Not On Our Watch

This is a story of tragedy and suffering on an epic scale.
Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End
NOT ON OUR WATCH

Genocide in Darfur and Beyond is the critically acclaimed book by Don Cheadle
and John Prendergast.
Cheadle first became aware of the conflict in Darfur conflict while filming Hotel
Rwanda. Shocked and energized by the scale of the emerging crisis, he set about
raising awareness of the Darfur conflict with John Prendergast, a former advisor
to Bill Clinton.
The authors have travelled to the refugee camps of Sudan and Chad to pay witness to
the unfolding tragedy which has claimed the lives of 400,000 people and displaced a
further 2 million people.
In this heartfelt and moving book, Cheadle and Prendergast challenge readers to
become politically active and help prevent the Darfur genocide from continuing.
Not on Our Watch is an empowering book. It offers six strategies readers themselves can
implement: Raise Awareness, Raise Funds, Write a Letter, Call for Divestment, Start
a Political Organization, and Lobby the Government. Each of these small actions can
make a huge difference in the fate of a nation, and a people – not only in Darfur, but
in other crisis zones such as Somalia, Congo, and northern Uganda.
This book is about Darfur, about Africa, about injustice and genocide and how to stop
it; it sends a powerful message to the world on what needs to be done to save lives.
The time for action is now.
DON CHEADLE & JOHN PRENDERGAST

“Don and John are two of the great champions of
ending this genocide. With this book they remind
us that any individual can change the world for the
NOT ON OUR WATCH
better. And they also remind us that we are bear THE MISSION TO END GENOCIDE
responsibility for this crime against humanity”
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR AND CO-FOUNDER
IN DARFUR AND BEYOND
OF THE NOT ON OUR WATCH PROJECT.
DON CHEADLE
John Prendergast and Don Cheadle on the
Darfur-Eastern Chad border
JOHN PRENDERGAST
‘This book is a rallying cry to every person in the
www.maverickhouse.com world to help save Darfur and stop this genocide.’
- ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU,
Cover designed by Sin É
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE
A portion of the proceeds is being donated to ENOUGH, the project

to abolish genocide and mass atrocities (www.enoughproject.org) THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition www.CutePDF.co
DON CHEADLE is one of America’s most acclaimed actors. He
was nominated for an academy award for his portrayal of Paul
Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda. His film credits include Traffic,
Crash, Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen. He has written for
USA Today and the Wall Street Journal on Darfur with Prendergast.
Cheadle lives in Los Angeles.
JOHN PRENDERGAST is co-founder of the ENOUGH Project.

He previously worked at the White House and State Department
during the Clinton administration. He has lived, worked and
travelled throughout Africa for over 20 years. Prendergast lives in
Washington, DC.
PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition www.CutePDF.com
Not_on_our_watch.indb 1 16/07/2007 15:46:42

PRAISE FOR NOT ON OUR WATCH
‘A persuasive and authoritative call for action with an

engaging personal touch.’
- Kirkus Reviews
‘Not On Our Watch’s combination of practical information

and instructions blended with memoir, history and tales
of success from past activism should provide inspiration
whether the reader is taking his or her first baby steps
towards getting involved in any form of activism (or
simply picked up the book because it’s co-written by a
movie star), or is already convinced that the pen truly can
be mightier than the sword and is looking for specifics on
this particular conflict.’
- BookBrowse.com
‘This book is a guide for those already involved, as well

as those who are interested in taking action, or speaking
out against the mass killings that continue to occur in the
country’s Darfur region. Informative and inspiring...’
- Publishers Weekly

O

THE MISSION TO END GENOCIDE
IN DARFUR AND BEYOND
◆
NOT ON
O U R WAT C H
Don Cheadle & John Prendergast

First published in 2007 in the USA by Hyperion.
2nd edition published in 2007 by Maverick House Publishers.
Copyright for text © 2007 The Write Element, Inc. and John Prendergast.
Published by arrangement with Hyperion.
Maverick House, Main Street, Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath, Ireland.

