PrintWashington — “Ask the Candidates,†an interactive nationwide campaign to make ending the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, a priority for all of the 2008 presidential candidates, is making headway in Iowa. Currently the focus is on early primary states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
In the run-up to the January 3rd caucuses, "Ask the Candidates" is urging the candidates to make specific commitments to end the genocide in Darfur and prevent future crimes against humanity wherever they may occur. Activists wearing "I Caucus for Darfur" t-shirts and buttons have been seen throughout the state, attending events and asking the Presidential candidates questions about what they will do to end the genocide in Darfur.
This past Saturday, in Cedar Rapids, Peter Teahan spoke with Senator Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey about his commitment to caucus for Darfur and gave his "I Caucus for Darfur" button to Ms. Winfrey.
Earlier in the week, Des Moines resident Tim Gannon spoke with Senator Joe Biden about his concern that the U.S. is not doing enough to get the 26,000 AU-UN peacekeeping force on the ground in Darfur and supply equipment, such as helicopters, that it needs to succeed. The Senator told Gannon that he had just written a letter to President Hu Jintao asking that China provide helicopters.
In a video interview with the Save Darfur Coalition, Senator John McCain talks about working with other democratic nations in order to stop the genocide. He says, "We need to provide whatever logistics, whatever financial and whatever other assistance we can to any peacekeeping force . . . in order for us to have some kind of real effective force on the ground."
Iowa citizens will be attending their first in the nation caucuses on January 3rd. Activists will propose caucus planks on the importance of ending the genocide in Darfur at their precinct meetings with the goal of having these planks placed in the state party platform.
Since 2003, the crisis in Darfur has claimed the lives of as many as 400,000 civilians and displaced at least two million people, according to the United Nations. President Bush and the US Congress declared the situation genocide in 2004, finding the government of Sudan culpable in the attacks.
By visiting AskTheCandidates.org, Americans can sign a petition asking the candidates to divest personal holdings in Sudan that are funding the genocide, learn the most important questions to ask the candidates and how to ask them, see the candidates answers to questions on Darfur, and find out where events are taking place.
For more information, contact Lisa Rogoff at 202.741.6376 or lrogoff@enoughproject.org.
Ask the Candidates is calling on all presidential candidates to make specific pledges to end the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Stopping genocide in Darfur must be an important political priority for the next president, and concerned Americans want to know the next president is willing and able to meet this moral challenge.
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