Mark J. Ruehlmann, Esq.
Chairman / Global CEO
Squire Patton Boggs
221 E. Fourth St., Suite 2900
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Dear Mr. Ruehlmann,
We, the undersigned 130 Sudanese, scholars and human rights organizations, write to request your help. Your firm is lobbying for the government of Sudan, a regime comparable to the Nazis whose leaders are indicted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. At the hand of your client, over 3 million Sudanese have been killed and over 5 million have been forcibly removed from their homes. The regime has eliminated all basic freedoms and Sudanese are discriminated against and targeted because of their race and religion. Christians, in particular, are persecuted and their places of worship destroyed. We believe the actions of the Sudan regime are incompatible with the values of your firm, which emphasize corporate responsibility and fostering social justice, and the values of all Americans. Therefore, we write to strongly urge Squire Patton Boggs to no longer associate itself with the Sudan regime.
We and others have reached out to your firm about this matter; however the response has not been satisfactory given the serious threat the regime poses to millions of innocent people. To underscore this reality, we include below messages from two Sudanese from the Darfur region who are trying to survive as refugees in Chad, Oumda and Adam Mussa.
Oumda and Adam in a Chad refugee camp for Sudanese
From Adam Mussa:
I am from destroyed, neglected, discriminated, displaced and completely looted Darfur, Sudan. We learned that in the USA there are a group of lawyers working to lobby the government that we believe has the best values in the world, the government that defends human rights, democracy, and liberty to lift US sanctions against the government that delivered and raised the world terrorists, and that promotes hate, injustices, corruption and discrimination; the government that displaced its own people to replace them by terrorists; and the same government that is ruled by international criminals wanted by ICC. My message to this distinguished group is please don’t exchange our life and our children’s future for money. Know that we who are now in Sudan, many families, are starving why because our money always goes to weapons, to the Janjaweed, and to the terrorists for Jihad. Please help us to send Albashir to the ICC for Justice then the Sudanese will be well prepared for real friendship and cooperation with the government of the United States of America. Thank you.
From Oumda:
MY EYES ARE CRYING, MY INJURIES BLEEDING, WHEN CAN THIS STOP??
The government of Sudan is one of the regimes that cannot be trusted. We even have one proverb, says that you can believe the devil, rather than Sudan government! No one can imagine, for how many years those victims of Darfur suffered, and still the same attacks, killings, rapes, captures, arrests, and tortures are going on! Crimes which all the nations saw and heard! But no change for a minute from the Government of Sudan to improve the situation, and it uses all the opportunities to make the military forces and Janjaweed ready to fight. Look how many US presidents came and went, all of them sanctioned al-Bashir regime, but the same actions are still going on!
What we know is this regime purchases guns to kill one person, rather than to use money in building schools, or to implement any agreement to approach peace. It sees that spending money to devastate any part of Sudan or people is more easy than improvements!
All these terrible things are leading to expose the efforts of GoS to wash out the lives of Darfuri people. The Government of Sudan should be under redoubled sanction – any help from communities, organizations, or individuals to Government of Sudan to lift sanctions means participating in the crimes of the genocide
My voice is voice of millions of victims of Darfur, Djebal Alnouba, Blue Nile, and all the marginalized people collectively in Sudan. By their name, I am calling all the advocates, activists, experts, groups fighting for the rights, and individuals who have kind heart: to work very hard, to stop those who are defending the Sudan regime and who use the money before humanity, for their wealth!
See these innocents, they need a better life with dignity, education, peaceful environment, to grow like any child around the world, but they didn’t find it. What do you think about a life like this? If you have a kind heart don’t you see young children like yours are suffering? What did they do to be in situations like this? We need your voice to change this crisis, as a human for humanity.
Sudanese children growing up in a Chad refugee camp
The people of Sudan have long counted on the U.S., the defenders of freedom, justice and equality, to stand with them against the tyranny of the Sudanese regime. They cannot understand why U.S. policy would change when the regime and their own personal circumstances have not changed. These are matters of life and death and of huge importance with regard to the advancement of security, peace and justice around the globe. Allowing impunity and ignoring human suffering creates a world that threatens us all.
