This past Thursday, U of T professors Norman Epstein and Acol Dor spoke at Innis College to remind students that Sudanese people are still suffering.
Last March, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the U.N. that drastic action would be needed to prevent genocide from happening in the Darfur region of Sudan. Since then, however, Darfur has been overshadowed by the conflict in Iraq and hurricane Katrina.
Profs. Dor and Epstein are co-founders of Canadians Against Slavery and Torture in Sudan (CASTS), an organization dedicated to raising awareness about Sudan’s ordeal of intermittent, devastating civil wars since their independence from Britain in 1959. The most recent period of violence erupted in 2003, when rebel groups in Darfur began attacking the nation’s government, which retaliated by mobilizing militias. These militias, which the Sudanese call the Janjaweed, have ravaged Darfur, destroying villages and displacing some 2.5 million people. Some groups estimate that 10,000 Darfurians are dying every month
Profs. Epstein and Dor find the lack of international intervention unacceptable. Prof. Dor knows the violence firsthand, as she was living in the country when the government waged war against separatists in the south. At only seven, she watched her father be tortured and killed.
“Sudan needs to be owned by its own people….It’s time to say enough is enough. The government needs to change, and it doesn’t look like it will [on its own]. So we must force it to,” she said.
A 3,000-member African Union peacekeeping force has been deployed to monitor ceasefire violations. “Their mandate has to change,” said Dr. Epstein, “And they need more troops, properly armed.”
Aid agencies predict that four million refugees will face food shortages in the coming months. They will have to depend almost solely on food aid, which is obstructed by the Sudanese government.
The professors maintain that only the international community can save Darfur. But, they said, the question remains: “Does it have the will?”
