San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition

The International Criminal Court is almost 10 years old, but the Obama administration has yet to decide if the U.S. will join. Fear that it would be a politicized institution likely to prosecute American soldiers have not been realized, nor has it been effective in prosecuting persons responsible for war crimes. In recent years the U.S. has moderated its hostility to the court, but where do we go from here?

Speaker: William H. Taft, IV, Professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Stanford Law School

Date: February 24, 2010
Time: 5:30 p.m. networking reception, 6 p.m. program
Cost: $8 members, $15 non-members

Registration: http://tickets.commonwealthclub.org/auto_choose_ga.asp?area=1&shcode=1664

Location:
The Commonwealth Club of California, San Francisco Office:
595 Market Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
Telephone: (415) 597-6700

January 9 marked the fifth anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, or CPA, that ended the 20-year North-South war in Sudan. That war resulted in over 2 million deaths and 4 million displaced. It destroyed the infrastructure of the South and devastated lives, trust, and hope. Today, the CPA is at risk of collapse. Sudan is in danger of returning to full-scale war. Only President Obama’s personal involvement with world leaders can salvage the CPA. But time is running out.

Assistance by and pressure from the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, and Norway were essential to negotiating and signing the CPA, an agreement that aimed to rectify the existing center-periphery dynamic by establishing a new political, military, and economic system based on the values of justice, democracy, and human rights and creating processes to engage with marginalized populations, including elections and referenda. Unfortunately, as so often happens, the international community’s support for implementation and enforcement has been woefully insufficient.

The ruling National Congress Party, or NCP, came to power by military coup in 1989. It has continued its governing tactic of “divide and rule” despite the CPA and has successfully maintained the poverty, malnutrition, and lack of education and health care afflicting southern Sudanese. It has similarly marginalized the Beja in the east, the Nubians in the far north, and the people from the Nuba Mountains or South Kordofan. And, of course, the genocide in Darfur continues, leaving an estimated 3 million people displaced and in grave danger.

Tensions related in part to the NCP’s obstruction of the CPA have provoked renewed violence in South Sudan. Its intransigence has prevented the establishment of conditions essential to free and fair elections. An election in April rigged to legitimize the NCP and a leader accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity threatens the integrity of the referendum and could push the country into full-scale war. Millions of additional lives would be at risk. Destabilization of the entire region is a realistic possibility.

Human rights activists around the world recognized the need for immediate re-engagement with Sudan through diplomacy by world leaders. On January 9, “Sudan 365: A Beat for Peace” kicked off an international campaign urging intensive and coherent diplomatic support to prevent increased violence and provide civilian protection. Drummers (including a 12-year old in London) beat for peace at 35 events held in 26 countries to mark the anniversary. Some of the world’s most famous drummers made a global beat for peace video—viewed over 100,000 times—to launch the campaign.

Sudanese in the U.S. and concerned Americans have been calling on President Obama since his campaign to assume personal leadership in facilitating peace in Sudan. He has not heard our words. We can only hope that he will respond to the beat of the drums—long a symbol of freedom for Africans. The lives of millions of Sudanese depend on it.

Mohamed E. Suleiman, a native of North Darfur and a member of the Zaghawa tribe, is currently a resident of Northern California, President of the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition and a member of the Darfur Leaders Network. His village, Umbarow, was burned and destroyed by the Government of Sudan and Janjaweed. Mr. Suleiman lost members of his family in the Darfur genocide; his mother and siblings still reside in Darfur. Mr. Suleiman is the author of the blog While We Wait.

Martina Knee is a member of the Executive Committee of the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition. She is also a 2009 Carl Wilkens Fellows of the Genocide Intervention Network.  Read Full Article >>

Pacific Film Archive presents
African Film Festival
January 27–February 24, 2010

This annual series invites Bay Area audiences to experience the vibrant voices and visions of African cinema. Copresented by the Department of African American Studies and Center for African Studies at UC Berkeley.

