Dear NIHAC members.

It was great seeing many of you at the Health Crisis in Sudan, past and present
event on November 18th.

The event was well attended. We had the following three speakers scheduled to
present at the event:

Jessica Fleming is a program officer for the Technology Solutions Strategic
Program at PATH, Seattle. She has worked in relief projects in complex
emergencies and development programs based on sustainable healthcare
interventions. She worked in Southern Sudan as UNICEF's EPI field coordinator
and through Operation Lifeline Sudan.

Khalid Abdallah is an instructor of Economics at South Puget Sound Community
College. He has strong interest in the health infrastructure in Sudan. He
worked as a consultant to various government missions at the UN. As a native of
Sudan, Khalid brings insights about the current situation in Darfour.

Jeffrey Partridge is a PhD student at the UW Epidemiology Department. He worked
as a CDC public health advisor on assignments to WHO/EMRO in Southern Sudan.

1st presenter: Khalid was to discuss the histories of the conflicts--in
both the south and Darfur--and economic indicators. Unfortunately Mr. Abdullah
had a car accident on his way from Olympia to the event and could not attend.
Wissal, a Sudanese MPH student at the UW did a great job filling in for Abdullah
and sharing her thoughts and ideas about the situation in Darfur.

2nd presenter: Jessica discussed the organization/mandate of OLS,
the health infrasture on ground in OLS area, and health indicators
in the OLS area, which set the scene for the working environment
and general health picture in southern Sudan.

3rd presenter: Jeff discussed the implementation of a health program in the OLS
area given the conflict history and infrastructure outlined in Khalid's and
Jessica's presentations.

Dr. Mock and Amineh had a discussion at the end of the meeting where possible
action items were explored. Below, please find a forward from Dr. Mock. I
encourage you strongly to sign on that and "Help our Congress Help Sudan".
Also, I am copying below that a list of other ideas for local action and links.

Please feel free to email us back and see you at the next event.

Thank you and happy holidays.

Amineh Ayyad
NIHCA, Steering Committee Member

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 18:35:49 -0800
From: Dr. Charles Mock <cmock@...>
To: amina@...
Subject: Re: Help Congress Help Sudan (fwd)

Amina:

I just signed on to this letter. I wonder if we should send this along as
an NIHAC action item? Not being a regular NIHAC person, I do not know your
usual procedure. However, it seems that signing on to this letter would be
a good thing to recommend to the general NIHAC membership.

Charlie

--------------------------------------------------------
Charles Mock, MD, PhD, FACS
Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center
Box 359960
Harborview Medical Center
325 Ninth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: 206-744-9430
FAX: 206-744-9962
email: cmock@...
--------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2004 18:24:17 -0800
From: TrueMajority <alerts@...>
To: Mary Anne Mercer <mamercer@...>
Subject: Help Congress Help Sudan

It's Time for Sanctions Against the Leaders in Sudan Tell Congress to Deal with
This before Going Home

Dear Mary Anne,

We've been getting a flood of e-mail from our members about widespread
voting irregularities on Election Day. We want you all to know that we are
working closely with national and state organizations, looking into the best
way handle this issue. We're sorting through the options and will be in
touch next week with some ways we can help. In the meantime, the people of
Darfur need our help now. Here's what's going on.

Before the election, a bill pressuring the Sudanese government to end
the genocide in Darfur passed both houses of Congress unanimously. Now the
bill has to pass both houses again. The Senate has promised to act as
soon as the House has. We can't let this issue get lost in the
post-election crunch. The bill contains strong sanctions against the
leaders of Sudan, including a freeze on their assets and an arms embargo
against the government, as well as providing $200 million in aid to help
the victims of the genocide.

If you are a member of TrueMajority and would like to send a fax (text
below) to your representative telling them to support this legislation,
just click "Reply" and "Send" in your e-mail program. If you'd like to
edit the letter or if this email was forwarded to you, just click this
link:

http://truemajority.kintera.org/sudansanctions

Thanks for keeping the people of Darfur in your hearts,

Andrew Greenblatt, Online Organizer

================= Here is the letter we'll fax to your Representative:

Dear Representative:

I am writing to strongly urge you to support the Comprehensive Peace in
Sudan Act (HR5061 and S2781). With more than 70,000 people dead and
more than 1.5 million people displaced, our nation must lead the way to take
every action possible to stop this human tragedy from escalating.

