Students learning to take stand on genocide

Hundreds of students opposed to genocide in Darfur – or wanting to learn more about the subject – are participating in a three-day conference at UC Davis.

More than 200 West Coast students listened to college professors Saturday and participated in discussion with Sudanese activists about the troubled African country.

The conference, sponsored by a student anti-genocide group known as STAND, concludes today for those who preregistered.

STAND conducts regional conferences to stir dormant activist genes in young people.

"We hope to inform students about the situation in Darfur and what they can do," said Ashley Kroetsch, STAND's national outreach director. "We'll give them the training and tools they need."

The group has 700 chapters worldwide and is the student division of Genocide Intervention Network, whose stated mission is to "empower individuals and communities with the tools to prevent and stop genocide."

Genocide is the deliberate, systematic elimination of an entire nation or ethnic group. Ethnic cleansing, death lists and the dehumanization of people are phrases associated with the horrors of genocide.

Africa's Rwandan genocide in 1994 may have resulted in the slaughter of as many as 1 million people.

Between 200,000 and 400,000 people have been reported killed and more than 2 million displaced in Darfur, a volatile region in western Sudan. Darfur is described by STAND as the site of the first genocide of the 21st century.

Murder, rape and other atrocities have prompted Hollywood celebrities such as George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, to bring international attention to the violence in Darfur. STAND seeks to engage and inform students about the issue.

Brianna Beauduin and 10 classmates from Aptos High School in Santa Cruz County piled into the bunker-like Social Science 1100 lecture hall to learn about U.S. foreign policy and current issues in Sudan.

"I just wasn't very well informed before," Beauduin said, adding that friends had told her about Darfur.

"I felt ashamed that I didn't know it was going on. I want to reach out to people and get them more involved."

Mandy Beatty, a UC Davis agriculture major, was inspired into activism last spring when "Camp Darfur" set up on campus.

"It was some tents and each one had statistics about Rwanda, Darfur and other places," Beatty said. "You could read the numbers, the atrocities. People think it's hard to get involved. It's not. I'm relatively new to the activism thing."

Students divided into smaller workshop groups at Wellman Hall to learn tactics for being noticed by politicians and the media and how to inspire action.

"We're not standing on corners with signs or covering ourselves in blood like our parents' generation," said Jessica Morales, STAND's national college program coordinator. "Genocide is something we can prevent and stop."

"We take a more pragmatic approach," said Kroetsch. "I know it doesn't sound good, but when it comes to politics you have to play the game to beat them. We are nonpartisan. We have evangelicals, Muslims, Democrats, Republicans, even little old ladies."

Once the genocide in Darfur is over, STAND plans to target other countries, such as Myanmar and Congo.

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