2013-05-22T09:24:16-04:00 Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/author/index.php?author=mia-farrow Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Mia Farrow Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1497702 2012-05-08T08:54:28-04:00 2012-07-08T05:12:08-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
Raising good kids is one of the most challenging, and also the most meaningful, things I've ever done. I tried to teach them to respect their fellow human beings.

I, myself, don't need more material things on Mother's Day. Mostly, I wish that every mother had the same security and resources that I've had. Unfortunately, around the world, millions of mothers find themselves without the money, medicine, community standing, or even the food to provide their children with a good start in life.

Malnutrition contributes to almost a third of all child deaths. About 1,000 women die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth every day, and most of those deaths are preventable. Rural women are especially disadvantaged.

There is a Mother's Day gift that can do something about this. What if we took the day as a chance to make an investment in a woman, a family, somewhere in the world?

Example:

Phoebe Onyango from Kenya is a mother of four children. Before connecting with Heifer, Phoebe's children were malnourished, and malaria was a constant danger because they couldn't afford even a mosquito net. But today, after receiving the gift of goats from Heifer, Phoebe has a thriving farm. There is plenty of food to eat and a sustainable source of income. Her children are growing up healthy, and they are all protected by mosquito nets at night. Through the sale of vegetables and milk, Phoebe and her husband have increased their income sevenfold, allowing them to also pay for their children's school. "When Heifer leaves we will be able to sustain ourselves," Phoebe says.

Heifer International gifts multiply. Each participant is required to give the first offspring from their animal to another family in need.

I've already dropped hints to my kids: A Heifer goat would be most excellent. Maybe even two. I have a big family. I can't think of a better Mother's Day gift than helping other mothers to raise their children out of poverty and into enduring prosperity.

Phoebe and family below:

]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1259956 2012-02-07T11:22:04-05:00 2012-04-08T05:12:01-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
Abraham Smith (not his real name) is a 13-year-old honors student who dreams of going to college. Abraham also has HIV, but he never supposed that would prevent him from attending the Milton Hershey School, a well-heeled boarding school in Pennsylvania.

Founded in 1909 by the chocolate magnate Milton S. Hershey, the school with its $8 billion asset cushion, has refused to admit Abraham. On its website the school states that the boy would pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others, and as a private school it can establish its own eligibility criteria.

In fact, HIV discrimination is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania has filed suit against the school, alleging that it has broken the law by refusing to admit Abraham because he has HIV. For more than 23 years, this non-profit has been protecting the rights of people with HIV/AIDS.

"I thought I would get into the school, because of the type of student and person I am," Young Abraham told ABC News through an attorney. But as a result of the school's decision; "my life has turned into fear, anger, confusion and tears."

The school's administrators have never met Abraham or spoken to his family, his doctor or his current teachers-yet they claim they cannot accommodate his "documented needs" and express "significant concern is that HIV can be transmitted through sexual contact."

"The idea that anyone could be denied entry based on a disability is astounding", said Arthur Caplan, director of the Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics. "It sets back what we know to be true about the disease." Caplan believes the school will lose the law suit " So they better get ready to figure out how they're going to accept him."

And how does Abraham feel? "As far as me still wanting to go to Milton Hershey I still do but I am now afraid to. I want them to apologize to me for making like I'm going to be a reckless teenager and put someone else in jeopardy. They should give me more credit than that."

Abraham's plight reminds me of the 1980's when Ryan White, a child with AIDS was not allowed to attend school. It is remarkable that thirty years later, we are still dealing with the same ignorance and discriminatory practices. We have learned many lessons along the painful road that we have traveled since the epidemic hit America in the early 80's. We have lost great friends, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters... we quickly learned that the virus does not discriminate. However, we have made great advances in medicine and technology and now millions of people, with the proper treatment, can live normal, productive lives. Now is not the time to move backwards. Now is not the time to victimize those who have been affected by this disease. Now is not the time to deny Abraham Smith a chance to realize his dreams. Milton Hershey School, I urge you to reverse your decision and celebrate the potential of ALL of our youth.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.1030872 2011-10-25T14:11:08-04:00 2011-12-25T05:12:01-05:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
There is also a human interest.