This legislation has already passed both houses of Congress unanimously.
We must ensure that this life-and-death issue isn't lost during the
post-election rush. The Comprehensive Peace in Sudan Act will pressure
the government of Sudan to stop terrorizing its citizens through the use of
its Janjaweed militias and calls for the president to impose economic
sanctions upon those who are responsible for the atrocities in the Darfur
region. Equally important, it calls for $200 million in additional
humanitarian aid to assist refugees in Darfur and Chad.

Our nation has stated its commitment to stop genocide. Now is our time
to act.

Sincerely yours, (We'll insert your name and address here)
__________

Action items list
What You Can Do About Darfur
General:

Inform Yourself About Darfur: Read Human Rights Watch’s publications on Darfur
at http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/darfur/index.htm. Besides HRW’s reports on
abuses in Darfur, you can see our photo galleries from the region, watch video
and listen to radio segments on the crisis in Western Sudan.
Write to Your Local Newspaper: Or contact your local radio and TV stations, and
ask them for more news on Darfur! IRIN, Integrated Regional Information
Networks, has a CD-Rom available about Darfur: Peace under Fire: Sudan’s Darfur
Crisis. This is for use in advocacy and has links and reports and articles.
Contact irin@... for a copy.

Write to the Members of the U.N. Security Council: Urge them to take action on
Darfur to reverse ethnic cleansing and to open the region to humanitarian
access. Ask the Security Council to do the following:
• Ask the African Union, under Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter, to increase the
number of troops on the ground in Darfur and to expand its mandate to include
protection of civilians;
• Fully support the African Union protective military and police mission;
• Impose an arms embargo against the Sudanese government, with a mechanism for
monitoring and enforcement; and
• establish an international commission of inquiry to collect evidence of the
atrocities committed in Darfur; such a commission was described in the report of
the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights of May 7, 2004.
The current members of the Security Council are: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Brazil,
Chile, China, France, Germany, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Russian
Federation, Spain, United Kingdom, United States.

Contact information for the U.N. Mission of these countries is available at:
http://www.un.org/Overview/missions.htm.

Write to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan: Ask him to take the lead on advocacy
for Darfur in the international forum, and to seek a broad international
coalition of countries concerned about these massive human rights abuses and
imminent famine. Ask him to visit Darfur and speak out regularly on the need to
take international action to prevent a tragedy in Darfur. You may contact him
at: inquiries@...

Write to the Sudanese Government: Ask the Sudanese government to do the
following:
• Disarm and disband the government-sponsored and -supplied militia
forces/janjaweed active in Darfur;
• Withdraw those militia forces/janjaweed from the parts of Darfur they have
occupied as a military force from 2003 to the present;
• Investigate and prosecute those government forces and allied militias and
government officials responsible for the Darfur campaign (2003-present);
• Provide full and expedited humanitarian access to the internally displaced (in
displaced areas and on return to their home areas), and to those returning from
Chad;
• Provide full and expedited access for the international human rights
monitoring mission; and
• Comply immediately with all the terms of the ceasefire agreement of April 8,
2004.
Letters to the Sudanese government should be addressed to the following
individuals:

President Omar El Bashir
Mr Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, First Vice-President
People's Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: 00-249-11-771025
[Salutation: Your Excellency]

Mr Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin
Minister of Justice and Attorney General
Ministry of Justice
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: 00-249-11-770883
[Salutation: Dear Minister]

Mr Mustafa Osman Ismail
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
PO Box 873
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: 00-249-11-779383
[Salutation: Dear Minister]

Mr Alzawahi Ibrahim Malik
Minister of Information
Ministry of Information and Communications
PO Box 291
Khartoum, Sudan
Fax: 00-249-11-780146
[Salutation: Dear Minister]

Please send copies of your letters to:

His Excellency Khadir H. Ahmed
Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan
2210 Mass Ave N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008
Fax: 202-667-2406

or:

His Excellency Dr. Hassan Abdin
The Embassy of the Republic of the Sudan
3 Cleveland Row, St James's, London SW1A 1DD
Tel: (020) 7839 8080
Fax: (020) 7839 7560
Email: zb24@...

