Genocide Survivors Urge President Obama to Make Genocide Prevention a Priority in State of the Union Address

WASHINGTON – Today, Genocide Intervention Network coordinated the release of a letter signed by 16 genocide survivors, urging President Obama to make genocide prevention a priority, beginning with tomorrow’s State of the Union. In the letter sent to the White House, survivors assert that the President should publicly commit to making genocide prevention a priority. The letter states that: “as genocide survivors, we respectfully encourage your support for efforts to prevent genocide and mass atrocities in the 21st century. As survivors, we have experienced first-hand the horrors of the world’s most egregious crime. We hope that you will work to ensure that the United States has the capacity to live up to the promise of “never again” by more effectively preventing these crimes from occurring in the future.”

Signatories to the letter are: Eva Mozes Kor (Holocaust Survivor - Auschwitz); Gaetan and Marie-Rose Gatete (Rwandan Survivor); Elmina Kulasic (Bosnian Survivor); Claude Gatebuke (Rwandan Survivor); Mohamed Suleiman (Darfuri Survivor); Niemat Ahmadi (Darfuri Survivor); Sam Ponczak (Holocaust Survivor); Julius J. Menn, Ph.D. (Holocaust Survivor); Jonas Weiss (Holocaust Survivor); Susan Weiss (Holocaust Survivor); Dr. Adam Mohamed Ahmed Yahya (Darfuri Survivor); Margit Meissner (Holocaust Survivor); Nesse Godin (Holocaust Survivor); Manya Friedman (Holocaust Survivor); Louise Lawrence-Israels (Holocaust Survivor).

In the letter, the survivors highlight the recommendations of the Genocide Prevention Task Force (GPTF) which states that: “The President should demonstrate that prevent­ing genocide and mass atrocities is a national priority. This could be accomplished through a strong statement in the President’s inaugural address, an early executive order, and continuing public state­ments…. Clear presidential priority is the single most reliable way of enhancing at­tention to an issue throughout the U.S. government.”