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Media Credit: Samantha Egan "The reasoning this is happening is because the people of Darfur asked the government to treat them fairly," said Motasim Adam.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter." This quote by Martin Luther King was the first image seen on the documentary about the genocide in Darfur.

Last Monday, students and faculty gathered in the Gottesman Room to hear personnel accounts from two men who witnessed the crisis first hand as part of the event titled "Voices of Darfur," sponsored by the Pfrozheimer Honors College and UNICEF Chapter of Pace.

The event started off with the documentary which gave a summary of the events in Darfur starting in 2003 when fighting broke out in the Darfur region of Western Sudan, between government forces and two groups of rebels. Since then, according to the documentary, 400,000 civilians have been killed and two and a half million have been forced out of their villages.

The speakers highlighted the main points of the video with their own, first hand experiences in Darfur.

Daoud Hari was the first to speak. After fleeing his village which was bombed for months by the government, Hari left the safety of a refugee camp in Chad to translate for aid workers and journalists from news outlets such as the New York Times, BBC, National Geographic and the Chicago Tribune.

Hari risked his life doing such work, and he knew it.

"I knew one day I would be captured," he said.

Hari's prediction came true the summer of 2006 when he was arrested on false charges of espionage and captured along with Chicago Tribune reporter Pail Salopek.

At the time of his arrest, Hari said he was already wanted by the government, who knew he was working with international sources.

The two were tortured and held captive until New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson negotiated their release and Hari gained refugee status in the United States, where he has testified in front of Congress three times about the Darfur genocide and is in the process on writing a book about his experience.

Motasim Adam spoke next about his experience as a Darfur native. Adam came to the United States in 2003, where he helped found the Darfur People's Association of New York, of which he is President.

Adam described his memories of July 23, 2003, the day his village was attacked. The first thing the attackers did, he said, was go to the all girls high school, where approximately 230 girls attended, and raped each girl, some of whom were related to Adam approximately five times.

Now, Adam said, his village, which was once the largest in its area, is now deserted. "It is not a story," Adam told the audience. "It's real. It's a really bad situation, you can't imagine."

Adam said the conflict is over fifty years in the making, beginning in 1956 where the government gained its independence.

"The government doesn't want to share the wealth with the Sudanese people," Adam said, which is how the conflict started.

"The reason this is happening is because the people of Darfur asked their government to treat them fairly."

The peace keeping efforts, both speakers agreed are dependent on international pressures on the government.

"The United States is and was the first to declare it genocide," Adam said. "Unfortunately, they didn't back it up with action."

"No matter what is the definition (of the conflict), what are the steps you need to take…?" is the question Adam said international governments should be asking.

A flier given out at the event included suggestions on how any one can help end the genocide in Darfur, including: sending messages to President Bush and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, showing movies such as Hotel Rwanda to spread awareness, invite expert speakers on the conflict to speak to groups, and generating media coverage by writing letters to the editor.

However, he added: "You, the people of the United States, have the chance to do something."

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