In early March of 2003, militias backed by the Sudanese government began systematic attacks on villages in the Darfur region, burning homes to the ground, killing and raping civilians and forcing thousands of others to flee for their lives. A little more than a year later, the U.S. Department of State officially labeled these crimes as genocide, the first time this status was invoked while an actual genocide was still occurring, rather than after the fact. Over 500 days have passed since this historic gesture, yet our president and Congress have taken insufficient steps to stop the killing and protect civilian lives in Darfur. On April 30, thousands of concerned citizens will assemble in Washington, D.C., for the National Rally to Stop Genocide in Darfur to send a potent message to our government: this inaction will not be tolerated any longer.
Some at Brown may question the necessity of this rally. At a vigil held by the Darfur Action Network at the beginning of the fall semester, students walked by asking, "Darfur... is that still happening?" At a die-in for Darfur on the Main Green held this semester, students walked by asking, "Darfur ... that can't still be happening?" Now at the end of the school year, it's clear that not only is Darfur still "happening," the situation is rapidly deteriorating. Over 400,000 civilians are estimated to have died over the past three years, and the brutal and deliberate government policies of destruction continue with no end in sight.
As the rainy season begins in Darfur, Jan Egeland, the U.N. under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, fears that "it's a matter of weeks or months (before) we will have a collapse in many of our operations." Adding new complexities to the crisis, rebels from the Chad-Sudan border region, supported by the Sudanese government, recently launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Chad in an attempt to overthrow Chadian President Idriss Deby. This move prompted the Chadian government to threaten to expel all 200,000 of the Darfurians who have taken refuge within the country. Humanitarian operations in the Darfur region are still minimal, and women still remain at risk of being raped every time they search for firewood. As Egeland stated last week, "I don't think the world has understood how bad it has become of late."
As the crisis intensifies, greater international response is needed. There are many available courses of action, including the introduction of a U.N. or NATO peacekeeping force with a robust mandate to protect civilians. More serious political negotiations are needed between rebels and the Sudanese government, with strong mediation provided in a setting conducive to peace. Funding and logistical support must continue to be provided to the African Union force currently in Darfur to help quell further increases in violence. The United States must take a lead in these actions to prevent the needless death and displacement of more Darfurians, and it must do so now.
To demonstrate the urgency of these actions to our government, organizations from across the country have joined together to sponsor the National Rally to Stop Genocide in Darfur. Nobel Peace Prize-winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, hip-hip mogul Russel Simmons, activist and Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek and Paul Rusesabagina, the heroic hotel manager portrayed in "Hotel Rwanda," are among the many speakers who will address the crowd on the National Mall Sunday. The gathering may be the largest anti-genocide rally in history and will take place with a simultaneous vigil for Darfur across the country on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.
Brown's Darfur Action Network is organizing buses to D.C. to take students and community members to this important gathering, and we encourage everyone who wants this genocide to stop to participate. The rally can only be successful if President George W. Bush and Congress see that a large number of constituents care about this abhorrent conflict. The more people present at the National Mall on April 30, the more powerful statement we send to our government.
During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the U.S. government failed to acknowledge the situation as genocide until after the killing had subsided. Genocide has finally been acknowledged in Darfur, and yet little has been done. The atrocities in Rwanda occurred over a mere 100 days. The genocide in Darfur has been ongoing for over three years, which is ample time for mobilization to stop the conflict. It's not too late to join the movement and tell the president and Congress we will no longer stand by and accept genocide. Please join us this weekend as we take our message to Washington.
Gabriel Corens '06.5, Lis Meyers '06 and Scott Warren '09 are members of the Darfur Action Network, which will be selling tickets to the D.C. march in the P.O. this week.
