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Originally launched in New York, the exhibit has traveled around the world educating viewers about the ongoing genocide that has killed over 300,000 people and left about three million displaced.
Speakers at the launch included Major General Scott Gration, the U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, Bushara Dosa, president of the Darfur People's Association of New York (DPANY), and Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition
Fowler delivered to Gration a petition with over 40,000 signatures and a letter from 40 groups asking that President Barack Obama make Sudan a priority during his visit to the United Nations.
“I’ll make sure the president gets this and the American people’s concern to solve this problem in a very expeditious way,” responded Gration. “A concern we see in these pictures is that people continue to live in abominable conditions, continue to suffer, continue to grow old without dignity and human rights. These conditions have to change.”
Alluding to separate peace talks regarding the situation in southern Sudan, Dosa insisted that “you cannot have a partial peace in Sudan while the situation in western Darfur remains unstable. I represent 300 Darfuris in Brooklyn and there’s a lot of unhappiness there.”
Brooklyn is home to the largest number of Sudanese refugees in the United States. Driven by the genocide in western Sudan, the refugees fled to U.N.-run internal displacement camps and emergency facilities in adjacent Chad and the Central African Republic. From there, the lucky ones joined the existent, now expanding, Darfuri communities in residential middle-class areas of Kensington, Borough Park, and Midwood.
In 2003, residents banded together to form the non-profit Darfur People’s Association of New York (DPANY) to strengthen their sense of community and welcome and assist newcomers while organizing humanitarian collection drives for clothing and school supplies for refugee camp occupants. As well, DPANY plays a strong advocacy role to end the genocide in Darfur and achieve peace and stability in Sudan.
The conflict in Darfur began in the spring of 2003 when two rebel groups launched attacks against the government military in an effort to stop the marginalization of Darfur. The Sudanese government responded with coordinated military raids targeting ethnic groups that were associated with the rebels.
Since then, over 400 villages have been destroyed, millions of civilians have been forced to flee their homes, and approximately 300,000 people have been killed. In 2004, President George Bush declared the conflict a “genocide.” Today, fighting continues in the Darfur region.
Gration thanked Dosa for offering valuable insight and feedback while noting the U. S. has a full-time team on the ground working with the national, regional, and ethnic groups involved in the conflagration.
“We understand your situation,” Gration told Dosa. “We’re dealing with civil society groups, but it’s a slow process, a very complex problem and there are no guarantees.”
Although the combined U.N.-African Union peacekeeping forces (UNAMID) reports a decrease in government attacks against civilian populations recently, Dosa pointed to a government bombing attack last week in the central Marra Mountain region resulting in civilian fatalities and almost daily attacks on and rapes of females straying too far from the protection of the refugee camps in search of firewood.
Hamza Ibrahim, DPANY’s foreign affairs officer, favored taking a hard line towards the Sudanese government.
“President Bashir has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, so you can’t deal with a criminal,” he said. “International trade sanctions and worldwide isolation must be applied until the regime follows the rule of law.”
Ibrahim urged citizens to keep informed of the continuing atrocities being committed in Darfur and to contact U.N. officials and their local and national representatives to strongly address the issue.
“Sure, the rate of killings is down lately because there are not many people left, the villages are burned down, and for over six years, the number of Darfuris in refugee camps has swelled,” Rahamah Deffalah, a DPANY founding member, said.
Deffalah follows the Gration peace efforts closely, and said relations with the Sudanese government should not be normalized until the civilian killings have stopped and the Security Council resolutions complied with fully
He also cautioned against any partial peace solution in Sudan.
“Darfur is a complex issue and Gration should talk with the diversity of groups from the region,” he said. “Also, there are over 3,000 Darfuri exiles in the U.S. today from all the tribes – some well educated and trained people – and they should be consulted with as well.”
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