American institutions of higher education must divest from companies that engage in "genocidal complicity" in Sudan, said Eric Reeves, professor of English language and literature at Smith College to a nearly full Smith-Buonanno 106 last night.
Reeves, who has spent the past seven years working as a Sudan researcher and analyst, began his divestment campaign a year and a half ago. He said, however, that he receives ambivalent responses from universities and colleges.
"Why don't institutions of higher education declare unambiguously that they will not invest in genocidal complicity?" Reeves asked. "Is there no threshold at which we begin to screen our investments on a political or moral basis?"
At least 400,000 civilians have been killed and over two million displaced since a government-supported militia campaign of ethnic cleansing began in early 2003, Reeves said. Quoting author Elie Wiesel and comparing the current situation with the Holocaust, Reeves said the genocide in Darfur results from both the actions of the killers and the apathy of bystanders. He cited the international community as particularly unresponsive, adding that questions as to why there has not been more forceful worldwide action must be heard with "the greatest of moral urgency."
"Why do so few care about genocide in this place?" Reeves said. "How can it be that the deliberate, ongoing, ethnically targeted destruction of Darfur's African tribal peoples would bring no greater response from the international community?"
Reeves said that instead of confronting the central government in Darfur over its genocidal policy, "the international response has been to substitute disingenuousness for blunt truths and to offer expediency in place of civilian protection." He said the global community needs to do more than provide food, shelter and medical services. Reeves also stressed the importance of supplying protection for the humanitarian groups dispensing such aid. At present, the African Union provides the primary security force in Darfur, which Reeves likened to placing one policeman in London and asking him to control all crime.
"The AU has not the military ability, the logistical capacity, nor the operating cohesion required by the extraordinary demands for security in Darfur," Reeves said.
But many in the international community refuse to see the situation in Darfur as genocide, and Reeves said that United Nations military sources have told him that Western nations, including the United States have little intention of providing bolstered military support. As a result, humanitarian operations will be forced to withdraw, leaving the civilian population "balanced precariously on a knife edge," Reeves said.
In the face of genocide, Reeves said it is difficult to determine how to respond "with appropriate urgency and efficacy." He acknowledged that divestment will not stop genocide tomorrow, but said it is a step toward changing the regime in Khartoum, the capital of Darfur. Only with the democratization of power in Darfur will there be peace in Sudan, he said.
The Darfur Action Network sponsored Reeves' lecture. Political Action Chair Scott Warren '09 said he was pleased with both the turnout for the lecture and Reeves' informed speech. He added that the talk was particularly pertinent because the Brown Corporation will vote on Feb. 25 whether to divest from Sudan.
"Our hope is that Brown will divest," Warren said. "Yale divested (Wednesday), and this would make us the fourth Ivy to divest. We hope to keep the ball rolling."