In improvised camps near Yambio in South Sudan, parents keep children close. "When we go to sleep, we don't know if we will be alive in the morning," a young mother revealed to one of us (Ms. Farrow) this year. Everyone there has a story of murder, torture, mutilation or abduction.

Sister Giovanna, an Italian nun, cares for children who have been abducted by the LRA. "These children have been taught to kill without mercy. Those who are able to escape come back traumatized," she told Ms. Farrow. She pointed to a slight, silent boy of 11 or 12. "That child was forced to kill his father, breaking his head with a log."

Another boy was outspoken; he had killed 82 people, he said. He was forced to cut one of them into pieces with a machete.

"Do you think the children can ever forget what they did?" Sister Giovanna said. "They scream in the night."

During its 24-year existence, the LRA has abducted some 70,000 civilians, mostly children. The group has killed tens of thousands and displaced two and a half million people in four countries. Countless villagers have been mutilated -- their lips, ears and noses cut off.

The LRA was founded in 1987 by Joseph Kony, a Ugandan, in the north of that country. His stated goal was to overthrow Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and establish a regime based on the Ten Commandments. It wasn't long before he had shattered all 10, and then some.

In 2001, the U.S. Patriot Act declared the LRA to be a terrorist organization. Kony and two of his most brutal henchmen are wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes including murder, rape, sexual slavery, and using children as combatants. There are longstanding allegations that the LRA has enjoyed the support of another indicted war criminal, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Five years ago, Ugandan forces succeeded in driving the LRA out of Uganda into the dense brush along the border areas of neighboring South Sudan, Congo and the Central African Republic, where they have continued their depredations. The brutal, messianic Kony long ago abandoned any pretense of a political agenda. The LRA is a self-sustaining predatory guerilla group that replenishes itself through plundering villages and abducting children to use as soldiers, porters and sex slaves.

The Bush administration supported a Ugandan assault on Kony's forested encampment, but when it failed, executive attention faded. However, spurred on by a growing U.S. activist network led primarily by students, in 2010 Congress passed a strong bipartisan bill demanding a presidential strategy to end the LRA and bring the hundreds of captive children home.

Republican Sen. James Inhofe welcomed President Obama's announcement. "I have witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by the LRA, and this will help end Kony's heinous acts that have created a human rights crisis in Africa," he said in a statement.

Fighting in some of the most impenetrable terrain in the world, the Ugandan forces significantly reduced LRA numbers to some 200-400 of its most hardcore fighters. But Uganda has now redeployed some of its best troops to Somalia for counterterrorism operations there.

With U.S. troops on the ground, President Obama has the credibility to ask African and other nations to contribute troops. The mission must be backed by sophisticated intelligence and logistical capabilities from the U.S. and others.

With this additional support, it shouldn't take long to bring Kony and his henchmen to justice, return captive children to their families, and restore peace to this agonized region.

Ms. Farrow, an actor and activist, has traveled throughout LRA-affected areas in the Central African Republic, Congo, South Sudan and Uganda. Mr. Prendergast, cofounder of the Enough Project, is coauthor of the book "Unlikely Brothers" (Crown, 2011). This opinion piece originally appeared in The Wall Street Journal.



]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.886403 2011-06-28T17:57:23-04:00 2011-08-28T05:12:01-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/ Co-authored by Julie Flint

Soon after the Nuba Mountains region of central Sudan exploded in war two weeks ago, a patrol from the United Nations peacekeeping force was detained by Sudanese government soldiers and subjected to a mock firing squad in the soldiers' divisional headquarters.

First the peacekeepers were lined up. Then an officer cocked his AK-47 and pointed it at them. He demanded that they leave South Kordofan state, the ancestral home of the Nuba people, and warned: "We will kill you if you come back here."

The U.N. mission in South Kordofan is the only international protection for the Nuba people, the forgotten victims of Sudan's 22-year civil war. South Sudan will finally earn freedom from the Khartoum regime when the South becomes independent on July 9. But the Nuba, trapped along the North-South border, will remain within Khartoum's reach.

The peacekeepers meant to protect the Nuba cannot even protect themselves. They are out-gunned and out-numbered by Sudanese government forces who have dropped 500-pound bombs less than 2,500 feet from U.N. mission headquarters in the state capital, Kadugli. On Monday, Sudanese forces threatened to shoot down any U.N. flights over South Kordofan.

