Darfur survivors speak on genocide
Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2007 @ 2:01 am
Students were immersed in Darfur’s genocide because of two refugees last week.“It’s a matter of death,” Abu Asal Abu Asal said. “It’s not a matter of life or death. We are losing lives everyday.”
For Flipside’s Nevada Speakers Series Nov. 27, the group Save Darfur brought two people, Daoud Hari and Abu Asal, to talk about the atrocities by the Sudan government for the program “Voices For Darfur.” The event was held in the Joe Crowley Student Union, with about 175 people in attendance.
Before the speakers came up to the stage, a movie was presented to the audience giving the background of the Darfur conflict and testimony from others who were not going to speak.
“(The speakers were) amazing,” said Kaitlyn Denzler, a 21-year-old anthropology major. “They’re here to tell their stories. I was surprised at the turnout.”
The Darfur conflict started after two rebel groups began attacking government institutions due to the decertification of their grazing lands. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir made the decision to attack the people in the Darfur region, where the rebel groups came from. Stories were told of the Sudan Air Force bombing of villages and the Jajuweed, a government-backed military group that has raped women including 40 students and their teachers. So far, more than 400,000 people in the Darfur region have died and 2.5 million have been displaced.
“This is Darfur,” Hari said after the movie played.
Hari was the first speaker. He fled to a Chad refugee camp after repeated bombings of his village by the government. There he risked his life to cross the Sudan border with the news media to be an English translator. With the help of New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, Hari is now a citizen of the United States under refugee status after being arrested for espionage while returning to Darfur.
After being captured for espionage with Paul Salopek, a Chicago Tribute reporter, he was tortured for 10 days and nights until his release was negotiated by Richardson, Hari said.
Abu Asal spoke last. He was a veterinarian in Sudan before leaving, became an aid worker in Egypt and is now an English as a Second Language teacher in Massachusetts.
Abu Asal said that he believed in young people because they have creativity and energy to make a difference. He does not believe in politicians because they talk and only take action if pressured.
During his enrollment at the University of Khartoum, a Darfur student was stabbed by two students from the Islamic Front. The students protested the stabbing, which resulted in a police shooting in which two students died. Afterward, the students, including him, were arrested. He was kept and tortured for a day and night, Abu Asal said.
Craig Klugman, assistant professor of bioethics at the School of Public Health, will speak about humans, robots and sex in his lecture, “Is Resistance Futile: The Ethics of Human-Cyborg Relations.” The speech will take place in the Joe Crowley Student Union theater on Tuesday from 7 to 8 p.m.
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