Darfur Conflict
Grace Goode
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: News
On Jan. 30, Hartford Hillel, in collaboration with CT Young Democrats, hosted 'Voices from Darfur', a national speaking tour sponsored by the Save Darfur Coalition. The Save Darfur Coalition seeks to "raise public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur" and "is an alliance of more than 180 faith-based, advocacy and human rights organizations," according to their Web site. More than 30 students and adults came out to hear three speakers talk about their personal experiences, as well as, hear a human rights perspective on viewing the ongoing conflict.
Darfur is a region of Western Sudan which has been locked in deadly conflict since 2003. Largely ethnic-based, the conflict is between two rebel groups of Darfur and the Sudanese central government, who employs a militia called the janjaweed, to carry out attacks. The janjaweed's campaigns employ such tactics as rape, organized starvation and mass murder, as well as scorched-earth campaigns to induce displacement of Darfuri civilians. The conflict has been called genocide by organizations such as Genocide Intervention Network, Committee on Conscience (US Holocaust Museum) and the United States Congress; however, the United Nations has yet to recognize the conflict as genocide, saying that "mass murder has been committed by the Janjaweed, but not genocide" in 2005. It is estimated that over 400,000 people have been killed and over 2.5 million people have been displaced since the outbreak of this conflict.
The three speakers of the panel were: David Morse, Abu Asal Abu Asal, and Amii Omara-Otunnu. Morse is a free-lance journalist and activist who has been involved with the Darfur conflict since 2004. Abu Asal is a native Darfuri who was forced to flee Sudan because of his work in protesting the mistreatment of Darfuris in Sudan. Omara-Otunnu is a tenured professor of history at University of Connecticut, holder of the UNESCO chair in Human Rights in the United States and Executive Director of the Institute of Comparative Human Rights at the University of Connecticut.
Darfur is a region of Western Sudan which has been locked in deadly conflict since 2003. Largely ethnic-based, the conflict is between two rebel groups of Darfur and the Sudanese central government, who employs a militia called the janjaweed, to carry out attacks. The janjaweed's campaigns employ such tactics as rape, organized starvation and mass murder, as well as scorched-earth campaigns to induce displacement of Darfuri civilians. The conflict has been called genocide by organizations such as Genocide Intervention Network, Committee on Conscience (US Holocaust Museum) and the United States Congress; however, the United Nations has yet to recognize the conflict as genocide, saying that "mass murder has been committed by the Janjaweed, but not genocide" in 2005. It is estimated that over 400,000 people have been killed and over 2.5 million people have been displaced since the outbreak of this conflict.
The three speakers of the panel were: David Morse, Abu Asal Abu Asal, and Amii Omara-Otunnu. Morse is a free-lance journalist and activist who has been involved with the Darfur conflict since 2004. Abu Asal is a native Darfuri who was forced to flee Sudan because of his work in protesting the mistreatment of Darfuris in Sudan. Omara-Otunnu is a tenured professor of history at University of Connecticut, holder of the UNESCO chair in Human Rights in the United States and Executive Director of the Institute of Comparative Human Rights at the University of Connecticut.
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