Maverick House Asia, Level 41, United Centre, 323 Silom Road, Bangrak,
Bangkok 10500, Thailand.
info@maverickhouse.com
http://www.maverickhouse.com
ISBN: 978-1-905379-45-3
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this book comes from wood pulp of managed forests.
For every tree felled, at least one tree is planted, thereby renewing natural
resources.
‘The rights of Don Cheadle and John Prendergast to be identified as the

authors of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.’
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or
by any means without written permission from the publisher, except by a
reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review
written for insertion in a newspaper, magazine or broadcast.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements 9
Foreword 15
Introduction 17
Preface: On Our Watch 21
1. Challenges and Choices 25

2. Two Paths Out of Apathy 43
3. Sudan’s Backdrop to Genocide 89
4. From the Front Lines of Darfur 115
5. Citizens v. Government 133
6. Activist Beginnings and Success Stories 158
7. The Upstanders 188
8. Strategies for Effective Change 223
9. Stop Mass Atrocities Now: An Agenda for Change 282
Conclusion: Never Again 315

Appendix 331
Endnotes 345
Glossary of Abbreviations 350

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
W hen we say we wouldn’t have been able to write this

book without the help of the following people, we
really mean we wouldn’t have written this book without
their help. Another way to put it is that there would be no
book without the following people. Is there any other way
to make this clearer?
We are indebted to Heather Bourbeau and Colin
Thomas-Jensen, who helped us write certain sections of
the book and edited us mercilessly. We were very lucky to
have Gretchen Young as our editor at Hyperion. Our book
agent, Joe Veltre, hooked us up with just the right situation.
And we had the best research team any two bumbling co-
authors could ever hope for, including: Caroline Andresen,
Patrick Arnold, Lindsey Carter, Chrissie Coxon, Annie
Denes, Rashid Galadanci, Lindsay Joiner, Jamie Morgan,
Kevin Murungi, Susana Rodriguez, Julia Spiegel, Taylor
Steelman, David Sullivan, Leora Ward, and Sara Weisman.
Others who have contributed in various ways include

Kay Liberman, Lenore Zerman, Bonnie Abaunza, Semhar
Araia, John Norris, Robert Malley, Jean Coleman, Alexis
Hyder, Valerie Nussenblatt, Lisa Rogoff, and Caitlin Wall.
To all, we are in your debt.
Don Cheadle and John Prendergast
10

FOREWORD
I am a Jew who remembers when my people in German-

occupied Europe were condemned to isolation, hunger,
humiliation, unspeakable terror and death. Until almost
the end of the war, nobody came to our rescue.
I am a member of the human family who remembers
that 800,000 human beings were massacred in Rwanda in
1994. They could have been saved, but nobody came to their
rescue. The leaders of the world knew of the perpetrators’
intention and their victims’ vulnerability, but they failed
to respond. Everything was known and, to the shame of
civilized society, hundreds of thousands of men, women
and children were abandoned and then slaughtered.
I am writing this now because in Darfur, Sudan, families
are being uprooted and starved, children tormented and
murdered in the thousands, and women raped with
impunity. The world knows that the non-Arab peoples of
Darfur are dying by the thousands, yet, in the eyes of the
victims, the world remains indifferent to their plight.
I refuse to remain silent while leaders of the world
make excuses for failing to protect the people of Darfur.
I am writing to voice my compassion for the victims and
15

my anger at leaders who are timorous, complacent and
unwilling to take risks. Remember: silence helps the killer,
never his victims.
Darfur is today’s capital of human suffering. Darfur
deserves to live, and American citizens are providing it
with reason to hope. Not to help, not to urge our elected
officials to intervene and save innocent lives in any
manner possible and needed is to condemn us on grounds
of immorality. Our failure to speak out to end the ongoing
genocide in Darfur would place us on the wrong side of
history. And that thought must seem intolerable to all of
us.
For the sake of our humanity, SAVE DARFUR!
Professor Elie Wiesel
16

INTRODUCTION:
When Ordinary becomes Extraordinary
S E NAT O R B A R AC K O B A M A A N D
S E NAT O R S A M B R OW N B AC K
I ssues that transcend politics in Washington, DC, are

rare. However, there is one such cause that is worth
putting political differences aside for. It is a cause that
is more important than winning elections or raising
campaign money. It is a cause that gets too little press
attention despite the massive human consequences. The
cause is Darfur.
Darfur is home to the first genocide of the 21st century.
After the genocide in Rwanda, in which 800,000 people
were killed, the world said we would not tolerate this
ever again. Amazingly, the words ‘Never Again’ have
continued to be uttered in the months—and now years—
that have passed since 2003, when the killing started in
the remote western region of Sudan. We continue to hear
people say this genocide cannot continue, but it continues
every day. Up to 400,000 have been killed and millions
displaced.
17

