April 14, 2005

Sudanese Ambassador Challenged on Genocide

Here's a very good report from The Tennessean on the appearance yesterday by Sudanese Ambassador Abdel Bagi Kabeir.

Yesterday's event was organized, in part, by the college's office of Spiritual Development, which informed the ambassador that the audience would have a clear point of view against the Sudanese government.

Many in the crowd — including one student refugee from the Sudan — accused the government of supporting atrocities such as murder and rape and what former Secretary of State Colin Powell has called "genocide."

Sophomore Amr Ali said his family escaped Sudan after the government harassed his mother and beat his father. He told the crowd he was proud that he would soon be an American citizen. But he told Sudanese Ambassador Abdel Bagi Kabeir that he would not forget his native country.

"I want you to look at me," the 19-year-old told the ambassador. "This is the future. The people that you have oppressed, the people that your government has kicked out of the country will go back. We will make the country greater than it has ever been since you have raped it since 1989."

Ali received a loud ovation for his statements.It wasn't just loud, it was electric. (For the record, my notes indicate Ali's full quote was "I want you to look at me. This is the future. The people that you have oppressed, the people that your government has kicked out of the country will go back and make a better Sudan. We will make the country greater than it has ever been since you have raped it since 1989.")

Ali has been in the United States for the past five years and plays collegiate soccer. "The United States has not only been gracious to accept me as a refugee," he said, "but in a few months I'll also be a citizen of the United States."

Ali is majoring in poli-sci and hopes to become a lawyer specializing in refugee law.

Ali was not the only Sudanese refugee there to confront Kabeir - three Sudanese men now living came to act as a truth squad who could answer if Kabeir's statements were true or not. After Kabeir spoke, they sat on the stage with Ali, Lake, Kabeir and a survivor of the mid-1990s genocide in Rwanda in which 800,000 people died, and took turns telling their stories and asking questions.

The Rwandan refugee's remarks were an emotional call for the world to act now to stop the killing in Sudan's Darfur region, and discuss the international politics of it later:

"This happened in our country in 1994 while the UN and powerful countries were discussing the word 'genocide' and whether it was a genocide, while every day 10,000 people were dying. We had the UN soldiers there, 5,000 of them. They did nothing.

Now we are discussing the word genocide. Now, when we are talking, people are dying. We know it is a genocide. You know that. Why don't you act? You discuss.

"Save lives, and then discuss."

"While we debate, people are dying," he said. "Words are good - action is better. All I have left of my family is memories and pictures. We should pray as if everything depends on God and act as if everything depends on us."

It's worth noting that, in his entire rambling response, Kabeir never flatly denied that the Sudanese government was helping the militias kill civilians.

An estimated 2,000 non-Arab villages have been destroyed in Sudan's Darfur region. Homes, livestock, crops, trees, commercial structures, wells and irrigation, nearly all of the physical infrastructure necessary to support survival and community life, were intentionally decimated. Under the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, the definition of genocide includes "deliberately inflicting on a group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."

I respect the 70-100 students who walked out in protest - they made their point. But so did the students and others who stayed. Did we change Kabeir's mind or his public pronouncements about the situation in Darfur? No. But thanks to the event and The Tennessean's coverage of it, a few more people now know a little more about the genocide in Darfur. Maybe that will help raise the political pressure on our elected officials to act.

You can learn more more about the daily, brutal massacre of children, women and men in the Darfur region at www.darfurgenocide.org or www.savedarfur.org. And there's more background here. You can also find more information and Darfur photos from the USAID.

[Map and photo can be clicked for larger versions.]