Now, the peacekeeping force is under orders from Khartoum to leave South Kordofan by July 9, the day South Sudan becomes independent. If it is pushed out, who will remain in South Kordofan to bear witness to the atrocities that are already unfolding? International staff working for non-U.N. agencies have already left Kadugli -- every last one of them.

The U.S. special envoy to Sudan, Princeton Lyman, has said there is not yet evidence that the new Nuba war amounts to "ethnic cleansing." But confidential U.N. reports that we've seen speak of "wide-scale exactions against unarmed civilians with specific targeting of African tribes," and of people targeted "along racial/ethnic lines."

The Nuba live on the southern edge of Sudan's Arabized north. As black Africans, they have always been regarded as second-class citizens by Sudan's northern elites. Many fought alongside the southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army in the civil war from 1985 until a ceasefire in the Nuba Mountains in 2002, hoping to end their marginalization and preserve their unique culture.

Long before the Khartoum regime launched its war on Darfur, it attempted to destroy life in the rural Nuba Mountains and resettle the entire population of insurgent areas in camps where Nuba identity would be eradicated. Community leaders and intellectuals were killed; villages were burned to the ground.

Despite the Nuba people's immense suffering, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 did not satisfy their aspirations -- including their demand for self-determination. What little the peace agreement did offer was neglected as Darfur monopolized international attention.

Today the international community is making another mistake. It is failing to understand that this is not a conflict that can be resolved by North-South negotiations. This is a North-North conflict. The so-called Three Areas along the North-South divide -- Abyei, South Kordofan and Blue Nile -- are regions with particular histories and problems that remain largely unaddressed. Without urgent attention to South Kordofan, next month's partition may well ignite a new civil war.

Hundreds of thousands of Nuba are already on the move, fleeing from tanks, artillery and aerial bombardment. Humanitarian access has been shut down. A week ago, U.N. peacekeepers warned of a humanitarian crisis that they are "not sufficiently prepared to counter."

Apart from a couple of statements in the U.N. Security Council, the international community has failed to put the plight of the Nuba people on its agenda. President Obama must understand that the conflagration in South Kordofan has the potential to bring down the whole edifice built by the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. The Nuba Mountains require an immediate ceasefire with unconditional humanitarian access, followed by a robust monitoring mission on the ground and resolution of the grievances that caused conflict in the first place.

The Nuba Mountains were killing fields a decade before Darfur. Are they doomed to be again?

Ms. Farrow, an actor and advocate, has traveled to Sudan 16 times. Ms. Flint has reported from the Nuba Mountains for 20 years.

This post originally appeared at WSJ.com.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.853346 2011-04-25T12:57:59-04:00 2011-06-25T05:12:01-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/ said, "a ticking time bomb."

A January referendum for independence passed without incident, despite fears that President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan -- the orchestrator of two decades of brutal warfare against the south, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for genocide in Darfur -- wouldn't let the South secede without bloodshed.

But South Sudan is riven by crises along two of its borders. The epicenter of tensions is Abyei, an impoverished but resource-rich area between northern and southern Sudan. A 2005 agreement ended years of war but left the area's contested border undefined and stipulated that residents of Abyei -- who are of the southern-based and Christian Ngok Dinka tribe -- should have a referendum of their own.

They would surely vote to join their tribal brothers in the South, but the vote never took place.

Employing a familiar tactic, Khartoum has backed, trained and armed a semi-nomadic Arab tribe, the Misseriya, while denying all responsibility for its repeated attacks on Abyei's villages. Al-Bashir insists that the Arab tribesmen, who graze their cattle in the Abyei area, should also vote to determine whether Abyei will be a part of the north or the south. The Ngok Dinka disagree, arguing that nomadic people who are in Abyei only a few months a year are not "residents."

The road to Abyei is lined with dazed families and piles of whatever household possessions they can carry. The town itself is eerily empty. Several men walk with guns. A dog barks. A child scrounging for scraps in the deserted marketplace said he had not eaten for five days.




"The situation is desperate," chief administrator of Abyei Deng Arop confirmed. "We have run out of everything. People are terrified."