INTRODUCTION
Why should we care about human suffering in Africa

or anywhere else?
First of all, preventing, suppressing, and punishing
genocide is a moral imperative. Both personally, and as
Western nations, we cannot sit idly by as innocent people
are indiscriminately killed and forced out of their homes
by violence.
The second reason genocide should matter to all of us
is that we have all made a promise. ‘Save Darfur’ is not
simply a slogan; it is an international commitment. The
fact that some countries choose to look away from horrors
such as those in Darfur does not allow us to shirk our
responsibility.
Third, eradicating genocide will make the world safer.
When we look out at the sea of humanity forced to live
off handouts in UN refugee camps in Chad or Sudan, it is
easy to forget that stopping genocide is not simply about
charity; it is about creating a safer world for our children
as well as for the refugee children stuck in the squalor of
exile. History has taught us that regimes that target their
own people rarely confine their murderous ambitions
within their borders. Moreover, the victims—those who
have been attacked not for anything they have done as
individuals, but simply because of their religion or their
ethnicity—tend not to go quietly into the night. Some
radicalise, taking up arms against their assailants, and,
eventually, joining criminal or even terrorist networks.
The violence spreads; the innocents suffer.
So what does it take to stop genocide? What does it
take to make the world listen and respond? It takes a
18

INTRODUCTION
number of important tools, including diplomacy, financial

resources, and effective security forces. And in a world
where these resources are finite, it often takes pressure—
pressure from ordinary individuals standing together for
an extraordinary cause—to mobilise these resources. In
short, it takes you.
We are inspired by the occasions in world history
when citizens, community leaders, and politicians have
united in the struggle for truth, justice, and basic human
dignity—in expanding civil rights, in helping bring an end
to apartheid, and in speeding the fall of the Berlin Wall.
We are sobered by the chapters in our past in which we
have let injustices and atrocities unfold on our watch.
As members of the US Congress, representing
different states and different constituents, we have been
heartened, during what can feel like dark times, to hear
loud, persistent, and inspirational voices from all corners
of our own nation, and across the world, calling for action
to end the massacres in Darfur. These voices have come
from men and women of all ages, religions, and national
backgrounds. We in Congress have heard this remarkable
range of voices, and although we don’t always align on
the details of foreign policy, we are committed to moving
forward to help halt this genocide.
While Darfur is a current and pressing crisis, and while
the anti-genocide movement in the United States and
abroad has grown in response to today’s horrors, it must
expand its reach and its range. Just as surely as we know
that hate-mongering individuals will strike out against the
innocent in the future, we must also know that you will be
19

INTRODUCTION
there to sound the alarm, to hold your leaders accountable

for their sins of omission, to move us away from slogans
to concrete measures that save lives.
Genocide is an exceptional crime. It will only be
overcome if ‘extraordinary ordinary’ voices unite to
summon the world’s leaders to action.
20

PREFACE: ON OUR WATCH
‘N ot on our watch.’ What does this phrase mean and

why have we chosen it as our title? The origin of
the phrase is nautical; it refers to sailors who take turns
sharing the responsibility of being ‘officer of the watch’
aboard a ship. Whether this responsibility is requested
or thrust upon the officer, it is to be taken very seriously,
as any wrongdoing that occurs on his or her ‘watch’ will
result in a demerit or bad mark, even if the officer was not
directly involved in the incident. For better or worse, the
buck stops here. ‘On your watch,’ on your record.
The phrase has since been co-opted in myriad ways,
from managers talking to staff, to captains briefing cops, to
teachers cautioning students, and even to parents warning
their children that no misconduct will be tolerated while
they are in command. And during President Bush’s first
year in office, when reviewing a report on the Rwandan
genocide, he wrote in the margins, ‘Not on my watch’.
Perhaps he was putting his team on notice that he would
21

P R E FA C E : O N O U R W AT C H
not be the commander ‘of the watch’ while a similar

genocide rolled on. Maybe it was just a shot across his
predecessor’s bow, an observation to be passed around
in the circle that a ‘bonehead’ move like this, allowing
genocide to occur while you held the reins, would never
go down on this president’s watch. It might have even
been jotted down as a reminder or note to himself: ‘Note
to self: thwart genocide.’
We don’t know the answer, but we do know this: as
you read these words thousands of innocent people in
Darfur are being systematically targeted for extermination.
Their crime is that they are from specific non-Arab ethnic
groups that are deemed to be sympathetic to rebel groups
in Darfur; the ‘officer of the watch’ aboard this ship:
apparently no one. Aside from the humanitarian aid
workers caring for the war’s victims, the only people
who can claim any such accountability are the African
Union members stationed in Darfur and its surrounding
areas. In their case this accountability is only as strong as
their mandate, which does not allow them to engage the
enemy, but rather simply to share reports with the United
Nations on the results of the almost daily marauding runs.
The UN’s ‘watch’ in turn, is hampered by its member
states’ reticence to intervene in the affairs of a sovereign
nation, despite the fact that it was precisely the need to
confront this kind of crisis that led to the creation of this
international body.
So whose ‘watch’ is it? Who stands on deck aboard
this world-ship, assuming responsibility for the actions
that occur during the shift? To us, the answer is clear: the
22

P R E FA C E : O N O U R W AT C H
responsibility of the ‘watch’ lies with those who take it

up. Neither of us is a president, world leader, general, or
captain of a gunboat, but we wish to take up the ‘watch’
and we know that there are thousands, maybe millions,
like us who desire to tell their children and grandchildren
that at a time when there was a terrible thing called
genocide, to which those in power turned a deaf ear and
blind eye, people like us spoke so loudly, in numbers so
great, that we could not be ignored.
We take our ‘watch’ as seriously as any officer on
board and believe in our deepest hearts that the power
of the collective can override the reservations of the few,
regardless of position or prominence. We pray that we
can steer clear of demerits on our record, keep bad marks
at bay, and with the words that follow help us all to be
worthy of our roles as ‘officers of the watch’. We did not
start this fire, but let us work together to put it out.
For those of us who don’t want to just talk about it and
want to BE about it, the buck stops here.
23

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This is a story of tragedy and suffering on an epic scale.

Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End

DON CHEADLE & JOHN PRENDERGAST

A portion of the proceeds is being donated to ENOUGH, the project

JOHN PRENDERGAST is co-founder of the ENOUGH Project.

PDF processed with CutePDF evaluation edition www.CutePDF.com

Not_on_our_watch.indb 1 16/07/2007 15:46:42

‘A persuasive and authoritative call for action with an

‘Not On Our Watch’s combination of practical information

‘This book is a guide for those already involved, as well

Not_on_our_watch.indb 3 16/07/2007 15:46:43

Not_on_our_watch.indb 4 16/07/2007 15:46:44

Don Cheadle & John Prendergast

Not_on_our_watch.indb 5 16/07/2007 15:46:45

Published by arrangement with Hyperion.

Maverick House, Main Street, Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath, Ireland.

‘The rights of Don Cheadle and John Prendergast to be identiﬁed as the

All rights reserved.

Not_on_our_watch.indb 6 16/07/2007 15:46:45

1. Challenges and Choices 25

Conclusion: Never Again 315

Not_on_our_watch.indb 7 16/07/2007 15:46:46

W hen we say we wouldn’t have been able to write this

Not_on_our_watch.indb 9 16/07/2007 15:46:46

Don Cheadle and John Prendergast

Not_on_our_watch.indb 10 16/07/2007 15:46:46

I am a Jew who remembers when my people in German-

Not_on_our_watch.indb 15 16/07/2007 15:46:50

Professor Elie Wiesel

Not_on_our_watch.indb 16 16/07/2007 15:46:50

When Ordinary becomes Extraordinary

I ssues that transcend politics in Washington, DC, are

Not_on_our_watch.indb 17 16/07/2007 15:46:50

Why should we care about human suffering in Africa

Not_on_our_watch.indb 18 16/07/2007 15:46:50

number of important tools, including diplomacy, ﬁnancial

Not_on_our_watch.indb 19 16/07/2007 15:46:50

there to sound the alarm, to hold your leaders accountable

Not_on_our_watch.indb 20 16/07/2007 15:46:50

‘N ot on our watch.’ What does this phrase mean and

Not_on_our_watch.indb 21 16/07/2007 15:46:50

not be the commander ‘of the watch’ while a similar

Not_on_our_watch.indb 22 16/07/2007 15:46:51

responsibility of the ‘watch’ lies with those who take it

Not_on_our_watch.indb 23 16/07/2007 15:46:51

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