Kristof discusses Darfur, motivates students

by Sommer Saadi

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof focused his afternoon lecture on April 10, 2007 on the genocide in Darfur. Kristof believes university students are the real moral leaders in fighting genocide, and he emphasized the necessity of those movements by sharing personal stories of his experiences covering the genocide.

"I admit Darfur has become my private obsession because of the things I've seen there," Kristof said.

The afternoon session was scheduled in addition to his Inaugural Address presentation for the Human Rights Program (see related Daily Campus story) where he spoke on the topic of human trafficking.

Kristof's work has won two Pulitzer Prizes. He was awarded one last year for his columns covering issues on trafficking in Cambodia, President Carter's campaign against diseases in Africa, environmental issues, American politics and the genocide in Darfur. The second was won alongside his wife Sheryl WuDunn in 1990 for his coverage of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement. Kristof has traveled the world extensively while covering human rights issues.

During his lecture, Kristof recalled personal tales of interviewing Sudanese refugees along the border of Chad. He first went to Africa in March 2004, about a year after the rebellion began.

As he described the stories of each person he found homeless and huddled beneath trees, pictures were projected onto a screen behind him. Under one tree, he met an orphaned toddler and infant left to seek shelter alone. Under the next he met a woman who watched her husband, children and sisters murdered before her.

The more trees he moved to, Kristof explained, the more people he met with stories of death and destruction.

"That was the moment that the scale of hit me," Kristof said. "It's hard to move on and write about other things after that."

Darfur has been entangled in a deadly conflict for approximately four years, and although the specific number of deaths is disputed, it is widely recognized that hundreds of thousands have been killed. A conflict between the Arab and Non-Arab tribes that live in Darfur erupted with the tensions surrounding racial and agricultural differences. To resolve the sectarian violence and suppress the rebellion, Kristof explained, the Sudanese leaders decided to exterminate the Non-Arab tribes.

Kristof said the leaders felt they could get away with such a solution because Darfur is "in the middle of nowhere, perennially neglected by everybody."

In addition the mass killings being executed by the Sudanese government, Kristof has observed a policy of systematic rape being engineered. Rape is a way of terrorizing and breaking the morale of the tribes, according to Kristof, and in essence ripping the fabric of the villages apart.

Kristof described the blatant lies issued by the Sudanese government about their actions is what he finds most disturbing about the country's condition. The government's claims that they cannot help the tribal conflict are blatantly false, Kristof said. They fund the "Janjaweed" (the militia that is executing the mass killings) and are giving the orders.

Kristof recognized the United States calling the situation in Darfur genocide a step in the right direction, but said the administration has used the word genocide "not as a spirit to action, but a substitute for action." The United States has done a good job of providing relief aid, said Kristof, but not of trying to stop the genocide.

Kristof said he believes it is time for the United States to do more.

"Passing out more food and more plastic sheeting [as people continue to lose their lives] seems incredibly hollow."

The solution is not to send in ground troops, Kristof said. Rather, the international community must work to change the president of Sudan's approach to solving the tension between the two tribes. The United States can use pressure to instigate negotiations to find a peace deal.

Kristof explained the U.N. has not taken action because China, a voting power, has said it will veto any resolution to impose. To combat China's reluctance, the United States must raise Darfur on its agenda with China. Kristof also recognized the influence the 12 million bloggers in China could have on pressuring the government to recognize the genocide and encourage reform.

Kristof recognizes the media has not been very good at covering the current genocide nor genocide in the past, but he still feels the public should recognize its obligation to voice to the government a concern over the situation.

"I don't think this is hopeless," Kristof said. "But it will keep going as long as we allow it to."