Students Raise Darfur Awareness
Tom Chiari
Posted: 9/27/06
In an effort to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis in Darfur,
student members of UConn Pubic Interest Research Group (ConnPIRG)
Hunger and Homelessness Campaign hosted an informational table outside
the Student Union yesterday. They encouraged students to petition
Congressmen and express concern for a conflict the Bush Administration
has officially recognized as genocide.
"It could easily be you over there, with no one to protect you,"
said Katie Nickerson, a 3rd-semester political science major who is the
coordinator of the UConn chapter of ConnPIRG's Hunger and Homelessness
Campaign.
Since the conflict began in the Darfur region of Sudan in early 2003,
the Coalition for International Justice estimates 400,000 people have
died and over two million people have been displaced.
According to ConnPIRG's informational handout from the Save Darfur
Coalition, the violence started between the Sudanese government and two
Darfuri rebel groups.
The aim of the group is to compel the Sudanese government to address problems in the region such as underdevelopment.
In response, Arab Sudanese armed forces and the Janjaweed, a largely
Arab government-backed militia, have targeted civilian populations and
primarily African ethnic groups from which the rebels draw the majority
of their support.
Although a United Nations Security Council resolution assembled a
peacekeeping force of 20,000, the Sudanese government has refused aid
and said it would see the UN as "foreign invaders" in the region,
according to a Sept. 17 Washington Post article entitled "Global
Protests Call for UN Intervention in Darfur."
Several pieces of legislation appropriating funds for U.N.
peacekeeping duties are now pending in Congress, according to the Save
Darfur Coalition.
Nickerson and other ConnPIRG members handed out informational packets
on the conflict's roots and legislation. The packets also provide
up-to-date news articles on an issue which Nickerson said she felt was
relatively hidden.
In addition to the informational handouts, the group attempted to get
students to fill out a postcard from the Save Darfur Coalition,
addressed to President Bush and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The card calls on the president and secretary general to "Strengthen
the understaffed and overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping force
already in Darfur ... push for the deployment of a strong U.N.
peacekeeping force ... implement the Darfur Peace Agreement," and
"increase humanitarian aid and ensure access for aid delivery."
One student wrote on their card, "There are more terrorists in Darfur than there are in Iraq."
"The crisis in Darfur is terrible, but it's great that a student group
can make helping out so easy," said Nicole Francisco, a 1st-semester
pre-education major.
Nickerson also encouraged students to help by writing letters to Congressmen pledging their support for Darfur aid legislation.
She said students could also get involved by attending the ConnPIRG
Hunger and Homelessness Campaign meetings. The meetings are held
Wednesday nights at 7:30 in the CUE building in room 134.
Additional information about the Hunger and Homelessness Campaign and the Darfur crisis can be found online.
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