A WITNESS TO GENOCIDE: Yared Fubusa, a USU doctoral student from Tanzania, said genocide such as he saw in Rwanda is "personal." / Photo by Patrick Oden

By Jen Beasley

January 24, 2007 | What is the recipe for genocide?

In Sudan, the largest country in Africa, hundreds of thousands of people have been murdered or raped since 2003 in a conflict raging between groups generally labeled as pastoral Arabs and agricultural Africans.

But according to a panel discussion Tuesday night at Utah State University, the violence cannot be attributed solely to land, religion or race. It is genocide in shades of gray.

The panel, sponsored by a group called Aggies for Africa, was conceived as a way to generate awareness of the crisis in the Darfur region of western Sudan. The conflict has left as many as 400,000 people dead and 2 million more displaced, according to literature passed out from the Committee on Conscience. And though one of the main goals outlined for the discussion was to get to the root of the issues, the four-member panel was more able to outline what the conflict is not, than what it is.

Dr. Peter Mentzel, a panelist who is an expert on the Middle East and Islam, emphasized that the violence, which has sometimes been painted as a religious conflict, cannot be categorized that way.

"One thing I think we can rule out pretty definitely is that this is not about Islam," Mentzel said. "All the people involved in this conflict are Muslim."

Though the root causes of the horror may not be easily grasped, what is clear is that a militia comprised of Arab nomadic herders known as the Janjaweed has been systematically slaughtering African farmers and villagers, possibly with the financial support of the Sudanese government. A slideshow presented at the beginning of the discussion illustrated the devastating brutality in Darfur with graphic photos of mass graves, children with deep machete wounds, burning village buildings, and menacing, armed men.

The United Nations has not officially declared the conflict a genocide, but it has been acknowledged as such by several nations, including the United States.

Panelist Dr. Chris Conte, an associate professor of history who specializes in Africa, said the use of terms "Arab" and "African" confuses the issues. He said many of the "Arabs" are as dark-skinned as the "Africans," and that the term has more to do with political affiliation with policy-makers in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, than with race.

"Everyone in Darfur is dark-complected and speaks some dialect of Arabic," he said. "Being an Arab has something to do with being legitimate vis a vis the state in Sudan."

"What is interesting is the way those terms have become ethnic markers instead of socio-economic ones," Conte said.

Conte cited a variety of potential sources for the conflict. Drought in Sudan has expanded grazing areas into formerly agricultural regions, generating confrontation between the groups. The withdrawal of British colonial influence in the 1950s left north and south Sudan divided between the Arabs and Africans, respectively, with the seat of state in Khartoum in the north, resulting in the political marginalization of Darfur.

"It's very complex," Conte said.

The repeated intellectualizing of the conflict as complex, however, seemed to frustrate panelist Yared Fubusa, a native of Tanzania who is getting his PhD in natural resources. After witnessing genocide in Rwanda, which neighbors Tanzania, Fubusa said the memory of genocide is "personal."

"I think this is a language of excuse. It's not complex; you need about two or three thousand soldiers," Fubusa said. "Sometimes you just wonder: if Darfur was in Europe, what would have been the response of the international community? I think too little is being done. People are being killed as we speak."

Conte cited the role of the Nile, which flows north to Egypt from Sudan, as a potential factor in why the United States has not involved itself. The U.S. may not wish to alienate its tentative allegiance with Egypt by doing anything that may interfere with a treaty between Sudan and Egypt regarding the use of the water. Conte said it has also been suggested that the U.S. is working with Sudan on intelligence about Osama bin Laden, and may therefore be reluctant to make waves with the Sudanese government.

Fubusa said that the international community has a responsibility to act.

"I think that the shortcut here, the quickest way to solve this, is by your American government, by you pressurizing them," he told the audience. "We have a saying in Africa, 'America is so powerful, if it sneezes, the whole world catches fever.' It's up to you to tell the politicians to stop sneezing."

In terms of what should be done to stop the violence, panelist Tiffany Ivins Spence agreed that the answer lies in political pressure. Spence, a PhD candidate in instructional technology who has done extensive humanitarian work in Africa, said that writing letters to Congress would at least get the issue on the table and in the limelight. She said letters should encourage peace talks, and support the African Union, which has deployed about 9,000 soldiers in an attempt to stabilize the region.

"If I want to know how strong a nation is, I want to know how involved their youth is in what's going on," Spence said.

Christopher Brown, a junior majoring in anthropology and sociology, said he came to the panel discussion to become more informed.

"I know that there's terrible stuff going on in Sudan, but I don't know details," he said. "I thought it'd be a good thing to come to."

After hearing the discussion, Brown said he might join the student organizations and continue to inform himself.

Tiffany Gourley, the treasurer of Aggies for Africa, said about 220 people came to the discussion in the TSC Ballroom.

"It's beyond any of my expectations," she said. "It went so well. We had 100 chairs set up at the beginning and we had to double that, and there were people standing in the back."

Aggies for Africa was founded in October as a combined effort of the Utah State chapter of Amnesty International, and STAND, which is a non-acronym for "A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition," by students who wanted to do what they could to help solve the problems in Darfur.

T-shirts were sold at the event for $10, the proceeds of which will be earmarked for an organization to help the crisis. It has not yet been determined what organization would get the money, Gourley said, because they were still trying to find one that would not charge administrative fees.

Anyone interested in helping is encouraged to attend the next Aggies for Africa meeting Jan. 31 at the "Boathouse" on 600 E. 700 North.

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