c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) “Never Again!” is a well-worn mantra invoked by many people when they remember the mass murder of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust. The phrase is meant to indicate we have learned the disastrous effects of remaining silent or indifferent in the face of genocide, the systematic killing of an entire people.

But have we truly learned such a lesson? Or is “Never Again!” rhetorical comfort food for our souls? Somewhere in the answers to those questions must come a mention of Darfur, a region about the size of France located in the African nation of Sudan.

For more than two years Janjaweed Islamic militias and the Sudanese government have killed at least 400,000 people in Darfur. More than 2 million have been displaced, cut off from their homes. Nine of every 10 Darfuri villages have been destroyed, and for those hapless civilians left alive, rape, abduction, slavery and torture are their daily terror-filled experience.

In September 2004, after extensive investigation and the testimony of 11,000 witnesses, then Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that the murderous situation in Darfur was clearly genocide. But since then, it appears the Bush administration is quietly moving away from that earlier position. President Bush did use “the G word” in his recent State of the Union speech, but he did not specifically mention Darfur.

Three days after the speech, Jendayi Fraser, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, also edged away from labeling the tragedy in Darfur as genocide: “The U.S. has said that a genocide has occurred in Sudan … but there isn’t the large-scale organized violence taking place today … It is very different from what it was … a series of small attacks and incidents, a fraying of the cease-fire that was in place.” But during the last month more than 30,000 people have been displaced and the mass killing has continued.

On Feb. 7 Vice President Cheney told a TV news interviewer that Darfur is “a huge area. It’s difficult to get at … I am satisfied we are doing everything we can.”

“Doing everything”?

Our leaders proudly assure us the U.S. is able to quickly deploy both its military and humanitarian assets to any “difficult” place in the world.

But the House of Representatives has yet to approve the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, approved by the Senate last fall. The act called for economic sanctions and travel bans on top Sudanese leaders. The Senate also unanimously authorized $50 million to support the minuscule _ 7,000 soldiers _ African Union peacekeeping effort in Darfur. But even that small amount was removed from the new defense spending bill of $453 billion.

Happily, the American religious community does not see the Darfur genocide as a “series of small attacks and incidents.” Nor does the religious community believe “everything” possible is being done.

Feb. 15 and 16 were designated as Darfur Advocacy Days, and thousands of Americans traveled to Washington to press our government to take seriously the cry of “Never Again!” The American Jewish Committee led a 65-person delegation to Congress, the State Department and the White House to demand international protection of Darfur civilians, the commitment of financial resources and additional peacekeepers to the “difficult to get at” region of Africa.

Members of the delegation came to the nation’s capital from as far away as Seattle, Boston and Atlanta. In addition to prominent AJC rabbinic and lay leaders, the group included representatives of the Urban League, Concerned Black Clergy, the Darfur Alert Coalition, Catholic Charities of New York, Church World Service, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

They urged that Sudanese leaders be held accountable for their atrocious crimes and they called for active leadership from the U.S. government to support the frail Darfur peace process. The delegation also expressed its disappointment at the apparent weakening of United States leadership both as a superpower and within the United Nations. Vigorous U.N. Security Council action on Darfur has been prevented by the unwillingness of Russia and China to condemn the Sudanese government.

The American religious community understands what “Never Again!” really means. But does our government?

RB/JL END RNS

(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s senior interreligious adviser, is the author of the recently published book “The Baptizing of America: The Religious Right’s Plans for the Rest of Us.”)

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