Darfur survivor to speak at UAlbany on genocide

By Kenneth Aaron, Times Union, March 22, 2006

Daowd Salih managed to escape Darfur with his life.

For almost 20 years, though, he has had to wonder about the father he left behind.

Salih, who lived in the Darfur region during the earliest days of the genocide that has torn it asunder, is appearing at the University at Albany on Friday.

"That village is completely destroyed," said Salih of the place where his father lived.

Darfur itself isn't doing much better, and Salih, vice chairman of the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, will urge students to do their part to stop what the United Nations calls the world's greatest humanitarian crisis.

About 180,000 people have been killed during the conflict and another 2 million people have been forced into refugee camps. The trouble started when rebels protested that the Sudanese government discriminated against the country's ethnic Africans. In response, many allege the government sponsored a band of murderous Arabs, the Janjaweed, to quell the protests. The Janja weed have systematically killed and raped villagers.

Salih left Sudan in 1990, and eventually wound up in New Jersey, where he is a physical therapy assistant. Now almost 40, he'd like to study political science or international studies.

"I will go back there when it is completely peaceful in the region," he said and when women - mothers, sisters, daughters - can collect firewood without fearing rape. "And our elders can stay at home and do whatever they want to do."

He's not hugely optimistic about the state of Sudan now. But he thinks democracy is the way.

"That is the only way we can give peace to our citizens," he said.

Several groups are sponsoring the event, including the Capital Region Darfur Coalition and Amnesty International's UAlbany chapter. Salih will talk at 7 p.m. in the Assembly Hall of the school's Campus Center.