KRT CampusWashington University’s Mallinckrodt Center became the scene of mass education this past Wednesday as students presided over collection tables and posters presenting facts about the Darfur conflict. Strategically placed collection sites on both floors of Mallinckrodt, along with the obligatory mountain of candy, ensured that the information would be noticed by passersby who might or might not decide to toss money into water-cooler bottles to help displaced Sudanese.
For the past week, members of the University community have been working to raise awareness of the refugee crisis and ethnic cleansing in the Darfur region of Sudan and to collect money to aid refugees and internally displaced persons in The Republic Chad. To date, an estimated 30,000 civilians have been killed and 1.2 million civilians have fled their homes to date, and a projected 10,000 civilians or more are expected to die each month due to famine, disease and violence, according to Amnesty International.
The goal of the campaign-called Change for Change-is to raise a total of $1,000 by the end of today. The money will go towards the Amnesty International Darfur relief fund and toward educating the community about the Darfur crisis. While the tabling campaign is over, certain residential advisors are still collecting money for the relief fund.
“A lot of people are very interested and very generous,” said senior Danielle Silber, who is a part of the University’s chapter of Amnesty International and ran the group’s tabling effort. “Also, a fair amount of people donate but aren’t interested in what’s going on. They say that it’s too depressing, and they don’t want to know anything about it. Others just walk by with blinders on.”
Darfur is a region of desert and savannah on the western edge of Sudan. It’s about the size of Texas, five to six million people live there and the central African nation of Chad borders it to the west. The civil war between the Sudanese government and rebel forces in southern Sudan has cooled after a peace agreement in May between the feuding parties, which followed pressure for talks applied by the United States. Peace in Sudan has become a greater concern for the U.S. government following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as Sudan was a known place of residence for such terrorists as Osama bin Laden and Carlos the Jackal.
However, since early 2003 rebel groups have been conduct raids on government installations, which have been used as justification by the government for a brutal counterinsurgency campaign that has had negative results for civilians.
While the Sudanese government in the capital of Khartoum denies it, evidence collected by many human rights organizations and independent journalists indicates that the Sudanese government is conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Africans living in the Darfur region. Arab militias known as the “janjaweed” (“evil horseman” in Arabic) have been supported by the government in a targeted scorched-earth campaign against black farmers. While the antiquated Sudanese air force has proven ineffective at conducting precision strikes against rebel forces, the bombs from its helicopters and airplanes have destroyed many Darfurian villages.
The crisis in Sudan is becoming more acute. Refugees continue to scatter throughout Sudan and eastern Chad, where tensions are beginning to rise between the local population and refugees following an unusually light rainy season and gross overpopulation. The government has hampered the efforts of journalists and human rights workers trying to enter the country, preventing them from acquiring visas. The Sudanese government continues to deny their support of the “janjaweed” to the international community, claiming that they are attempting to put an end to the regional violence.
The United Nations (UN) and most western countries have backed down from calling the violence in Darfur genocide, but Secretary of State Colin Powell called it just that in a U.S. proposal to the UN Security Council to impose sanctions on Sudan, specifically upon its fledgling oil industry. The proposal would also provide for international peacekeepers stationed in Darfur and create an international aid package to help stave off famine and disease in the region.
While Amnesty International itself has not yet called the violence in Sudan genocide, Silber says the University’s chapter agrees with Powell’s assessment. Templates for letters thanking Powell for his declaration to the Security Council were being handed out at the Change for Change tabling event.
“For the most part, people in Khartoum don’t care about what goes on outside their own lives,” said freshman Mohamed Abdel-Razig. Abdel-Razig visits Sudan regularly and will be returning over the winter vacation. “But maybe when I go back, they’ll be talking about it. I see what the administration is doing is helping awareness.”