"If the South separates without a solution, Abyei will be a war zone," said Mr. Deng. "One thing I am sure of, the people of South Sudan will not leave Abyei to suffer alone." Indeed, I watched truckloads of soldiers from the Sudan People's Liberation Army (South Sudan's main force) heading toward Abyei, and Western observers report that armies are reinforcing their positions on both sides of the border.

While Abyei hangs in the balance, another of South Sudan's borderlands is convulsed with violence of a different kind. The dense brush near the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo harbors an infamously brutal Ugandan militia, the Lord's Resistance Army.

In improvised camps in and around the city of Yambio, mothers keep their children close. Here everyone has a story of murder, torture, mutilation or abduction. A little boy who had been forced to kill his father with a log screams through the nights. A 12-year-old was clear on the numbers; he had killed 82 people before he escaped captivity from the Lord's Resistance Army. "When we go to sleep," a young mother told me, "we don't know if we will be alive in the morning."

United Nations peacekeepers -- part of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) -- are present in both Yambio and Abyei, but they have not provided any protection. In 2008, after watching the burning of Abyei from the peacekeepers barracks, U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson said, "We pay a billion dollars a year for UNMIS and they didn't leave their garrison... UN peacekeepers were as close as 25 feet away. Sudanese homes were burned to the ground -- despite the fact that UNMIS has a mission to intervene to protect innocent people."




The world is about to witness the birth of South Sudan, but whether this new nation survives and thrives will depend on whether the UN insists that its peacekeepers fulfill their mandate and truly protect civilians.

Ms. Farrow, an actor and advocate, has just made her third visit to South Sudan.

Originally appeared in the Wall Street Journal.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.841351 2011-03-28T12:04:52-04:00 2011-05-28T05:12:01-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
Peace processes are full of moments, of choices, with implications that affect hundreds of thousands of lives. Sudan is mired in one of those moments, and leaders in Northern and Southern Sudan are facing a monumental choice between war and peace. The locus for this poignant moment is Abyei. Militias aligned with the North burned three villages in the last few weeks, leading to the displacement of tens of thousands of Abyei's residents. Here is visual evidence from the Satellite Sentinel Project.

We both have visited Abyei since the beginning of the year.



We've talked to the residents there who feel abandoned by the international community. But we also know it is not too late to change the equation. The U.S. should continue to enhance its diplomatic efforts in support of a deal on Abyei between North and South Sudan, and redouble its efforts to revitalize the peace process for Darfur, where 70,000 people have been newly displaced in the past few months. Tell President Obama you support enhanced diplomatic engagement on Abyei and Darfur as the best way to support peace and protect civilian life in Sudan.

Peace is possible in Sudan in 2011. The U.S. role will be critical. President Obama said that standing idly by was not an option in Libya. This is equally true in Sudan. The time to act is now.

Actress and human rights activist Mia Farrow has just returned from her latest trip to Southern Sudan. John Prendergast is a human rights activist and author. He is co-founder of the Enough Project, an initiative to end genocide and crimes against humanity. He is the co-author of The Enough Moment: Fighting to End Africa's Worst Human Rights Crimes.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.674397 2010-08-07T11:23:33-04:00 2011-05-25T17:20:22-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
While he lived with the militia in the jungle, young Ambrose was forced to fight and to kill. Two years ago, at 12, he escaped.

Now an orphan, his home is a boarding school for hundreds of child victims of the LRA in Gulu, northern Uganda. I sat with the seventh-graders on a bench in a spare classroom. "Back then," Ambrose whispered, "I felt only like killing."

But despite all he has endured, Ambrose is not looking backward. He is focused on the future. "If only I could attend secondary school," he confided, "I long to be a doctor."

The LRA has been driven into neighboring Congo and south Sudan, but nearly two million traumatized people in northern Uganda are left struggling to recover from decades of terror, torture and displacement.

The chance of Ambrose realizing his dream is slim. There is no secondary school nearby, and private school would cost an impossible $500 a year. Ambrose has nothing but his dreams.

In the nearly two decades that I have been traveling through Africa, I have seen violence, hunger and all the ravages of poverty and irresponsible, corrupt leaderships. I have held babies who were dying of AIDS and starvation; I have spoken with child soldiers and with child victims of rape. I have sat with innocent women, men and children who had been mutilated or riddled by bullets or rocket-propelled grenades.

