The U’s chapter of the nationwide Student Anti-genocide Coalition, will hold a demonstration today to protest genocide in Darfur.
During the “die-in,” STAND protesters will lie on the ground to represent the nearly 400,000 murdered and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur. The event is scheduled to begin at noon with a speech from Rebecca Simmons of the International Rescue Committee and will be followed by a brief statement from the group.
The conflict in Darfur, a region in western Sudan, began in 2004 when government troops and militia groups, known as the Janjaweed, moved to suppress rebels who complained that the region’s black population had been abandoned by the country’s Islamic central government. Violence escalated to genocidal levels during the next three years, causing the U.N. and several member nations to impose economic sanctions on Sudan. An international peacekeeping force took over for the fledgling African Union forces at the first of the year, but bureaucratic delays have hindered forces from entering conflict areas.
For more information about the group and Darfur, visit www.standnow.org and www.savedarfur.org.