Hartmann described what he saw as he crossed the border into Darfur:
What I'm seeing around me is a big sky that would make Texas blush, it's just huge, occasional very large trees, a lot of scrub brush, red dirt. A lot of iron in the dirt; that's the stuff that makes our hemoglobin, I mean, this is where human entity began. And we just, outside, we're in a small compound here, outside the compound there's a huge refugee camp. I'd guess, I don't know, 50,000 people or so, something like that and we were just spending some time with some families that literally had arrived today. A large UN convoy came in today with refugees from several villages in Darfur that had just recently been sacked and looted and burned.The continuing violence and ethnic cleansing in Darfur is a tragedy that stains us all. Yet, of the all the Democratic candidates running in the U.S. Senate primary, only Steve Novick has addressed the issue.
Novick's campaign has a website post on at least one step the United States can take to help stop the violence in Darfur.
Secretary-General Ban is asking for just 24 helicopters from the international community to make peacekeeping in Darfur a success. Yet when asked last month about whether the U.S. would lend its support, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates responded that “no such request has come to us,” and added, “Our helicopter resources are pretty – are pretty pushed between Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Although Gates’ comment is another painful reminder of the foolishness of Bush’s war in Iraq, the United States cannot let excuses doom another effort to stop the violence in Darfur. Join Steve Novick in urging the White House and State Department to make the United Nation’s request a priority and to work with our allies around the world to ensure that another opportunity to help those in Darfur is not squandered.
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