From:The Pennfield The Enquirer
Date Published: October 20, 2009
By: Justin A. Hinkley

A tall, scrawny man known as Abubakar tells a story that's hard for many to hear.

Abubakar was captured, accused of being a rebel and beaten during interrogations. He escaped from a Sudanese hospital and spent six years as a refugee in the neighboring nations of Chad and Ghana before coming to Grand Rapids.

On Monday, he had this to say to about 100 people gathered at Pennfield High School's Performing Arts Center: "I would say to Americans, you are really lucky and please don't take that for granted," he said. "You can say anything you want to government and nobody can arrest you and no one can harm you. That's a wonderful thing. So fill your wonderful life."

Messages such as those are what led Pennfield Middle School social studies teacher Mitch Fowler to begin the Darfur Media Festival. He asked his seventh-graders to put together multimedia presentations -- photos, video and music -- that would "raise awareness and ask for help."

"The first thing that came to my head when I heard what was happening there was how sad it was," said 13-year-old eighth-grader Marshall Curtis. "The second thing was what I could or couldn't do to help."

Partnering with the Michigan Darfur Coalition, Fowler's students put on a presentation last year and raised more than $200 to help the 3.5 million Darfurians displaced by the genocide and who depend on humanitarian aid.

On Monday, the films were shown again -- gut-wrenching and heartfelt images of Sudanese women and children and gory images of ethnic cleansing shown in a documentary -- hoping to encourage people to get involved.

The Michigan Darfur Coalition's Charlton Breen set the scene this way: He asked the audience to imagine hearing bloodcurdling screams from a neighboring apartment, waking to find their neighbors' home aflame or spotting a cluster of lost and fearful children on the side of the road.

"I would say that most of us would do something," Breene said. "But what if you don't hear the screams yourself? What if you hear about them from someone else? Would the situation really be different?"

That was the question raised by Abubakar's story and the atrocities he shared. When his family's village was attacked, he said Sudanese soldiers took a villager's baby only minutes old and dropped it into boiling water.

From: Darfur Consortium
Date Published: 07/24/07

Associated Press: Michigan Latest State to Target Sudan. A growing list of states and universities across the country are pulling their investments from foreign companies that deal with Sudan, Iran and other nations accused of government-supported genocide or terrorism. It could be the largest wave of public divestment activity since efforts targeting South Africa and apartheid in the 1980s. Michigan is among the states that soon could join the effort. The state Legislature on Tuesday was to hold hearings on bills that would restrict the state's pension fund investments. According to the Sudan Divestment Task Force, 19 states and more than 50 universities have adopted some sort of divestment policy related to the African nation, where the government and its military allies are accused of pursuing a genocide campaign in the Darfur region. ''As more and more states jump on board, it creates a snowball effect,'' said Ginny Mitchell, an Ann Arbor resident who is working with the task force. ''It will hit Sudan in the wallet, and that's what we're looking to do.'' One set of Michigan bills would target a relatively short list of foreign companies -- mostly from oil, power and minerals sectors -- listed by the Sudan Divestment Task Force. The task force says those companies have a business relationship with the Sudanese government but fail to benefit citizens outside of government-controlled circles, and have not adequately addressed the genocide through corporate action.

From: EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY - FOCUS
Date Published:09/12/06
By Leigh Soltis

A group of Eastern Michigan University staff and students can no longer sit back and watch genocide happen in Sudan. As a result, a new campus organization is taking a STAND.
Students Taking Action Now for Darfur (STAND) is a national student-run organization dedicated to ending the genocide in Sudan. This year marks the EMU chapter's first as an official student organization.

To kick off the occasion, EMU's STAND plans to educate the campus community about the genocide in Darfur through a series of events, including a film screening of "Hotel Rwanda" and "Darfur 21 st Genocide" Sept. 13, noon-2 p.m. and 7-9 p.m., in Halle Library; and an exhibition of drawings by children in Darfur refugee camps, Sept. 25-Oct. 1, also in Halle Library.

