Author: Hana R. Alberts and Timothy
J. McGinn
Publication: The Harvard Crimson
Date: June 10, 2004
URL: http://www.iabolish.com/news/press-coverage/2004/hc06-10-04.htm
As United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan's voice echoes over Tercentenary Theater during today's Commencement
address, protesters hope that many in the audience will sport bright green
ribbons to show their displeasure at his humanitarian record.
In a demonstration yesterday afternoon
at Cambridge Common, nearly 150 people-including several who appeared to
be alums or Harvard-affiliated-turned out to protest what they called Annan's
failure to take action against slavery and genocide in Sudan.
Esterina Bilal, a Sudanese refugee,
echoed the sentiments of many protesters at the event.
"He has already turned a deaf ear
to the Sudanese people," Bilal said during the protest. "Where is the U.N.?
What are they doing?"
During 22 years of civil war between
the government in the predominantly-Arab north and the Africans in the
Christian south, anti-slavery advocates say that state-backed militias
and paramilitary groups routinely raided opposing towns, murdering the
men before raping and enslaving the women and others left behind.
Though a recent ceasefire brokered
between the two sides was intended to put an end to the genocide and other
atrocities, watchdogs claim that not only have the attacks in the south
continued, but they have spread to include similar acts of aggression against
Black Muslims in Sudan's Darfur region.
Advocacy groups are particularly
frustrated by the United Nations' silence on the issue after its promises
to do more in response to African crises in the wake of the Rwandan genocide.
Yesterday's spirited protest, organized
by the American Anti-Slavery Group, featured nine speakers and dozens of
protesters who waved signs reading, "Kofi, go to Sudan, not to Harvard,"
"Kofi's choice: silence or genocide" and "400,000 will die unless the U.N.
acts now."
Their efforts continue today, as
demonstrators spotlight their cause by targeting those attending the Commencement
exercises.
Joanne Moore, a local artist whose
husband was a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society
this year, handed out green ribbons yesterday that she said she hoped attendees
would wear to Commencement.
Moore became teary-eyed as she told
a small crowd that the Sudanese cause was her passion.
"It's a visible sign [for Annan]
to know people are aware of Sudan," Moore said. "The national press focuses
on Harvard graduation."
Undergraduate Council President
Matthew W. Mahan '05 sent an e-mail Tuesday to an unofficial list of seniors
that he compiled from thefacebook.com, urging soon-to-be graduates and
their families to familiarize themselves with the situation in Sudan and
attend yesterday's protest.
He wrote that Harvard students have
a responsibility to "take this small action to help stop a terrible crime
against humanity."
Tommy R. Calvert, chief of external
operations for the American Anti-Slavery Group, said before the protest
yesterday that though an estimated 27 million people are currently enslaved
worldwide, his organization has been focusing much of its energy on the
Sudan campaign.
"We have been demanding investigations
and interventions in Sudan," he said "We're very upset that Kofi Annan
has not used his political leadership to move member states of the United
Nations to act."
Darfur Peace and Development Organization
President Suliman Giddo showed the crowd vivid color photographs of scarred
Sudanese babies and other victims of abuse.
The Rev. Gloria White Hammond, co-founder
of My Sister's Keeper, an organization that aims to raise awareness and
funds to combat the slave trade in Sudan, introduced the speakers.
"I have been to Sudan. I have heard
stories of women who have been brutally raped," she said, standing on a
makeshift stage. "We are here to say no more...tonight we say to Kofi Annan,
'The buck stops with you, Kofi. No more rape. No more pillage. No more
genocide.'"
Francis Bok, one of the speakers
and a former slave who escaped after 10 years in captivity, now travels
America galvanizing support for the abolitionist movement.
"[Annan] is the man who let my people
down," Bok said.
