President Omar al-Bashir of the Sudan is one of those people who really are scumbags through and through. Speaking of scumbags, he has appointed Musa Hilal as an advisor to the minister of internal affairs (ethnic matters). Musa Hilal’s beliefs about ethnic tend towards the clean side. That is, ethnic cleansing. So you can imagine the outrage such an appointment would be. It would be like President Bush appointing David Duke to be — well, anything. The US government doesn’t have much sway in Khartoum, but China does, since they are Sudan’s biggest ally (anyone surprised?).
So if you’re an American, you can influence your representative to ask China to stop protecting the Sudan. The email that will be sent is reproduced below the jump.
From http://action.savedarfur.org/campaign/lettertochina:
The genocide in Darfur has dragged on for five years now. And Sudanese President Bashir shows no sign of ending it. Just last week, Bashir appointed Musa Hilal, the militia leader accused of orchestrating some of the worst atrocities of the genocide, as his senior adviser on ethnic affairs.
Bashir would not be able to get away with such outrageous affronts to the international community if China were not protecting him.
Representative Hoyer is circulating a sign-on letter in the House of Representatives asking President Hu of China to use his influence over Sudan and bring an end, once and for all, to the genocide in Darfur.
I urge you to sign on to this letter and pressure China to work to end genocide.
China helped persuade the Sudanese government to initially accept the hybrid U.N.-A.U. peacekeeping force for Darfur, but China’s resolve was short-lived.
China can and must persuade Bashir to stop rewarding genocidal masterminds such as Hilal, to allow peacekeepers to move freely in Darfur, and to finally let the people of Darfur live in peace and security.
Millions of lives in Darfur hang in the balance, and they’re waiting for our help.
