peacekeeping force has had its deployment delayed. This force, dominated by the French, will have the responsibility of protecting Darfuri refugees in both Chad and the Central Africa Republic, but will now not be deployed until a level of stability can be maintained in Chad and God only knows when that will be.

The time has now come whereby the international community has to take a good look at its failings in Darfur. On numerous occasions over the last five years it was stressed upon the UN to take action in Darfur and it ignored all pleas for help, due mainly to the financial implications such actions would have on many member nations of the UN. As a result of this inaction, we have witnessed yet again the major destruction of human life, with the deaths of close to 600,000 innocent men, women, and children, the displacement of 2.5 million people, the lives of a further 4 million innocent civilians being placed in grave danger, and the daily occurrence of large scale rape and mutilation of women and young girls, some as young as four years of age.

During the week of January 28th, the United Nations appointed George Clooney as a UN peace envoy due to his incredible work on behalf of the people of Darfur. Mr. Clooney’s name can now be added to list of internationally renowned celebrities that have been utilized by the UN to cover up its own inadequacies. It can be expected that the UN will pass the baton to these celebrities whose roles with the UN, while they might seem highly prestigious, will result in great frustration on behalf of the celebrity and little or no action on behalf of the UN. We have witnessed the utilization of celebrities throughout the history of the UN that resulted in nothing of substance being achieved.

George Clooney deserves all the accolades that have been bestowed on him but he does not deserve to be used by an organization that has failed in Darfur, where he and a large number of his colleagues have succeeded in heightening global awareness of the conflict there.

Join with the International Alliance For Human Rights and Hope for Humanity Alliance International as we take the initial steps to enhance global awareness of the conflict in Darfur and what is likely to happen if the international community continues to do nothing. The Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur will also raise the global call for action to save and protect the innocent men, women and children whose cries for help have so far gone unanswered. You can email dnolan@iafhrl.org for more information or just call 212.695.7022, ext. 315.