We met with Congressman Sires--Please call YOUR congressional offices!

Yesterday (April 12th), Bill Volonte and I met with a member of Congressman Albio Sires’s staff in his Jersey City office. The meeting went very well and we are optimistic that Congressman Sires will sign the letter urging China to convince the Sudanese government to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur. Naturally, we expressed our gratitude for the human rights work that Sires has already done, including joining the Human Rights Caucus and cosponsoring HR 1352, the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act.

We also asked the staff member to follow up on an issue I had previously raised with Sires’s DC office, support for the Solis resolution on violence against women in Guatemala (HRes 100). He said that he would look into this and expressed interest in learning more about gender based violence in Guatemala and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. As you may know, Congressman Sires represents a district with a large Central American population.

Hundreds of other activists across the country are meeting with the offices of their Senators and Representatives to ask them to take action on Darfur. If you have not already done so, please contact the offices of your House member and both NJ Senators to urge them to sign on to these letters. Representatives can do so by contacting Tom Lantos’s office. Senators can contact the offices of Joe Biden and Richard Lugar.

Talking points:

-Fighting has increased in Darfur last year despite the May 2006 peace agreement. Civilians—especially women—continue to bear the brunt of the violence. This includes the widespread use of rape as a weapon.

-Two thirds of the people of Darfur do not have access to humanitarian aid because the warring parties have attacked relief organizations.

-300,000 to 400,000 civilians have died since the conflict began. Over 2.5 million people have been displaced, contributing to regional instability.

-While China has begun to pressure Sudanese President Al-Bashir, it has not done enough. As Sudan’s largest trading partner, China is in a powerful position to convince President Al-Bashir to do allow UN peacekeepers in to protect the people of Darfur and the international organizations that can help them.