Founder of Genocide Intervention Network speaks at university

-- Abdirahman Aynte

Though the United States government has labeled the Darfur conflict in Western Sudan as genocide—a legal connotation that requires the government to take serious preventative measure—some 500 people continue to die every day in what could be the world’s most neglected war.

But what haunts 24-year-old Mark Hanis, founder of Genocide Intervention Network (GIN), who spoke at Metropolitan State University on Nov. 18, is that signs of systematic elimination are underway in Darfur while the world’s media attention is focused on Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ lavish marriage in Italy.

"Shame on the media for their lack of action," he said.

Hanis, barely out of college, is one of four college students who founded GIN three years ago. Through social networks, such as MySpace and YouTube, GIN quickly grew to more than 500 chapters around the world, he said.

They hope to raise awareness so that people can become advocates for Darfur by demanding that their congressional delegation does something about the crisis. They also want to fundraise to support the small, often ineffective, African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

Sudan’s quarter-century conflict between the Christian south and the Muslim government ended last year in a U.S.-backed power sharing deal. The current conflict is Muslim-against-Muslim, and peace talks aimed to resolve the conflict resulted in one faction joining the government.

"We’ve every reason to do something about this," he said.

More than 450,000 people have died, and almost 2.5 million people have been forced from of their homes since the conflict began a few years ago. The government-backed Janjaweed militia, often referred to as the "Arabic speaking militia on camelback," committed horrendous crimes, he said, including murder, rape and looting against non-Arab villagers.

"Government aircrafts carpet bomb dotted villages throughout Darfur to pave the road for the Janjaweed militia to move in and do their dirty thing," he said.

The way in which average people can get involved, he added, is astoundingly simple: Call your senator or congressman.

"Elected people in Washington fear their constituency the most," he said.

As simple as that sounds, Hanis admitted that it doesn’t work all the time. That’s where local chapters come to play.

When GIN hit a snag in trying to convince Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and the departing U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, GIN mobilized the local Indiana chapter to do a slick thing—they cold-called the top 200 donors to Lugar’s campaign, he said.

GIN asked donors if they were happy with Lugar avoiding to put the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act on the agenda of his committee.

Due to the avalanche of calls, letters and emails, Lugar abruptly put the bill on his committee agenda where it easily sailed to full senatorial approval to become law.

Another way to exert pressure on congressional delegates is to ask them to improve their scores on http://www.darfurscores.org, a Web site that tracks how delegates voted on the issue, he said.

A look at the Web site reveals that of the 10 Minnesota congressional delegates, Betty McCollum (D-Minn.) of the Fourth District (where Metropolitan State University is located) is leading with an A+.

"We’ve had senators and representatives call [GIN] to request that their score is raised after casting a favorable vote," he said. "They’re powerful but vulnerable."

Hanis and his colleagues are traveling around the country to create what he calls "a permanent anti-genocide constituency."

"It’s time for everyone to be an up-stander of genocide, not a bystander," he said.

For more information on GIN, visit http://www.genocideintervention.net.

Abdirahman Aynte can be reached at ceynte@gmail.com.