Last Thursday I attended an event organised by the Holocaust Education Trust about the forthcoming Holocaust Memorial Day, continuing to educate everyone from children to decision-makers about the horrors of what happened in the Holocaust, Rwanda and many other places around the world.

This year I have been involved with Kat Stark, Convenor, Society & Citizenship Zone on NUS’ work to raise awareness of and pressure for change in, Darfur. My question at this event asked the speakers – both Genocide survivors – what we should be doing now to stop the atrocious actions in the Sudan. Their response was to put pressure on our political leaders so they use all in their power to stop the Janjaweed in their tracks.

To this end I have written an open letter to Rt. Hon Hilary Benn MP, Secretary for State for International Development. I hope you will do the same and publish your letter and any response on your personal blogs, institutional websites and union pages – I will happily add a list to a future blog.

The letter I have sent is below, the event I attended was an inspiration and the change campaigning on this could be literally life saving – I look forward to seeing your letters.

See the following for more information:

• http://www.aegistrust.org/
• http://www.aegisstudents.org/
• http://www.het.org.uk/
• http://www.dayfordarfur.org/

Rt. Hon Hilary Benn MP
Secretary for State
Department for International Development
1 Palace Street
London
SW1E 5HE

Dear Mr Benn,

It is not often that I write open letters to Cabinet Ministers. However, I write with extreme urgency about the continuing situation in Darfur. I appreciate the positive words that have come, and continue to come and I appreciate that since 1997 it is the UK that has been the world’s foremost opponent of genocide and proponent of human rights. This is evident in the action that we took in Kosovo and in Sierra Leone where we acted to stop genocide and I also appreciate that it is the UK Government that has taken a lead in the Sudan where we are the second largest bilateral donor of humanitarian aid.

However, the situation remains critical. The facts, as we know, are tragic. Thousands of people killed; thousands of women raped; millions of lives shattered. The UN and African Union have a mandate and a duty to protect the people of Darfur and to achieve the cessation of the Sudanese government’s military campaign. Let us make sure they do so. Furthermore, the UK should be encouraging other Western countries to massively expand their humanitarian aid to the region as we should be doing ourselves.

I recently attended a meeting hosted by the Holocaust Educational Trust where I heard from a survivor of Auschwitz. It was the internationalism of those in the 1940s that finally ended the Holocaust but it is shocking that we allowed 6 million people to be murdered in the meantime. Our internationalism must provoke us to immediate action before more lives are destroyed. But it is not only the lives of millions in Africa that are at stake. It is the test of our belief that all lives – Western and African – are equal.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Angell

National Executive Member

C.C. www.officeronline.co.uk/blogs/richardangell

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