“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it.
And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” Eleanor Roosevelt



1. Be a media guerilla. Use e-mail, fax, photocopies, and newsletters to broadcast the message of peace. Spread empowering information.

2. Attend a peace rally. Check out United For Peace & Justice or Peace.Protest.net to find out about marches for peace around the country.

3. Host a peace speaker at an event in your community or at your workplace.

4. Get to know your neighbors. It’s hard to reclaim peace without a sense of community.

5. Make friends with someone of another race, ethnicity, age, ability, or sexual orientation. Appreciating and embracing diversity helps to promote peace.

6. Take an adventure to neighborhoods of your town or country that are ethnically focused to appreciate diverse cultures. Cross-cultural understanding is key to building peace.

7. Travel to learn. Get first-hand experience in how things happen in other places and bring home questions about how you do things at home.

8. Drive with patience and tolerance. Keep the peace on our streets and highways.

9. Listen more. Really listen, without giving unsolicited advice. The validation of being heard is often more important than solving the problem.

10. Learn to say I’m sorry. Learn to mean it. Learn when to say it and use it. These two simple words can prevent violence and save relationships.

11. Be helpful. Random acts of kindness can create more peaceful communities.

12. Spend time with a youngster. This can often remind us of the meaning of a peaceful world.

13. Practice the art of patience. Be careful not to rush to judgment or action.

14. Start peace conversations. Talking peace, and listening, are critical for a vibrant democracy.

15. Involve yourself in community parent workshops and family groups that help parents protect, nurture, and support their children.

16. Peace begins at home. Monitor, nurture, support, and involve your children and family in keeping peace.

17. Explore your prejudices. Find out what’s behind them, how they started, & how they influence your thoughts and actions.

18. Write a peace song. Peace songs are great tools for organizing and inspiring people.

19. Use music, art, stories, and drama to explore themes of peace and nonviolence.

20. Broadcast a peace message using a peace flag, poster, badge, t-shirt, or bumper sticker.

21. If you own a gun, keep it unloaded and locked up. Store the bullets in a separate place and hide the key safely away from children.

22. Find your own inner peace. Set aside a few minutes or more each day of quiet, peaceful time.

23. Join a study circle. Self-education is a fast track to empowerment toward peace.

24. Attend an educational series on non-violence. Look up peace & justice organizations in your state at United For Peace & Justice and call them for information on educational series.

25. Stay tuned to what’s going on in the world through newsletters, periodicals, newspapers, radio, TV, and online.

26. Educate yourself about the violence threatening kids in your community and nationwide. Help bring safety and peace to kids at Children’s Defense Fund and End Abuse.

27. Learn another language. Being able to communicate in a foreign language helps you participate in diverse cultures.

28. Help bring peace to the environment by reducing your carbon load emissions. Learn what you can do at our global warming campaign site at www.onesweetwhirled.org.

29. Learn how to fight fairly. Fight to resolve differences, not to win.

30. Register people to vote. One reason the political game’s gone sour is that too few of us play. Find out more at Rock The Vote or Project Vote Smart.

31. Become a volunteer on a peace project. Check out Peace Brigades International, Seeds of Peace, and the Peace Corps.

32. Volunteer at your local battered women’s shelter. Learn about the importance of non-violent conflict resolution.

33. Sign-up as a member of a peace organization like Global Exchange, United For Peace & Justice, or Peace Response.

34. Call a radio talk show. The good ones are often the town meetings of the airwaves.

35. Write letters and articles in support of peace and non-violence to the editors of your local media. Published, they can change minds, and even unpublished they can impact the media.

36. Sign a peace pledge. A good place to start is www.peacepledge.org.

37. Adopt a politician. Write a monthly letter to your Representative, Senator, or President on peace-related issues.

38. Take social action to support specific legislative peace initiatives. Try the Waging Peace site to get started.

39. Vote. Voting is your hard-earned right and your official voice. For information about the democratic voting process, visit the Federal Election Commission or the Center for Voting and Democracy.

