An article in Friday?s Daily misquoted Doug Cassel. He said the United Nations? most recent resolution in regards to Sudan is to prosecute the Khartoum government.
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Even as the smell of authentic Sudanese cooking wafted through Parkes Hall Thursday, David Mach decided not to eat.
“In Africa, I ate once a day, ” said Mach, who came to Chicago as a refugee in 2001. “The condition of life was miserable.”
Along with an estimated 2 million people, Mach fled to escape an increasingly violent civil conflict now concentrated in the region of Darfur, located in western Sudan.
“There are certain tribes and lots of gangs,” Mach said. “You can lose your life easily at any time.”
This week a series of programs by student groups sought to raise awareness about the crisis. The conference coordinated with a national initiative commemorating the 11th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide.
Susannah Cunningham heard occasional stories of the war while working with refugees in Cairo, Egypt, and became involved with a refugee center upon her return to NU. She said she kept in contact with her friends in Cairo, developing a personal interest in the conflict, and began efforts to raise awareness.
“When you walk out of meetings or discussions about these situations, you have this feeling that there’s this horrible thing going on and you can’t do anything about it,” said Cunningham, a Communication junior. “But war doesn’t begin and end in Sudan. We can make a difference.”
A letter-writing campaign kicked off the conference April 4. Wednesday’s panel discussion drew a crowd of more than 50 students and aimed to inform attendees about conditions in Sudan. Four faculty members — some of whom had studied or lived in Sudan — pointed to drought, land disputes, racial tensions and distrust of the government as causes of the war. The conflict intensified rapidly beginning in February 2003, said religion Prof. Ruediger Seesemann, who lived in Sudan in the mid-’90s.
“It is such a vast territory with so little infrastructure, so the government can’t control the territory or effectively fight rebels,” Seesemann said. “The lines are very difficult to grasp — even my Darfurian friends have trouble understanding.”
Doug Cassel, director of the Center for International Human Rights at NU, discussed the United Nations’ role in the war. He said the international organization’s most recent resolution is to begin prosecuting members of the “cartoon government” in Sudan. So far, about half a dozen UN initiatives have been ineffective.
“The Bush administration has been very good rhetorically, pushing for action, but they’ve been unwilling to put their troops and money where their mouth is,” Cassel said.
The final event was a cultural celebration in Parkes Hall, featuring traditional cuisine and music. The gathering was designed to end the conference on a notion of hope for Darfur’s future. Ayan Yak, who left Sudan in 1989, spent all of Thursday helping to prepare the meal for the event. Yak said that although she misses her native country, the situation in Sudan is serious.
“It’s very hard — people have been dying,” Yak said. “We hope the peace they talk about is really going to be peace.”
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