In this email:

I. Recap from the meeting

II. News updates

III.Understanding the crisis: Who are are the Janjaweed?

IV: Next meeting

V: What you can do this week

I. Recap from the Meeting

1.      Becoming an organization

                                                               i.      Thanks to Adaeze for writing our constitution

                                                             ii.      There is a student org registration meeting on November 10  from 7-8 pm in the Marvin Center Amphitheater

2.      Week of Awareness: Here’s our tentative schedule

Tuesday, Nov. 16
-speaker on refugee life or video (to coincide with Homelessness week
put on by the office of community service)
- info on Kogan (our quad)- posters, handing out palm cards of the weeks
events, pamphlets, green ribbons, letter writing/signing, and a Heart
Pledge
Wednesday, Nov. 17
- Video night
-tabling with ribbons and info
Thursday, Nov 18
- Telethon- getting a room and having people call up their Congressmen/Senators
-tabling
Friday, Nov 19
- speaker
- tabling
Saturday, Nov 20
- silent, candlelight Vigil- table with info
- tabling
Sunday, Nov 21
- more letter writing
-tabling
Monday, Nov 22
- Delivering letters to Capitol Hill- meet at 2 pm
- tabling
Tuesday, Nov 23
- speaker? fundraiser?

3. Future events
We are planning to table once a week where we will focus on a different aspect of the crisis, pass out green ribbons, and more letter writing to Congressmen., etc. We want to have a speaker once a month to talk about one of the major issues that we have tabled
about. We are also looking to help with Africa Week in April which is being put on by a number of organizations on campus where we will set up a refugee tent on University Yard and bring a speaker to talk about the situation. We also talked about having updates in the dorms and sending info to CFs to post in their buildings as events occur.

II. New Updates

The UN Security Council voted unanimously last Tuesday to hold a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya next month to promote a peace agreement between the Sudanese government and rebels in the south that the US says is crucial to ending the conflict in Darfur. Under this resolution, representatives from the AU and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development will be invited to meet with the council to discuss Sudan and other peace efforts. But what will this really mean for Darfur? There has been consistent fighting in the south of Sudan and northern Uganda for a long time. Stopping the conflict in the south will not necessarily help to end the conflict in Darfur. We’ll just have to keep our eyes posted on what is yet to come.

More articles to come...sorry, the election has taken over for this week

III. Understanding the Crisis: Who are the Janjaweed? (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janjaweed)

The Janjaweed is an armed militia group in Darfur, Sudan comprised of fighters of Muslim Arab background, from the Baggara tribe. Since 2003 they have been one of the principle actors in the conflict, which has pitted Arabs against the black African population (also Muslim) of the region. The word “Janjaweed” translates as “armed men on horseback.” The Janjaweed are the successor to an earlier Arab tribal milita, the Murahilin, which had existed for years beforehand.

History

The Janjaweed was formed in response to attacks on government installations by the two rebel movements. Although both sides have been accused of serious human rights violations, the Janjaweed soon gained the upper hand through being better armed, more mobile and being supported by government forces. The Janjaweed has pursued a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing throughout Darfur, burning down non-Arab villages and driving out their inhabitants. By the summer of 2004 an estimated 10,000-30,000 people had been killed and another million, mostly non-Arabs, had been forced out of their homes.

The militia has pursued fleeing refugees into neighboring Chad, whose army has fought a number of actions against Janjaweed incursions. The Chadian President Idriss Déby has said that "since the start of this war, some 300 Chadian civilians have been killed and thousands of head of cattle stolen by armed men who crossed over from Darfur." [1] (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/92973/1/.html)

Although the Arab-dominated Sudanese government has disclaimed any responsibility for the actions of the Janjaweed, numerous reports have identified collusion between Janjaweed fighters (who are said to have been armed by the government) and the state security forces. In particular, observers have noted that Janjaweed attacks on the ground have often been supported by air strikes from the Sudanese air force.

Idris Abu Moussa, a 26-year-old Sudanese farmer, states: "They came at 4 a.m. on horseback, on camels, in vehicles, with two helicopters overhead ..."they killed 50 people in my village. My father, grandmother, uncle and two brothers were all killed."..."They don't want any blacks left." - from the Darfur Genocide website (http://www.darfurgenocide.org/)

It has been suggested that the Sudanese government has been reluctant to rein in the militia, as it has been an effective opponent of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) and the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA). The government has strongly disputed these claims. On June 19, 2004 President Omar al-Bashir issued a decree ordering the disarmament of all militias in Darfur, and instructing government forces "to control and pursue all outlaw groups, including rebels and Janjaweed."

IV. Next meeting:

            Our next meeting is Monday, November 8 at 9 pm by Starbucks. Please bring scissors. We will be cutting the ribbons for our ribbon campaign. Also please bring one friend with you to the meeting on Monday. Lets double the amount of people at the meeting!

V. What you can do this week:

            - look up 2 articles about the situation

            - write a blurb for people to read for our telethon

            - design a flier to put up on campus