40. Support organizations and/or campaigns that fight for basic human rights for all people. Social justice promotes peace. For a start, visit Global Exchange or Amnesty International.

41. Run for elective office. Be a voice for non-violent conflict resolution, reasoned sanity, and balance.

42. Learn about nuclear weapons from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Sign an appeal to end the nuclear threat. Visit the Nuclear Threat Reduction Campaign and WagingPeace.org.

43. Take part in online advocacy for peace. Some good sites to get started are 20/20 Vision and The Interfaith Alliance.

44. Write to your own government; write to a foreign government. Let them know you care about what they do and hold them to the same standards for peaceful conflict resolution.

45. Call your City Council and attend the next meeting. It’s often through the strength of a group that changes are made and community is built.

46. Encourage peace projects for school classrooms. You can find some great ideas at CelebratingPeace.com and UNESCO.

47. Teach young people skills for non-violent conflict resolution. Learn about some great strategies from the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program or www.Images-Education.org for teachers, classrooms, parents, and students.

48. Teach young people about peace. Let your behavior reflect the values you want them to espouse.

49. Support your community’s efforts to create jobs and training opportunities for kids that help them become productive, contributing adults.

50. Dig deep. Oftentimes, reaching peaceful resolution means understanding what’s at the root of a problem rather than what’s most apparent on the surface.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Lasting peace in Sudan requires a new strategy, one which tackles its multiple conflicts and potential conflicts in a consistent manner. The overwhelming international concentration on Darfur has come at the expense of the broader quest for peace in the country. Unless a more balanced approach is developed, Darfur will continue to suffer, and new wars are likely. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended Africa’s longest-running civil war, contains the detailed provisions and schedule for governmental reforms and a democratisation process leading to national elections in 2009 which can be the building blocks for peacemaking in Darfur and elsewhere. It is in danger of collapse, however, due to government sabotage and international neglect, the latter a cruel irony in that preoccupation to conclude the CPA negotiations led to initial reluctance to address the developing Darfur crisis in 2003-2004. Urgent efforts are needed to build consensus among the main international players on a strategy for obtaining implementation of key CPA benchmarks.

While Darfur is Sudan’s most pressing regional issue, additional attention is also needed in Kordofan, where armed groups unhappy with CPA implementation threaten new conflict and may link up with insurgents in Darfur; in the far North, where the construction of dams has displaced and angered several communities, and the risk of major conflict is increasing; and in the East, where the 2006 peace agreement has only just begun to be implemented and could easily still fall apart.

If implemented, the CPA would help transform the oppressive governmental system that is at the root of all these conflicts into a more open, transparent, inclusive and democratic one. The ruling National Congress Party (NCP) resists this because it views full implementation as a threat to regime survival. It is undermining the reforms critical to democratisation, as well as the ones that would allow for the promised self-determination referendum in the South in 2011. If the CPA fails – which is increasingly likely – Sudan can be expected to return to full-scale war, with dire implications not only for its own people but for all its neighbours as well.

International efforts over the last three years have lacked consistent leadership and been weakened by disagreements, particularly between Western donor countries and China, Russia and the Arab world. An informal contact group of these major actors, and including the European Union (EU), France, the African Union (AU), the UN and regional countries, is slowly beginning to cooperate more effectively on Darfur, however, and has made some progress over the past four months towards renewing negotiations for a political settlement.

This cooperation needs to be expanded to prioritise core elements of the CPA but growing problems with that agreement are receiving little attention, even though peace in Darfur and elsewhere can only be built on its foundation. The first major implementation deadline – withdrawal of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) from the South by 9 July – was missed without an international response. Much of the implementation that has taken place is on paper only; many commissions and other bodies still do not function. The former rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), were expected to be an agent of change in Khartoum but have focused most of their energy on internal southern issues, at the expense of the national agenda.

