Posters proclaiming "300,000 Dead 2.5 million displaced" and "It's not about our people or their people. It's about people" decorated Pugh Hall during a video and panel discussion about the genocide in Darfur Monday night.
About 100 people, mostly students, watched "Sand and Sorrow," a 2007 documentary describing the conflict in Darfur, and about 60 people attended the discussion, which offered advice about lending aid.
Although the conflict began in 2003, the discussion comes at a time when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir faces an arrest warrant for his role in Darfur's continuing conflict, according to UF professor Abe Goldman, a member of the panel. Other members included UF professors Elizabeth Porter and Staffan Lindberg, professor emeritus René Lemarchand and UF alumnus Peter Ter, who moved to the U.S. from a refugee camp in Kenya.
Sneha Patel, a senior business administration major, organized the event, which was sponsored by the UF student organization Recurso, after completing an internship with a coalition to raise awareness of Darfur last summer.
"I just knew I wanted to do something to let Gators know more about Darfur, and I figured an event would be the best way to do that," she said.
Goldman, an associate professor in the department of geography, said in an interview before the event that the conflict in Darfur dates back to the late 1990s but became more violent in 2003 as Sudanese rebel groups felt they lacked control over their resources and wealth. They sought a certain amount of autonomy from the central Sudanese government by attacking government-owned property.
In reponse, the government armed Janjaweed militias and allowed them to destroy villages and attack members of the rebel groups and their families with aircraft and ground forces, he said.
During the discussion, panelists went on to debate how the conflict in Darfur does and does not fit under the term, "genocide."
Lemarchand, a UF professor emeritus of political science, called the conflict in Darfur a horrendous civil war instead of a genocide because it lacks an identifiable religious or ethnic target.
"What you have in Darfur today is a mess, a very bloody mess," he said.
Ter, who moved to the U.S. after living in a Kenyan refugee camp for nine years, disagreed with Lemarchand's failure to define the Darfur conflict as a genocide.
He encouraged students to be mindful of the conflict and to value the human dignity of the people suffering in Darfur.
He also said students should do what they can to save the lives of the people in Darfur and throughout the world.
Porter, a former development worker and humanitarian, said students can also educate themselves and encourage discourse on the conflict.
Goldman highlighted the hope offered by President Obama's appearance in the documentary, in which he advocates a more aggressive U.S. response to the Darfur conflict.
Goldman said he hopes the new American leadership might boost a clear international response to the conflict.
Lindberg, a political science professor at UF, also said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has presented a tougher U.S. approach to Darfur.
However, he said, a solution to the conflict will not be easy with China's interest and involvement in Sudan's government and oil sector.
Ter said he believes more pressure on China will help to resolve the conflict.
He told audience members they can make a difference in countries like Darfur even if they were not born there.
In a later interview, Ter, who plans on serving in the Peace Corps, recognizes the benefits he has received from coming to the U.S.
But, he said he thinks he and other students should recognize the help they have received and learn to help others as well.