"I feel others must get involved. If people would have let their government know that Rwanda, Cambodia and Bosnia mattered, then the government might have acted more forcefully and with more authority," said Ginny Mitchell, president of STAND at EMU. "If people are only concerned with JonBenet Ramsey's death or with what Britney Spears is up to, then we get a government that only acts when a business interest is at stake."

Currently, STAND consists of approximately 10 students and a few staff members. Together they are working to inform the campus community about the situation, and to encouraging legislation that can help stop the violence.

"It's encouraging to see students of a wide variety of political views concerned about the apathy of this genocide," said Steven Mucher, STAND's faculty adviser.
Conflict in Sudan has been building since the 1980s. According to STAND, before fighting began in 2003, Darfur's population was around 6 million to 7 million, with a 3-2 ratio of ethnic-Africans   to ethnic-Arabs. For the most part, the African Darfurians are farmers and the Arab Darfurians are herders. Clashes between the two groups began as territory disputes, as the herds moved further south, encroaching on the farmer's land.

As many Arabs from the region were recruited to the janjaweed, a militia group backed by the Arab government, the conflict between the two ethnic groups grew. The government and the janjaweed were fighting a civil war in the south. As concessions were made to end the war, the mostly ethnic African tribes in the South gained some rights, economic shares and political power. The Africans in Darfur, however, were ignored.

"Darfur has historically been an ignored region," said Mitchell. "They don't have enough schools and they've been left out of agricultural and industrial development."
The tension between the people of Darfur and the government of Sudan peaked in February 2003, when rebel African groups staged an attack on the government. The government and janjaweed counteroffensive attacked not only the rebels, but also civilians in Darfur. The United Nations estimates that more than 400,000 have been killed since the attacks began, and more than 2.5 million have been displaced. Women and children are raped and beaten, and aid is prevented from reaching the area.
"STAND is trying to put political pressure on representatives, through a grassroots movement, to establish a peacekeeping force that can protect civilians and actually stop violent acts," said Mitchell.

Currently, African Union troops are in the area, attempting to keep the peace. Unfortunately, according to Mitchell, the troops are underfunded and don't have the power to stop the janjaweed.

"The African Union has 7,000 troops covering an area bigger than Texas," said Mitchell.

STAND's goal is a peacekeeping force led by NATO member states. According to STAND's Web site, this force must have at least 15,000 troops, a robust mandate to protect civilians, and leadership and significant participation from NATO member countries that have the military capabilities to effectively protect civilians.
"It's not that they're [our government] doing nothing, they're just not doing enough," said Mitchell. "Our leaders are responsive. They just need prodding. Grassroot movements can change the world."

One of the ways STAND is prodding political leaders is through a divestment campaign. Divestment is the removal of invested money from companies that help the Sudanese government. As demand for these companies' stocks fall, the price of shares decline. The idea is that either Sudan will change its behavior to keep businesses in the country, or the businesses will leave and Sudan won't have the money to buy military equipment.

STAND is working with the Sudan Divestment Task Force on this project. They are careful to choose only companies that provide revenue or arms to the government, and provide little benefit to the country's underprivileged. Companies that supply agricultural equipment, consumer goods, health, education, welfare or religious activities are not included in the divestment.

Mitchell met with Michigan Representative Alma Wheeler-Smith (D-Salem) in August to discuss a plan to divest Michigan funds from holdings in companies that do business with the Sudanese government. Once Wheeler-Smith drafts the bill, STAND will work on introducing it in a bipartisan manner to the state Senate and House.

Mitchell, a history/social studies secondary education major, also is planning a traveling genocide exhibit for schools, to reach students at both the high school and middle school levels.
"I went to the Holocaust Museum once and it challenged me to really ask myself, 'If I had been alive during that time, would I have taken action?' How could so many people do nothing?" said Mitchell. "I have two children and I really, truly believe that when they look back on this, they are going to want to know why it occurred and they are going to want to know that I didn't sit by in complicity."

Any staff or students interested in helping STAND, please e-mail Mitchell at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it