I met a man who told me he had eaten his belt because he was so hungry -- this while that man's president prospered. I have seen the worst that human beings can do to each other.

However, across this great continent, I have also been privileged to witness the very best of humanity -- an incomparable generosity, resilience, resourcefulness, courage and in the bleakest of circumstances, hope in every child's face, and a hunger for learning.

That hope and that hunger were evident late in July in Uganda's capital of Kampala, where more than 100 young men and women from 40 countries gathered for the UNICEF-supported African Youth Forum.

The forum, conducted under the auspices and in advance of the African Union Summit, offered a rare opportunity for the young people, who had been chosen for their passion and leadership capabilities, to discuss the primary issues facing their countries and their continent.

At the close of the third day and the commencement of the African Union Summit, they presented their recommendations to Africa's leaders.

Ambrose, in remote northern Uganda, was not present, but his longing for an education was a central topic at the forum.

There is a growing chorus across Africa calling for change. And at the top of their demands is the right for every child to an education. These are the voices of Africa's future.

Courage, commitment, resilience, respect, hope, intensity, passion and keen minds defined the forum. Challenges including access to education, infant and maternal mortality, sustainable development, responsible leadership and peaceful resolutions to conflict were discussed. Ideas were exchanged along with e-mails. Friendships were forged in multiple languages and a swirl of traditional attire. While the group waited for an address by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, they took time out to dance to Shakira's "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)."

With 62 percent of Africa's population younger than 25, they have the greatest stake in the future. Yet, a stunning 51 percent of all deaths in Africa each year are of children younger than 5. An estimated 45 million African children do not attend school. Staggering numbers of women and girls die in childbirth.

Recently, the leaders of Africa agreed to provide 15 percent of their national budgets toward health care and 20 percent toward education. Most have not made good on that pledge.

The wealthier nations of the world have also committed themselves to help poorer countries achieve the Millennium Development Goals:
-- Reduce poverty and the unacceptably high rates of maternal and child mortality.
-- Increase access to education.
-- Ensure gender equality.

At the Youth Forum last month, these goals seemed achievable -- even inevitable. For three glorious days, the future of Africa looked very bright indeed.

Ambrose's plea for an education was carried by his peers to the ears of his president and beyond. Educated young people are the promise and future of the African continent. Their leaders would do well to listen to them.

]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.592332 2010-05-27T15:01:23-04:00 2011-05-25T16:35:20-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
Mr. Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the African Union Panel on Darfur has clearly aligned itself with Khartoum. One panel member, former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Al Sayed, said in an interview with an Egyptian newspaper, "The prosecution of an African head of state before an international tribunal is totally unacceptable. Our goal was to find a way out."

The African Union panel is led by former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who in 2008 dismissed the ICC indictment, saying that it is "the responsibility of the Sudanese state to act on those matters." Then, late last year his panel proposed a counter initiative to the ICC in the form of a hybrid Sudan-based court with both Arab and African judges to be selected by the African Union.

But all this is moot since Mr. Bashir swiftly rejected Mr. Mbeki's proposal. Perversely, Mr. Gration has now thrown U.S. government support to a tribunal that does not and probably will never exist. Even if it did, the "locally owned accountability" he refers to is not feasible under prevailing political conditions, as any Sudan-based court will be controlled by the perpetrators themselves.

For seven years, the people of Darfur have been pleading for protection and for justice. They do not believe either peace or justice can come while Mr. Bashir -- orchestrator of their suffering -- remains president of Sudan. Nor do they believe "locally owned accountability" is remotely possible under the current regime.

When Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, hope abounded, even in Darfur's bleak refugee camps. Darfuris believed this son of Africa could understand their suffering, would end the violence that has taken so much from them, and bring Mr. Bashir to justice. The refugees hoped that "Yes we can" was meant for them too. They believed President Obama would bring peace and protection to Darfur and would settle for nothing less than true justice.

I have held new babies named Obama and watched as Darfuris began to dream again. Fatima Haroun, a 24-year-old widow and mother told me the day was surely near when the refugees could leave the filth and hunger of the camps and safely return to the ashes of their villages. First, she said, they would honor their lost loved ones; they would search the ashes for bones, wrap them in best cloths, and bury them with respect. They would gather wood and tall grasses to rebuild their homes, they would sing new songs and prepare their fields for planting. Hunger and terror would go away. Omar al-Bashir would rot in jail.