Please do your part, take a stand and refuse to represent the government of Sudan.
Sincerely,
Mia Farrow, Actress and Humanitarian
21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, Nathan Wineinger, Director of Policy Relations, Washington, DC
ACROSS, Elisama W Daniel, Executive Director, South Sudan
Act for Sudan, Eric Cohen, Co-Founder, Boston, MA
Ahmed H. Adam, UK
African Freedom Coalition, Al Sutton M.D., President, New York, NY
African Refugees and Victims Relief Fund, Ted Dagne, Silver Spring, MD
African Soul, American Heart, Debra Dawson, President and CEO, Fargo, ND
Agape International Organization, Agnes Lokule, Vice President, Des Moines, IA
Akulia Foundation, Lita Muki, Chairperson, Juba, Central Equatoria, South Sudan
Al Khatim Adlan Centre for Enlightenment & Human Development (KACE), Albaqir A Mukhtar, Director, Kampala, Uganda
American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans (AFRECS), Richard Parkins, Executive Director Asha Khalil Elkarib, Civil Society and Human Rights Activist, Khartoum, Sudan
Blue Nile Association for Peace and Development USA, Omer Abdelsawi Omer, Mulberry, FL Brooklyn
Coalition for Darfur & Marginalized Sudan, Laura Limuli, Coordinator, Brooklyn, NY
Christian Solidarity International-USA, The Rev. Heidi McGinness, Director of Outreach, Denver, CO
CLIP-Poverty, Samuel L. Geng, Team Leader, Juba, Jubek, South Sudan
Colorado Coalition for Genocide Awareness and Action, Roz Duman, Founder / Director, Denver, CO
Comité Soudan, Diagne Chanel, Présidente, Paris, France
Concerned Citizens for Change, Gene Binder, Steering Committee Member, Bronx, NY
Darfur Action Group of South Carolina, Richard Sribnick, MD, President, Columbia, SC
Darfur and Beyond, Cory Williams, Co-Founder, Phoenix, AZ
Darfur Community Association, Mohammed Esmail, President, Cape Town, Western Cap, South Africa
Darfur Interfaith Network, Martha Boshnick, Co-Chair, Washington, DC
Darfur People’s Association of New York, Motasim Adam, Secretary General, Brooklyn, NY
Darfur Relief and Documentation Centre, Abdelbagi Jibril, Vice President, Geneva, Switzerland
Darfur Women Action Group, Niemat Ahmadi, President, Washington, DC
David Alton, Professor the Lord Alton of Liverpool, Independent Crossbench Member of House of Lords, London, UK
Dear Sudan Love Marin, Gerri Miller, Founder and Coordinator, Tiburon, CA
Doctors to the World, C. Louis Perrinjaquet, MD, Medical Director, Breckenridge, CO
Dr. Deborah Mayersen, Research Fellow, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
Dr. Gerard Prunier, Author, Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide, Paris, France
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton, Founding Chairman, Genocide Watch, Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University, Arlington, VA
Dr. Hakim Moi, London, UK
Dr. Herbert Hirsch, Professor of Political Science, Virginia Commonwealth University, Co-Editor, Genocide Studies International, Richmond, VA
Dr. Mukesh Kapila, Former Head of the UN in Sudan, Prof. of Global Health and Humanitarian Affairs University of Manchester, UK
Dr. Mutaal Girshab, Human Rights Consultant, MENA, Khartoum, Sudan
Dr. Samuel Totten, Professor Emeritus, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Author of Genocide by Attrition: Nuba Mountains, Sudan, Fayetteville, AK
Elhag Ali Warrag Sidahmed Warrag, Editor in Chief, Hurriyat, Egypt
Elijah M. Brown, Ph.D., General Secretary, North American Baptist Fellowship, Washington, DC
Elizabeth Blackney, Media & Communications Director, Panzi Foundation USA, Washington, DC
Ellen J. Kennedy, Ph.D., Executive Director, World Without Genocide at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, St. Paul, MN
