Sudan genocide felt at university

by Lindsey Brown
DM Staff Reporter
March 09, 2005

Gabriel Panchol saw a bomb dropped on his cousin when they were
fleeing violence in Sudan.

Panchol, an Ole Miss student, said he witnessed many other atrocities
and faced obstacles on his road to the university. He left the
country in 1987 when he was 7 and walked a thousand miles to a
refugee camp in Ethiopia.

Ã¢~@~We would walk day by day so we mostly walked at night,Ã¢~@~]
Panchol said. Ã¢~@~There was no water in the daytime, so we got
thirsty, but it was dangerous to walk at night. You see those wild
animals over there.

Ã¢~@~You cry, but thereÃ¢~@~Ys no help.Ã¢~@~]

Panchol, a junior accounting major, said he finds the state-supported
mass killing in the region of Darfur appalling.

Ã¢~@~In Darfur they are killing women, children and old ones who
donÃ¢~@~Yt even know their enemies; they are helpless,Ã¢~@~] Panchol
said.

Panchol was shuffled in and out of refugee camps for several years,
before a stroke of luck landed him at the university. Four years ago,
he became part of a group known as Ã¢~@~The Lost BoysÃ¢~@~] who were a
part of U.N. relief project to get Sudanese refugees out of the
camps.

The Sudanese Government is using Arab militias called
Ã¢~@~Janjaweeds,Ã¢~@~] which are an air force, to deliberately and
systematically kill the non-Arab Sudanese of Darfur, an area the size
of Texas.

According to reports released by the U.S. State Department, the
attacks on villages start with bombing from Sudanese combat aircraft
or helicopters. Then, militia men on horses or camels and government
troops in military vehicles attack with automatic weapons and grenade
launchers.

The men and boys of the villages are typically dragged from their
homes and shot, women are often gang-raped. Livestock is stolen and
property taken by those invading. The militia burn the village to the
ground as those trying to escape are bombed by aircraft.

Villages are repeatedly attacked to eliminate the possibility that
the displaced could ever rebuild their lives.

On Sept. 9, after two years of violence, then U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell declared the brutal attacks in Darfur a genocide, which
is a deliberate extermination of an entire people.

In a report called, Ã¢~@~Documenting Atrocities in Darfur,Ã¢~@~]
Powell called the Darfur situation, Ã¢~@~the worst humanitarian and
human rights crisis in the world today.Ã¢~@~]

One woman interviewed by the State Department said she was raped
repeatedly in front of her father and was then forced to watch as her
father was dismembered by the militia.

Panchol said the Sudanese government began to enforce Islamic law
called ShariÃ¢~@~Ya law on all citizens, regardless of their religion.
People living in the Darfur region were accountable to this law, even
though a majority of the citizens are not Islamic.

Islamic law contains the rules the Muslim world uses to govern. It
forms the basis for relations between man and God and the rules by
which a Muslim society is organized and governed.

The brutal oppression, ethnic cleansing and genocide sponsored by the
Sudanese government left the people of Darfur with no other option
for survival than organizing a group for political and military
resistance.

The resistance to the Islamic law led to the Sudan Liberation
Movement and its military, the Sudan Liberation Army.

In response to the Sudan Liberation ArmyÃ¢~@~Ys resistance, the
Sudanese government began their Ã¢~@~scorched earthÃ¢~@~] policy of
burning villages and killing those living there.

United Nations report 70,000 people have been killed in Sudan, but
the death toll may be four or five times higher.

The violence left an additional 1.7 million people displaced from
their homes with two hundred thousand of those displaced in
neighboring Chad.

According to the New York Times, a classified African Union archive
on the genocide the Sudanese government asked for the sponsored
militia to, Ã¢~@~Change the demography of Darfur and make it void of
African Tribes,Ã¢~@~] by means of, Ã¢~@~killing, burning villages and
farms, terrorizing people, confiscating property from members of
African tribes and forcing them from Darfur.Ã¢~@~]

A class taught this spring at Ole Miss on the topic of genocide has
encouraged a group students to work towards awareness about the
genocide taking place in Darfur.

The class is cross-listed between the history and political science
department and is taught by John Winkle, political science professor
and Robert Haws, chair of the history department.

Ã¢~@~The class became interested in this project when an author who
spoke on this subject told us about a group of students at Swarthmore
College in Pennsylvania, who have pledged to raise one million
dollars for genocide relief in Darfur,Ã¢~@~] said Roun McNeal, an Ole
Miss sophomore.

Ã¢~@~We in the class we felt a moral responsibility to do something
with them,Ã¢~@~] McNeal said. Ã¢~@~The war in Iraq and the tsunami in
Southeast Asia have sent Darfur to the backseat, as far as American
policy is concerned, therefore, the responsibility is in the hands of
the American people.Ã¢~@~]

The students contacted Sudan native Omer Ismail to address the Oxford
community. Ismail will speak tomorrow covering the horrors of
genocide in Darfur and AmericaÃ¢~@~Ys reaction.

Ismail, born in western Sudan, is the former minister of foreign
affairs in Sudan.

He was forced to flee Sudan when the National Islamic Front took
power in 1989 and has since lived as a refugee in the United States.
Ismail helped found the Sudan Democratic Forum, a group of Sudanese
working for advancement of democracy in Sudan and now resides in
Maryland.

Ã¢~@~In general, the American people associate genocide, almost
solely, with the Holocaust. However, genocide did not start or end
with the Holocaust. The Armenian genocide during World War I in
Turkey killed 1.5 million.Ã¢~@~]

In the 1970s, Cambodian Dictator Pol Pot oversaw the killing of over
2 million of that countryÃ¢~@~Ys population of 6 million.

Ã¢~@~Ethnic cleansing took place in the 1990s in Rwanda, Somolia and
Kosovo. The Holocaust is not the entirety of the book Ã¢~@~S a book
that, unfortunately, remains unfinished,Ã¢~@~] McNeal said.

McNeal said he hopes the lecture will facilitate awareness within the
Oxford community.

Ã¢~@~As a beacon for freedom, America, and in this case its citizens,
have a moral responsibility to contact our legislatures, donate to
humanitarian organizations and persuade others to do the same.Ã¢~@~]

Ã¢~@~Ismail is so knowledgeable on this situation, itÃ¢~@~Ys crucial
for the community to come listen and learn about what they can
do.Ã¢~@~]

Panchol stressed the importance of putting pressure on the American
government. He said more discussion about the genocide in Darfur is
necessary.

In addition to the lecture by Ismail, students in the genocide class
are studying multiple fund raising ideas, as well as trying to
involve alumni.

IsmailÃ¢~@~Ys lecture covering genocide in Darfur will take place
tomorrow at 6 p.m. in Croft building, room 107.

Ã¢~@~People really are the same. They are also human beings,Ã¢~@~]
Panchol said. Ã¢~@~ItÃ¢~@~Ys our responsibility to help them.Ã¢~@~]

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