Such hopes did not last long.

Nearly three million souls are still waiting in wretched camps across Darfur and eastern Chad. Sudanese government bombs are still falling, murderers and rapists still roam free, and the refugees have not felt safe for a very long time. The Secretary General of the United Nations,
Ban Ki-Moon, has expressed concern over increasing levels of violence in Darfur.

In their darkest hours and through losses too grievous to fathom, the world has repeatedly abandoned the people of Darfur. Over more than seven years, two American presidents have used the word "genocide" to describe what was has unfolded there, but they have done little to end it.

It is past time for us to step up and accept our moral obligation to protect a defenseless people. The American people should urge Mr. Gration and the Obama administration to lead a diplomatic offensive to convince the world to isolate Omar al Bashir as a fugitive from justice, and to whole-heartedly support the only body offering Darfur's people a measure of authentic justice: the International Criminal Court.

Ms. Farrow has visited Darfur and eastern Chad 13 times since 2004.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.530560 2010-04-08T14:18:14-04:00 2011-05-25T16:05:22-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/ the April 11 elections in that country-the first since 1986-will be as "free and fair as possible."

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir should be plastering "We Love Gration" posters all over Khartoum. No one in Sudan believes the elections will be anything approaching free or fair.

Intimidation, vote rigging, manipulation of the census, and bribing of tribal leaders are rampant. Most of the 2.7 million displaced Darfuris are living in refugee camps. They are unable or unwilling to be counted at all. All of this, plus the ongoing violence in Darfur, have caused key opposition candidates including Yassir Arman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement to withdraw from the election.



The Carter Center, the only international observer mission in Sudan, announced that the election process is "at risk on multiple fronts" and requested a modest delay of the election. Mr. Bashir threatened to oust the observers, saying on state TV last month: "if they interfere in our affairs, we will cut their fingers off, put them under our shoes and throw them out."

Taking an unusually edgy stance, the Save Darfur Coalition -- an alliance of more than 190 faith-based, advocacy and human-rights organizations -- is urging the U.S. and the international community not to legitimize Sudan's presidential election. "We believe the election is not going to be free and fair, and it's not even going to be credible," said Robert Lawrence, the Coalition's director of policy. "The last thing we want is for the results to legitimize the dictatorial rule of President al-Bashir."

Hope is rare in Darfur, but when Barack Obama became president the refugees had reason to be hopeful. As a junior senator in 2006, Mr. Obama made his feelings about Darfur quite clear. "Today we know what is right, and today we know what is wrong. The slaughter of innocents is wrong. Two million people driven from their homes is wrong. Women gang raped while gathering firewood is wrong. And silence, acquiescence and paralysis in the face of genocide is wrong."

A year later, then-candidate Barack Obama said: "When you see a genocide, whether it's in Rwanda or Bosnia or in Darfur, that's a stain on all of us. That's a stain on our souls."

Darfuris were listening, and they hoped anew when President Obama said the Sudanese regime "offended the standards of our common humanity." They believed he would appoint an envoy who would take their plight seriously and serve as an honest broker between warring rebel groups and the Sudanese regime.



And how is his appointed envoy dealing with the perpetrators of those atrocities that have stained our souls? "We've got to think about giving out cookies," Mr. Gration told the Washington Post last fall. "Kids, countries-they react to gold stars, smiley faces..."

Cookies for a regime that is as savvy as it is cruel? Smiley faces for a thug who seized power by coup in 1989 and has retained it only through iron-fisted brutality? Gold stars for an indicted war criminal responsible for the murder, rape and displacement of millions?

This spectacularly naïve perspective-and accompanying policy of appeasement-has further terrified Darfur's refugees, who feel increasingly abandoned by the U.S. and marginalized within their country.

With the support of Mr. Gration and the U.S., the bogus Sudanese elections will move forward with what the International Crisis Group has labeled "catastrophic consequences."

"Since the April vote will impose illegitimate officials through rigged polls, Darfuris will be left with little or no hope of a peaceful change in the status quo," warns EJ Hogendoorn, the Crisis Group's Horn of Africa project director. "Instead many will look to rebel groups to fight and win back their lost rights and lands."

