The following is what we urge the UN Security Council and individual nation states, including the United States, Australia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Kenya, Tanzania, and New Zealand, etc., to do immediately, and without fail:
- 1. Pass a resolution at the UN Security Council, which thoroughly condemns -- and in no uncertain words -- the latest round of atrocities perpetrated by the Government of Sudan;
- Significantly ratchet up the UN sanctions against Sudan, which Sudan has largely ignored and been breaching on a regular basis;
- Significantly ratchet up targeted sanctions against individuals and other entities in Sudan contributing to the conflict in the Darfur region -- to the point just before the sanctions begin to cripple the aforementioned groups; and,
- Significantly increase the number of AU/UN military forces on the ground, and implement a rigorous evaluation policy to determine whether the individual forces are actually carrying out their duties efficiently, effectively, and consistently.
- Provide the latest and best health care for those Darfurians who have been burned and sickened as a result of the chemicals dumped on them by the Government of Sudan.
- Once and for all, establish a no-fly zone over Darfur. It need not consist of a constant presence in the sky but rather a presence that makes itself known to the Government of Sudan.
Further, we support the following recommendations/call for actions issued this past week by the Darfur Women Action Group:
- We urgently call on the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate the use of chemical weapons;
- We trust that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will also investigate and prosecute the latest crimes committed by the al-Bashir government and forces;
- We call on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to implement its existing resolutions condemning serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law by the government of Sudan, and to ensure that the Sudanese Government and its officials are held accountable and brought to justice immediately;
- We call on President Barack Obama and all world leaders of good conscience to condemn the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to lead the international community in calling for an immediate stop to all violence against civilians in Darfur and to impose more effective sanctions to prevent further atrocities by the Sudanese Government; and,
- The United States and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must pressure the Sudanese Government to allow humanitarian aid organizations and the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) to deliver much needed aid and support to all affected communities in Darfur.
We call on all governments and intergovernmental organizations alike to match their resolutions with meaningful action to hold the government of Sudan and its officials accountable and to demand that these cruel acts of horror are immediately stopped and punished.
As the sage Hillel asked, "If not now, when?" Clearly, it is an admonition to postpone no responsibility. If what the civilians of Darfur have been facing and continue to face is not a situation that calls for moral responsibility on the part of the international community then what is? Truly, what is?
We, scholars of genocide studies, human rights activists, anti-crimes against humanity and genocide activists, and religious figures, concerned citizens all from across the globe, beseech you to act and act now on the behalf of the Darfurian civilians.
We would not only appreciate an acknowledgement of this letter but a response in regard to the substantive issues raised. Please email it to samstertotten@gmail.com
Thank you for your attention to these matters.
Signed:
Dr. SAMUEL TOTTEN
Professor Emeritus
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Author of
Genocide by Attrition: Nuba Mountains of Sudan, and compiler/editor of
An Oral and Documentary History of the Darfur Genocide
Baroness Caroline Cox
Cross Bench Member of the British House of Lords, and Founder of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART)
London, England
Professor Ben Kiernan
A. Whitney Griswold Professor of History and
Founding Director (1994-2015), Genocide Studies Program,
Yale University
New Haven, CT
Author of
Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur
Dr Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe
Researcher
Dakar, Senegal
Author of
Readings from Reading: Essays on African Politics, Genocide, Literature
Dr. Israel Charny
Professor Emeritus, and Director of the Institute of Holocaust And Genocide Studies
Department of Psychology
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel
Author of
The Genocide Contagion
Dr. Michiel Leezenberg
Professor
Department of Philosophy
University of Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Author of "The Anfal Operations in Iraqi Kurdistan." In S. Totten & W.S. Parsons (Eds.),
Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts.
Dr. Eric Reeves
Senior Fellow
Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Author of
A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide
Dr. Helen Fein
Institute for the Study of Genocide
New York, NY
Author of
Accounting for Genocide
Dr. Colin Tatz
Visiting Fellow, Political and International Relations
Australian National University
Canberra, Australia
Author of
With Intent to Destroy: Reflecting on Genocide
Dr. Herb Hirsch
Department of Political Science
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, VA
Author of
Genocide and the Politics of Memory: Studying Death to Preserve Life, and Co-editor of
Genocide Studies International
Dr. Maureen S. Hiebert
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Military, Security & Strategic Studies
University of Calgary
Author of
Constructing Genocide and Mass Violence: Society, Crisis, Identity (forthcoming)
Dr. Victoria Sanford
Professor & Chair, and Director
,Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies
Department of Anthropology
Lehman College
New York, New York
Author of
Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala
Ms. Gillian Lusk
Writer on Sudan and South Sudan
London, UK
Dr. Rouben Adalian
Director, Armenian National Institute
Washington, DC
Editor of
The Armenian Genocide in the U.S. Archives
Dr. Yair Auron
Historian
Open University
Ra'anana, Israel
Author of
The Armenian Genocide: Forgotten and Denied
Dr. Henry C. Theriault
Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department
Worcester State University
Worcester, MA
Co-editor of
Genocide Studies International
Dr. Elihu D. Richter, MD MPH
Director and Researcher
Jerusalem Center for Genocide Prevention and Hebrew-University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine
Jerusalem, Israel
Dr. Rubina Peroomian
Research Associate
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
University of California, Los Angeles
Dr. Taner Ackam
Professor of History
Robert Aram, Marianne Kaloosdian and
Stephen and Marian Mugar Chair in Armenian Genocide Studies
Department of History
Clark University
Worcester, MA
Author of
The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity: The Armenian Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in the Ottoman Empire
Dr. Kimberley Ducey
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
University of Winnipeg
Winnipeg, MB
Dr. Peter Balakian
Rebar Professor of the Humanities
Colgate University
Hamilton, New York
Author of
The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's Response
Dr. John H. Weiss
Professor, and Founder, Caceres-Neuffer Genocide Action Group
Department of History
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
Dr. Rick Halperin
Professor, Director of the Embrey Human Rights Program, and past Chair of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, US
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas
Dr. Salim Mansur
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Western University
London, Ontario, Canada
Dr. Paul Slovic
University of Oregon
Department of Psychology
Eugene, Oregon
Author of "If I Look at the Mass I Will Never Act: Psychic Numbing and Genocide."
