Students take action on Darfur genocide
Alison Monrose / Contributing Writer
Issue date: 3/6/07 Section: Page One
The Women Empowered - a Douglass College Educational Opportunity Fund student organization - presented the Darfur Action Project last Thursday night at the Douglass Student Center.
The student-based project is geared towards raising awareness about the Sudanese genocide and calls for an initiative for global change through local activism and a University alliance to stop the systematic killing. "Enough is not being done," said Dewan Kazi Farhana, project founder and a Douglass College senior.
Farhana created the campus organization after reading a New York Times article about the genocide while riding the campus bus.
The event started off with a five-minute multimedia video show presenting breathtaking images of disease and poverty-stricken Darfur. Villages were shown being heavily bombed, displaced, neglected, starved and violently attacked.
The keynote speaker of the night was Sudanese refugee Daowd Salih, who raised concerns about the ethnic cleansing and massacre in Darfur. Salih compared the conditions of his ravaged country to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
But, he distinguishes the two claiming Darfur's three year ongoing genocide has been far worse than Rwanda's genocide due to the spread of the exploit as far reaching as West Africa.
Salih also talked about his experience moving throughout Africa to escape the danger. "It's hard for Africans to move to other African countries. It's easy for you to go into our country. They think we are trying to join the rebel movement in south Sudan," Salih said.
The genocide first began over racial discrepancies ignited by religious and political differences, Salih said. Darfur, which is mostly populated by Muslims, is being extinguished by Arabic-governed countries that refuse the Islamic culture and implement their own culture.
Salih said there are African Muslims being killed while the women are raped because of this rebellion.
"To stop genocide is to stop Africa from dividing," said Salih. "The genocide is happening because of color. The black Muslims are being slaughtered and our women are being raped everyday by Arabic men to make the next generation look more like them," she said.
Farhana said the U.S. government failed to prevent genocide. She was concerned with the apparent desensitization toward the events occurring in Africa.
"It is politically and morally wrong to ignore such problems happening in Africa," Farhana said.
The event ended with an offer to start making a difference by signing a petition against the Darfur genocide.
The prevailing message was a need for global awareness, more importance placed on global human rights and further interactive community service.
The student-based project is geared towards raising awareness about the Sudanese genocide and calls for an initiative for global change through local activism and a University alliance to stop the systematic killing. "Enough is not being done," said Dewan Kazi Farhana, project founder and a Douglass College senior.
Farhana created the campus organization after reading a New York Times article about the genocide while riding the campus bus.
The event started off with a five-minute multimedia video show presenting breathtaking images of disease and poverty-stricken Darfur. Villages were shown being heavily bombed, displaced, neglected, starved and violently attacked.
The keynote speaker of the night was Sudanese refugee Daowd Salih, who raised concerns about the ethnic cleansing and massacre in Darfur. Salih compared the conditions of his ravaged country to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
But, he distinguishes the two claiming Darfur's three year ongoing genocide has been far worse than Rwanda's genocide due to the spread of the exploit as far reaching as West Africa.
Salih also talked about his experience moving throughout Africa to escape the danger. "It's hard for Africans to move to other African countries. It's easy for you to go into our country. They think we are trying to join the rebel movement in south Sudan," Salih said.
The genocide first began over racial discrepancies ignited by religious and political differences, Salih said. Darfur, which is mostly populated by Muslims, is being extinguished by Arabic-governed countries that refuse the Islamic culture and implement their own culture.
Salih said there are African Muslims being killed while the women are raped because of this rebellion.
"To stop genocide is to stop Africa from dividing," said Salih. "The genocide is happening because of color. The black Muslims are being slaughtered and our women are being raped everyday by Arabic men to make the next generation look more like them," she said.
Farhana said the U.S. government failed to prevent genocide. She was concerned with the apparent desensitization toward the events occurring in Africa.
"It is politically and morally wrong to ignore such problems happening in Africa," Farhana said.
The event ended with an offer to start making a difference by signing a petition against the Darfur genocide.
The prevailing message was a need for global awareness, more importance placed on global human rights and further interactive community service.