http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries/aff_2010

Film Nora

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 27
7:00 Coming of Age: African Shorts
(Ghana/U.S., Kenya, Nigeria, 2007–2008, 66 mins)
A collection of award-winning African shorts—Bronx Princess (Yoni Brook, Musa Syeed, Ghana/U.S., 2008, 29 mins): A “Bronx princess” heads to Ghana; Coming of Age (Judy Kibinge, Kenya, 2007, 12 mins): A Kenyan teen comes of age along with her country’s fledgling democracy; and Area Boys (Omelihu Nwanguma, Nigeria, 2008, 25 mins): Two Nigerian gangsters try to go straight.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 4
7:00 Sacred Places
Jean-Marie Téno (Cameroon/France, 2009, 70 mins)
Cameroonian filmmaker Jean-Marie Téno profiles a poor but lively neighborhood in the capital of Burkina Faso, where a cine-club proprietor tries to include Burkinabe films among the action and Bollywood fare.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 10
7:00 Dance Dance Revolution: Contemporary African Dance on Film
(U.S., U.K., Mozambique, 2007–2008, 100 mins)
Two remarkable films on contemporary African choreography: Nora (Alla Kovgan, David Hinton, U.S./U.K./Mozambique, 2008, 35 mins), a dance-film about and starring Zimbabwean choreographer Nora Chipaumire; and Movement (R)Evolution Africa (Joan Frosch, Alla Kovgan, U.S., 2007, 65 mins), which follows nine African choreographers on a U.S. tour.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 17
7:00 Wrestling Grounds
Cheikh Ndiaye (Senegal, 2006, 105 mins)
A young man enters the flavorful world of Senegelese wrestling (a national obsession) in this vibrant award-winner, based on a novel by acclaimed writer Aminata Sow Fall. A primer on contemporary African pop culture.

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 18
7:30 Prince of Broadway
Sean Baker (U.S., 2008, 100 mins)
Sean Baker in person
“It’s a hard knock-off life” for a Ghanaian immigrant saddled with a baby boy amid the hustlers of New York’s Garment District. From the director of Greg the Bunny; winner of the L.A. Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize and the Special Jury Award from Locarno.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 24
7:00 In My Genes
Lupita Nyong’o (Kenya, 2009, 78 mins)
Eight individuals from across a wide spectrum of Kenyan society, all united as albinos, share their stories in this documentary, a heartfelt counter to the recent serial murders of albinos in Africa.

The African Film Festival National Traveling Series is organized by the African Film Festival, Inc.

The Pacific Film Archive Theater is located at 2575 Bancroft Way (between Telegraph and Bowditch) in Berkeley. Advance tickets are available by calling (510) 642-5249 or visiting http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/tickets

For more information on these and other programs, visit http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/filmseries

Am Evening with:
Omer Ihsas, renowned Darfuri singer and composer

Dr. Adam Mohamed Ahmed Yahya,
Former Deputy Governor of Darfur

Adeeb Yousif,
Director, Darfur Reconciliation and Development Organization

Dr. Gamal Adam
Secretary General, Darfur Association of Canada
Adjunct Professor of Sociology, USF

Dr. Anne Bartlett
Director, Darfur Centre for Human Rights and Development, London
Director, M.A. International Studies Program and Professor of Sociology, USF

Location:
USF Presentation Theater
Turk Street @ Masonic Avenue
free and open to the public
* please direct questions to 415-422-5122

Omer Ihsas renowned Darfuri singer and composer

Sudan is facing one of the most important periods of time in its history. National elections are scheduled for April 2010 and a referendum for Southern Sudan and Abyei is scheduled for January 2011. Genocide continues in the Darfur region of Sudan and the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Sudan’s President, Omar Al-Bashir. Learn how these and other important events are affecting Sudan and the Horn of Africa. sudan2011.blogspot.com
Speakers:

Honorable Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, Head of Mission for the Government of Southern Sudan Mission to the United States in Washington, DC and the former Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement Representative to the United States, was trained and served as a soldier in the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army and received a Bachelor of Arts in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland College Park. Hon. Gatkuoth advocates for democratic transformation in the Sudan, implementation of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, development for Southern Sudan, and an immediate end to the crisis in Darfur.

Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth

Roger P. Winter has worked on issues of peace, war, humanitarian assistance, civilian protection, and advocacy in Sudan – first as Executive Director of the non-profit U.S. Committee for Refugees from 1981 to 2001 and then as Assistant Administrator of USAID and as the Deputy Secretary of State’s Special Representative on Sudan from 2001 to 2006. Currently Mr. Winter advises the Government of Southern Sudan on a voluntary basis, and he was recently featured in the New York Times Magazine article, “The Man for A New Sudan.”

Roger Winter

Bay Area Schedule:

Monday, January 25th, 6:00-7:15pm, World Affairs Council, reservations at www.itsyourworld.org

Tuesday, January 26th, 12:30-1:30pm, UC Berkeley Human Rights Center, 470 Stephens Hall

Tuesday, January 26th, 7:30pm, UC Davis, Giedt Hall, Room 1002. ucdavis flyer

Wednesday, January 27th, 12:30-1:30pm, USF Law School

Wednesday, January 27th, 7:00pm, Stanford University, Environment & Energy Building (Y2E2), Rm 111

Thursday, January 28th, 11:00-1:00pm, Lunch and Discussion hosted by Humanity United and the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, Redwood City, RSVP to Esther Sprague at esprague11@yahoo.com

Thursday, January 28th, 3:30-5:30pm, Santa Clara University, Lucas Hall 310

More Information:

For additional information or to book speakers Hon. Gatkuoth and Mr. Winter, please visit
sudan2011.blogspot.com and contact Esther Sprague at esprague11@yahoo.com or 415-713-2495.

Thank you to all who attended Saturday night’s Sudan 365: A Beat For Peace in San Francisco. It was a powerful evening of personal stories, compassion, and education. Many of you spoke with our Sudanese friends at the event and we hope that you have been inspired and that all continue to support and participate in helping the people of Sudan.

Event photos
www.sudan365.org

Special thank you to participants who made this a full evening:
Jake Stueckle, drummer from San Francisco School of the Arts;
Deng Jongkuch, Director of Impact a Village and one of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan;
Rebuilding Hope film rebuildinghopesudan.org
Mohamed Suleiman, President of the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition;
Dr. Noelle L’Etoile, Co-founder of Health Alliance for Sudan and Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, UC Davis;
Laura Talmus, Director Westen Region of American Jewish World Service.

With war continuing in the west and a fragile peace in the south, decades of fighting have left Sudan to cope with the effects of conflict, displacement, and insecurity. Respect for human rights remains a complex and challenging issue throughout the country. It has also led its longtime leader, President Omar al-Bashir, to become the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity, resulting in the International Criminal Court issuing a warrant for his arrest.

Speakers:

• Hon. Ezekiel Lol Gatkuoth, Head, Government of Southern Sudan Mission to the United States
• Tiseke Kasambala, Senior Researcher, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch
• Roger Winter, former State Department Special Representative for Sudan

Time: 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM

Please arrive early for registration

Registration: http://www.itsyourworld.org/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=2652

Location: World Affairs Council Auditorium
312 Sutter Street, Second Floor
San Francisco, California 94108

Map

Jan. 9, 2010 is the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between North and South Sudan. Come hear a situation update, see a video of celebrities and activists drumming for peace, cautioning that there is one year to prevent war again in Sudan, and attend the San Francisco film premiere of Rebuilding Hope. Dave Eggers calls it a “wonderful tribute to [Sudanese] spirit and perseverance.”

Deng Jongkuch, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan living in San Jose, will speak. In 2001, after nearly fourteen years in refugee camps, Deng was selected with 3,800 other boys to come to the United States. SF Bay Area Darfur Coalition President Mohamed Suleiman, a Darfuri, will also speak.

More about worldwide participation: http://www.savedarfur.org/pages/sudan365-a-beat-for-peace

SF Campaign Sponsors: San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, American Jewish World Service, The Congregation Emanu-El, Health Alliance for Sudan

DATE & TIME:
Saturday, January 9
6:45 pm-9:00 pm

LOCATION:
Congregation Emanu-El
2 Lake Street (at Arguello)
San Francisco, CA 94118
Map

COST & REGISTRATION:
Free – donations welcomed

MORE INFO:
Contact: Martina Knee
Email: info@darfursf.org
Phone: 415-221-8400