Genocide. Please do not disturb!

In preparation for the third Global Day for Darfur on 29^th April Fairplanet and the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) are beginning their joint campaign RettetDarfur.de. Fairplanet and the GfbV want with a large-scale information programme to provide information on the extent of the crimes which have now lasted for four years in the west of Sudan and awake interest in the matter. The most important instrument is the online offer www.RettetDarfur.de , which now provides a simple access to information and petitions. The slogan of the campaign has deliberately been formulated provocatively, being addressed at politicians and the media. It reads: Genocide. Please do not disturb! For the facts are that the international community has up to the present day not been able to combat the genocide with effective measures. Prominent guests are expected at the press conference on 27^th April and we shall shortly be informing you on the details.

The idea behind the campaign of Fairplanet and the GfbV is a new one: they are consciously rejecting the depiction of the suffering of those affected. „Our aim is to make the consequences of this genocide felt by association”, said the project manager, Ute Schechtel of Fairplanet. With www.Rettet Darfur.de Fairplanet and the GfbV are aiming not only at providing information, but above all at inducing people to play an active part themselves and to take up a position on the matter.

Other instruments of the campaign are various video-clips of the well-known New York film director Noaz Deshe and „Genocide. Please do not disturb!” door-handle-signs to replace the classical flyer. Noaz Deshe has adopted a challenging approach to the topic and in his clips, which are of a high artistic standard, he visualises the way in which people disappear. The films will be presented for the first time at the press conference and on the Global Day for Darfur they can be seen on the video screen at the Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz.

The background: For four years the Sudanese government has without let or hindrance carried out the plan of driving out with the aid of Arab mounted militia large sections of the black African population of Darfur. Almost half of the villages in the west of Sudan have now been destroyed. The Bashir regime employs army units to join in the individual murders and massacres of the militia. Eye-witnesses report that the militia receive regular air support and are joined by soldiers in their attacks. The GfbV estimates that some 400,000 people have been killed in Darfur since the beginning of the genocide four years ago and that about two million have been expelled. Three million people need humanitarian assistance. The conflict is gradually spreading to the Chad and the Central African Republic.

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