2008 Woodie Awards
Darfur refugees educate packed crowd about genocide
By Regis L. Roberts
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: News
Originally published: 11/1/07 at 4:09 PM CSTLast update: 11/6/07 at 12:55 PM CST
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The militia rushed into a girls' school, raping the students inside; some girls were raped multiple times.
The Janjaweed proceeded to raid the markets, stealing goods.
Before they left, the Janjaweed burned the villagers' homes to the ground.
All told, the Janjaweed killed at least 700 people in that one attack.
This was the story of Motasim Adam's home village he left behind in 2003 when he fled Darfur, a region in western Sudan in Africa, amid the genocide.
Adam told this story Monday to a standing-room-only crowd at Trinity University's Chapman Auditorium as part of "Voices from Darfur," a national university tour by the Save Darfur Coalition.
The "Voices from Darfur" tour is to raise awareness of the genocide.
Daoud Hari, who fled his home village of Musbat in 2003, told his story of trying to inform people by serving as translator to American journalists.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has enacted an unofficial and officially denied policy of genocide using government troops and the Janjaweed militia.
Hari went back to Darfur after fleeing to Chad and worked as a translator for journalists like The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof and The Chicago Tribune's Paul Salopek.
Hari and Salopek were captured by the Sudanese government Aug. 6, 2006, and imprisoned in a Sudanese prison for espionage.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is also a Democratic presidential candidate, went to Sudan and negotiated the release of Hari and Salopek, who had been tortured during their monthlong inprisonment.
Hari's troubles did not end there. When he fled to Chad again, he was detained at the airport, and the government of Chad attempted to return him to Sudan.
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