COHEN CENTER

The Cohen Center for Holocaust Studies at Keene State College declares that a state of emergency now exists in the Darfur region of Sudan as its people face the horrors of genocide. We call for individuals and nations to intervene. We call upon individuals to condemn these acts, mobilize their communities, and urge the United States and the United Nations to secure the safety of our fellow human beings in peril.

Briefly:
For over a year, the Sudanese government has used its air force and the Janjaweed militia to conduct genocide and ethnic cleansing in Darfur. The use of the militia allows the government to deny any responsibility and misleadingly state that the government is merely waging a war against rebel factions. The truth is that few "rebel factions" are being engaged and that civilians are the main target of this genocide. The increasing ethnic and perceived racial basis of the violence has been documented by the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, independent human rights organizations, and international journalists. The attackers identify themselves as "Arabs," while the victims are sometimes referred to as "Africans" and are mostly from the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit ethnic groups. Sudan's Khartoum-based government is fueling ethnic and racial violence by using the militia as proxies against Darfur insurgents who launched a rebellion in early 2003. But it is civilians who are suffering. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee of Conscience sites the following Government-sponsored actions:

• INFLAMING ethnic conflict
• IMPEDING international humanitarian access, resulting in deadly conditions of life for displaced civilians
• BOMBING civilian targets with aircraft
• MURDERING and RAPING civilians

According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Darfurians who have fled the violence provide chilling testimony. One refugee told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof that "the Arabs want to get rid of anyone with black skin. . . . There are no blacks left [in the area I fled]." The death toll exceeds 100,000 and may be more than 400,000. And the crisis continues-the lives of hundreds of thousands more hang in the balance today.

Elie Wiesel once stated: "I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented." The victims and potential victims in Darfur cannot afford our apathy.

Updated alerts and information can bed found at the USHMM Committee of Conscience website at committeeconscience.org or at savedarfur.org.

Again, Elie Wiesel: "Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe."