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Show Page 3 The Signpost Wednesday, April 6, 2005 continued from front of western Sudan, started a rebellion against the oppressive government. The president of Sudan, Omar alBashir, gathered the governmentbacked militia, called the Janjaweed, and responded with brutal force. The militia has killed children, women and men. They wiped out villages and towns along the way. The Sudanese air force bombed and destroyed seVeral areas in Sudan. '* More than 1.8 million refugees from Sudan managed to cross the border and hide in Chad. Those who managed to escape are cramped in refugee camps; those who didn't are dead. The 11th Annual Holocaust Commemoration is a way to remind people that there are still manmade tragedies going on around the world and that world community has a moral obligation to help innocent people who are tortured, raped, beaten and killed just because they are a certain ethnicity, color or nationality. The speakers brought to campus for the Holocaust Commemoration will speak about the importance of information and media during a manmade tragedy. The purpose of the commemoration is to show students how many times the media failed to cover genocide and what was the consequence of media's failure. According to William Schulz, eyewitness to genocide and guest speaker during the commemoration, this tragedy is going to continue unless people will get involved and try to influence U.S. government to take action and agree to the United Nations Commission's recommendations. The United Nations Commission stated that people of Sudan need immediate help and protection, and those responsible for what has happened in Darfur are to be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court. "This is going to continue," Schulz said, "unless the African Union troops that are now on the grounds in Sudan are permitted to act not just as monitors of the violations there, but also as active protectors of the people who have been terrorized." Mark Von Sponeck, executive director of the Global Nomad Group, was among the few people who had the courage to go to the refugee camps in Chad and offer assistance. "Sadness, violence and hopelessness" - that is how Von Sponeck described the refugee camps in Chad. Even though refugees in Chad managed to escape death, they are surrounded by disease and squalor. Women, men and children are cramped into small tents while they await help. There is not enough water, not enough food and not enough room. Food and blankets arrive at the largest refugee camp in Eastern Chad. The camp was initially built for 18,000 people but houses 45,000 Sudanese refugees who fled from mass killings and torture. The genocide committed in the Darfur region of Sudan is the focus of the 11th annual Weber State University Holocaust Commemoration. "When I first arrived at the largest refugee camp in Eastern Chad, Breijing camp, initially built for 18,000 people, yet housing 45,000 people," Von Sponeck said, "I think of how shocked I was that so many refugees seemed so resilient. Many were smiling, even though they had lost everything, including loved ones. 1 realized it was sadly because they considered themselves the lucky ones, since they were still alive." Many refugees in Chad witnessed the killings of their families. Mothers saw their sons taken away and killed by the militia. Fathers saw their daughters raped and killed. Families were separated by death. "There are thousands and thousands of innocent villagers who have been killed," Von Sponeck said. "Those who are alive have lost their homes, fled from their villages with literally nothing. Displaced people in Sudan are in the hundreds of thousands as well as refugees now living in camps in Chad." Von Sponeck spent three weeks working at the refugee camps, and there is one image that will stay with him for the rest of his life. "Seeing a sick baby boy covered in flies sitting on a dirty mat in the middle of the spontaneous refugee camp, looking around with fear and confusion in his eyes, wondering why he was being isolated and not receiving any help - this will remain with me forever and serve as testament that our world can be a tough place for some and the opposite for others," Von Sponeck said. Most of the kids in Sudan are left without a mother or a father, in some cases they are left all alone. Looking into the eyes of the children in the camp, all Von Sponeck could see was the loss of innocence. He said that after being a witness to something as horrifying as the death of family, there is no room for being innocent, carefree or happy. According to Gomberg, humanity has a moral obligation to help those who are suffering. Many people in Sudan lost their families and homes, and their life has been reduced to a bare minimum. They are struggling to survive. "They face daily choices of starving to death and freezing to death inside the camp," Gomberg said, "or wandering and venturing out to try to find food or firewood at the risk of murder, torture or rape." Award-winning photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale didn't hesitate to travel to Darfur and be a witness to another genocide. He chose lo go there simply because other journalists wouldn't. "Those are the situations I prefer to cover," Bleasdale said; "the forgotten stories." He took his camera and captured the tired and scared faces of children, the dead bodies left behind, and the mass graves. According to" Bleasdale, the media was late handling the situation in Sudan. He thinks the media was too focused on the war in Iraq and the situation in Afghanistan and underreported everything else that was going on in the world. Bleasdale said journalists were there in Sudan ready to report, but some of the magazine and newspaper editors refused to publish the articles simply because they had already covered Africa that year. "When they started to realize the extent of the problem," Bleasdale said, "some of them made the effort." According to Bleasdale, readers are as guilty as the media, because even though the articles were there, people didn't read them. "The reader is to blame too," Bleasdale said. "They do not want to see the daily coverage on a war in Africa, but they seem to accept the coverage on an illegal war that they are involved in in Iraq." Bleasdale knows that it will take time for the situation in Sudan to calm down, but he is also angry at how passive the world is about people dying in Sudan everyday. "It takes time for these ethnic wounds to heal," Bleasdale said. "What is happening now is the result of generations of haired building up. But we must have hope that it will get better." Bleasdale said that for the situation in Sudan to change, there needs to be a call for action from people all over the world. People in Sudan need the worlds help. They don't only need the financial resources, but also protection. You can leave a message for reporter Monika Wawrzyniak by calling 626-7655. ~^4r WHEN YOU NEED TO LOOK BETTER THAN JUST GOOD. Over 1t500 tuxedos in stock EICO. A 15-minute call could save you 15%. Best Selection & Value in Northern Utah Everything you need in one convenient location /Ion'/ Local Office Formal Fashion Wear (801)393-0929 50 E. 4600 S. Come visit and ask Washington Terrace, UT 84405 about our wsu student (Located just across the street from the Washington Terrace Playhouse) and Wedding Specials! 1513 N. 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