New Jersey Jewish News, NJ
March 16 2007

Panelists say situation in Darfur demands less talk, more action

by Ron Kaplan
NJJN Staff Writer

How many here are under 25?’ asked Matthew Emry, facing an audience
at Drew University in Madison. `How many over 55? How many female?’

Innocent questions, perhaps, but for Emry, a senior program officer
with the American Jewish World Service, they were a way to bring home
the tragedy of Darfur, the region of Sudan where more than two
million people have been killed or displaced during a regional
genocide.

`When we look at any given population who are being impacted by
conflict and crisis, you are seeing a majority of the population
being children, adolescents, and women,’ he explained.

Emery was part of a forum at the Darfur Day of Conscience hosted at
the university on Feb. 7.

The forum was the final event in a day-long program that also
featured a morning workshop for middle and high school teachers and
an afternoon presentation by Abdelbagi Abushanab, president of the
Newark-based Darfur Rehabilitation Project.
The program was sponsored by the university’s Center for
Holocaust/Genocide Study and a range of campus groups as well as the
New Jersey Amistad Commission and the NJ Commission on Holocaust
Education.

Dr. Geraldine Smith-Wright, a professor of English at Drew, served as
moderator for the concluding panel, which included Dr. Matthew
Levinger, director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s
Academy for Genocide Prevention, and Assemblyman William D. Payne
(D-Dist. 29). She said she hoped the audience would come away from
the forum with the idea of moving `from talk to walk.’

In his remarks, Emry outlined the scope of the genocide in Darfur,
where women are particularly vulnerable and rape is a weapon in the
Khartoum government’s war on black Darfurians. With husbands, sons,
and parents missing or among the dead, women and young girls in
displaced persons’ camps are forced to walk miles in search of water
and wood for fuel, leaving them at the mercy of the Jangaweed, the
militia sponsored by Omar al-Bashir’s government.

Because of the social stigma of rape, victims are reluctant to come
forward and often forgo the opportunity for medical and emotional
counseling. They also lose their economic future, Emry said. `Women
who are raped do not wed, plus they must care for the children, who
are shunned by the community as well.’

Emry offered several suggestions for bringing more attention to the
crisis, including increasing financial support, contacting media
ombudsmen to demand more coverage, and holding more educational
programs like the one at Drew.

Levinger and Payne said American reaction too often comes down to
economics: $50 million that had been earmarked for African Union
peacekeepers in the region was stripped from the 2006 budget.
Thirty-four senators signed a letter to President George W. Bush,
asking for `specifically designated and robust funding to meet the
emergency needs in Darfur’ for the 2007 fiscal year and the upcoming
supplemental appropriations request. Political leaders `have to be
persuaded that the costs of inaction outweigh the costs of action,’
Levinger said.

Emry expressed little faith in political promises, however. `It makes
me laugh when [they] say, `We’re going to pass a resolution, pass a
bill, launch an investigation…” said Emry. `We can write reports
till our faces are blue, but unless real action is taken, they don’t
mean anything. They can’t just sign their name and think they’ve done
enough.’

Never again?

Levinger described his department at the Holocaust museum as a new
initiative of the its Committee on Conscience, which was created to
respond to contemporary genocides.

`We owe an obligation to our fellow humans anywhere in the world to
act to resist violence that aims to destroy entire populations,’ he
said. `We talk about the lessons of the Holocaust, but the Holocaust
really has no lessons. The only lesson is that humans are capable of
incomprehensible cruelty. The lessons lie in our response to that
encounter with mass violence.’

Levinger said that there are currently 7,000 monitors in the Sudan, a
figure he called inadequate. `[W]e can’t just say `These people are
nuts and there’s nothing you can do about it.’ A robust peacekeeping
force…would send a clear message that the international community was
not prepared to tolerate that kind of deterioration.’

Payne also lamented that the international community has not learned
from the past.

`We’ve heard `Never again’ over and over. The phrase has lost its
meaning.’ He compared Darfur with the genocides of World War II and
those in Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. `They cried out for
help, and we did not help.’

Payne, who serves as vice chair of the State Assembly budget
committee, was the primary sponsor of a bill prohibiting investment
of pension funds in foreign companies doing business with Sudan. The
bill was signed into law by then Gov. Richard Codey last July.

Recalling the protests of the late 1960s, the assemblyman urged
students to take the point in the continuing struggle. `Regardless of
how far away it is, we have to speak up and do something about it,’
said Payne, brother of U.S. Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-Dist. 10), who
has taken a lead role in Congress on the Darfur issue.

`The educational community – university students, high school
teachers, members of the community at large – are essential audiences
to our work,’ Levinger said. `Often it is students who have been
among the most creative and passionate advocates for recognizing our
common humanity.’

Two organizations geared especially for students are
HelpDarfurNow.org (middle and high school) and Standarfur.org
(college).