Empower One, Mike Congrove, Executive Director, Dallas, TX Empowerment Through Education (ETE), Micklina Kenyi, Executive Director, Boulder, CO
Eric Reeves, Senior Fellow, Harvard University’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, Northampton, MA
Face Past for Future Foundation (FP4F), Abdelrahman Gasim, Chairman, Kampala, Uganda
Genocide No More – Save Darfur, Marv Steinberg, Coordinator, Redding, CA
Greg Miller, Professor Emeritus of English, Millsaps College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Greater Nuba Action Coalition (GNAC), John Jefferson, Founder and Director, San Francisco, CA
Hamid E. Ali, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Public Policy and Administration, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt
Harambi Foundation, Adil Abdel Aati, Founder and CEO, Warsaw, Poland
Human Rights and Advocacy Network for Democracy (HAND), Abdalmageed S. Haroun, Executive Director, Brooklyn, NY
Human Rights and Development Organization (HUDO), Bushra Gamar Hussein, CEO, Kampala, Uganda
Idaho Darfur Coalition, Marilyn Griep, Co-Founder, Boise, ID
Independent Movement Organization, Adil Taha, Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Fairfax, VA
Investors Against Genocide, Susan Morgan, Co-founder, San Francisco, CA
Jewish World Watch, Susan Freudenheim, Executive Director, Los Angeles, CA
Jews Against Genocide, Sharon Silber, Co-Director, New York, NY
Joining Our Voices, Slater Armstrong, Founder/Director, Baton Rouge, LA Kalahari Peoples Fund, Robert K. Hitchcock, PhD, Albuquerque, NM
Kentuckiana Taskforce Against Genocide, Robert Brousseau & Phil Nippert, Co-Founders, Louisville, KY
Khalid Kodi, Adjunct Professor, Boston College, Brown University, Boston, MA
Mahdi Ibrahim Saeed, PhD Candidate, Former UNCHR Field Coordinator Asst, PhD., Candidate, University of Limpopo., Polokwane, South Africa
Massachusetts Coalition for Darfur, William Rosenfeld, Director, Boston, MA
Melanie Nelkin, Human Rights Activist, Atlanta, GA
Melanie Rodden, St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, Denver, CO
Mercy Beyond Borders, Sister Marilyn Lacey, RSM, Executive Director, Santa Clara, CA
Mustafa Sharif, PhD. College Station, TX
Nagla Ahmed, Human Rights Lawyer, Columbia University Nehemiah Initiative, Gavin Gramstad, Executive Director, Washington, DC
Never Again Coalition, Lauren Fortgang, Policy Director, Portland, OR
New Sudan Generation, Silvestro Akara Bakhiet, Founder / President, San Francisco, CA
New York Coalition for Sudan, Eileen Weiss, Co-Founder, New York, NY
Nuba Christian Family Mission, George Kouri Tuto, Chairman and James Spence Flournoy, Director, Englewood, CO
Nuba Mountain Peace Coalition, Tito El Gassai, Representative, Dallas, TX
Nuba Mountains Advocacy, Gogadi Amoga, Chair, Cincinnati, OH
Nuba Mountains International Association, Komi Elaiaiser, President, Lorton, VA
Nuba Mountains International Association (NMIA), Abbaker Mudir, Alexandria, VA
Nubia Project, Nuraddin Abdulmannan, President, Washington, DC
Nubian Language Society, Nubantood Khalil, Washington, DC
Operation Broken Silence, Mark C. Hackett, Executive Director, Memphis, TN
Our Humanity in the Balance, Terry Nickelson, Executive Director, Deming, NM
Partners in Compassionate Care, David Bowman, Founder and Chairman, Grand Rapids, MI
Paul Slovic, Genocide Scholar, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
People4Sudan, Valerie Delacretaz, Global Coordinator, Geneva, Switzerland
Philip Tutu, Human Rights Activist, Kansas City, MO
Pittsburgh Darfur Emergency Coalition, David L. Rosenberg, Coordinator, Pittsburgh, PA