Following this Sunday's election, there is little doubt as to who will be the president of Sudan. So it is crucial that international observers, world governments, the African Union and the U.N. Security Council acknowledge the deeply corrupt voting process that will reinstate President Omar al-Bashir. They should declare publicly that Mr. Bashir, a man indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, will rule without a genuine democratic mandate.

His regime must not be granted the legitimacy he craves.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.504771 2010-03-18T16:07:14-04:00 2011-05-25T15:55:20-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/ Kanem region, Chad

Mao is a sand swept town in the Kanem region in the far west of Chad. It is the most desolate and powerfully beautiful place I have ever seen. There are no roads here. Homes are constructed of bricks made of sand and dung. Through the centuries, little has changed in Mao. The people have always been herders, farmers and traders. The men ride camels, the women and children, donkeys.



But the rainfall last year was barely a third of what it once was and the sands of the Sahel have been moving relentlessly over the parched Kanem region. With drought came the failure of the crops. The food stocks are gone. The people of Mao remain hopeful. They sweep the sand from their rooms and courtyards, they build more walls and they tend tiny, thorny trees carefully sheltered from the blowing sand inside little teepees. But the saplings are struggling and few survive. Trees planted years ago still produce green leaves, but strangely their roots have begun to reach out of the sand toward the rainless sky.



The Sultan of Kanem is a tall, elegant man who, like his father before him, has presided over the region from his seat in Mao for most of his 90 years. His eyes are clouded as he ponders the unthinkable--whether the day is near when he will have to lead his people away from beautiful, ancient Mao to distant riverbeds, which will fill when the rains come. There, things would grow, people would have enough to eat again and the animals could graze. As things are, he explained, the camels are dying.



But the real horror, the unspeakable truth is that the babies of Mao are dying too. The numbers of starving children far exceed the capacity of Unicef's emergency feeding center. Cases of formula and life-saving nutrients are arriving, but many children are already too weak to swallow. The Chadian government must urgently take action, along with the World Food Program and other relief agencies before it is too late.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.497949 2010-03-13T13:58:07-05:00 2011-05-25T15:50:25-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/ Lord's Resistance Army ( LRA).

The LRA is Ugandan cult army without any current political agenda. It was founded by Joseph Kony in the 1980s. Since then Kony and his followers have been moving through deepest brush in Uganda, Congo, south Sudan and CAR, emerging only to plunder villages and to murder, rape, abduct and mutilate people. They abduct children to use as sex slaves, porters and to replenish their fighting forces.

Sudanese planes have been spotted delivering arms and supplies to LRA outposts. A witness reported watching a plane full of weapons being unloaded, after which children were brought out of the bush and put on the plane. Presumably the children were flown back to northern Sudan to be sold on the slave market.

After the LRA attacked a Central African village in Obo, they took three hundred children. I spoke to a UN rep who described the silence of the childless village, interrupted by the sound of weeping parents.

In the 1990s and early 2000s the LRA served as a proxy army for the Sudanese government in its war against south Sudan -- just as that same regime would later work in tandem with the marauding Janjaweed militia.

In the past year alone the LRA have killed thousands and sent almost a half a million traumatized people fleeing from their homes. The militia has now moved into south Darfur -- an area controlled by the Sudanese Government.

LRA leader Joseph Kony and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir have a thing or two in common. Both are wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Ugandan Army has pursued and killed some members of the LRA, but in Sudan they have been offered a safe haven by their patron, Omer al-Bashir.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2010:/theblog//3.420492 2010-01-12T15:00:09-05:00 2011-05-25T15:10:21-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
Ms. Gies, a Catholic, risked her life to keep the eight alive, bringing them fresh food, books and newspapers. In 1944 they were betrayed by an unknown informant and taken to concentration camps. Again risking her own life, Miep Gies went to Gestapo headquarters and tried in vain to secure their release by offering money. Anne -- by then, 15 -- and her older sister Margot died in Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

Otto was the sole survivor of the Frank family. Ms Gies gave him Anne's diary which she had saved and which became, after the bible, the best selling non-fiction book in the world.

