Local 'Save Darfur' group hosts panel of Sudanese speakers

Save Darfur Bloomington heard first-hand accounts from several men from the Darfur region of western Sudan about the genocide taking place there. \nDespite dark skies and a violent rainstorm, more than 40 students and community members showed up for the 5:30 p.m. meeting Thursday at Swain East, expecting to hear a lecture about the ongoing genocide at Darfur, and perhaps find out what they could do to help.\nMargaret Hanson, one of the members of Save Darfur Bloomington and an organizer of the event, said that she had to act fast to find a replacement after the planned speaker, Dr. Sarah Archer, cancelled at the last minute. Instead, she was able to get seven men from Darfur, now living in Fort Wayne and Chicago, to talk about the genocide and answer questions from the audience. \nRabbi Mira Wasserman of Congregation Beth Shalom and a key member of Save Darfur Bloomington welcomed the audience and introduced the speakers.\nChris Hanks, a doctoral student at IU, and Hanson started the event by reading testimony from people in Darfur, Colin Powell, and humanitarian aid workers, as images appeared on the projector screen behind them. They read accounts of women being shot while holding babies, women who had lost arms, men with horrible scars leaving them unable to work, and trucks of humanitarian aid workers getting blown apart by land mines. Meanwhile, images of dark-skinned women and children in bright colored clothes flashed across the projection screen behind them. \nThe main speaker, Abdel Maged Ibrahim, a tall, dark-skinned man with a beard, sat at the desk in the front of the classroom and gave a staggered account of the history of the Darfur conflict which has been officially recognized as genocide by the U.S. Congress and the United Nations. \n"The Darfur genocide is the worst in history," Ibrahim said. "Worse than Cambodia, worse than Rwanda. It is only comparable to the Jewish Holocaust."\nHe gave accounts of the Janjaweed, an Arab militia group, that has worked with the Sudanese government to ethnically cleanse the Black Africans of the region. \n"Whoever they find in their path gets killed." Ibrahim said, adding that the Janjaweed have also sought to destroy plants, farmers' crops, and all water supplies. \n"When you destroy the water supplies, even animals, birds, can't drink from them. (The Janjaweed seek to destroy all sources of life)," Ibrahim said. \nAfter explaining the history of the Darfur conflict, Ibrahim and the men he brought with him fielded questions from the audience. From there, the speakers, who were scattered across the room, traded off comments in a sort of conversational explanation of the Darfur situation.\nThe importance of writing to congressmen and the president was stressed by Muhammed Abdelrhman, an older man with graying hair from Chicago. \n"The Sudanese government will not do anything without international pressure," he said. \nHe explained that the recent treaty signed between the Sudenese government and the southern region of Sudan was nothing more than a public relations ploy to appeal to international pressure. \n"The government did not want the south to join with the west (where the current conflict exists)," he said. "Once they have taken over the west, they will go back to the south and break the peace agreement."\nIbrahim stressed the importance of security for the more than 2 million people displaced from their homes. \n"Security is very important: People are suffering from hunger, disease, starvation," he said. "How to secure civilians is the first priority. After that, then they can find out how to get food and water."\nHansen said she was surprised so many people showed up.\n"I was overwhelmed," Hanson said. "Considering the storm and the fact that our original speaker had cancelled, I was excited to see we'd gotten the word out."\nHanson said she'd gotten involved with the group, Save Darfur Bloomington, after meeting Rabbi Wasserman at a special screening of "Hotel Rwanda" held last month in the Monroe County Library. Now she is a very active member of the group.\n"There's only a handful of active participants." Hanson said.\nFor more information on the genocide in Darfur go to www.savedarfur.org or e-mail savedarfurbloomington@yahoo.com\n-- Contact Staff Writer James Klaunig Jr. at jklaunig@indiana.edu.