Innis Residence Community Outreach sponsored a lecture last Tuesday about the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. Dr. Norman Epstein, the founder of Canadians Against Slavery and Torture in Sudan (CASTS), described the history of human rights violations in the region before his colleague, Dr. Achol Dor, described her experiences growing up amidst the violence in Southern Sudan. Both Epstein and Dor spoke out against global inaction in the region and emphasized the leadership role Canada should assume in global efforts to end the genocide.
Darfur, a western province of Sudan, has been the site of mass displacement and murder as “janjaweed”-Arab militias unofficially backed by the country’s central government in Khartoum-raid farming villages and terrorize the largely black population. Thousands have died in the fighting and hundreds of thousands more have been driven from their homes into refugee camps on the western Sudanese border.
Epstein explained to the 100 students assembled in the Innis Town Hall that the authorities released convicts from the capital cities’ prisons to attack villages in Darfur. Often these ground attacks were preceded by aerial bombings authorized by Khartoum. “This is just indiscriminate killing,” Epstein said. “Men are killed, women and children enslaved, wells are poisoned and villages are burned.” Since the outbreak of the rebellion in February 2000, over four thousand people have been killed and at least two and half million are displaced. Although the United Nations has passed a number of resolutions condemning the violence against the inhabitants of Darfur, the international community has not intervened.
Epstein expressed his outrage at the absence of international intervention in the region.
“Are not African lives just as cherished as other lives?” he asked. “Are we not all equal?” Epstein said that the Darfur genocide is an opportunity for Canada to show leadership: “Canada can transform itself from a respected middle power to a moral superpower,” he said.
Dr. Dor brought a personal element into the lecture, describing her experiences living amidst the turmoil in Sudan. “I was born in the problem and grew up with it. I am away from Sudan but its still hounding me now.” Dor’s father was a chieftain in Southern Sudan who targeted by the Khartoum government because his village participated in a rebellion. She recounted how government soldiers came to her home when she was seven, raping her older sister and murdering her father in the presence of the whole family. “I was very traumatized by the way my Dad died. I had a fear of soldiers and though I was a good student in high school, I never did well in Arabic as it was the language the soldiers spoke.” Dor eventually became a medical doctor, practicing in Sudan until government threats forced her to leave the country.
She now practices medicine in mission hospitals worldwide and raises awareness of the turmoil in Sudan.
Dor echoed Epstein’s argument that a strong Canadian response to the genocide would encourage international intervention in Sudan. “Canada is respected in the world. If we say, ‘let’s do this,’ the world would respect us.” She explained that many African leaders deplore the violence in Sudan but their countries do not have the resources to pressure the Sudanese administration. Intervention from outside Africa is necessary to end the violence in Darfur, she said. Dor hopes that increased public awareness of the situation in Canada will result in citizens encouraging the Canadian government to assume a leadership role. Dor has resisted pressure from the Sudanese government’s ambassador to Canada to stop giving lectures about the violence, stating, “I’m going to talk until I die-I owe it to my father.”
CASTS encourages all members of the university community to attend a rally in Nathan Phillips Square at 12pm on Saturday April 2 to protest crimes against humanity in Darfur and the inaction of the international community.
