I received the following email on July 16th:
"On Monday the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued formal charges against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir for genocide.

How Bashir will respond is unclear. His record suggests that he could take his vengeance out on Darfuris.

If that danger weren't enough, a BBC report this week revealed evidence suggesting that China, one of the Security Council's permanent five members, has been providing the weapons used to carry out the genocide.1

It's never been clearer that the U.N. Security Council needs a comprehensive plan for Darfur. And its leaders need the political will to implement it.

Click here to help us reach our goal of 50,000 messages that we will deliver to the five permanent members of the Security Council on July 31.

The ICC prosecutor's charge against Bashir is the first time the court has made such a charge against a sitting head of state. The prosecutor spent years gathering evidence and found that Bashir and his government orchestrated a strategy of genocidal attacks.

And according to the prosecutor, when Bashir didn't kill with direct violence he "organized the destitution, insecurity, and harassment of the survivors. He did not need bullets. He used other weapons: rapes, hunger and fear. As efficient, but silent."

And all this happened under the nose of the U.N. Security Council. The Council has watched Bashir unleash a 5-year campaign of terror...without consequences. It hasn't sent enough peacekeepers. It hasn't provided enough equipment. And it hasn't held Bashir accountable as he defies one Security Council resolution after another.

It is time for the U.N. Security Council to finally follow through on its commitment to bring peace to Darfur.

Tell the Security Council it's time to keep its word and fulfill its moral obligation.

And after you sign the petition, click here to help us reach our goal of 50,000 messages by July 31 by telling your friends and family about our
campaign.

Thank you for your help and your commitment to the people of Darfur.

Best regards,

Colleen Connors
Save Darfur Coalition"

In May 2008, I had the honour and privilege of seeing retired Canadian Lt. General (now Senator) Romeo Dallaire at a local high school as he introduced the movie "Shake Hands with the Devil" and spoke about his experience in Rwanda and the current genocide in Darfur. General Dallaire is a very courageous, honourable, intelligent and humble man.

General Dallaire had a brief question and answer period after his introduction and when asked about the failure of the UN in Rwanda he was clear in pointing the finger at then UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros Ghali and the Clinton administration, namely Bill Clinton and Madeline Albright. After 18 soldiers were killed and some were dragged through the streets of Mogadishu (Somalia) the Clinton administration wanted to ensure this public debacle would never happen again and on May 3, 1994 during the Rwandan massacre, Bill Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive 25 (PDD-25) stating the United States would intervene internationally "only if it was in their self-interest". What "interest" did a poor, black, African nation have? Not only did the Clinton administration choose to do nothing, it obstructed the efforts of other nations to stop the slaughter. The US State department also refused to label the slaughter of Tutsis in Rwanda as genocide because the 1948 Genocide Convention would have obligated the US to intervene.

In spite of General Dallaire's repeated pleas for reinforcements to prevent the ever-escalating violence and slaughter, the UN not only refused to send additional troops they ordered the withdrawal of the existing 2,500 troops. General Dallaire, a life-long soldier, refused the order to withdraw his troops because he knew that if he did the 30,000 Rwandans that were under his protection would be slaughtered. As a compromise, the UN ordered the evacuation of all but 260 soldiers. All General Dallaire asked for was 5,000 troops. Five thousand troops to prevent the slaughter of 800,000 innocent Rwandan civilians. And the world sat by and watched.

The words "never again" were thrown around after Holocaust and again after the Rwandan genocide yet for the last five years there has been a horrifying genocide going on in Darfur as the world watches, debates and sits on its hands.

The crisis in Darfur started in February 2003 after an uprising by two rebel groups. These groups represented agrarian farmers, who were frustrated by decades of neglect, drought and oppression. The response by the Government of Sudan has been brutal. The armed forces and government funded militia, the Janjaweed, have been systematically murdering, torturing and raping hundreds of thousands of Darfurians, wiping out entire villages, and destroying food and water supplies.

An estimated 300,000 - 500,000 innocent people have been killed and more than 3.5 million more have been displaced.

These refugees now face starvation, disease, and rape, while those who remain in Darfur risk torture and death.

A member of the audience asked General Dallaire what we, as individuals can do to help. He suggested two things.
1. Join an NGO and become active in lobbying for action
2. Write daily to your politicians.
So, instead of getting angry when I think about it, I am writing to urge you to take action today to stop the genocide in Darfur.

For more information on the genocide in Darfur and what you can do, see below.

All the nations of the world failed Rwanda. Let us not fail Darfur.

Each minute you wait, another child may be slaughtered or woman raped.

Please taken action now!