Walking to class Jan. 11, students came face-to-face with the
impoverished conditions faced by those affected by the current
violence halfway across the world in Sudan.
To raise support for the University of California divestment
from Sudan, the Darfur Action Committee staged a mock refugee camp
in Schoenberg Quad.
The camp is one of the events held by DAC in anticipation of the
UC Board of Regents’ vote on divestment from Sudan on Jan. 19
at UC San Diego.
“We want to show the regents that they need to be
accountable to students,” said Megan Markoff, DAC refugee
camp coordinator. “If students make this an issue, then the
regents will have to take action. This is a great opportunity to
use our power as students for social good.”
Called “Reality of the Refugees,” the mock camp
featured tents simulating living conditions for Darfurians
displaced to refugee camps on the border of Chad due to ongoing
genocide in Sudan.
Photographs and posters provided additional information about
the violence in Sudan.
“By experiencing what the refugees are going through,
students can raise their awareness about this crisis,” said
Adam Sterling, an executive member of DAC. “We want everyone
to know about what is going on in Sudan and how the people are
suffering there.”
After a conflict between rebel groups and militia, the Sudanese
government began ethnic cleansing of black Darfurians in Feb. 2003,
killing over 400,000 civilians, displacing nearly 2.5 million, and
impoverishing 3 million. In July 2004, the U.S. Senate and House of
Representatives unanimously adopted a joint resolution declaring
the atrocities in Darfur to be genocide, the first time a genocide
has been officially recognized while still occurring.
“Those who are lucky enough to survive the violence still
face tremendous hardship,” said Ruth Dawson, DAC programming
committee member. “Refugees have to walk miles to shanties
where they usually await death from starvation, dehydration or
disease. What’s happening to these people is horrible, and
there’s no excuse to ignore it.”
One of DAC’s primary goals in the coming week is to
recruit students to attend the regents meeting and demonstrate
support for divestment by signing a petition, Dawson said.
“It’s essential that we have a large turnout so that
we can clearly show the regents that students across California are
strongly in favor of divestment. We need as many students as we can
to show solidarity and that we are going to stand up to
this,” Dawson said.
Other universities, including Stanford, Harvard and Dartmouth,
have recently divested funds from the Sudanese government.
Divestment has been successfully employed by the UC in the past for
economic opposition to tobacco companies and South African
apartheid.
First-year biology student Shuo Wang said that the mock camp was
very effective.
“I had no idea that this was going on in Sudan, so when I
saw the display I was really shocked that something like this is
going on today,” Wang said. “I’ve always thought
of genocide as something in a history book. I’m definitely
motivated to find out more about what’s going on.”
The mock camp will remain in Schoenberg Quad today and will move
to Bruin Plaza on Friday. Other upcoming events include a mock
regents meeting and a documentary screening.