December 11, 2006

Rape Used as Major Weapon in Darfur

A group of international women leaders has called for sending peacekeepers to Darfur to protect women from an onslaught of rapes committed by the pro-government Arab Janjaweed against mostly black African women and girls. Other than murder, rape is a favored, ultimate tool used by men to exert power and control over women, not just in Darfur, but in the United States as well.

We continue to behave like bystanders, watching the murders and rapes in Darfur and doing absolutely nothing to protect the women, children and men there. We learned nothing from our failure 12 years ago in Rwanda, despite all our crocodile tears and our earnest commitments to never let it happen again.

If you want to help, go here or here

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Merry Christmas Stehen! I have been having problems loggong in and leaving comments on Blogspot lately but today it worked on one site so I am trying it again. I hope this works, all the best of the season to you!

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

The plains are quiet under the forlorn Sudan
The people wilt like flowers planted beneath the sand
From rape and murder and starvation

Of unfed mouths
Unfed hope, Love, Care, Humanity

Consumed by the Janjaweed
Ravaged by the Baggara
Descendents of grand tribes
Lost and moving down
Roving the sands
And hopeless sun
Stopping only to
Plant gardens
Down
Push the black seed
Down
Into the empty guts
Of Darfur
Down
Again
Darfur
Down

The hunters raid
The rapists thieve
The murderers slay
Lacerating fatality
Down
Upon the child’s teeth
Down
Upon the mother’s bones
Down
Upon the father’s strapped back
Trickling
Down
Oozing
Down
A growing loss
Infection
The seeds of genocide
Blooming
Down
Flowering
Down
The zenith of rot
Rising down
Now a wailing
Weeping
Desperate
Sobbing
Fearful
Bawling
Hopeless
Howling
O! Baggara!
O! Janjaweed!
O! America!
O! World!
Tempests of butchery
And burials
Burials don’t rise
Burials don’t sprout up like flowers
Blooming to fragrant air
Burials grow
Down
Descending
Down
Into the dark
Seeking
The deep fetid dwelling
Of hopelessness
Of greed
Of starvation
Of shrieking hell
Of the decomposing stench
Heaving Heaving Heaving
Down Down Down
Swelling upon the child’s lips
Down
Across the mother’s breasts
Down
Through the father’s hands
Down
Over the nation’s love
Down
Upon the world’s hope
Down
Down
Down
Down
-Stop-