I had the great privilege of spending time with Miep Gies in New York and in Amsterdam. I was eager for my children to meet her, and to try to learn what it was within her that caused her to do these extraordinary things. Why Miep Gies? Why Raul Wallenberg? Why Schindler? And most importantly, why not everyone?

Miep shed no light on her decisions. "Of course it was not easy," she told me, "But what else could I do?" The profundity of her response lies in its simple ordinariness. For Miep, there were no other options. She could not have done otherwise.

I have a Rwandan friend who survived the 1994 genocide but lost most of her family and was witness to unimaginable atrocities. Based on what took place in her country, she calculates that "95 percent of people will pick up a machete and kill strangers and friends alike for 90 days. This we know. Three percent -- they don't want to kill, they will run away" she told me.

My friend's words dropped me into the bleakest silence. But eventually I thought, Two percent! That's not zero! We have something to build on.

Miep Gies always insisted, "I am not a hero. There is nothing special about me." I respectfully disagree. Ms Gies was among the 'two percent' who set the bar, show us the way, and help us all feel more hopeful about being human. ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.188741 2009-04-19T15:54:13-04:00 2011-05-25T13:15:26-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
The Darfur crisis deepened on March 4th when the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese president President Omar al-Bashir for his essential role in the murder, rape, torture and displacement of millions. Al-Bashir retaliated immediately by expelling thirteen key international aid agencies from Sudan, including Save the Children, Doctors Without Borders, CARE, Oxfam and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) along with three highly respected Sudanese agencies.

Sudanese U.N. Ambassador Abdalhaleem claimed his government would have no problem filling in any gaps created by the expulsions. But U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes spoke honestly about the desperate realities: "We do not, as the U.N. system, the NGOs do not, and the Sudanese government does not have the capacity to replace all the activities that have been going on. This is a decision which is likely to have a major impact on millions of people in Darfur who are in need on a daily basis, of life-saving humanitarian assistance." According to the UN, as of this May more than a million people will be without food aid, medical assistance, and drinkable water.

The United Nations humanitarian agencies issued their joint plea; "The suspended NGOs account for more than half of the capacity for the aid operation in Darfur. If the life-saving assistance these agencies were providing is not restored shortly, it will have immediate, lasting and profound impacts on the well being of millions of Sudanese citizens. These organizations provide a lifeline to 4.7 million people."

I undertake this fast in the heartfelt hope that world leaders who know what is just and right will call upon the Government of Sudan to urgently readmit all of the expelled agencies or otherwise insure that the gap is filled, giving aid workers unimpeded access to the populations before they begin to die in numbers that could dwarf the Rwandan genocide. I also call upon President Obama and other leaders with influence to help build a credible peace process that can end the suffering in Darfur.

I hope human rights advocates and citizens of conscience around the world will join me in some form of fasting, even if for one day. And when I can no longer continue, I pray another will take my place, and another-- until finally there is justice and peace for Darfur's people. ]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.177179 2009-03-19T21:47:08-04:00 2011-05-25T13:10:22-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/
In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mbeki now heads an African Union panel set up in January 2009. It's composed of current and former African officials and it is tasked with helping to bring peace to war ravaged Darfur. It is also charged with investigating the atrocities committed in Darfur and advising the African Union on how to deal with perpetrators. They will issue a report of their findings in July. Today Mbeki announced that the panel will not consider any of the evidence compiled by the International Criminal Court.

On March 4 the ICC announced an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, torture and the forced displacement of millions in the Darfur region of Sudan.]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2009:/theblog//3.172284 2009-03-05T16:02:34-05:00 2011-05-25T13:05:20-04:00

Mia Farrow http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mia-farrow/



It is less widely known that within hours of the ICC's call for his arrest, al-Bashir expelled 13 key humanitarian agencies from Sudan. They include Oxfam, Solidarities, Mercy Corps, Doctors Without Borders, CARE, Save the Children and the International Rescue Committee. Armed men have forcibly shut down aid compounds, seizing computers, cameras, personal phones and vehicles.

These agencies provided life saving food, water, health care and sanitation to more than two million displaced people. Humanitarian operations in Darfur are now facing total collapse.

Since 2003 the world watched hundreds of thousands die in Darfur. Are we now prepared to watch millions of innocent men, women and children perish of hunger and disease?

(photo by Mia Farrow)]]>