2008 Woodie Awards
PAC, professors hold Darfur roundtable
Amy Morse
Issue date: 10/24/06 Section: Campus News
A roundtable discussion on the crisis in Darfur, Sudan, headlined the Political Awareness Club meeting Monday, Oct. 16. Open to anyone with an interest in politics, PAC discussed the origins of the issue focusing specifically on political relations.
"The purpose of the Political Awareness Club is to increase student knowledge of political issues going on around the world," said James Hauser, treasurer.
When asked why they chose to talk about Darfur, Hauser replied the interests of PAC members determine the topic of discussion and that Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND's) activities in the past few weeks brought the issue into the limelight.
"Since STAND had been doing a lot in recent weeks to increase awareness on the issue, we thought we should as well from a foreign policy perspective."
Every other Monday, PAC has guest speakers from the political science department. Dr. William Crowther and Dr. Robert Griffiths led this week's roundtable.
"The purpose of the discussion was to understand why the genocide in Darfur started," Hauser said. Accordingly, they began the roundtable by establishing the origin of the conflict in 2003. In a later interview, Griffiths explained factors in the conflict are more complicated than portrayed by the media.
Essentially, after a long civil war between the North and South of Sudan, a peace treaty was signed. Controversy over this agreement hindered peace in Darfur.
A militia of armed gunmen called the Janjaweed have allegedly targeted civilians in Darfur, inflicting rape and murder. As a result, according to Griffiths, above 400,000 have been murdered and another 1.2 million displaced. That number has now grown to 2 million according to SaveDarfur.org.
The definition of genocide, in short, is any provable intent to wipe out a specific group of people. In Europe and the United States, there is controversy about applying it to Darfur. Under pressure from humanitarian groups, President Bush declared genocide is taking place in the region. The U.N., however, has not followed suit.
"The purpose of the Political Awareness Club is to increase student knowledge of political issues going on around the world," said James Hauser, treasurer.
When asked why they chose to talk about Darfur, Hauser replied the interests of PAC members determine the topic of discussion and that Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND's) activities in the past few weeks brought the issue into the limelight.
"Since STAND had been doing a lot in recent weeks to increase awareness on the issue, we thought we should as well from a foreign policy perspective."
Every other Monday, PAC has guest speakers from the political science department. Dr. William Crowther and Dr. Robert Griffiths led this week's roundtable.
"The purpose of the discussion was to understand why the genocide in Darfur started," Hauser said. Accordingly, they began the roundtable by establishing the origin of the conflict in 2003. In a later interview, Griffiths explained factors in the conflict are more complicated than portrayed by the media.
Essentially, after a long civil war between the North and South of Sudan, a peace treaty was signed. Controversy over this agreement hindered peace in Darfur.
A militia of armed gunmen called the Janjaweed have allegedly targeted civilians in Darfur, inflicting rape and murder. As a result, according to Griffiths, above 400,000 have been murdered and another 1.2 million displaced. That number has now grown to 2 million according to SaveDarfur.org.
The definition of genocide, in short, is any provable intent to wipe out a specific group of people. In Europe and the United States, there is controversy about applying it to Darfur. Under pressure from humanitarian groups, President Bush declared genocide is taking place in the region. The U.N., however, has not followed suit.
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