Pittsburgh Presbytery International Partnership Ministry Team, The Rev. David B. Carver, Moderator, Pittsburgh, PA
Professor Elihu D. Richter MD MPH, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel
Rebecca Tinsley, Journalist and Author, London, UK
Rights for Peace Foundation, Osman Naway, Director, Kansas City, MO
San Diego Lost Boys of Sudan Charitable Corporation, Karen Richards, President, San Diego, CA
San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, Mohamed Suleiman, President, San Francisco, CA
SEA Partners, Dr. Donnie L. Brake II, President, USA, Kenya, South Sudan
Seif Barsham, Human Rights Defender, Boston, MA
Shine A Ray of Hope, Carmen Paolercio, Founder, New Rochelle, NY
Simon Deng, 2011 UN Watch Freedom Award Human Rights Activists, Sudan Freedom Walk, New York, NY
Skills for Nuba Mountains, Lazim Suleiman, Director, Kauda, South Kordofan/Nuba Mountains, Sudan
Society for Threatened Peoples – Germany, Ulrich
Delius, Director, Göttingen, Germany
South Sudan Human Rights Commission, Amute Francis Lobalu, Human Rights Officer, Juba, Jubek State, South Sudan
South Sudan Women Christian Mission for Peace, Sandra Bona, Coordinator, Yei, Yei River, South Sudan
Stop Genocide Now, Katie Jay Scott, Coordinator, Redondo, CA
Sudan Democracy First Group, Monim El Jak, Executive Director, Sudan Sudan
National Democratic Forum California Chapter, Mr. Saifeldin B. Gibreel, Alameda, CA
Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Agency, Ishraga A. Khamis, Deputy, Blue Nile, Sudan Sudan
Unlimited, Esther Sprague, Founder and Director, San Francisco, CA
Sudanese Community Association of Illinois, Peter Magai Bul, Former Board Member, Chicago, IL
Sudanese Community Church, Episcopal Diocese of Colorado, The Rev. Ayyoubawaga B. Gafour, Ph.D., Vicar, Denver, CO
Sudanese Community of Kentucky Inc, Abdulrahim S. Adam, President, Louisville, KY
Sudanese Rights Group, Khartoum, Sudan Tamara Banks, Freelance Journalist, TazMedia, Denver, CO
The Abaunza Group, Bonnie Abaunza, Founder, Los Angeles, CA
The Baroness (Caroline) Cox, Independent Member, House of Lords, CEO, Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, London, UK
The Elsa-Gopa Trust, Nell Okie, Director, Madison, CT
The Friends of Sudan, Justin Laku, Sr., Co-Founder, Ottawa, ON, Canada
The Horn of Africa Civil Society Forum, Uganda The Institute on Religion and Democracy, Faith J.H. McDonnell, Director, Religious Liberty Program, Washington, DC
The MagkaSama Project, Max Dana, Founder, Paris, France
The Nile Institute for Peace and Development (NIPD), William Pay Tuoy-Giel, M.Ed., Executive Director, Phoenix, AZ
The Reverend Ronald D. Culmer, St. Clare’s Episcopal Church, Pleasanton, CA
The Reverend Susan Fortunato, Christ Episcopal Church, Poughkeepsie, NY
The Rev. Tim Oslovich, Pastor, Trinity Lutheran Church, Vernon, CT
The San Antonio Coalition Against Genocide, Susan Smylie, Coordinator of Advocacy, San Antonio, TX
Thomas Merton Center, Gabriel McMorland, Executive Director, Pittsburgh, PA
Trinity South Sudan Ministry, Bill Andress, Facilitator, Lexington, SC
Unite for Darfur Organization, Bahar Arabie, CEO, Gaithersburg, MD
Use Your Voice to Stop Genocide RI, Sandra Hammel, Director, Portsmouth, RI
Victoria Sanford, PhD, US Fulbright Scholar, Columbia 2016-17, Professor & Chair, Department of Anthropology, Lehman College, Director, Center for Human Rights & Peace Studies, City University of New York, New York, NY
Voice of Darfur Women, Mariam Suliman, Chair, London, England, UK
Waging Peace, Maddy Crowther, Head of Communications and Research, London, UK
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