Professor Michael Bazyler
Professor of Law and The 1939 Society Scholar inHolocaust and Human Rights Studies
Dale E. Fowler School of Law
Chapman University
Orange, CA
Dr. Linda M. Woolf
Professor
Psychology and International Human Rights
Webster University
St. Louis, MO
Dr. Waitman Wade Beorn
Lecturer
Corcoran Department of History
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA
Dr. Jan Colijn
Professor and Dean Emeritus
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Galloway Township, NJ
Author of
Ruin's Wheel: A Father on War, A Son on Genocide
Dr. Jason J. Campbell
Assistant Professor
Departments of Conflict Resolution and Philosophy
Nova Southeastern University
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Author of
Planning a Catastrophe: On the Nature of Genocidal Intent.
Dr. Yael Stein MD
Co-founder, the Jerusalem Center for Genocide Prevention,
Jerusalem, Israel
The Rev. Heidi McGinness
Presbyterian Clergy (PC-USA)
Denver, Colorado
(Twelve year witness of Khartoum's genocide and enslavement of Sudanese citizens.)
Dr Kevin Simpson
Professor of Psychology
John Brown University
Siloam Springs, AR
Author of
Soccer under the Swastika: Stories of Survival and Resistance during the Holocaust
Dr. Robert Skloot
Professor Emeritus
Department of Theatre
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Sister Deirdre Byrne
The Little Workers of the Sacred Heart
Washington, DC
Alexander Ramadan Tarjan
Member, End Nuba Genocide
Nuba Mountains, Sudan
Dr. Paul Mojzes
Professor emeritus
Rosemont College
Rosemont, PA
Author:
Balkan Genocides: Holocaust and Ethnic Cleansing in the Twentieth Century
Slater Armstrong
Founder/Director
Joining Our Voices & co-leader of End Nuba Genocide
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
John Jefferson
Co-founder
End Nuba Genocide
United States
Dr. Michael Minch
Professor of Philosophy and Peace and Justice Studies
Utah Valley University
Orem, Utah
Dr. C. Louis Perrinjaquet, MD, MPH
Vice President and Medical Director
Doctors to the World
Breckinridge, Colorado
Dr. Dick Bennett,
Professor Emeritus, and Founder, OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology
University of Arkansas
Fayetteville, AR
Compiler,
Peace Movement Directory
Dr. Gagik Aroutiunian
Associate Professor,
Department of Art, Media & Design,
DePaul University,
Chicago, IL
Dr. John K. Roth
Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont, California
Author of
The Failures of Ethics: Confronting the Holocaust, Genocide, and Other Mass Atrocities
Dr. Edward Kissi
Associate Professor
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL
Author of "Obligation to Prevent (O2P): Proposal for Enhanced Community Approach to Genocide Prevention in Africa,"
African Security Review
Dr. Deborah Dwork
Rose Professor of Holocaust History and Founding Director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Clark University
Worcester, MA
Author of
Flight from the Reich
Dr. Michael Berenbaum
Former Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Holocaust Research Institute (1993-1997); currently, Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute: Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust
American Jewish University
Los Angeles, CA
Author of
Witness to the Holocaust, and
The World Must Know:
The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Dr. Khatchik Der Ghougassian
Professor
Universidad de San Andres
Victoria, Buenos Aires, Argentina
"Genocide and Identity (Geo)Politics: Bridging State Reasoning and Diaspora Activism" in
Genocide Studies International
Dr. Alejandro Baer
Associate Professor and Stephen C. Feinstein Chair & Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Department of Sociology
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
Dr. Deborah Mayersen
Historian
University of Wollongong
Wollongong NSW
Australia
Author of
On the Path to Genocide: Armenia and Rwanda Reexamined
Dr. Norman Naimark
Department of History
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Author of
Stalin's Genocides
Dr. Yehuda Bauer
Professor Emeritus of History and Holocaust Studies
The Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel
Author of
Rethinking the Holocaust
Dr. Kjell Anderson
University of Amsterdam/NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Author of
A Criminology of Genocide: Killing Without Consequence (forthcoming)
Dr. Eric D. Weitz
Distinguished Professor of History
The City College of New York
New York, NY
Author of
Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation
Dr. Alex Alvarez
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ
Author of
Genocidal Crimes
Dr. Gregory Stanton
Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention
School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
George Mason University
Arlington, VA
Ms. Rebecca Tinsley
Journalist and Human Rights Activist
London, England
Author of
When the Stars Fell to Earth
Dr. Tetsushi Ogata, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Peace and Conflict Studies -- International & Area StudiesAcademic Program
University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Ervin Staub
Professor Emeritus
Founding Director of the Doctoral program in the Psychology of Peace and Violence
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Author of
The Roots of Goodness andResistance to Evil: Inclusive Caring, MoralCourage, Altruism Born of Suffering,Active Bystandership and Heroism
Dr. Mukesh Kapila CBE
Professor of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs
University of Manchester
Manchester, England
Author of
Against a Tide of Evil: How One Man Became the Whistleblower of the Twenty-First Century.