(U-WIRE) ATLANTA — Jeremy Gaither has been an activist since high school. A few years ago, when he first found out about the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, he felt a deep sense of obligation to do something about it.
“I find that simply having knowledge of this tremendous violation of human rights and dignity compels me to be an active part in stopping it,” says Gaither, a junior at Georgia State University and chapter president of Amnesty International.
The horrible details of the genocide inspired Gaither to participate in a candlelight vigil and a teach-in, as well as a protest to raise awareness and to motivate people to take action.
The genocide in Darfur is grabbing the attention of an increasing number of college students across numerous college campuses, including those in Georgia.
The conflict in Darfur, which started in early 2003 as a confrontation between the Sudanese government and rebel groups, has already claimed an estimated 400,000 lives, and displaced 2.3 million civilians, according to Save Darfur.
The government of Sudan has responded to the uprising by arming the Janjawid militia as a paramilitary force to suppress the rebellion. As a result of this conflict, the civilians in Darfur as well as the refugees in the neighboring camps continue to remain vulnerable to rape, murder, and death.
Although college students are often perceived by many as apathetic, an overwhelming 98 percent of college students view community service as honorable, while a majority of them see it as an effective way to solve problems, according to a study conducted by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University in 2005.
“I do think student activism is on the rise, and many students’ issue of choice has become stopping the genocide in Darfur, and stopping genocide completely,” says Sean Redding, the communications coordinator for a student anti-genocide coalition called STAND. (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur).
Jacqueline Crowther, an urban policy major at GSU and secretary of the Amnesty International chapter, helped organize various events, collect petitions, and lobby representatives with regards to the Darfur crisis. She talks about AI’s National Week of Student Action, which called for awareness-raising events in campuses and high schools throughout the country focusing on the conflict in Darfur.
As part of the week of action, Crowther and her activist friends had a refugee from Darfur speak about her experiences. They also co-sponsored a teach-in at Charis bookstore focusing on the constant struggle that women and young girls face daily in Darfur.
“What we tried to do during the week of action was to make the conditions of Darfur as real as possible for everyone who attended our events,” Crowther says.
Similarly, student activists at Georgia Tech organized a mock refugee camp to sketch a picture of the life in Darfuri refugee camps. They also screened a movie, Darfur Diaries, as part of the commemoration of Human Rights Week to raise awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur.
“People were very responsive to the struggle and we managed to sign many action letters,” says Adnan Elhammali, a student activist and a senior majoring in physics at Georgia Tech.
What is so special about the Darfur crisis that is propelling so many students to action for a cause that is thousands of miles away from home?
“The world we live in is increasingly globalizing,” Crowther says, “and when productive members of a society are being killed off and displaced from their homes, the implications are felt throughout the nation, region, and the world.”
“We should care about Darfur because should we let this attack on human rights continue, not only would the violence spread in the areas surrounding the region, but human rights everywhere would be jeopardized,” she adds.
For graduate student Lola Ibitoye, a grant assistant at the Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta, the Darfur crisis is all about helping fellow human beings.
“If no humanity is shown in situations like the Darfur crisis, we’ll be lost to an inhumane world where no one looks out for each other,” says Ibitoye. “This will result in a loss of empathy and sympathy, and without those, we are less than human.”
In order to help alleviate the suffering in Darfur, Ibitoye has recently coordinated a Darfur rally in Decatur, in which student leaders from various colleges spoke out against the genocide.
Student activism may be on a rise with regards to the Darfur crisis. However, the question is whether or not it can make a real difference in a crisis, which the U.N. calls “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis of today.”
Gaither, while emphasizing that his comments are independent, remains confident that students can change the course in Darfur.
“Student activism has a long history of enacting real change in our community,” he says. “Just look at the activism during Vietnam.”
“Each generation brings with it a new and stronger desire to create a better world and we already have strong networks within which we can educate others about various global problems.”
Slma Shelbayah, a graduate student in applied linguistics, agrees.
Students have high energy and this kind of energy is what is needed in order to provide relief to the people in Darfur,” she says.
Despite the high degree of student optimism, Henry Carey, a professor of political science at GSU, is skeptical whether students alone can make a real difference in this crisis. Although Carey says that student activism is on a rise with regards to the Darfur crisis, he believes that a bigger movement is needed in order to bring about a significant change in Darfur.
“Students are part of a still too weak movement for U.S. and/or U.N. intervention,” Carey says.
However, Elhammali is more hopeful about the success of this student movement because he believes that government representatives often respond to a small number of people with a centralized message.
“The reason for this is that most officials rarely hear from their constituents,” he says, “so when they do hear a unified message, even from a small group of people, they often times will act on it.”
As it turns out, this kind of optimism and grassroots mobilization by students throughout the country is generating results.
Congressional staff recognized phone calls made on a national call-in day in November of 2006 by STAND, a student anti-genocide coalition, as key in getting additional funding for peacekeeping troops in Darfur in the fiscal year 2007 budget, according to Redding.
Student activism has also prompted divestment movements by US colleges, which retract investments benefiting the Sudanese government, in order to protest the genocide in Darfur.
“Students have been instrumental in divestment campaigns across the country, at the university, city, and state level,” Redding says.
As of now, some 18 states have already divested while another six are considering legislation to do so.
Additionally, 54 universities, including Harvard University, have already pulled their investments from companies that do business with the Sudanese government.
Although student activism is playing a proactive role in alleviating the sufferings in Darfur, there is much to be done in this crisis.
In addition to the hundreds of thousands of lives lost and millions displaced, millions more remain at a “grave risk” amid the deteriorating security, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. (UNHCR)
On a broader level, as Gaither says, “Darfur is simply not a single-issue problem. One can’t talk about Darfur without discussing things like the tremendous amounts of rape, violence against women, and international apathy.”
While citing failed attempts of the UN Security Council to take firm action on the Darfur crisis, Gaither also stresses the media’s indifference to give Darfur the prominence it deserves.
“I think it’s significant that most mainstream media sources cover obsessively something like the divorce of two celebrities, more than they do about real important political issues,” Gaither says.
Ibitoye compares the Darfur crisis to the genocide in Rwanda where 800,000 lives were lost during the 1990s.
“The world turned its eye away from what was going on in the beginning of Rwanda because it wasn’t big enough to warrant international attention until it was too late, she says.
“I believe we are ignoring some serious warning signs that will result in this conflict getting bigger, spilling over, and having the potential to destabilize that whole region.”
The UNHCR has warned that the worsening situation in Darfur could have “dire consequences” for the rest of the region, unless urgent international action is taken. Chad, which borders Sudan, is already grappling with cross-border security as more than 200,000 Darfur refugees are now living in camps in Chad.
While recognizing the nature of the differences between Rwanda and the ongoing crisis in Darfur, Crowther says, “Learning from Rwanda, and even Yugoslavia, I hope that the world will recognize the urgency of the crisis in Darfur, and act accordingly.”
However, for Gaither, Darfur is more of a disappointment.
“The broader silence concerning Darfur seems to me to be an echo of the utter ignorance of Rwanda and that certainly disturbs me,” he says.