Consistent international engagement and vigilance is needed. Monitoring the CPA is the primary mandate of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) but it has been without a chief for more than half a year. The Secretary-General must immediately correct this, and UNMIS should refocus on overseeing CPA implementation. The enlarged contact group on Darfur is to meet again in September. It should agree on holding the parties, especially Khartoum, to key CPA benchmarks. The Secretary-General should work with the AU to organise a broad-based international conference at which a comprehensive roadmap for peace in Sudan would be laid out, including those benchmarks, the AU/UN plan for reviving the Darfur political process, and consensus on the diplomatic and economic rewards and punitive measures to be taken with respect to the parties in proportion to action on that roadmap.

RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Government of Sudan:

1. Cease harassment of journalists, remove restrictions on local media, release political prisoners, reform the National Security Act and other laws that continue to contradict the CPA and constitution, respect political freedoms and otherwise implement in a full and timely manner the commitments undertaken in the CPA.

To the UN Security Council, the AU, EU, Arab League, Neighbours of Sudan and Donors:

2. Devote increased attention to implementation of the CPA and demand of the NCP in particular that the following benchmarks be met within that agreement’s timelines so as to prepare for free and fair national elections in 2009 and reform central government operations:

(a) the national census take place in January 2008, as planned. The latest pledge from the central government of $30 million between June and September is late and should be released immediately;

(b) the parliament pass the electoral bill by October 2007, after wide consultations with political parties and civil society;

(c) the ad hoc North-South Boundary Commission complete work by February 2008, after which at the latest the SAF be immediately and fully redeployed out of the South;

(d) the National Civil Service Commission be operational within three months; and

(e) the Fiscal and Financial Allocation and Monitoring Commission (FFAMC) begin to operate freely, according to its CPA mandate and with support and guidance from the World Bank, and the finance ministry respect its directives.

3. Develop a comprehensive roadmap for peace in Sudan that includes:

(a) agreement on supporting implementation of the above five CPA benchmarks;

(b) the existing AU/UN roadmap for reviving the political process on Darfur;

(c) consensus on the diplomatic and economic rewards and punitive measures to be taken with respect to the parties in proportion to action on the roadmap; and

(d) increased attention to Sudan’s other regional issues which threaten to become deadly conflicts, including in Kordofan, the far North and the East.

To UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

4. Appoint immediately a new special representative to fill the vacancy as head of UNMIS.

5. Organise, with the African Union as a follow-up to the Tripoli process, a broad-based international conference as the vehicle for developing and pursuing the comprehensive roadmap for peace.

To UNMIS:

6. Refocus activities on the core mandate of overseeing CPA implementation.

7. Start an urgent dialogue with the government on risks of new conflicts in Kordofan, the far North and the East.

To Diplomatic Missions in Khartoum:

8. Establish a shadow CPA Assessment and Evaluation Commission (AEC).

To the SPLM:

9. Balance focus on governance issues in the South with increased attention to obligations in the Government of National Unity, in particular those relating to CPA provisions for national reforms and a democratisation process leading to free and fair elections in 2009.

The ongoing Darfur Genocide is no accident, no local tribal conflict. The genocide is the brutal plan of three men in the Sudanese national Government -- President Bashir, Vice-President Taha, Security Chief Gosh. Now they are spreading their system of terror to other African countries, including Chad and the Central African Republic . Yet our governments continue to cut deals with them - deals they repeatedly break. It is time for the US and European governments to stop appeasing genocide. We call on our governments to fully support the International Criminal Court to indict the perpetrators of genocide, and to help ensure their arrest. It is time for justice, because only justice can bring peace.

For Bashir, Taha and Gosh, it is time for handcuffs, not handshakes.

The United Nations Security Council has approved a 26,000-strong peacekeeping force to expand the 7,000 African Union (AU) force struggling to protect civilians in Sudan's western province of Darfur.
More than 2m people are living in camps after fleeing more than four years of fighting in the region and they are vulnerable without peacekeepers.

Sudan's government and the pro-government Arab militias are accused of war crimes against the region's black African population, although the UN has stopped short of calling it genocide.

New peace talks are planned, but peace still looks a long way off.

How did the conflict start?

