2008 Woodie Awards
Students urged to help Darfur
Mark Dipaola
Issue date: 3/26/08 Section: Campus News
What if you were forced to choose between rescuing your small child from a burning hut and rushing your other three children to safety? What if you witnessed the fatal shooting of a loved one, or had to wander the Sahara desert for a week without food or water? What if one day your home, your possessions, and everything you've ever known were suddenly stripped from you?
This, unfortunately, is the grim reality for an estimated 2.5 million refugees from Sudan's western region of Darfur, where the government has been waging a brutal genocide against the non-Arab population since 2003.
John Prendergast, a former Clinton administration State Department official and human rights activist, addressed a medium sized crowd in Alumni Hall on Thursday, March 6th, in order to highlight the crisis that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and call students to action.
"We know that genocide is occurring in Darfur," Prendergast said. "We must do something."
A co-chair of the Enough Project, an anti-genocide coalition, and a senior advisor to the International Crisis Group, Prendergast has worked extensively to establish peace in war torn nations, particularly those in Africa. He has traveled to numerous trouble spots and has written eight books, including "Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond," which he co-wrote with actor Don Cheadle.
The Sudanese government uses the mass murder and displacement of non-Arabs to suppress a rebellion by insurgents who oppose the regime in Khartoum, said Prendergast. Civilians who have been known to support the rebels have become targets of government armed Janjaweed (Devil on horseback) militias. It is a tactic which Prendergast referred to as "draining the water to catch the fish."
"It's deliberate chaos," he said. "It divides and destroys."
Although in 2004 President Bush declared that the situation in Darfur is in fact genocide, there are a number of obstacles that are preventing the international community from stepping in, Prendergast said.
This, unfortunately, is the grim reality for an estimated 2.5 million refugees from Sudan's western region of Darfur, where the government has been waging a brutal genocide against the non-Arab population since 2003.
John Prendergast, a former Clinton administration State Department official and human rights activist, addressed a medium sized crowd in Alumni Hall on Thursday, March 6th, in order to highlight the crisis that has already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and call students to action.
"We know that genocide is occurring in Darfur," Prendergast said. "We must do something."
A co-chair of the Enough Project, an anti-genocide coalition, and a senior advisor to the International Crisis Group, Prendergast has worked extensively to establish peace in war torn nations, particularly those in Africa. He has traveled to numerous trouble spots and has written eight books, including "Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond," which he co-wrote with actor Don Cheadle.
The Sudanese government uses the mass murder and displacement of non-Arabs to suppress a rebellion by insurgents who oppose the regime in Khartoum, said Prendergast. Civilians who have been known to support the rebels have become targets of government armed Janjaweed (Devil on horseback) militias. It is a tactic which Prendergast referred to as "draining the water to catch the fish."
"It's deliberate chaos," he said. "It divides and destroys."
Although in 2004 President Bush declared that the situation in Darfur is in fact genocide, there are a number of obstacles that are preventing the international community from stepping in, Prendergast said.
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Tim Salem
posted 3/27/08 @ 8:18 AM EST
I applaud the Quinnipiac community for raising the bar on awareness and action by inviting John Prendergast to speak on the atrocities in Darfur. In seeking divestment I would most humbly suggest and invite you to utilize our documentary as a tool in this process. (Continued…)
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