For the United States:

Contact Your Elected Representatives: Write and call your representatives in
Congress and the State Department, asking them to support U.S. and international
efforts to reverse ethnic cleansing and prevent famine in Darfur. Ask President
Bush, Congress, and the State Department to do the following:
• Ask President Bush to speak out on Darfur; when he denounced the abuses on
April 7, the government quickly entered into a ceasefire agreement.
• Support a Chapter VII resolution in the U.N. Security Council that will
reverse ethnic cleansing, protect civilians, permit the voluntary return of
refugees and displaced persons to their homes in safety and dignity, and insure
full humanitarian access;
• Support the deployment of U.N. human rights monitoring team to Sudan;
• Demand accountability for human rights abuses and crimes against humanity in
Sudan: ask the U.S. to collect evidence for future trials against individuals
implicated in war crimes and human rights abuses.
You may find the contact information for your Representative or Senator at:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/.

You may also contact the State Department by writing to the acting head of
African affairs at the State Department, Charles Snyder, at afpastaff@...,
or the U.S. mission to the United Nations at usa@....

You may write to President George W. Bush at the White House, Washington, D.C.
or email: president@...

Donate to Humanitarian Agencies: A number of nongovernmental humanitarian
agencies are providing help to Sudanese refugees in Chad and to Darfurians
inside Sudan. Contact the following agencies for more information on their work
in Chad and Darfur:

CARE
151 Ellis Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30303-2440
United States
Phone: 1-800-521-CARE ext. 999
Online at: http://www.careusa.org

Doctors Without Borders-Holland (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF-H)
Doctors Without Borders-France (MSF-F):
Please contact MSF’s New York office at 1-888-392-0392 or online at
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

International Committee of the Red Cross
19 avenue de la Paix
1202 Geneva, Switzerland
Online at: http://www.icrc.org

International Rescue Committee
122 East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10168
United States
Phone: 212-551-3000
Online at: http://www.theirc.org

Save the Children-US
Attn: Donor Services
54 Wilton Road
Westport, CT 06880
Phone: 1-800-728-3843

Take Action! (FROM CARE WEBSITE)
Urge Support for Additional Emergency Funding for Sudan
http://my.care.org/campaign/a20460000
The Senate Appropriations Committee recently adopted an amendment to provide
$150 million in additional emergency funding to help the people of Sudan.
This is an important step forward. However, we need your support to ensure that
these funds are actually provided. The amendment must be retained in the final
version of the bill that will be negotiated between the Senate and the House.
Over 1.2 million people have been displaced in the Darfur region of Sudan and
more than 200,000 refugees have fled into eastern Chad as a result of ethnic
conflict and violence targeted against civilians. Estimates are that 50,000
people have already died. Urgent international action is needed to improve
security and provide humanitarian relief or many more people could die this
fall.
Please take a moment to contact your member of Congress and the president to
encourage them to support the additional $150 million in emergency funding for
Sudan and to provide these funds as soon as possible.
MESSAGE TEXT:
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
The Senate Appropriations Committee recently adopted an amendment to provide
$150 million in additional emergency funds to help the people of Sudan.

I urge you to support this additional funding and to ensure it is made available
as soon as possible.

As you are aware, the Darfur region of western Sudan is the site of the worst
humanitarian disaster in the world right now.

Over 1.2 million people have been displaced and 200,000 refugees have fled into
eastern Chad as a result of ethnic conflict and violence targeted at civilians.

Humanitarian organizations, including CARE, are working together with the United
Nations to bring much needed relief including clean water, food, shelter and
medicine to the beleaguered population.

However, insecurity, logistical challenges and lack of sufficient funding
continue to leave these displaced Sudanese in a very precarious position.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]