17 Apr 08 - Harry Potter fans in their thousands are getting behind a campaign to bring Darfur's war crimes suspects to justice by signing up to a letter to UN Security Council decision-makers at http://www.wantedforwarcrimes.org/hpa.
Building on the momentum of Sunday's global day of action for Darfur - which marked the fifth anniversary of the start of the crisis and focussed on a call to end the suffering of Darfur's children - the Harry Potter Alliance yesterday issued a call for fans to back the 'Wanted for War Crimes' campaign and "join Harry, Dumbledore, and our real world hero Jo Rowling in making this world a place where the spirit of every child, including the children of Darfur, can be safe to come out of the cupboard and experience the magic of life and love." (http://www.thehpalliance.org/)
The Alliance, which describes itself as 'dedicated to using the examples of Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore to spread love and fight the Dark Arts in the real world', set a target of one thousand signatures from Potter fans to an email going to all fifteen heads of mission at the UN Security Council, calling for action from the UN to secure the arrest of Sudanese officials Ahmed Harun and Ali Kushayb, wanted by the International Criminal Court for international crimes in Darfur.
"Within the first 24 hours of our campaign we secured over 2000 sign-ups. Thanks to this terrific response, we've upped the target to 5,000 signatures," says Andrew Slack, founder of the HP Alliance. "The UN Security Council continues to act like Cornelius Fudge and the Ministry of Magic, doing nothing to turn the ICC's indictments into arrests. As a Dumbledore’s Army for the real world, we call on Harry Potter fans everywhere to wake up the UN Security Council to vote to arrest these real world Death Eaters who are suspected of major war crimes."
On 27 April, it will be a year since Harun and Kushayb were indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, including the rape and murder of women and children. Kushayb is allegedly one of the leaders of the brutal Janjaweed militia, which has worked with the Sudanese army to sweep Darfur's Africans out of their villages over the past five years, killing hundreds of thousands and leaving millions in displaced people's camps. As former Head of the Darfur Security Desk, Harun is suspected of being one of the architects of ethnic cleansing in Darfur. Now Sudan's Minister for Humanitarian Affairs, he presides over continuous obstruction of the international humanitarian response.
The UN Security Council will meet on 5 June for a briefing from ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on the progress of the Darfur investigation, and take a vote on further action in response to the crisis. Ocampo is set to visit London on 7 May, ahead of his UN briefing, to speak to British Parliamentarians. His visit is being organised by the Aegis Trust for genocide prevention, responsible for coordinating the 'Wanted for War Crimes' network in which over fifty NGOs are partners.
"It is time that organisers of genocide and ethnic cleansing are brought to account, including those responsible for acts of mass murder in Darfur. The tools and laws exist but are not being used effectively," says Dr James Smith, Chief Executive of the Aegis Trust. "The response of Harry Potter fans to this campaign so far has been amazing. Given the sheer size of Potter's global fan base, its potential to act as a force for good in the real world is huge."