The conflict began in the arid and impoverished region early in 2003 after a rebel group began attacking government targets, saying the region was being neglected by Khartoum.

The rebels say the government is oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs.

Darfur, which means land of the Fur, has faced many years of tension over land and grazing rights between the mostly nomadic Arabs, and farmers from the Fur, Massaleet and Zagawa communities.

There are two main rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), although both groups have split, some along ethnic lines.

Almost a dozen rebel groups now exist. Most will attend the talks in Libya, but one key leader, Abdul Wahid el-Nur, is boycotting the talks until the conflict ends.

What is the government doing?

It admits mobilising "self-defence militias" following rebel attacks but denies any links to the Janjaweed, accused of trying to "cleanse" black Africans from large swathes of territory.

Refugees from Darfur say that following air raids by government aircraft, the Janjaweed ride into villages on horses and camels, slaughtering men, raping women and stealing whatever they can find.


Many women report being abducted by the Janjaweed and held as sex slaves for more than a week before being released.

The US and some human rights groups say that genocide is taking place - though a UN investigation team sent to Sudan said that while war crimes had been committed, there had been no intent to commit genocide.

Sudan's government denies being in control of the Janjaweed and President Omar al-Bashir has called them "thieves and gangsters".

After strong international pressure and the threat of sanctions, the government promised to disarm the Janjaweed. But so far there is little evidence this has happened.

Trials have been announced in Khartoum of some members of the security forces suspected of abuses - but this is viewed as part of a campaign against UN-backed attempts to get some 50 key suspects tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

What has happened to Darfur's civilians?

Millions have fled their destroyed villages, with many heading for camps near Darfur's main towns. But there is not enough food, water or medicine.

The Janjaweed patrol outside the camps and Darfurians say the men are killed and the women raped if they venture too far in search of firewood or water.


The Janjaweed are accused of 'ethnic cleansing'
Some 200,000 have also sought safety in neighbouring Chad, but many of these are camped along a 600km stretch of the border and remain vulnerable to attacks from Sudan.

The refugees are also threatened by the diplomatic fallout between Chad and Sudan as the neighbours accuse one another of supporting each other's rebel groups.


Chad's eastern areas have a similar ethnic make-up to Darfur.

Many aid agencies are working in Darfur but they are unable to get access to vast areas because of the fighting.


How many have died?

With much of Darfur inaccessible to aid workers and researchers, calculating how many deaths there have been in the past three years is impossible.


What researchers have done is to estimate the deaths based on surveys in areas they can reach.

The latest research published in September 2006 in the journal Science puts the numbers of deaths above and beyond those that would normally die in this inhospitable area at "no fewer than 200,000".

The US researchers say that their figures are the most compelling and persuasive estimate to date. They have made no distinction between those dying as a result of violence and those dying as a result of starvation or disease in refugee camps.

Accurate figures are crucial in determining whether the deaths in Darfur are genocide or - as the Sudanese government says - the situation is being exaggerated.


Have there been previous peace talks?

Lots.

The leader of one SLA faction, Minni Minawi, who signed a peace deal in 2006 after long-running talks in Nigeria, was given a large budget, but his fighters have already been accused by Amnesty International of abuses against people in areas opposed to the peace deal.

The other rebel factions did not sign the deal.

There has been a dramatic increase in violence and displacement since the deal was signed.


Is anyone trying to stop the fighting?

About 7,000 African Union troops are deployed in Darfur on a very limited mandate.

Experts say the soldiers are too few to cover an area the size of France, and the African Union says it does not have the money to fund the operation for much longer.

Until recently, Sudan resisted strong Western diplomatic pressure for the UN to take control of the peacekeeping mission.

A new, larger joint UN-AU force should be in place by next year.

It should also be better equipped and has a stronger mandate to protect civilians and aid workers.

But some say even that is not enough to cover such a large, remote area.

Others point out that peacekeepers cannot do much unless there is a peace to keep.

They say the fighting can only end through a deal agreed by all sides, which has yet to materialise.