[Peace-discuss] Darfur talk

[Morton K. Brussel]

This was a very well attended talk by Mr. Deng this evening, and  
interesting. Deng was passionate in telling the long and tragic  
history of the black peoples in Sudan. He asserted that slavery  
continues in the Sudan.

It is true (Carl had warned about such a move at our last meeting)  
that a form was passed out to attendees promoting action by NATO, and  
asking that appeals be made to President Bush to "do" something.  
However, the speaker said, in response to a leading question,  that  
he was not in favor of sending (Nato) troops to remedy what he truly  
called a long ongoing genocide there; they would do no good he said,  
and he didn't know how long they would remain there. As for the  
African states, whom a questioner noted did not consider the problems  
in Sudan genocidal,  he responded that  many were corrupt and  
dictatorial, and were playing games of "noninterference" to protect  
their own turf.

It also seemed clear to me that the reason why so many Jewish  
organizations (Hillel, etc.) on campus were sponsoring this week of  
action, and this talk, was that the speaker was fierce in his  
condemnation of Arabs, a little less so with respect to Muslims. He  
is Christian.

He appealed to his audience to demand of their representatives to  
government that they do something, but he was somewhat unclear about  
what he would recommend. He simply noted that previous pressure by  
the western governments on the Sudan authorities did do some good,  
but that now, they were essentially passive.