CAMP DARFUR AT CSULB
By Kevin Butler, Staff writer

Long Beach Press-Telegram, CA
Dec 12 2006

Inside mock refugee tents, people learn about conflict in Sudan.

LONG BEACH – Cal State Long Beach student Tammy Dao was not aware of
the humanitarian catastrophe occurring in the war-ravaged region of
Sudan called Darfur.

While watching a television documentary being shown at a campus event
Monday, she heard African children – refugees from the three-year-old
conflict – tell of their parents being killed and their villages
being burned and bombed.

"I didn’t know this was happening," Dao said. "It’s really sad to
see all the suffering."

The event, called Camp Darfur, featured several mock refugee tents
erected on campus by the group CSULB Darfur Action League. Inside the
tents were pictures, videos and articles designed to raise awareness
of the brutal conflict in the African nation.

The tents also featured information about incidents of genocide in
world history, including the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide and
the massacres in Cambodia, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

The Darfur conflict has pitted ethnic African rebels against Sudan’s
Arab-dominated government and pro-government Arab militias.

The violence has claimed more than 200,000 lives, according to research
published in the journal Science.

Human-rights groups and the U.S. government have said the atrocities
constitute genocide, although the United Nations has stopped short
of using that term.

The event, which ends today, aims to make students "realize that
genocide is a theme that is recurring throughout history," said Peter
Sablove, president of the CSULB Darfur Action League. "And the earlier
we catch it, the earlier we can stop it."

Sablove and his organization also were asking fellow students to
support efforts to get assurances from the CSULB Foundation that it
has not invested in companies doing business with Sudan’s government.

The foundation has no direct investments in any companies doing
business in Darfur, said Joseph Latter, CSULB associate vice president
for financial management and the foundation’s assistant treasurer.

"Most of our investments are in mutual funds, and we have no control
over what companies the funds invest in," Latter said in a statement.

"We also are sensitive to human-rights concerns as stated in our
investment policy, and we will continue to monitor these issues as
they change throughout the world."

Sablove said he wants to see the university investigate further to
ensure the foundation has not invested in companies doing business
with Sudan’s government.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress